Comments on: Orientation

By: Manumanu

Manumanu — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 11:00:10 +0000

Hey I totally simpathize with you!! My first challenge was moving from my home country (Italy) to the Uk. Although I could speak fairly well, my vocab was quite good and my grammar was perfect (more or less) I just could not understand a word from a native-native conversation, I'd only understand when they spoke to me. It took me a few months to get used to the whole range of native englih accents i was being exposed to, but after that it was fine!! Now a second, greater challenge has begun: trying to speak chinese in China... This is taking muuuch longer, but I guess it's mainly cuz when I arrived here I had just studied it for one year, and my vocab was just basic (and still is to an extent), but I'm not quitting!! So ye, good luck to you, I'm sure you'll be fine; when it comes to languages it's all about surviving: if your brain realizes that language is the only one available to communicate, then it'll grasp it quickly!

By: Rebecca Parrilla

Rebecca Parrilla — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:23:17 +0000

Hi Vincent. I graduated from Wash U business school (undergrad) in 1992 and lived in China (Shanghai) from two years, from 2004-06, teaching English at Shanghai Dianji University - so I am familiar with (and extremely interested in) Chinese culture as well as Wash U culture! I live in Chicago now, but if you want someone to talk to about your cross cultural experiences, shoot me an email. Best of luck! Rebecca

By: IceeBittee

IceeBittee — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:48:16 +0000

Thanks Vincent for writing this story. It would be very hard to convert from Chinese to English and study Law. Law is so serious.
Please keep up posted on how you go.

By: luckydog

luckydog — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:05:35 +0000

You are very great

By: Zhongguoist

Zhongguoist — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:13:28 +0000

Hello,

I have just found this blog and I really like it. It's very interesting about your experiences in a foreign university, as they were similar to my experiences when I was studying in China. Of course it will be hard initially to follow native English speakers, we often find that we speak very hard. The important thing is to try and talk with as many non-Chinese people as possible and that way you'll make great improvements. You seem to definitely be going down the right route as you really want to practise English, keep up the good work!

I have noticed that in Leeds that obviously some of the Chinese students make much more progress with their English than others. Those guys who hung around mainly with Chinese people found it a lot harder understanding when we were speaking English with each other, but there were some students who in a short space of time really improved their comprehension and speaking skills. As with any language, it's about finding lots of opportunities to get input from as many different sources(people speaking, people with different accents speaking, reading, watching television,getting involved in something you like doing in that language) as possible.

By: Vincent Yuanxi Chen

Vincent Yuanxi Chen — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:43:54 +0000

I doubt that I did write with poor English..

:-(

By: Health

Health — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:04:24 +0000

OK Cool post.Useful infarmation.

By: lisa

lisa — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:23:50 +0000

the listening comprehension would be always a problem to our Chinese people, as we can't listen more.. You would get it after more staying there.

I got a lot of information, thanks

By: BLOG EARN CASH

BLOG EARN CASH — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:41:25 +0000

Cool post.Useful infarmation.

By: Vincent Yuanxi Chen

Vincent Yuanxi Chen — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:56:33 +0000

yeah....I will try to find a bluetooth adaptor for my laptop...
well...probably I should purchase a new one...