Chinese learn English is very difficult, in school for more than ten years of English classes but most people can't understand and can't speak, cramming behind the death can take a test, but soon after the exam and forget, proper zero level. However, many people find that Westerners in India, France, Africa, the Americas and other places can generally communicate normally in English, but Chinese's English is poor. So some people come to the hasty conclusion that Europeans and Americans are more gifted in language, so they learn English well. But this is obviously impossible, individual people may have language talent, but it is impossible for all Westerners to have talent, and it is impossible for Chinese to lack talent.
In fact, there is a difference between difficulty and ease in learning English. Chinese people who start learning English after childhood have more difficulty than Europeans and Americans, because Europeans and Americans learn homologous foreign languages, while Chinese learn conflict foreign languages.
The histories of Europe, Africa, and West Asia are intertwined, and the languages are not very different from each other. The Americans are mainly the descendants of immigrants from Europeans, and linguistically Europe and the United States are one. China's many dialects were originally multiple languages, but later came under the umbrella of Chinese, and they are similar to many European languages. Korean and Japanese also have many similarities with Chinese.
It is easy for Chinese to learn Chinese dialects, just listen more and speak more. Some people know four or five dialects, which is equivalent to knowing four or five foreign languages, and it is not too difficult to learn Korean and Japanese. In the same way, it is easy for Europeans and Americans to learn European homologous foreign languages, and some people can learn four or five European languages such as French, English, Spanish, and Greek.
Therefore, you can see that learning the same foreign language, Chinese and Westerners have the same effect.
European and American languages such as English are phonetic languages, and Chinese is ideographic languages, and the two are very different and almost everywhere are reversed.
Phonetics, Chinese one word and one sound, simple and clear, fixed pronunciation, English word polyphonic, long and ambiguous, wide pronunciation. Chinese want to hear each word clearly, but find that English is a string, and it is impossible to hear clearly, and it is even more impossible to be accurate.
Grammar, Chinese simple and casual details before focus, English complex and rigorous focus before details. Chinese learning English is equivalent to changing their brains.
The meaning of words, Chinese concrete parts are fine and vivid, English words are abstract and rough and universal. The meaning of the word is not fine and specific, and the Chinese are confused.
Text, Chinese pictographic complex only ideographic, English abstract simple only phonetic. Chinese people have no feeling when they look at pinyin characters, let alone remember them.
Sentences, Chinese are directly assembled from Chinese characters, there is no concept of sentence patterns, English sentences are complex logical systems, there are a variety of clear sentence patterns. Chinese are accustomed to arranging words and sentences as sentences, but English sentences have to be carefully designed and constructed like building buildings, and they have to change everywhere, and they feel that they can't take care of the beginning and the end.
After Chinese people have been accustomed to Chinese for a long time, they cannot adapt to all aspects of English, the voice is difficult to hear, the grammar is dizzy, the meaning of words is difficult to understand, the meaning of the whole sentence is even more difficult to understand, the abstract text is not felt, the speed of speech cannot keep up, and the content cannot be remembered. These barriers are summed up in a term called "Native Firewall".
Europeans and Americans learn Chinese, but also have the barrier of the native language firewall, and it is very difficult to learn.
The native language firewall is not special, it is the same thing as the generation gap of the elderly, it is a fixed impression formed by years of life experience, and it is extremely difficult to change. The less different a foreign language is from your mother tongue, the easier it is to learn. The greater the difference, the more difficult it is to learn.
A child's mind is blank, and any natural language can be learned smoothly. The mother tongue of Europeans and Americans is very different from English, and it is easy to learn because it is easy to learn because it has little to no habit and a natural transition. It is easy for Chinese to learn Chinese dialects or Korean, for the same reason, and it has nothing to do with language talent.
Some Chinese learned a little English when they were young, and then continued to learn when they grew up, and the firewall of their mother tongue is very small, and it is as easy to learn as Europeans and Americans.
Some people will ask: why is it still so difficult for children to learn English from the age of three or four?
In this question, we must first distinguish between true and false English. Chinese people think they are learning English, but they don't know that they have actually only learned how to use their own brains to turn the machine up: when listening to and reading, they convert words into Chinese vocabulary in their heads, and then piece together a Chinese meaning, and they think they understand. When speaking and writing, he translates Chinese ideas into English strings, and even memorizes ready-made sentences for performance. The fake words that memorize the ** Chinese vocabulary are used as keys. This is only learning to decipher or program, not the language, so it is fake English.
Three or four-year-old Chinese children are also generally learning words, understanding Chinese meanings, ineffective dialogue, and also learning fake English, so they are generally the same as never learning, and the native language firewall is still very high and thick.
On the contrary, there are some children who watch more English cartoons, or go to school in British and American homes, learn real English, so they learn it, or they know some, and their native language firewall is as short as that of Europeans and Americans.
Because of the Great Firewall of Mother Tongue, it is particularly difficult for Chinese who have passed childhood to learn English. Because of the native language firewall, it is usually difficult to improve the level of half-hanging, and the troubles such as fast sentences are difficult to hear, long and difficult sentences are grammatically dizzy, the meaning cannot be accurately understood, it is difficult to remember, and the storage amount cannot be increased. There are people who really know a little English and live abroad for decades, but never reach the level of a native English speaker, and that's why.
But the native language firewall can be breached. As long as you specialize in the basic English skills such as pronunciation, grammar, and meaning, you can solve all kinds of troubles and successfully learn the same level of mother tongue as British and Americans. That's how I am.
Colorful English.
Original author: liston