Environment Is the Best Teacher for Learning a Language

“To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world”, as the Chinese proverb tells us, Language is of great significance in our daily lives. Mastering multiple languages provides us with many more opportunities. We can have the chance to go to a Mexico company if we speak Spanish fluently; we can travel without concerns if we master English. As a result, increasing number of people begin to learn one or even multiple languages. However, language is not easy to learn, we will struggle in vain if we do not use the right methods. For me, a trilingual speaker, Environment is the best teacher for learning a language.

I began to learn English at four as many Chinese children do. When I was in kindergarten, my teacher would teach me a few words every day. As I grew up, English nearly had the propriety in every period of my childhood. From primary school to high school, I read English aloud every morning. Also, I finished many exercises in regard to grammar and vocabulary. Finally, in the university entrance examination, I got 118 out of 120 for English. At that point, I thought I master the English very well. My opinion totally changed after I came to America.

When I arrived at America, I found that What I learned in my high school did not really help me. I had poor listening and speaking. I could not understand the lecture if the professor spoke very fast; nor could I even order a subway hotdog because I had no ideas what pickles are. What I focused before is only the grammar and reading, which ensured me a good score of examination rather than application of English.

Fortunately, my roommates in my freshman year were two Americans. I talked to them every day. When I talked to them, I found that the grammar was not as important as I thought. People would understand you as long as you expressed the key word well. Accents were not the problems because native speakers had no trouble with them. My English listening was also improved after living with two native speakers. I began to know what Americans will express their feelings in authentic ways. They tend to say many “like” s when they are very excited or they can not describe something clearly. I use English every day because I have to. In other words, the English environment pushes me to speak English back and forth. Naturally, After I speak some words for several times, I will automatically recite them. There is no necessity for me to recite the words from dictionary because I get them from the daily life. I listen to what people say and then mimic them. As a result, my English improves a lot.

I also learned Spanish in my freshman year. During the Spanish classes, the teacher would only say about one or two English words. This action created a great Spanish environment which pushed me to listen carefully. He explained the words with certain actions instead of explaining it in English. This was actually a good method. Dictionaries are still related to your former language and we could not form an understanding of new languages. Environment accommodates us to an entire new language. When I think one or two, I will think about “uno” or “dos”; If I want to express that I like something, I naturally says “A mi me gusta”. There is a time that a stranger asks me whether I am chinese. I automatically respond “Si” . Environment helps me form the conditioned reflex.

In conclusion, Environment is the best teacher for us to learn a language. We will know the application of language. Also, the expressions that we use will be more and more authentic if we get used to one environment.