英语博客：Which language to choose?

 　　Over the years I have collected books and cassettes to learn different languages. I have them lined up(1) on my desk, all in a row: Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, and Russian. Unfortunately I don't speak all of them, only Spanish and French. I learned a little Russian as well, but only a few sentences. I would love to know all of these languages, but I know that it would take me years and years to both study and practice(2) them. I pick up the books sometimes and look at the Chinese and Arabic characters. "Wow!" is usually what I say to myself as I look at these beautiful but unrecognizable(3) shapes. So, what are the steps to learning a language? First, decided¹ which one you need to learn. That sounds obvious, but, if you're like me, you will want to learn several. Limit yourself because you need lots of time to learn a language. Perhaps you can plan to(4) listen to 2 podcasts a day, read a paragraph, and practice singing a song. If you did this five days a week, you would progress quickly(5). Memorize some basic conversation sentences. Make a list of the twenty most important verbs and expressions. Read a joke book in that language, perhaps a children's joke book. What do you think? Do you have any suggestions? Is there a better way to learn a language? Personally, I think that the ear is the key. If you hear a language a lot, it will become part of you. And then, you must repeat what you hear, to hear yourself speak the language. And, finally you must have fun! Humor, laughter, and silliness can make you relax and remember.

　　1. 'To line up' is to put in a line or a row. It can be used for things or people. It is similar in meaning to 'to queue up';however, we would not use 'to queue up' with objects.

　　a. The child lined up all of his cars in a straight line.

　　b. We queued up outside the cinema, and the taxis were lined up on the street.

　　2. 'To both study and practice'. The use of 'both' here gives a nice sound of fluency² in English. It can be used in front of two verbs, or two adjectives, and two nouns in many different occasions.

　　a. He will both run and swim in the race.

　　b. She has both intelligence and generosity³.

　　c. The bank employees are both unprofessional and slow.

　　3. 'Unrecognizable' means something that you don't recognize, that is not familiar at all.

　　Un-re-cog-niz-able     un-re-cog-niz-able    un-re-cog-niz-able     un-re-cog-niz-able

　　4. 'To plan to ..' is useful when talking about the future.

　　a. I plan to travel this Summer if I can get plane tickets.

　　b. He plans to finish his exams and then look for an apprenticeship⁴.

　　5. 'If you did this...., you would progress quickly'. This is an example of subjunctive with conditional⁵. The simple past is used in the first half of the sentence, then 'would' plus the infinitive⁶ with no 'to'.

　　a. If you drank this, you would feel better.

　　b. If he read the letter, he would understand.

　　c. If they came early, they would have time to talk.

　　d. If they invested now, they would make an early profit.

　　Thanks for joining me today. Please send your questions and comments to [email protected], and feel free to join my FACEBOOK page at Anna Fromacupofenglish.

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 fluency   

n.流畅，雄辩，善辩

参考例句：

• More practice will make you speak with greater fluency.多练习就可以使你的口语更流利。
• Some young children achieve great fluency in their reading.一些孩子小小年纪阅读已经非常流畅。

3 generosity   

n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为

参考例句：

• We should match their generosity with our own.我们应该像他们一样慷慨大方。
• We adore them for their generosity.我们钦佩他们的慷慨。

4 apprenticeship   

n.学徒身份；学徒期

参考例句：

• She was in the second year of her apprenticeship as a carpenter. 她当木工学徒已是第二年了。
• He served his apprenticeship with Bob. 他跟鲍勃当学徒。

5 conditional   

adj.条件的，带有条件的

参考例句：

• My agreement is conditional on your help.你肯帮助我才同意。
• There are two forms of most-favored-nation treatment:conditional and unconditional.最惠国待遇有两种形式:有条件的和无条件的。

6 infinitive   

n.不定词；adj.不定词的

参考例句：

• The use of the split infinitive is now generally acceptable.分裂不定式的用法现在已被广泛接受。
• Modal verbs generally take the bare infinitive.情态动词通常用不带to的不定式。