Xinhua Senior High

March 9，2018

How are things going with you？

Yours，

Li Hua

In our life, everyone is surely to have difficulties. It is the same with me. I still remember how worried I am about my English learning three years ago. I had difficulty follow my teacher in the English class. With my classmates often laughing at me because of my poor English, I decided to do anything. Firstly, I took a part in the English Corner that I met many friends. They shared their methods of learning English with me. Beside, I also found it useful keep English diaries. What’s more, I talked with friends on the Internet and exchanged emails with English. As a result, I made great progresses in learning English.

   When Adrian Black met his Italian partner 10 years ago, he was determined to learn her mother language. Having successfully picked up French a decade earlier when he lived in France, he felt the challenge was attainable.

Black, who is now50, explains,“I feel like French is deep down in my head somewhere, but with Italian it will take a lot more efforts for me to get to that level. I've noticed that my brain isn't as good as it was. ”

It's often said that you cant teach an old dog new tricks. Actually this saying is, for the most part, not true. It was generally believed that the adult brain was a fixed structure that, once damaged , could not be repaired. But research published since the 1960s has challenged this assumption（假设）, showing that it is actually a highly dynamic structure, which changes itself in response to new experiences, and adapts to injuries.

This research also suggests that young men can learn something new easily, but that the older they are, the harder it is for them to do so.

Some aspects of language learning become more difficult with age. Others may get easier. Picking up a new language's vocabulary is much easier for adults than learning the rules that govern its grammar. This is because new words can be easily connected with a learner's pre -existing knowledge. But older learners are less likely to have good pronunciation （发音）or accents, since the sound of a new language is picked up naturally by children.

Despite the difficulties, Black regards learning foreign languages as fun. “I'm doing it partly to keep my brain active,”he says. “When you have some success and can express yourself, it feels like you're using different parts of your brain that you weren't using before. ”

As we have learned English for a very long time，we may complain it. We once made the joke that foreigners should learn Chinese. Now，it was not a joke anymore. More and more foreign people are interesting in Chinese，and many of us learn Chinese well. There was a hot show calling Chinese Bridge. I had been seen the show，and I was very impressed by the foreign students，whom spoke Chinese very well. We should learn from those foreigner because they showed us a way to learn a language good.