商務禮節美語第207期:Becoming Fluent in English流利美語(上)
Penny Liu: Hey, Robert! I was listening to you speak Chinese at the presentation yesterday! You're fluent!
Robert: Oh, that's kind of you to say, but in reality I'm just able to hold a conversation.
P: You are too modest. Seriously, I was really impressed. I actually wanted to know how you did it because I really want to take my English to the next level.
R: But your English is fantastic.
P: Yeah, it's pretty good. But I'm aiming to become completely fluent. Do you have any tips?
Penny稱讚美國同事Robert中文說得流利，fluent，給她留下了深刻印象。I was really impressed. Penny問Robert 學習語言有什麼竅門，那麼Robert有什麼建議呢？
R: Well, I studied at a major university in Taipei before coming to Beijing. And I lived in Hong Kong for over a year as well.
P: So you're saying I'll have to live in an English-speaking country?
R: It certainly doesn't hurt. But there are some things you can do if that is not an option.
P: For example?
R: When I first began studying Chinese, I found that watching Chinese movies was a really big help. Turn off the subtitles and watch and listen closely.
原來，Robert在中文環境中生活過一段時間。可如果沒有這種條件，if that is not an option, Robert說，看電影會有很大幫助，並建議關掉字幕，turn off the subtitles, subtitles is spelled s-u-b-t-i-t-l-e-s, subtitles是字幕的意思。
P: But they speak so fast in movies! Will I be able to understand?
R: You could watch a movie you have already seen no subtitles. That way you can pick up the rhythms of speech.
P: What about vocabulary? Should I just try to memorize more words?
R: Memorization can't hurt, but it's sometimes hard to learn words that have no context. Many times when I learn a new Chinese word, I don't really understand it until I hear or see how it's used in a sentence.
P: So I need to find a context for the words.
R: Right!
電影對白說話太快，跟不上怎麼辦。Robert建議Penny選擇以前看過的電影，然後關掉字幕。That way you can pick up the rhythms of speech. 這樣就能慢慢找到語言的節奏。單詞量vocabulary 不夠怎麼辦？Robert說，死記硬背固然沒有害處，可有時候少了上下文，單詞的意思是很難準確理解和掌握的。Robert對提高英語水平還有哪些好的建議，我們下次繼續聽。
