When I first arrived in London, I was embarrassed. Did I learn fake English?

When I first came to London, I walked through the sights that I had only seen in newspapers, magazines, books and periodicals and on TV, everything in front of me was full of mystery and novelty, and I suddenly felt like a dream. My heart is full of curiosity and excitement about this country. More precisely, from the moment Tianjin boarded the plane to London, this excitement began to dominate my body and mind. Six hours after take-off, the flight arrived at Moscow airport. I was dizzy from the announcement in the lobby. Did you speak English? Fortunately, I didn't have to leave Hong Kong. Two hours later, with a steady stream of people, I queued up for a flight to London Heathrow International Airport. Four hours later, I saw the outline of the British Isles from the porthole of the plane. For a moment, it seemed that God's perspective was opened, and the world in front of him suddenly became vast. In the distance, the blue bay shows the feeling of being as thick as satin in the night. The cruise ships of all sizes are painted white, with white sails hanging, floating on the sea in bits and pieces, like ivory pearls, dotted on the dark blue satin.

another hour later, when the plane circled over London and was about to land at Heathrow airport, it was just seven o'clock in the local evening. It was still early in the summer in London, and it was dusk, and there was the last ray of light on the horizon. It shone through the porthole of the plane, and the passengers' faces near the window shone like gilts.

Heathrow Airport is located in the suburb of London. Looking from the airport to the distance, the city in the distance is brightly lit, and every building and pier reaching into the water are outlined in picturesque silhouette by the newly-installed Chinese lanterns, forming the skyline of this international metropolis. When I got off the plane and out of the terminal, I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel I had booked in advance, near the College of Education of University of London. The taxi driver is a black uncle. As soon as I opened my mouth, I found that I couldn't understand what he said except the word "Where", and he didn't understand my address after listening for a long time. I was afraid that he would wander around, so I wrote it down.

Black drivers are very talkative. They talk to me all the way, and their accents are also very strange. The more I listen to them, the more dizzy I am. I open the window and look out from it. At the moment, the lights on the streets of London are reflected on the Thames, and the shadows of floating lights are flickering like gold on the dark water. There are many tall buildings along the Thames, with bright lights, and every building is lit. The tower bridge across the Thames is also colorful and beautiful. That night scene, which I still think of, is rare in the world. London, I'm coming!

I don't know how long I walked, but the driver pulled me to a three-story building and stopped, so I was there. After paying the 6-pound fare and taking out my luggage from the trunk, I finally touched the main entrance of the reservation hotel. The door was still closed, and I knocked on the door in various fancy ways until a sleepy British grandfather poked his head out from the second floor (the British called it the first floor). I quickly explained to him in English who I was, where I came from and what I wanted to do.

The British grandfather who was disturbed by his dream was very upset and said to me, "! @#￥%*%。”

me: "... ……pardon me?"

British grandfather: "@ #% ...&; & ! ！”

me: "... ……what?"

Later, the gestures and expressions of the British uncle became more and more exaggerated, but I never guessed the answer, so I asked the British uncle to go downstairs in the middle of the night and angrily led me to another entrance where the doorman let me in.

Later, I realized that my grandfather in England spoke Scottish English to me! Teacher Wang, who has studied standard English for 2 years and has a vocabulary of more than 2,, has never studied Scottish English at home! Pit dad! Because we all learned British English in middle school, we didn't know the existence of American English until college, and only after going abroad did we find that there are so many wonderful dialects in British English!

I began to learn English in 1997, from junior high school to senior high school, then to university, from learning English to teaching English, from initial pain and confusion to later self-confidence and ease. I studied English in China for 2 years, worked hard for 2 years, and was proud for 2 years.

in junior high school, from failing to getting full marks in the senior high school entrance examination; College entrance examination English 139 points; Undergraduate, English major, passed the TEM-8 high score, and participated in the Tianjin College English Essay Competition on behalf of the school, winning the first place; Later, I stayed in school to teach, and taught CET-4 and CET-6, Postgraduate English and IELTS TOEFL in major training institutions in Tianjin ... I have a thick dozen transcripts and certificates, as well as a vocabulary of more than 2,, and there are praises and surprises around me to prove that my English is very good.

However, when I took a taxi from Heathrow Airport to a hotel in Bloomsbury, London, which I booked online, I came to my hometown of English with 2 years of language accumulation and pride, and when I knocked on the door of the world, I heard the sound of being slapped in the face by the real world, which was very painful. Because I suddenly found that under the current English education system, it is very likely that we have studied fake English for more than ten years without knowing it!

I suddenly realized that not all British people are authentic King's or Queen's English, but they also have dialects and accents, and some of them are wonderful, just like our Cantonese and Minnan languages.

On my first night in London, when I was away from Wan Li, I lay on a soft Simmons mattress, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. When I finally felt myself asleep, the alarm rang again.

the next morning, I went to the bank to exchange pounds, and the teller counted the pounds one by one. I was so forced that I couldn't understand her number at all, so I had to guess in a hurry.

English textbooks that I have studied since I was a child have all translated "thousand" into "thousand", while in real life in the west outside the textbooks, English people don't say "thousand" but read "grand"!

I suddenly realized that English people also have slang, which we will never learn in any textbooks in China!

at first, I thought that as long as I survived the chaotic period when I first arrived, I wouldn't encounter any more embarrassment after I got familiar with the situation. Until I went to a restaurant to eat, the waiter politely asked me, tea or coffee (tea or coffee), so I asked the waiter for a cup of boiled water, and people said, Sir, we have no boiled water! (Sir, we don't serve boiled water here)

It suddenly dawned on me that their water here has never been burned! These ghosts are all raised by drinking raw water!

at that time, full of culture shock (culture shock! )

At that time, I suddenly finally realized: after studying English for so many years, the difference between me and these foreigners who are native speakers of English is not a few English words and sentences, but keywords (keywords) that are related to English culture!

When I was talking to a foreigner about smart phones, Mr. Wang blurted out intelligent phone during the conversation. A circle of foreigners around me suddenly fell silent, and their faces were stupid. It took two or three seconds before they realized that what I was talking about was smart phone. Foreign friends who didn't know the truth admired my sense of humor. At that time, I was so ashamed that I wanted to find a crack in the ground.

In an extremely embarrassing moment, I suddenly realized that after studying English for so many years, I would still blurt out Chinglish if I was not careful!

You know, more than 8% of the world's newspapers, books and websites, and more than 95% of the top academic journals are written in English. However, like many Chinese people, I have memorized words and grammar for so many years, but I can't tell others or myself what is happening in the English world! When we catch up with British TV dramas, American TV dramas and Hollywood blockbusters, we still habitually only watch Chinese subtitles to see which events those burdens ridicule. Since the reform and opening up, the English-speaking world has opened its doors to Chinese people. However, even after going abroad, how many people can only get together with China people, and there is no way to integrate into the local cultural circle!

I began to seriously reflect, 2 years, we have worked so hard, so desperately to learn English, have we learned fake English? ! We, who have been tempered by exams again and again, have survived from the sea of tricky vocabulary and grammar questions, and are wandering outside the multicultural door with a lot of certificates and psychological shadows on English learning, but we have never entered the room, even the simplest utilitarianism can't be used by me. In the end, we are all dumb English and deaf English-we speak it ourselves and others can't understand it; I can't understand what others say! (To be continued)