When I first came to London, I walked past the scenic spots that I only saw in newspapers, magazines, books and periodicals and TV. Everything in front of me is full of mystery and freshness, and I suddenly feel like a dream. My heart is full of curiosity and excitement about this country. More precisely, from the moment Tianjin boarded the plane to London, this excitement began to dominate my body and mind. Six hours after take-off, the flight arrived at Moscow airport. I was confused by the announcement in the hall. Do you speak English? Fortunately, I don't have to leave Hong Kong. Two hours later, there was a constant stream of people, and I waited in line for the flight to London Heathrow International Airport. Four hours later, I saw the outline of the British Isles from the porthole of the plane. In an instant, it seemed to open the perspective of God, and the world in front of me suddenly became wider. The blue bay in the distance is as thick as satin in the night. All the cruise ships, large and small, are painted white and hung with white sails, floating on the sea surface in bits and pieces, like ivory pearls dotted on dark blue silks and satins.
Another hour later, when the plane circled over London and was about to land at Heathrow Airport, it was exactly seven o'clock in the local evening. It is still early in the summer in London, and the last ray of light on the horizon shines through the porthole of the plane. The faces of the passengers by the window are shining with Phnom Penh.
Heathrow airport is located in the suburbs of London. Looking from the airport to the distance, the city in the distance is brightly lit, and every building and pier that extends into the water is outlined by the first ray of light, which constitutes the skyline of this international metropolis. After getting off the plane and out of the terminal, I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel I booked in advance, near the College of Education of London University. The taxi driver is a black uncle. As soon as I opened my mouth, I found that I couldn't understand what he said except "where", and he couldn't understand my address after listening for a long time. I was afraid that he would wander around, so I wrote it down.
The black driver is very talkative, chatting with me all the way and having a strange accent. The more I listen to them, the more dizzy I get. I feel even more dizzy when I look out the window at the highway and the speeding cars on it. I opened the window and looked out. At the moment, the lights on the streets of London are reflected on the Thames, and the floating lights are shining golden on the dark water. There are many high-rise buildings along the Thames, with bright lights, and every building is brightly lit. The tower bridge across the Thames is also colorful and beautiful. I will still remember the scene of that night, which is rare in the world. London, I'm coming!
I don't know how long it took, but the driver pulled me to a three-story building and stopped, and I arrived. After paying 60 pounds, I took my luggage out of the trunk and finally touched the front door of the hotel. The door was still closed, and I knocked on the door in various fancy ways until a sleepy British grandfather poked his head out of the second floor (which the British call the first floor). I quickly explained to him in English who I was, where I came from and what I wanted to do.
The British grandfather who was disturbed by the dream said to me very unhappily: "! @#￥%*%。 "
Me: "... forgive me? "
British grandfather: "@ #% ...&; & amp！ ! "
Me: "... what? "
Later, my uncle's gestures and expressions became more and more exaggerated, but I could never guess the answer, so I asked my uncle to go downstairs in the middle of the night and angrily led me to another entrance, and the doorman let me in.
Later I learned that the English grandfather told me Scottish English! Miss Wang, who has studied standard English for 20 years and has a vocabulary of more than 20,000, has never studied Scottish English at home! Pit dad! Because we all learned British English in middle school, we didn't know the existence of American English until we went to college, and only after we went abroad did we find that there are so many wonderful dialects in British English!
I began to learn English from 1997, from junior high school to senior high school, to university, from learning English to teaching English, from initial pain and confusion to later confidence and calmness. I studied English in China for 20 years, worked hard for 20 years and was proud for 20 years.
Junior high school, from failing to getting full marks in the senior high school entrance examination; College entrance examination English 139; Undergraduate, majoring in English, passed the high score of TEM-8 and participated in the Tianjin College English Essay Competition on behalf of the school, winning the first place; Later, I stayed in school to teach, and taught CET-4 and CET-6 in major training institutions in Tianjin. I have more than a dozen transcripts and certificates, and I have a vocabulary of more than 20,000. There are praises and surprises around me to prove that my English is very good.
However, when I took a taxi from Heathrow Airport to the hotel booked online in Bloomsbury, London, I came to the hometown of English with 20 years of language accumulation and pride. When I knocked on the door of the world, I heard the sound of being slapped by the real world, which was very painful. Because I suddenly found that under the current English education system, it is very likely that we have studied fake English for more than ten years without knowing it!
I suddenly realized that not all English people are authentic English of the king or queen, but they also have dialects and accents, some of which are wonderful, just like our Cantonese and Minnan.
On my first night in London, when I left Wan Li, I was lying on the soft Simmons mattress, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. When I finally felt asleep, the alarm clock rang again.
The next morning, I went to the bank to change pounds, and the tellers counted them one by one. I was forced not to understand her number at all, so I had to guess in a hurry.
All the college English textbooks I read from childhood translated "thousand" into "thousand", but in western real life outside the textbooks, the British did not say "thousand" but issued "grand"!
I suddenly realized that English people also have slang, which we can't learn in any textbooks in China!
At first, I thought that as long as I got through the chaotic period when I first arrived, I wouldn't encounter any embarrassment after I got familiar with the situation. Until I went to a restaurant to eat, the waiter politely asked me whether tea or coffee (tea or coffee), so I asked the waiter for a cup of boiled water, and people said, sir, we have no boiled water! Sir, we don't serve boiled water here.
It dawned on me that the water here has never been burned! These ghosts are raised by drinking raw water!
At that time, full of cultural shock (cultural shock! )
At this time, it suddenly dawned on me: after studying English for so many years, the difference between me and these English-speaking foreigners is not a few English words and sentences, but keywords related to English culture!
Once talking to a foreigner about his smartphone, Mr. Wang blurted out his smartphone. A circle of foreigners around suddenly became silent and looked puzzled. After two or three seconds, they realized that I was talking about a smartphone. Foreign friends who don't know the truth admire my sense of humor. At that time, I was so ashamed that I couldn't wait to find a crack in the ground.
At an extremely embarrassing moment, I suddenly realized that after learning English for so many years, I would blurt out Chinglish if I was not careful!
You know, more than 80% of the world's newspapers, books and websites, as well as more than 95% of the top academic journals, are written in English. However, like many people in China, I have memorized words and grammar for so many years, but I can't tell others or myself what is happening in the English world! When we catch up with British dramas, American dramas and Hollywood blockbusters, we still habitually only look at Chinese subtitles to see what events those burdens ridicule. Since the reform and opening up, the English-speaking world has opened its doors to China people. However, even if you go abroad, how many people can only stay with China people, and there is no way to integrate into the local cultural circle!
I began to seriously reflect. After 20 years, we have worked so hard and worked so hard to learn English. Are we learning fake English? ! We, tempered by exams again and again, have survived from the sea of tricky vocabulary and grammar questions, wandering outside the multicultural door with a lot of certificates and psychological shadows on English learning, but we have never entered the room, and even the simplest utility can't be used by me. In the end, we are all dumb English and deaf English-we speak it ourselves and others can't understand it; I can't understand what others say! (To be continued)