Practice makes perfect English

Though there has been a steady increase in the number of people learning English in China, there is a lot that needs to be done to improve communication skills.

The swelling numbers has its roots in the strong growth of the past few years and also the desire of many Chinese enterprises to make a mark on the global arena.

During my frequent interactions with people from around the world, I have had the chance to speak to people who have learned English in schools, or many others who have lived or studied in English-speaking countries.

During our conversations, many have expressed surprise at my proficiency in English. What most people don't realize is that in China, people spend more than 10 years to learn English.

Despite the long years spent in mastering the language, many Chinese people lack communication skills and are often unable to express themselves clearly.

Even as efforts are being strengthened to swell the number of English speaking people, steps should also be redirected to address the problem of communication skills.

To me the inherent problem with the lack of communication skills lies in the current education system. To illustrate my point better I would like to use my own example.

My early schooling was in a small county in Central China's Hunan province, which was not exactly known for its English education. But I was lucky in the sense that most of my English learning came from my mother, an English teacher, who followed a unique teaching method.

For most of us English was still an alien and foreign language. Teaching English then and even now consisted largely of using household and everyday objects and memorizing their names.

So you often had English-speaking-parents labeling the household objects in English and getting children to memorize their names by looking at them.

My mother differed from the others, as she believed that the right way to learn a foreign language is through constant communication. So our studies at home mostly consisted largely of frequent conversations in simple English.

In most of the schools teachers teach the language by making students write English words about 100 times and then memorizing them. In contrast my mother relied on methods like making students write simple diaries in English using the newly learnt words and phrases.

It was amazing to see that most of the times when the students are reading aloud from textbooks, they never understand the meaning of the words. Here again my mother used techniques that have greatly helped improve my conversational skills. I was made to narrate popular fairy tales in my own English words after having listened to them from a native English speaker.

All these continuous efforts aimed to improve my communication skills have stood me in good stead throughout my career. Not only have I been able to excel in my curriculum, but also in my English prowess.

By the sixth grade I was able to fluently converse with my English teacher and write simple diaries.

Along the way I also picked up innumerable awards and also got good scores in several international exams such as TOEFL, iBT and GMAT.

Looking back, I have realized that I progressed largely due to the constant use and practice of English.

There is a saying in English that "practice makes one perfect". But it is also ideal to understand what kind of practice does one need.

When I say practice, I mean real practices like talking to people in English, telling a story you just heard in English, or writing diaries in English and so on.

Aspirants should understand that English is merely a tool for communication and not a subject for tests and examinations.

Students should also develop self-confidence and have genuine interest in using the language in their daily lives.

It is more or less a cyclical process. I felt more confident in my career as I had better conversational skills in English than many of my other peers. At the same time, I also found English an interesting and fulfilling language.

At the same time, it is also important to broaden your horizons. The interest for English should be used to enhance knowledge about other international cultures as it improves job prospects.

I have traveled to 22 countries so far for business and leisure. All of these experiences not only gave me new platforms to practice the language in greater depth, but also exciting life and career opportunities.

But then not everyone has been fortunate as me. What is needed is to replicate what I learned over the years to the millions of other Chinese students learning English.

Only through these simple and effective techniques will more Chinese people be able to learn and speak English with ease and confidence.

Training institutes such as www.LeanEdu.com are now making an attempt to inculcate these valuable lessons in their teaching modules. The institute offers highly engineered online and offline English courses and international immersion programs, that have been designed, taught or led by some of the best English teachers in the world.

The author holds a master of business administration degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor's degree from Peking University. He works as a consultant in a global consulting firm and is the co-founder of LeanEDU, a cutting-edge language training institution in Beijing.