One person's situational dialogue and my toilet english / 一个人的情景对话和厕所英语
When I was a student in college, I chose English as my language course. But to tell the truth, the English I’d learnt for many years was just a kind of dumb English, and the result was shameful. I remember at time, in order to get some information beforehand about the testing contents for each annual examination, some students including me from the oil painting department as well as from sculpture department and Chinese painting department would hid ourselves in a corner near the home of our English teacher, just waiting for him to come back home. As soon as he appeared, we would swarm up and kidnapped him without any explanation and then rushed to a restaurant near our school. Foods and wine were already on the table of course. Our teacher surnamed Hao, and his name was always hanging on our lips whenever the time was closed to an examination. He was indeed a very good teacher with a kind heart. After all for students of art academies, the subjects relating to arts were the main courses. If the students could not graduate successfully just because of a bad result for a language course, that would be a great pity.
"Ok! Take out your books now!" Each time our teacher would start like this, straight to the point. Facing our teacher in such an occasion and in such an atmosphere, we did feel ashamed and embarrassed.
Dutch people certainly speak Dutch. But since the country is small, the education for foreign languages becomes popular here. Most of the people here could speak English and German. Some could even speak French. At the beginning time when I was here, I was so eager to communicate with the people here that I tried my best to use every word I knew in English. At that time I had only one thing in mind, that was no matter how poor my English was, I would not be a dumb.
I had then an Instant-Dictionary, an electronic one. It was a gift from my friend. I had not expected it would become later my best friend and my teacher for English. I put it in my pocket every day and turned it on whenever I had time. Each time when I intended to go somewhere to have something to do, I would look for from it the words or sentences that I would probably say later. Then I recited them for several times before I took the leave. Sometimes when I talked with the local people but failed to express myself well, I would take it out and put in the Chinese words or phrases, then showed them the English translation. Unfortunately that Instant-Dictionary was damaged in 2007 by a spilled a cup of tea.
It is said that to speak a language well, you must practice more and talk more with people. I knew this was a shortcut for mastering a language. But things were different here. When I was in China, I had a lot of friends to talk with. But here it was difficult to find one to often chat with, since my English was so poor that the words and expressions I knew in English might probably be much less than a British child. Beside this I felt embarrassed to disturb others for I hated to waste the time of others’ just for practicing my English. After some consideration, I thought the best way for me was to practice by myself. I could imagine a situation, and then I could play different roles in the dialogue. Later on I started to practice in this way for my spare time after painting. The contents of the dialogue varied from posting a letter in a post office to visiting a Dutch painter and even lunching with him. I did really spend all my spare time to learn English at that time. And it seemed just like to prepare for a university entrance examination. Even more, when I went to the toilet, I wouldn’t waste that period of time. In fact I’ve had a habit for a long time, that is to read something in toilet time. I don’t care what kind of books they are as long as they are books. When I started my life in Europe, and the books were naturally replaced by English-language books and that Instant-Dictionary. I remember for many times, I walked out the toilet with numb legs.
Perhaps only those who have really suffered from the depression caused by failure in communication could have such a willpower.