A blond-haired boy approached me at the playground and said, “Tahw si ruoy eman?” I stared blankly at him and, after some consideration, decided to answer with a simple “No.” The boy looked at me and started to laugh, then said something else and walked away. Confused and a little hurt, I turned to my translator, who had by then started to laugh, too. She pulled me beside the swings and explained in Mandarin that the boy had merely asked me for my name, and I had told him it was No.

This incident took place on my first day of second grade at St. Mungo’s Primary School in Glasgow, Scotland. I had just moved to Great Britain with my degree-seeking parents. Leaving behind my safety net of language and culture in China and armed with little more the two English words of “yes” and “no, ” I embarked on a mission in which I was forced to adapt to the Western world. Although children are often quick assimilators of new environments, I feel like I spent my entire elementary years simply trying to learn the convoluted English language, as well as getting used to eating fish and chips.

Like all foreign languages, English is difficult to learn. But because of the history of so many people contributing to its modern form, English contains a prodigious number of complex rules and exceptions, a profusion of word forms, and vexingly different pronunciations of the same and similar spellings. “Through, ” “thorough, ” and “enough, ” for example, are all common words containing “ough, ” but in each case the letters are pronounced differently. I found perseverance to be my answer to the challenge, and I worked assiduously to perfect my English. I remember borrowing numerous illustrated books from my teachers and reading for two hours every night with my parents. I found my greatest difficulty lay in pronunciation. While Chinese is spoken with little movement of the mouth, English requires the opening of the soft palate and explicit articulation. Pronouncing “th” sounding words proved the most arduous of all tasks; I used to stand in front of my dresser mirror and watch my tongue push against my top teeth as I, to my dismay, continue to spit out “ss” sounds. This frustration affected my performance in school; I was afraid to ask questions because it took me ten minutes to think of each word in my question and how to pronounce them.

My irritation did not last long, however, and my daily diligence in front of the mirror soon paid off. I gradually began to comprehend my teachers in school and learned to understand my textbooks. My ESL teacher, Mrs. Murray, was compassionate and progressive, helping her students to learn English through “mini-field trips.” Each week, Mrs. Murray would take us to one specific room of the school and have us name all the objects in that room. As silly as it may seem, the method both increased my vocabulary by implanting mental pictures of the objects in my head and gave me ample opportunity to practice my pronunciation.

When I moved to Detroit at the age of nine, many of my new friends and teachers told me my English was fluent, even articulate. At my new school, however, I was faced with a new problem: my peculiar sounding Chinese-Scottish accent. This dilemma caused me plenty of heartache; as a newcomer, I had trouble making friends, and other children consistently made fun of my accent and treated me like an alien. But again, with an unwillingness to surrender to my circumstances, I redoubled my efforts and before long made several good friends.

I have now lived in the United States for eight years. Although my difficulties with English gradually diminish with each passing year, I constantly face new challenges and obstacles. But through my experience with learning English and making friends in a new land, I found that hindrances are best met with persistence. I will always remember my encounter with the blond-haired boy in second grade, and, more importantly, its significance in beginning my ten-year struggle to improve my comprehension of the English language and English-speaking people.

點評：

通過學英語的歷程向學校展示了自己的人生經歷和個人性格。通過一個較有趣味的小故事開頭，讓人有一種讀下去的欲望，作者在這方面做的比較成功。此外，由于作者長期在國外生活，英語表達能力很強，文章寫的很流暢生動。雖然故事并沒有出奇之處，但對于AdCom來說，這樣的文章，比那些呆板的重復簡歷里的活動無疑強的太多。

譯文：

學習英語

在運動場上，一個金發(fā)男孩走近我說，‘Tahw si ruoy eman?’我茫然的看著他，考慮了一下，決定回答一個簡單的‘No.’男孩看著我并開始發(fā)笑，然后又說了些什么并走開了。我感到很困惑并有點被傷害，于是轉去問我的翻譯，他聽完后也開始笑了。她把我拉到秋千旁邊，并用普通話向我解釋，那個男孩僅僅是問我的名字，而我告訴他我的名字是NO。

這件事發(fā)生在蘇格蘭的格拉斯哥，我就讀St. Mungo’s小學二年級的第一天。那時我剛和父母一起搬到英國，而他們則是為了獲得更高的學位。離開了中國熟悉的語言和文化，并帶著兩個英語單詞‘Yes’和‘No’，我開始被強迫去接受西方的世界。雖然兒童對于新環(huán)境的接受能力比較強，但我感覺我花了整個小學只是為了學習那繞口的英語，并用來熟悉吃魚和薯條這樣的英國式食物。

和所有的外語一樣，學英語很難。由于長久以來太多的人參與到現(xiàn)代英語的形成中去，英語包括了無數(shù)復雜的規(guī)則和特例，單詞的形式，以及多義詞和同音詞。比如說，through, thorough, 和enough都是一些包括了‘ough’并經常用到的詞，但在不同的場合下，他們的發(fā)音都是不同的。我只有努力堅持，并更勤力的去提高我的英語能力。我向我的老師借了一些帶有插圖的書本并每個晚上在父母的陪同下花費兩個小時來閱讀。我發(fā)現(xiàn)我最大的困難就在于發(fā)音。不同于說中文的時候嘴巴不太動，英語需要張開軟腭并清楚的發(fā)音。發(fā)“th”這個音對我來說是很困難的任務；我曾經對著梳妝臺的鏡子練習，但我看到我的舌頭打在我的上排牙齒上，使我沮喪的發(fā)出“ss”的聲音。這個困擾也影響了我在學校的表現(xiàn)；我很害怕主動提問，因為那要花我十分鐘去思考每個用詞以及怎么發(fā)音。

然而，我的窘境并沒有持續(xù)很久，每天在鏡子前面的苦練終于取得了回報。我漸漸開始領會老師所說的，并開始理解教科書的內容。我的英文老師Murray夫人是一個很有同情心和進取心的人，她總是通過小課的方式幫助學習學生英語。每個星期，Murray夫人都會把我們帶到一個特殊的房間，要求我們用英文說出房間里所有物品。雖然看起來很傻，但這個方法不僅通過這些易于理解的物品增加了我的詞匯并且為我提供了許多機會來鍛煉發(fā)音。

當我9歲時搬到底特律時，許多新的朋友和老師都說我的英語十分流利，甚至單詞些連接的發(fā)音。但是在新學校里，我又遇到了一個新的問題：我的發(fā)音是中國式的蘇格蘭口音。這個活動引起了我新的麻煩。做為一個新人，我沒法交到新朋友，其他的孩子甚至認為我的發(fā)音十分可笑，并把我當作一個外地人。再一次，為了不向困難妥協(xié)，我加倍努力的練習并在不久后交到了幾個好朋友。

現(xiàn)在，我在美國已經生活了8年。雖然我在英語方面的困難一年比一年少，但我始終會遇到一些新的挑戰(zhàn)和障礙。通過學習英語和在新地方交朋友的經驗，我發(fā)現(xiàn)只要堅持，任何困難都可以克服。我永遠都記得我在二年級的時候遇到的那個金發(fā)男孩，那是我這十年來盡力提高對英語語言和說英語的人理解能力的開始。