But I really want to improve myself. For example, oral English, go to training institutions to find domestic teachers for one-on-one training. Almost two thousand a month, and foreign teachers are even more scary. When I was a student, I couldn't tell my mother that I wanted to improve my spoken English. Please remit me thousands of dollars. I also don't have the ability to take oral English classes while making money. I am not allowed from IQ to physical strength. I'm just an ordinary person.
As the saying goes, stingy has a way. When I was a poor student, I hired a white American foreign teacher to improve my oral English. The price was 50 yuan per hour.
When I was a graduate student, I felt that my English pronunciation was not authentic enough, so I had the idea of finding a foreign teacher to correct my pronunciation.
The first person to consult at that time was a professional English training institution. I forgot which institution I went to at that time. I only remembered asking about the price. It was almost an hour in 800 yuan, and I was so scared that I couldn't speak Chinese fluently.
At that time, I didn't have 800 yuan a month for living, and I didn't have that much chicken soup. I worked hard to make money part-time to pay for my dream, so my stingy nature was once again carried forward.
I set my sights on the English corner.
I have to praise my alma mater, Xiamen University, which is simply the maiden of a poor student like me. Not only the scenery is beautiful, there are air conditioners everywhere, free rice, cheap and delicious canteens, but also an English corner every week. Basically, there will be an international student in the English corner every week.
I went to the English corner several times and found that international students are basically monologues. Few students can have a real dialogue with foreign students. Maybe it's because everyone's level is limited, or maybe everyone is shy. Basically, a student asks a question, then foreign students make a long speech, and then they move on to the next topic.
Another reason for this phenomenon is that many people ask too many questions, and they may not be able to talk in Chinese if they have a corresponding understanding. For example, someone will ask you what you think of Obama. What do you think of Obama? ) or do you think Obama's health care reform will succeed? Do you think Obama's health care reform will succeed? )
These questions are so high that they sound awesome, but unfortunately the background and text involved are more professional. Without special preparation, you can't even understand each other's answers, let alone express your own views. Therefore, when foreign students finished speaking, most of them nodded with a look of "soga" that they didn't hear clearly, and then after silence, another person asked a higher question. (I feel distressed for international students for three seconds here)
I have been to the English corner several times, but I haven't gained much. So I decided to change my strategy. Before going to the English corner, prepare some relaxing topics in advance, such as travel, life planning, dreams, views on China cuisine, society and customs. The standard of preparation is that I can have some opinions myself and speak for a few minutes.
I wanted to attract the attention of international students in this way and strive for more communication time, but I accidentally found myself a foreign teacher.
The American in the English corner that day was not an international student, but a foreign teacher named John from Xiamen University. At that time, he was 27. Two years ago, he quit his job at Bank of America and began to travel around the world. When he spent all his money in Asia, he found a school as a foreign teacher to make money. When he stayed in that country enough, he packed his bags and continued to travel. I had a particularly speculative chat with him that day. He said he would apply for a health certificate the next day and asked me if I would like to go with him and be his interpreter.
Later, we became friends and chatted together every weekend. At that time, my English had no problem in communication at all, but I always felt that my pronunciation was still not authentic enough. I hope he can correct my pronunciation (this is also the purpose of my initial consultation with the training institution).
Even my friends don't want people to work for me for nothing, especially pronunciation, which is like correcting teeth. It won't work for a while. So I asked him if he could be my oral English teacher, and I paid him 50 yuan per hour (because the price of tutoring at that time was 50 yuan per hour).
John agreed. Even my roommate said that this is really a cabbage price foreign teacher.
Later, we agreed to have classes in the school canteen from 3 pm to 5 pm every Saturday (because this canteen is quiet and quiet, and it is perfect for eating after class).
I bought a book of phonetic symbols and asked him the pronunciation of each phonetic symbol one by one. Or I read him an article from The Economist or VOA, and he told me how to pronounce the word incorrectly, where to pronounce it weakly, where to omit it, where to stress it, and how to correct it repeatedly until he thought it was authentic.
I haven't counted how many classes I took, but I think I gained a lot during that time and corrected many accent problems.
Later, John left Xiamen University and began to travel around the world.
After he left, I kept my sense of language by watching American TV series.
After his training, I not only sharpen my ears, but pay attention to the key points of his pronunciation.
For example, in [] phonetic symbols/? /This sound is actually closer to /ei/.
For example, the phonetic symbol of bank is [bk], and the pronunciation is closer to [bei? K], and bang, hang, hank and so on.
There are also some tricks, such as words expressing tenses, such as will, have and had had, which are basically weak unless they are intentionally emphasized. Weakening these words can make spoken English sound more fluent.
I will share the specific skills in the future dry goods. Today, let's sum up how to improve oral English at low cost in the case of lack of money:
Someone asked me before where to find American TV series. Originally, I wanted to share some of my resources with Baidu Cloud, but the result was soon unified. If there are other ways to share resources, you can leave a message and tell me, and I will try to share it ~