配合中文版视频，希望我们精心录制的英文版视频对你学会英语有帮助。

Hi everybody, today I want to talk about this idea of when you’re learning English, about knowing and not knowing.

Now, almost everyone who has been unsuccessful in learning English complains repeatedly that it doesn’t matter what they do, they just can’t seem to stuff those English words into their brain; and so, they can’t remember them. There’s a point about leaning language that I absolutely must stress; which is when you’re learning English, your goal absolutely is not to accumulate vocabulary, nor is it to analyse grammar. If, when you’re learning English, you put all your attention on remembering words, or analysing grammar, I can assure you that you will feel the learning process is very difficult. Making the accumulation of vocabulary your main goal is also a major, major mistake.

Of course, the more vocabulary and lexical units you have, the better able you’re going to be to communicate very richly in English. But, directly trying to remember individual words is not the way to build your vocabulary. To say that in a different way; do not confuse your learning method with the result that you want to achieve.

Using vocab learning as your main method also brings with it an awful side effect, which is using the ability to translate as the evidence that you have learned something. What do I mean by that? Well, many people believe that only when they can translate Chinese words into English do they really know the English words. Or, when they see an English word, they think that only if they can translate that word into Chinese do they actually know it. This, again, is a really big mistake.

When you’re learning English, the first milestone that shows your learning is that when you hear English, in your belly you have a picture which pops up, or a feeling. Now all of your being has this sense that you understand the meaning. For example, when you hear green, inside your mind you see: (Green Frame). This is the correct response that your brain needs to make. Whether or not you can hear ‘green’ and immediately be able to translate that into Chinese, is not an important goal. Here I’m using the single word, ‘green,’ as an example, but the logic is the same for lexical units. When you hear a lexical unit, you should have images and feelings inside your mind, and these reflect the meaning that’s being communicated, not some translation into Chinese.
The second milestone for knowing; is that when you want to communicate what’s in your mind you’re able to directly pull out English words and lexical units to say what you need to say. For example, you have that funny, rumbling, uncomfortable feeling in your stomach, so you immediately say, ‘I’m hungry,’ or, ‘I want to eat something,’ or, ‘food.’ It doesn’t matter which word, or lexical unit you choose to say, your conversation partner will understand what you mean.

Now you must remember something very, very important here; when you start speaking, it’s very possible that you’ll only be able to use half a lexical unit, or something that isn’t quite what you really mean, but it’s close. And this is because your brain still hasn’t laid down the tracks needed to remember everything. What’s important, of course, is that you’ve started to use English, and this is from your mind directly to your mouth, it’s not from Chinese to English.

After you’ve passed the second milestone from knowing, then you’ve communicated in English many times, both listening and speaking, you’ll naturally know how to translate certain English phrases into Chinese. And, here I stress again, the ability to translate accurately, absolutely requires that you have first passed through stages one and two. The ability to translate absolutely is not the first milestone of knowing English. If you insist on using the ability to translate as your standard of improvement, this is going to cause lots of discomfort and frustration. Remember; the sign that you know English, firstly, is that you hear English and in your mind you know what it means. Then, it’s you feel in your mind what you want to communicate, and you can say it in English. Next, it’s you hear English and you can find the right Chinese words to translate the meaning. And finally, it’s you think of, or hear Chinese, and you can directly translate that into English, and as far as a Chinese native speaker is concerned, the hardest stage is to translate from Chinese into English. So, rather than all the pain, just start with crawling, and then walking, and finally, you’ll be able to fly.

Wishing you all the best in your learning.