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26 gennaio Way To EnglishI forgot this in my previous article. I also hate when people say "Your English is good." People never say this to whose English is really good. They say this means they know you are an ESL learner. If I need your opinion, I'll ask. My Chinese is good, and my English is not. I know it, thank you.
But... It seems that I'm the only one who thinks like this, and most people actually love it when you say so. So, it's still good way of flattering.
In my humble opinion, factors of English speaking is as follows:
Speak Slowly
First thing first, speak slowly. Because of my poor pronunciation, if I speak fast, nobody will ever understand. Sometimes, foreigner speakers like speak fast (including me) becauue they think that's the right way. The reason is, from our points of view, native speaking is fast and unclear. But... actually, they are unclear in a specific way. So if you try to do the same thing, you do nothing but get people confused.
In fact, I've seen many foreigners try to pretend to be good speakers by speaking fast, which actually makes they look bad. I gotta confess that I do it sometimes. It's shame. However, you never know if you never try. If you wanna speak well, eventually it has to be fast. But I guess it's not for now, maybe years later, I will.
Accent
It's ironic to me, cuz when I was in Beijing, people try to copy my accent. That's because Beijing is the culture centre of China. And official language of China based on Beijing speaking. So I never care my Chinese accent, if not proud.
Accent is definitely not a problem if you can be understood by people. I have a friend when I was in China. He keeps speaking in North East accent in Universty. He knows how to speak Mandarine, but he just insists doing it. Maybe he is proud of his own accent as well. I think it's super cool. But if somebody from south Mandarine speaking provinces like Sichuan speak in their own accent, that's not cool, cuz I can't understand them. So same thing in English. Chinese accent to Enlgish is like Sichuan accent to Mandarine. My accent abslutely need to be improved.
However, whatever how much you try, you can never speak like a Canadian. As I said, my Chinese university friends tried to do Beijing accent. But still, I can easily tell who is local and who is not. Accent is not something you can't copy. So, try to speak like a English speaker, but don't narrow your mind. Wanna speak excactly like a Canadian? It's impossible.
Slang
My attitude to slang is: get to know them, but don't use them. Needless to say, more slangs you konw, the better understanding you have. But why not use them?
From my observation, slang is another thing you can't copy. Some accent could be considered as slang as well. For example, in Beijing, people like to add the syllable "er" after most of words. So when people from other provinces try to imitate it, problems come. Actually, we do add "er" to some of words, but not all of them. And to some words, with "er" and without "er" are totally different meanings. But there is no rule you can follow or explain. We just do it instinctually. So I saw people make many jokes while they don't realize it. Further more, I got confused when people do the strange accent invented by themselves. I can understand Beijing local speaking, as well as I can understand standard Mandarine. But please, don't do the midst way.
You see, Beijing speaking is not even a dialect. It's only a accent. But still, people make jokes when they try to do accent. I don't wanna make the same mistake in English.
liaison
Liaison is like accent, but tougher to me. Native people omit syllables or even words when they speak, like "Tell'em what'u told'em." Again, like the accent and slang, I need to know them, but not use them.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary and grammar, they seemed not important to speaking. Well, you should talk to the guy Bill in my department. His speaking is just like writing. I guess native speakers would consider his speaking as good, but not me. It's too hard to me. So first, I guess I need vocabulary to understand people.
And using big words is efficient way to speaking. According to information theory, the rarer the word is used, the more information it conveys. But...once again, you should use it when you are sure about its meaning. You don't wanna be a joke, do you?
Oral English Oral English less focus on grammar. I bet my English grammar is better than many native speakers. Every time I speak, it's like writing in my head and read them out. It's exhausting. I need more speaking than writing, so I will write this blog more like orally thereafter. I will use abbreviations like:
cuz= Because
gotta = have got to
wanna = want to
gonna = going to
And so on.
Be Actived
The strange thing is, I speak better when I speak publicly. For example, when I speak at senimar or teach in labs. I guess it doesn't happen to everyone. I think the reason is, when I talk in front of people, I'm excited. Also, I speak better in parties or when I'm drunk. Actually, for the last one, I'm not sure... you know... I was drunk.
So I think I gotta be actived when I speak.
Talk To People
The best way of learning is by doing it. You wanna talk better? Talk to people! But... just one thing. Canadian are friendly, only when they have right reasons. There is a club, AICS, Association of International and Canadian Students. I go there to practice my English. There are Canadian students and international students in it. Every week, it holds coffee meeting and other stuff. Native students embracing outcomers as families, what a warm scene! But... hold on a minute...
Why all the Canadian over there are male?
If you're not stupid, it's not difficult to figure out. Is there eaiser girls to hit on than those who need talking to improve their English? They come for girls!
This always reminds me that when I was in China, how boys love to be volunteers of the new students' orientation. They don't do any other volunteer work except this one. It's because they'd have better chance to meet hot girls than others. You know, people talk about culture difference all the time. But there's always something universal in all countires. Base on this, I see internationalism is not empty cheque anymore.
Thing need to be clarified: I don't wanna be too cynical. Still, there are nice people do good things by kindness. But for most of us, "no free lunch" ever holds.
You see, it's difficult for a person like me to start a conversation in coffee meeting. I can't provide neither sex, social networking nor Enlgish practice. So I gotta have a thick skin on this. Just be someone small, someone less important for a while, by applying the wisdom from traditional culture.
Update This Blog
Blog writing is a really good way to practise. But I wouldn't do it if nobody is reading. Writing diary is boring, but publishing my little articles is fun. So I wanna thank you all guys who insist reading my boring blog. Thanks a lot! 16 gennaio IllusionPeople are slaves of sentiment. Seeing is not necessarily believing. Sometimes you think you can see the truth, however, they are just illusions. Only the preciseness of rationalism unveils the hidden rule of the world.
I used to think that the number of Canadian in Computer Science department is limited. Recently, I find out that there are still many of them.
I drew my conclusion by observing in the senimar course. Unlike other courses, senimar course is the the only one that is mandatory to all grad students. Other courses could be biased. For instance, math courses have more Chinese. Senimar course is the only unbiased data source I can get.
In the course, there are 18 students of all. Among them, there are: 7 Chinese, 2 Indian, 2 German and 1 Iranian.
That's 12 of all. Rest of them are either native speakers or European I cannot distinguish. Let's suppose they are all native speakers. One of them whose accent is too strong as well as he is too arrogant to be a Canadian. I guess this guy is from USA. So there are 5 left.
There could be up to 5 Canadian, which is almost as many as Chinese. That's a lot. I didn't see this coming. 14 gennaio ObserverWhen I was in university, I played the computer game Starcraft a lot. There is an aircraft in the game, which name is "Observer". I like it the most.
In the game, some units are invisible. They can not be seen, so one can use them to take enemy by surprise. They are useful tactically. On the other hand, some other units have the ability to detect invisible units. When these units are around, invisibility is useless.
Observer is the only kind of unit that can be invisible and detect invisible units in the same time. Unfortunately, it is not a deadly weapon. It can not attack at all.
However, I like the idea of observer, which is unkown by others but can see everything. If I were a unit in the game, I'd like to be an observer.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"I'm observing."
That's cool. 10 gennaio TeachingFate is ironic.
I teach the same lab this term, as well as another one.
1 session for CSC100 Lab
2 sessions for SENG130 Lab
Until now, I haven't got in touch with the professor of SENG130. I know this guy. He is not actually that kind of responsible person.
I tought a CSC100 Lab this morning. Teaching is exhausting. You have to shout to them for 50 minutes during each session. I think my teaching skill is better. Last term, I considered myself as the worst teacher in the world history. I can only speak for 20 minutes for each session. Thank god it was a lab, otherwise it would be really awkard. However, this term, I can teach wall to wall in 50 minutes fluently with proper timing.
I have learnt from my previous failure that confidence and determination is really important in public speaking. Just pretend to be a good speaker, and make your students to believe so. They will act back.
Instructor is not a good job. The light side is, it is helpful to my speaking English nonetheless. If everything goes well, I will try to teach senior courses in the future. 04 gennaio Westerners and Easterners see the world differentlyThe difference between them and us could be greater than you thought. On one side it is Easterner, like Chinese, Japanese and Korean, namely Greater China or Sinic World[2]. On another side it is westerner, European and American.[3] A serious psychology study shows that.
"Chinese and American people see the world differently – literally. While Americans focus on the central objects of photographs, Chinese individuals pay more attention to the image as a whole."[1]
"Western and East Asian people have contrasting world-views, Americans break things down analytically, focusing on putting objects into categories and working out what rules they should obey. By contrast, East Asians have a more holistic philosophy, looking at objects in relation to the whole"[1]
03 gennaio When Canadian Meets Each OtherI went to orientation today, a orientation for new students. During the orientation, two people found out they are both Canadian.
"You're Canadian. I knew it!"
"I'm the only one in the lab!"
"Me too!"
They were excited. If they were Communists, they would call each other "comrade" by then. The scene was heart-warming and convivial. I loved it. I'm sorry I didn't bring my camera, but I have a analogy here. It's pretty much like this one below:
April 25th, 1945, during World War Two, US and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany's defenses.[1]
Compared with that, it's not really exciting for me to meet my ubiquitous countrymen.
02 gennaio My GradeGrade means nothing. There is a article on my supervisor's homepage, "How to ruin your graduate life." One thing it says is "always try to get good grade." In the author's opinion, he believes that a grade of B on average is enough. He suggests students focus on research not courses.
Theoretically, I agree. I hate courses too. However, practically, I must work on it as much as I can. Due to the policy, to us, A- is the passing line. If you fail, your money is gone. Pack your stuff and go home. That's why I am so nervous about this. It's the sword of Damocles hanging on my head.
I had 2 courses last term, and I just got the grade today. Lucky me, they are all passed.
CSC 482b/523 Randomized Algorithm
Grade: A-
It is said to be one of the most difficult courses on campus, purely math. I worked really hard on it, and I believed I should get a A. The reason of I didn't get one is that I made a rookie's mistake. I was too lazy to write my proving in detail. Time to time, I just proved the lemma in my head and write down: "It is obviously that ...". One day, the professor changed her marker, and the new marker is very strict about this. So I fail the following assignment because of imprecision. Otherwise, I can get >5 more points in my final grade.
Actually, I have more complaint about this... but anyway, since A- could be also considered as acceptable, so why don't I just save my bitter words as well as troubles. After all, it is a valuable lesson. Math should be prudent. My proving is indeed a problem. Sometimes when I read my writing, I don't even understand myself.
Learning from mistakes, that is the true meaning of taking courses, isn't it?
CSC 450/550 Computer Networking
Grade: A+
Comparing to the first one, this course is much easier. Basically, in Computer Science, the difficulty of a course depends on how much mathematics and programming it has. Good news, this course has barely no math. You just need to memorize those protocols and jargons.
As for programming, frankly speaking, it scared me at the first time. It requires programming in C/Unix/Socket/Pthread, which I've never used them before except a little experience on C language when I was a freshman. (That is, 6 years ago.) I thought I would be dead.
Actually, I shouldn't worry about it. Once I got to know it, it became easy in no time. So after a few weeks, although Canadian kids were still complaining "the lab is too hard", it didn't bother me anymore.
To sum up, it is A on average, not too good, not too bad. One have to take 6 courses to get a master degree. So for me, that's 2 down, 4 to go. I'm coming! |
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