Use a Second Language

使用第二语言从来就不是件容易事,尤其在中国的环境中成长的人。作者诉说了自己在这方面的遭遇与感想，当然也寄托了自己能使用第二语言越来越好。

Use a Second Language

Using a second language has never been easy for a new comer, me especially. I grow up in a Chinese environment. English discourse community is brand new to me, a great number of difficulties ensued. But the experiences of learning it bit by bit and finally getting the hang of English are worth remembering and they shed a light in my pursuit as a writer.

The embarrassment of using English when I just got to the US is still fresh in mind. One of the lessons was that I failed the course English 180 last semester because of my poor English. The instructor of that course was very strict with plagiarism and I was a little careless about that. In one assignment, I did not paraphrase two sentences and I learned the lesson the hard way. The professor of English 180 stuck to his policy and would not give me any credit in this regard. Since this assignment accounted for 20% of my total grade, and I had to get an overall 75% to pass this course, I failed English 180 without a doubt. This was an enormous setback to me. I have never imagined that using a second language in my life and even in academics would put me at such a disadvantage. Yet I realized that I must do something to stop things going worst. Therefore, in the summer vocation afterwards, I made up my mind to master English by any means. Since then, I embarked on the road of self-improvement in company with this language and at the end of the day, I fell in love with dealing with languages, which further inspires me to be a writer in the future.

In that summer vocation, I tried every means of learning English. Some worked, and some didn’t. First of all, I watched a lot of English programs. This is a very useful way of getting closed to the language since it would not bore the learner easily. Even when I watched English TV programs for relaxation, I was still immersed myself in the environment of English. There is a saying in my own country, notes is more reliable than a good memory, which goes a long way toward my learning English. Whenever I came across a new word or a new usage of a word, I would note them down in my notebook. And I set myself to review what I have learned from time to time. Otherwise, the new words that I jotted down would faint away in my memory. In order to build up my vocabulary, I did a lot of extensive reading. English novels, magazines, newspapers and even English books designed for kids often found their way to my reading list. After I kept on reading and reading for sometime, I found that reading English was not as hard as before. The speed of reading also picked up thanks to the increasing number of words that I knew. The summer’s work paid off. Since then, I felt more confident to use English and the learning process gave a great deal of joy in dealing with the words. The language itself is just charming.

My major is Construction Management. To a great extent, this is not what I opt for in the first place. Even though the choice was made for me by my parents, I know deep down my heart, I have a passion for history. I enjoy reading history books and explore into the past times. I hope that one day I can put my perspectives of history into print in the future. It is a very ambitious dream, but I never shy away from realizing it from scratch. I often go to the history lectures and see how the speakers use their words to talk about history. And I will take notes during the lectures. Writing history requires an excellent command of words and language. And I need to polish my language no matter what. 

Using a second language has become part of my everyday life. And the English discourse community is no stranger to me any longer. However, the journey of learning English never ends. I hope by learning and using this language can get me on the track of a writer some day. 

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