Linda – The Rush to Learn English in Beijing: Even Grandmas are Learning!

If you are in Beijing, I can bet with you that there is a storm to learn English here. You can find people learning, speaking English no matter how old they are.

These even is a university in Sichuan where the students study English all at one time on the ground!

One day I went to Wangfujing by subway and bus. On the subway I found a granny learning English by reading an  English book. And on the bus I found a child asking her mother about English words. So I could win the bet.

We welcome people all over the world!

 

Iris – The Rush To Learn English: Beijing is Preparing for the Olympics

Beijing is a beautiful city of passion and people are getting ready for Olympic games. Through languages, we may communicate with foreigners. But to set good condition for communication with Westerns, we must learn English and speak English fluently.

Therefore many citizens are rushing to learn English these years. For example, now nearly 90,000 taxi drivers in Beijing are working hard on their English so that they will be able to communicate with foreigners in the near future. Moreover, some taxi companies have equipped their taxies with translation machines to help the drivers who know do not know enough English.

Currently many elderly people in Beijing have become enthusiastic for English learning, hoping do their best for the upcoming Olympics when large number of foreign visitors will come to Beijing.

We believe that speaking English during the Olympics could make foreigners feel more comfortable with their stay in Beijing.

I also think it is a good idea to study English in a country such as the USA. Most students in non-English speaking countries learn English from their secondary school and sometimes the university, which is the case in China. Although our spoken English is not usually of high standard, our knowledge of grammar is often quite advanced. This is certainly useful when students come to an English-speaking country to perfect the language. When we study abroad, there are opportunities to practice listening to and speaking with local people. We can experience the culture first-hand, which is a great help when trying to understand English.

Email – From Yimei to Email: Why My Name is “Email”

My name is WangYimei and my English name is Email.  You may think my name is strange so now i’ll tell you the story of my English name.

When I was young, my mother gave this beautiful name to me, Yimei. I really don’t know how she thought of this name.  But several year later the Internet being all the rage of China and the word “E-mail” became more and more popular.  So then at that time, my friends all thought my name should change from my original name, Yimei, to “E-mail,” because Email sounds so much like my name “Yimei.”   So I realized what foresight my mother had in giving me my name at a time when internet e-mails were just getting started in China.  I think I’m so lucky to get two beautiful names from my mother.  oh I love my mother!

In fact I also have had other names before internet e-mail was used by Chinese people.  I used to  study in a foreign language school in Beijing.  Every student always has an English name because our  foreigner teachers could never  remember our Chinese names correctly.  So the first time I saw my teacher she give me a cute name, Fairy.  But i thought this name was so ordinary that I wanted another name.  So the next teacher from Canada gave me the name, Diana.  I used this name for half a year and then eventually thought this name sounded too old. So I kept looking for a new name.

My third teacher at the foreign school was from USA and he gave me a good name, Joe.  But a few days later I began to feel this name sounded like a boy’s name!  So i changed my English name for many years until I realized that Email would be a perfect name.   Although I think this is a strange name in the foreigners’ eyes.  But I like it because I think I was already positioned to take that name when my mother assigned me the name, Yimei, that phonetically sounds like Email.

So I have used it for many years and still like it!  Beyond the fact that Email sounds like my Chinese name, the name has its own merits also.   For example, in your life you probably have come across many names and you have also forgotten many of those names.   But I’m sure if you met a girl named Email  you would never forget that name and it would be one that you remember for many years!  But of course if you met you wouldn’t just remember my special name but also my special individuality, right?:)