2015-02-03 - Use English as possible as you can

There are a great number of similar questions on the Internet asking how we can master English well while staying in non-native English-speaking countries. Among those answers, I have found some practical tips written by @Lawrence Li in Zhihu and I would like to share with you here:

1. Change the system language of your laptop and mobile devices into English (UK).

2. Stop reading all Chinese-language news. Stop using Renren, Weibo, WeChat, Zhihu…think of it as detox.

3. Don't listen to Chinese music.

4. Listen to podcasts. Don't watch movies or TV shows; shows without Chinese subtitles may be hard to find. And don't waste your time trying to find them, just ignore them and focus on what's easily available, like podcasts.

5. Remember: you don't understand Chinese. Chinese characters (hanzi) are just pictures to you.

I think all of advice above show one simple principle: we should treat English as our mother tongue instead of Chinese and use it as possible as we can. Take me as an example. After changing my cellphone language into English, I could barely understand system options and notifications, which made me frustrated and uncomfortable. However, as time went by, I gradually found that I no longer had trouble dealing with English mobile device settings. I felt excited and dynamic, so I decided to adopt this method for news reading. As a consequence, now I can have a basic grasp of a piece of English news without consulting dictionaries though I had to do it at the very beginning.

Although I still cannot totally get rid of Chinese and replace it with English right now, I am determined to struggle for this goal by writing a English post as possible as I can, attending online courses taught in English and searching books written in English rather than English translation versions to read.

If you really want to improve your English level while having no access to live abroad, why not give this means a shot?