筆記

《不要只學英文，重灌你的頭腦》讀書筆記

By Jeff Lin 2022-08-21

作者在書中引了一句 Albert Einstein（愛因斯坦）的名言：

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."（什麼叫瘋子，就是重複做同樣的事情還期待會出現不同的結果。）

用這句話來提醒大家，傳統的英文學習方式，包括背單字、學文法，雖然很重要，但若要讓英語的口說可以流暢，尚不足夠，如果我們試過了多年傳統的方式但口說一直卡卡的，那千萬不要持續這麼做而期待會有不同結果 ^_^

要讓英語口說可以流暢，除了字彙和文法外，還缺乏了第三個要素，也就是「用英文思考」這個部份。作者覺得這需要我們定期做以下兩項訓練：（1）跟讀（Shadow），訓練我們的嘴巴和耳朵，好讓大腦習慣英文；（2）大腦語言程式改寫（Reprogramming），找到自己的錯誤 中式英文（Chinglish）[可參見下方”Technique#2 - Train your brain“中的例子]，花時間重覆練習正確的英語語法，好建立正確的英語思考習慣。

中式英文（Chinglish）：指母語中文者在說英文時，把一些只在中文語義中才能理解的詞彙、短語直接轉換成英文。這種中文混合英文的說話方式，雖然讓英文母語者聽起來不知所云，但中文背景者卻能輕易理解，因此將「Chinese」以及「English」兩個單字混合，成為「Chinglish」。

下面就是本書的重點筆記，最後面還放上了作者的相關網站，以及市面上搜尋到有關整理中式英文（Chinglish）常見問題的書籍做為自己今後學習的參考。

Part 1: The secret to fluent English

  • The secret to learning a new language is to THINK in that language. (p. 14)
  • Think of the English learning process as Two Separate Legs (p. 17) :
    1. Traditional Method of Learning
    2. Changing your Thinking
  • For fluent English, train your EAR, MOUTH, and BRAIN. (p. 20)

Part 2: Fluency training

Technique#1 - Train your ears and mouth

  • find materials suit your proficiency level, accompanying audio track
  • preview the material
  • Shadow (5-10 minutes a day)
    1. play the audio track
    2. copy the exact sounds made by the speaker, lagging just slightly behind, as though an echo in canyon (2-3 times each session)
    3. SPEAK OUT LOUD
    4. one text for AN ENTIRE WEEK

Technique#2 - Train your brain

  • Reprogramming
  • Three simple steps:

    1. Discover a Chinglish pattern

    2. Learn the correct thinking

    3. Practice thinking in the correct pattern for 5-10 minutes a day for a week

      • Find a “scene” to describe. It could be a picture, a space in your house, or the view from your balcony. / Think about your day, and make sentences using “-ing”(make others feel) / “-ed”(feel it yourself).

      • Describe the scene OUT LOUD using correct thinking: Eg. “There is a man in the yard” (Existence) instead of “In the yard have man” (Possession). / “Horror movies are boring” / “I am bored of watching horror movies.”

  • Becoming fluent is about developing correct thinking habits. Essentially, you’re training yourself to THINK in English. Practice “there is” until even the contraction ("There’s”) becomes second nature; until you can point and make an observation without even thinking about it. That’s true fluency!
  • Reprogramming is like wearing braces (牙齒矯正器).

作者 Dr. Chinglish 相關網站

整理中式英文（Chinglish）常見問題的書籍列表

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