【推荐1】In the U. S., speaking more than one language fluently is not very common except in Los Angeles, California.

The city has one of the largest population in the U. S. of young people between the ages of 18 and 34. This generation is often called millennials (新千年一代). More than half of millennials in Los Angeles are bilingual (双语的), which means they speak more than one language.

Maria Elena Burgos is cooking a Mexican breakfast. She says making Mexican food is just one of the many traditions in her home. Another is speaking Spanish to her children.

“We want them to be bilingual. We want to keep the Spanish somewhere in their learning too, not only at home.”

When Ms Burgos first came to the United States from Mexico, she learned English. She knew her children would learn English quickly. So she wanted them to speak Spanish at home and study the language at school.

She says being bilingual will give them more opportunities in the future. Knowing Spanish also means the children can talk with their relatives in Mexico.

“When we had our children, one of the decisions we as parents made was to name them with a name that was easily pronounced in English and Spanish.”

Elizabeth wants to know her family’s culture.” “The culture-to go back to our roots because that’s part of who we are.”

Monica wants to pass on the culture to her children.

“It’s nice to know our culture and then to be able to pass it onto our children and grand- children and everyone to let them know where we come from.”

And, Monica says she does not speak only English and Spanish. She has even learned some Korean in school.

【推荐2】Growing up in Venezuela, there was never really much cause to learn English. For years I knew nothing but “hello,” until I started high school. For five years, I spent two hours a week in understanding the verb “to be”, numbers, colors and the difference between saying “good evening” and “good night”.

I thought two hours a week was enough time to invest in learning a foreign language. I would always get top marks, and my teachers would regularly praise me. Even as an adult, I still thought I spoke the language, just by understanding English menus or translating common phrases.

Yep, that used to be me, walking like a queen among everyday Spanish speakers.

“Bring it on, life,” I said. “I can handle whatever you’ve got; I’m a rock star.” But when I moved to Canada, life hit me so hard that it knocked me down. Years later, I am still recovering. Living in a new land, with different people, new rules, new weather, a new culture and language, I was no long a queen.

Did I speak English? No, not at all.

So, I went back to school, thinking that it was a challenge would conquer. But the reality was different. English was more like a solid wall in my path. Even after getting job, it took all my courage to stop myself from hiding in the washroom during my lunch break, crying, completely overwhelmed (不知所措的) and scared Learning English, speaking, listening-it hurt me. Not the language. Not the unkind people, it hurt because I wasn’t good, despite my efforts.

Now, after almost seven years in Canada I’ve decided not to apologize for my accent, grammar mistakes, or pronunciation. I’m going to chase my dreams and enjoy beautiful, rich, and fascinating language without being ashamed. Don’t get me wrong, my brain still screams “Give a break!” from time to time, but that’s completely natural. I know it’s going to take a while, but at least now I accept the person I am-not the perfect person I thought I was.

Learning English

Wang Le

Hey, everybody, what are your biggest problems with learning English?

Liu Wen

Hi!I’ve been studying English since primary school. I used to get high marks in English, but now I’m having a lot of trouble with my listening. When I listen to native English speakers talking in a video, I can catch only a few words. I can never quite get the main idea. Any advice?

Jia Xin

Listening to English radio programmes helps me get used to how fast native speakers talk. I also repeat what I hear to help myself to experience the feeling of the language. Sometimes I even record my voice so I can listen to myself and compare my pronunciation with the radio host’s!My biggest headache is how to be polite in English. It’s so much easier to just say “Open the window!”, but in English that can sound really terrible. I have to think about who I’m talking to and then decide whether to say, “Open the window, please!” or “Could you open the window, please?” or even longer “Would you mind opening the window, please?”

Yeah, that’s really hard! I think it all depends on who you’re talking to. If I’m talking to a close friend, I can use short requests, like “Open the window”—our relationship is close and we’re equals, so I only need a few words to bridge the gap between us. But if I’m talking to someone who isn’t very close to me, I must make my request longer—and I must make it a question, not a demand, e.g., “Could you open the window, please?” If I’m talking to someone senior to me, then I should say, “Would you mind opening the window, please?” For me, vocabulary is my biggest problem—there are just SO MANY new words! I can’t keep all the new vocabulary straight in my head, and I certainly can’t remember how to use them all properly. HELP!

【推荐3】The hit movie Notting Hill begins with a famous scene. Hugh Grant bumps into Julia Roberts and pours orange juice all over her. After the bump, Grant repeatedly says: “ I am so sorry. I am so sorry.”

    1     If Roberts’ character were from Britain then she would probably apologize repeatedly as well—even if the bump were not her fault. But this doesn’t happen in the film, as Roberts is from the US.

A report in The Telegraph last week said that three-quarters of British people apologize when they bump into someone in the street — regardless of whether they are responsible or not. In fact, we Britons use “sorry” in many situations. For example, if we mishear someone, we say “Sorry?” The person we are talking to will also apologize by replying: “No, I am sorry!”     2    

Life is never as simple as “duibuqi” and “meiguanxi”.

    3     Traditionally, “sorry” was used to express deep regret, but a survey in 2017 showed that we use it to mean anything from “what” to “whatever”.

    4     Mark Tyrell, a psychology writer in the UK, thinks about our apologetic tendencies are rooted in the British class system. We say sorry because historically the new middle classes in Britain had to apologize for not being working class, but also for not really being upper class.

    5     For example, if you bump into someone they might get angry. To avoid this we instantly say “Sorry!”. True manners are about being considerate and the modern day hobby with apologizing shows that we are perhaps not as thoughtful as we once were. The word has lost some of its meaning. Do you see my point? Sorry, it might just be a British thing.

【推荐1】Which are you more likely to have with you at any given moment — your cell phone or your wallet? Soon you may be able to throw your wallet away and pay for things with a quick wave of your smart phone over an electronic scanner.

In January, Starbucks announced that customers could start using their phones to buy coffee in 6,800 of its states. This is the first pay-by-phone practice in the U.S., but we’re likely to see more wireless payment alternatives as something called near field communication (NFC) gets into America’s consumer electronics. Last December some new smart phones which contain an NFC chip were introduced to the public.

Already in use in parts of Asia and Europe, NFC allows shoppers to wave their phones a few inches above a payment terminal — a contact-free system built for speed and convenience. But before NFC becomes widely adopted in the U.S., a few problems need to be worked out, like who will get to collect the profitable transaction (交易) fees. Although some credit card providers have been experimenting with wave-and-pay systems that use NFC-enabled credit cards, cell phone service providers may try to muscle their way into the point-of-sale (POS) market. Three big cell phone service providers have formed a joint companies that will go into operation over the next 15 months. Its goal is “to lead the U.S. payments industry from cards to mobile phones.”

The other big NFC issue, apart from how payments will be processed, is security. For instance, what’s to stop a thief from digitally pick-pocketing you? “We’re still not at the point where an attacker can just brush against you in a crowd and steal all the money out of your phone,” says Jimmy Shah, a mobile-security researcher. “Users may also be able to set transaction limits, perhaps requiring a password to be entered for larger purchases.

Still uneasy about this digital-wallet business? Keep in mind that if you lose your smart phone, it can be located on a map and remotely disabled. Plus, your phone can be password protected, your wallet isn’t.

【推荐2】Most people around the world are right­handed. This also seems to be true in history. In 1799, scientists studied works of art made at different times from 1,500 B. C. to the 1950s. Most of the people shown in these works are right­handed, so the scientists guessed that right­handedness has always been common through history. Today, only about 10% to 15% of the world’s population is left­handed.

Why are there more right­handed people than left­handed ones？Scientists now know that a person’s two hands each have their own jobs. Most people use hands to find things or hold things. The right hand is used to work with things. This is because of the different work of the two sides of the brain.The right side of the brain, which makes a person’s hands and eyes work together, controls the left hand.The left side of the brain, which controls the right hand, is the centre for thinking and doing problems. These findings show that more artists should be left­handed, and studies have found that left­handedness is twice as common among artists as among people in other jobs.

No one really knows what makes a person become right­handed instead of left­handed. Scientists have found that almost 40% of the people become left­handed because their main brain is damaged when they are born. However, this doesn’t happen to everyone, so scientists guess there must be another reason why people become left­handed.One idea is that people usually get right­handed from their parents.

Though right­handedness is more common than left­handedness, people no longer think left­handed people are strange or unusual.

【推荐3】Statistics show that most toddlers (刚学走路的小孩) learn how to say about 20 words by 18 months. Talking is easy. If you ask anyone, none will remember how they started doing it, it just comes naturally.

But what might not flow as smoothly as words, is body language. It's a whole different deal when you're using your hands, eyes or head instead of your tongue. And what makes it even more complicated is the fact that body language differs all around the world.

I find it shockingly amazing how just a small finger gesture could mean one thing in the east and the completely opposite in the west. For instance, in Japan bowing is the most common greeting. It shows respect and Japanese pay a lot of attention to the details like the timing, posture and movement. A bow in Japan represents sincerity, respect and graciousness. While in New Zealand Maori, the pressing of noses and foreheads is the traditional greeting. They call it "hongi”; which is regarded as the breath of life.

For most of us, nodding our head up and down often means agreement, but not for the Bulgarians or Greeks. In both cultures, nodding one's head up and down actually means“no”. The American goodbye wave could actually be interpreted (领会) as a“no”in many parts of Europe and Latin America. And the Italian goodbye wave would be understood in America as a “come here” and the American “come here” gesture would actually be seen as an insult (侮辱) in most of Asia.

So before you travel to explore a different culture, make sure you're aware of alternate meanings for body language. We live in a world with many different cultures, so don't forget how differently one hand gesture can be interpreted!