SHOWBIZ> Hot Pot Column
![]() |
Cheers! The movie star secret to mastering a language
By Xiao Hao (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-25 10:02 When I moved to New York, I left behind all my Chinese books. In the Big Apple, I read only English books, listened to only American music and if I had no American friend, wandered in the street by myself. I asked "what is it?" whenever I spotted a word that I did not know. Eventually my mind was flooded with so many English words and American events that memories of ancient Chinese poems and my childhood friends faded away. People began to ask if I had grown up in the US, for they could no longer place my accent. I forgot when I began to dream in English, but I remembered being very happy, and proud, like the many immigrants before me.
![]() Then I hit a huge bump in the summer of 1999. I was interning at a big financial service company on Wall Street. During a conference call about a pending investment, Josh, the manager in charge and the only other person in the room, suddenly muted the phone and turned to me. "Please speak English clearly," he demanded. I was flushed with humiliation as Josh, in his perfectly starched dress shirt, turned off the mute on the phone and spoke in his perfectly accented English. I was doing my MBA internship with students from the best business schools. I had thought that seven years of trying to master English, of trying to fit in had been enough. Yet some cumbersome tongue movement that made my pronunciation slur, gave me away. Ten years later, the burn left by that humiliation then seemed almost funny. Looking back, I could see how the incident helped me let go of my obsession with mastering English. I still watched sitcoms with a dictionary by my side. I still asked "what?" about words strange to my ears. I still did all that not because I was trying to improve on my English, but because I was curious to know what I did not know, because I wanted to enjoy my work and my life in English, however imperfect they were. But that is not a message that my relatives and friends want to hear. A lifetime? No way. Really, how many years? What if I go to this expensive school? Five, I feel obliged to lie. If only... |
主站蜘蛛池模板: 美女被免费视频的网站 | 亚洲成在线 | 亚洲男女视频 | 欧美一级高清片在线 | 日本一级视频 | 日韩一级黄色毛片 | 亚洲毛片在线看 | 色吊丝在线观看国产 | 国产一久久香蕉国产线看观看 | 欧美亚洲国产日韩一区二区三区 | 欧美一级俄罗斯黄毛片 | 精品在线视频播放 | 欧美精品日日鲁夜夜添 | 毛片在线看网站 | 欧美一级毛片美99毛片 | 成人毛片18女人毛片免费 | a毛片视频免费观看影院 | 青青热久久综合网伊人 | 国产精品美女久久福利网站 | 深夜爽爽爽gif福利免费 | 亚洲欧美日韩精品久久久 | 在线观看国产精成人品 | 中文字幕亚洲精品日韩精品 | 最新国产三级 | 日韩国产欧美视频 | 综合色久 | 免费视频一区二区 | 男人都懂的网址在线看片 | 中文字幕有码在线播放 | 欧美三级网站在线观看 | 国产在线一二三区 | 免费在线观看一区 | 久久久久久久久网站 | 真人一级毛片免费完整视 | 久久爽久久爽久久免费观看 | 欧美激情第一欧美在线 | 日本波多野结衣视频 | 日本乱人伦片中文三区 | 免费精品久久 | 免费一级毛片视频 | 国产成人综合手机在线播放 |