My experience in GLV

How time flies. The one month English training in GLV (Gateway Language Village. Zhuhai) has already ended. The special predominance in GLV is to provide the trainees a total immersion English environment which is most different from other English training organizations in China, especially to improve the abilities of English speaking and language skills based on the teachers who come from many countries around the world. As a trainee, it’s my pleasure to have this chance to attend the English training. Here, I want to share my experience in GLV with you about English learning, I had this idea because of the speech which should be completed in 5 to 10 minutes in my last class in GLV. The topic I made for my speech is MY EXPERIENCE IN GLV, the following are some opinions from my speech and my learning in GLV for how to learn English efficiently:

When I was in GLV, many times, many students asked me the same questions, “what have you obtained in GLV?” “Have you made a big progress before you leave GLV?”

Firstly, I think you should find out what your problems are in English learning, listening? Speaking? Reading? Writing? For me, Listening is my main problem, I think I can express my ideas when communicate with others, however, I can not understand what others said sometimes. After discussed with teachers, thought many times and summarized by myself, I thought there are three ways by which can help me to improve my listening, those are Vocabulary, Accent and Grammar. Here has a good idea from a teacher who comes from England, I had ever a short talk with her, she told me that many students just spoke English word by word and could not express the whole meaning in a completely sentence which should be connected many words together by grammar; she also gave me good suggestions about accent and vocabulary: “you can focus on listening or talking with different people for accent, to vocabulary, just can learn by yourself, the point is to guess what the new word means”.

Secondly, about Speaking, it’s a big problem for many people to open their mouth. Here, just three words from my opinions for your reference: Slower, Clear and Loud. Slower and clear mean you need to give the full pronunciation at the starting of your English speaking, and then, practice by steps, you can speak fluently; the major idea for loud, as I see you should build up your confidence which is very important for English learning.

Thirdly, to Writing, be persistent, from my teacher’s feedback, two journals each week, whatever, if you like, that’s ok, just write it down and keep going.
Finally, “how to continue learning English in Chinese environment”? As I mentioned before, the English Only environment has changed already, the most thing is to establish the English thinking. If you always follow the traditional learning method of translation from Chinese to English, the result is continuing thinking in Chinese; it’s a big problem for English improving. From the GLV director Ping, We have got some good ideas to keep English learning in Chinese environment by watching TV or movie (30 minutes/day); reading newspapers; thinking in English; talking with foreigners; using English to English dictionary; confidence.

Also, in GLV, there are FOUR OPENINGS: Open your mouth for speaking; Open your ears for listening; Open your mind for receiving new ideas; Open your heart for making friends.

From all above, everything will be decided by yourself, do not care too much about your Chinese face in English learning, nobody is perfect, and maybe today is your turning point if you do act immediately. Remember: Do a little better than yesterday, it’s your progress! Don’t be shy, don’t cry, just try, practice and use it!
I hope it’s useful to you, and I also wish all of us can get a rapid progress in English learning!!

Thanks.

Alex Guan
Nov-11-07