英语学习者面临的三大挑战

本文英语原文节选自 antimoon，略有删改并增加中文译文 Three biggest challenges facing an English learner

培养学习英语的热情

Developing a passion for learning English

All English learners would like to speak English well. They are excited at the idea of being able to communicate in English fluently. However, they usually don’t care about the learning process itself. For most learners, learning English is a duty — something that they have to, but don’t want to do. They don’t see pleasure in learning English.

学英语的人都想说好英语。他们一想到能够用英语流利地交流，就很激动。不过，他们通常并不关注学习过程本身。对於大多数学英语的人来说，学英语是件苦差，他们不得不学，可又不愿意学。他们不觉得学英语有什麼快乐。

In short, most learners would like to speak English well but don’t like to be learning English. This is the first and biggest problem facing an English learner, because a person who doesn’t like to learn English will not learn it well. If you don’t love English, English won’t love you back!

一句话，学英语的人大多愿意说好英语，但不喜欢学习英语。这是学英语的人面临的首要问题，因為一个人不喜欢学英语，就学不好英语。如果你不热爱英语，英语也就不爱你。

If you want to become a successful learner, you need to like the learning process itself. You need to treat time spent on English as time for pleasure and relaxation. For example, you need to enjoy:

如果你想做一个成功的英语学习者，你就要喜欢学英语的过程。你要把花在学英语上面的时间当做快乐和休閒的时间。比如，你要享受下面这些事情：

• reading English sentences and thinking about their structure
• learning new words from a dictionary
• writing a correct English sentence by consulting dictionaries, grammar guides, and the Web
• practicing the pronunciation of English sounds and words
• 阅读英语句子，并思考句子结构
• 从字典裡学习生词
• 通过查询字典、语法书以及网络来写出正确的英语句子
• 练习英语语音和单词的发音

Ideally, learning English should be your hobby. You should think of yourself as an English Learner — a person who has chosen learning English as one of their favorite activities. 理想的情况是，学英语应该成為你的嗜好。你应当把自己视為一位「英语学者」，以学英语為乐事。

踏出改变生活的第一步

Making the first change to one’s life

The decision to learn English requires changes in your life. For example, deciding that one will read a book in English for 30 minutes every day and keeping to that decision. It’s very difficult to make a small, but permanent change to your life, especially if learning English doesn’t seem “fun”. However, learners should remember that studying English for 15 minutes every day gives you much better results than studying for a whole day once a month.

决心学习英语，这需要你在生活中做出改变。比方说，一个人决定每天花30分鐘读一本英语书，并长期坚持。对生活进行小而长久的改变是非常困难的事情，如果学英语再没啥乐子，就更难了。然而，学英语的人应当铭记，每天学习15分鐘的效果，远远好於你一个月裡单抽出一整天来狂学。

进一步改变生活

Making further changes to one’s life

While the first change is the most difficult, each subsequent one is hard, too. A lot of learners take the first step (e.g. they start reading a book in English every day) and stop there. They do not engage in other English-building activities.

A good learner will have a set of activities (reading, watching TV, practicing pronunciation, listening to recordings, etc.) and choose from that set according to his or her mood. One activity is not good enough, because 1 you get bored more quickly, and 1 it gives you a range of language skills that is typically too narrow. For example, reading in English can’t improve your pronunciation, although it can improve your grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing skills.)

万事开头难，随后的改变也一样难。很多学英语的人迈出了第一步（比如，他们开始每天阅读英文书），然后就停滞不前了。他们不进行其它学习英语的活动。

良好的英语学习者进行一系列学习英语的活动（看书，看电视，练习发音，听录音，等等），并根据自己的情绪来选择合适的活动。只进行一种活动是不够的，因為1）你很快就会感到枯燥了；2）你能学到的语言技能的范围也太窄。比如，看英语书虽然能提高你的语法、词汇、阅读理解和写作水平，但不能提高你的发音水平。