I’m a Chinese-English conference interpreter.

我是一位中英雙語的會議口譯員。

I interpret English into Chinese, and Chinese into English.

我把英文翻成中文，也把中文翻成英文。

As a native Chinese speaker, I spent years learning English to become a fluent speaker of the language.

我的母語是中文，而為了讓自己的英文變得流利，我花了許多年學習英文。

Today, I’d like to share with you three fatal mistakes Taiwanese people make when learning English and how we can avoid those mistakes and improve our language proficiency.

今天，我想跟大家分享三個學習英文的致命錯誤，以及我們該如何避免錯誤，讓英文能夠更上一層樓。

First of all, the most fatal mistake: learning English as a subject instead of a language.

首先，最致命的錯誤就是把英文當做一個科目，而不是語言來學習。

Many people study hard only the night before the exam.

很多人只在考試前一晚熬夜苦讀。

Unfortunately, it's exactly the case when it comes to English learning in Taiwan.

不幸的是，這正是台灣學習英文的現況。

Oh, I am taking TOEIC next weekend; I’m gonna study super hard to ace it!

噢，我下週末要考多益，為了考高分，我要趕緊努力用功。

And then what happens after the test?

而考完試之後呢？

Back to my normal life without English.

又回歸不碰英文的生活。

That's not the way you learn English if you want to use it.

如果你真的想要使用英文，這絕對不是你學英文的方式。

Language is feeling.

語言是種感覺。

The most efficient way to learn English is to feel it.

學英文最有效率的方式，就是去感受它。

Make English part of your life.

讓英文成為你生活的一部分。

Listen to English songs, watch English shows and movies, maybe on VoiceTube, read English news, give English presentations, talk to people in English, keep your diary in English, switch your phone and Facebook language settings to English even.

聽英文歌、看英語節目和電影，或是在 VoiceTube 上看影片、讀英文新聞、或是用英文報告、用英文聊天、用英文寫日記，甚至把手機或臉書的語言設為英文。

You can feel the groove of the sentences.

潛移默化中，你就會了解英文句子的律動。

The second mistake is cramming vocab words without pronouncing them.

第二個致命錯誤就是，背了很多單字卻都沒有開口念。

Think about it, you memorize a word but you don’t really know how to pronounce it.

想想看，你背了一堆單字，卻根本不知道它們怎麼發音。

When you need to use it, you try to say it but you can’t or you get the pronunciation wrong and people don’t get it.

當你需要使用單字的時候，想說又說不出來，或是你根本發音錯誤，所以別人聽不懂你在說什麼。

Isn’t it obvious it’s not a good way to expand the size of your active vocabulary?

很明顯的，這絕對不是增加單字量的好方法，不是嗎？

Check the pronunciation before you memorize a word.

背單字之前，先確認單字的發音。

When you know how to pronounce it, it’s actually easier for you to remember it.

如果你知道這個字怎麼發音，對你來說也比較好記。

Well, you might still pronounce words incorrectly sometimes.

你或許有時候還是會發音錯誤。

Correct yourself right away and remind yourself to get it right next time!

這時候，要馬上糾正自己的發音，並提醒自己下次發音要正確！

The last mistake is relying heavily on subtitles.

最後一個錯誤是，重度倚賴字幕。

Maybe because a great deal of Taiwanese shows and almost all movies in Taiwan are subtitled, people rely on subtitles so much that they sometimes just read and don’t even listen!

或許是因為許多台灣的電視節目跟電影都有提供字幕，所以大家過於倚賴字幕，以致於有時候人們甚至直接看字幕，根本沒有打開耳朵聽！

It is a huge problem because people understand the material based on their reading comprehension only and ignore the audio input.

這個問題非常嚴重，因為大家只透過閱讀瞭解內容，而忽略了聲音所傳遞的訊息。

That is to say, you are not improving your listening or speaking skills, which is the main purpose of using multimedia materials to learn English.

換句話說，你根本沒有在增進自己的聽力或口說技巧，但這卻是用利多媒體素材學習英文的目的。

Watching videos is not a reading comprehension activity.

看影片可不是在做閱讀測驗。

It’s okay to watch anything with subtitles to help you understand the content, but always remind yourself to listen to how the words and the phrases are pronounced.

看影片的時候，當然可以搭配字幕來瞭解內容，但是要記得去聽影片裡單字和片語的發音。

You can even imitate the speaker or the actor in the video.

你甚至可以模仿影片裡的話者或演員說話。

Remember, you’re not just reading the subtitles out loud, but challenging yourself to sound like the speaker as much as possible.

要記得，不是只把字幕大聲唸出來而已，而是要挑戰自我，盡量讓自己聽起來跟講者一樣。

And then, you’re finally really listening.

這樣，你才會真正打開耳朵聽英文。

And, that’s a wrap, I hope you liked my video!

影片就到這裡結束囉！希望你們喜歡我的影片！

Check out my Facebook page from the link below if you’re interested in English learning, translation, and interpreting.

如果你對英文學習、翻譯或口譯有興趣，可以去我的粉絲頁瞧瞧，粉絲頁連結就在影片下方。

Bye!

大家再見！