How Do Full-time Mothers Learn English —— Experiences of Second-born Mothers in Learning English

How Do Full-time Mothers Learn English —— The Way of Language Learning for Second-born Mothers

My husband and I have been in Australia for almost four and a half years. I am in Sydney, Australia's largest city, which is very helpful to my language learning. Before I came to Australia, I lived in France for eighteen months and gave birth to Dabao. Dabao came to Australia in seven and a half months. In France, I can't speak French, and I communicate with doctors in English. As we all know, the French don't like speaking English, but as far as I can see, they don't speak English well. Hospital doctors, their English is the best. Especially the beautiful doctor who gave me an emergency caesarean section. Her English is as good as native speakers. I should write about my experience of giving birth in France and Australia some other day. I don't know if anyone is interested, hee hee.

Four years ago, I took the IELTS test. At that time, Dabao was less than one year old and almost got 6.5 in the naked exam. Listening 7, speaking 6.5 and writing 5.5. Writing is the worst, so we must improve our writing level. ). Now living in Australia, calling the doctor to make an appointment, listening and speaking English is no problem at all; Even speaking Indian English with Indian brothers and sisters of TPG Network Company is completely impossible. Chat with people one-on-one and get to know each other fully. Said he was still so lost. For me, language is my greatest hobby, especially the process of communicating with others fluently and freely in English. Although the development of artificial intelligence, text language processing and machine translation have all appeared, I think it can never replace face-to-face communication between people.

So I use every opportunity to improve my English. I especially want to share it with other friends.

1. Read the original English picture books to children and accumulate vocabulary.

I started reading picture books to my children when Dabao was about one year old, so he started kindergarten when he was three and a half years old. He can't speak English, but he can fully understand what the teacher said. The entrance to the park went smoothly. (Of course, when he was three years old, he tried another government public kindergarten for a while, but he didn't like it very much, so he dropped out. ) My family Dabao speaks late, and it took two years and four months to speak Chinese slowly.

Community libraries in Australia are rich in books, ranging from blackboard writing suitable for babies to graded reading that I can read, 1 2, from National Geographic Kids to various picture books. Here, you can borrow books suitable for all ages without buying books for your children at all. I learned too many words from reading English picture books to my children. For example, the word "say", I used to only "say". But there are gasps, additions, grumbles and muttering in children's picture books. In addition, the big picture in the picture book can add more memories. By reading picture books to children, children learn and I learn, killing two birds with one stone. Now Bao Xiao is almost two years old, and he says "talk", "talk" and "talk" with a book every day.

2. Actively participate in follow-up activities, chat with Australian local mothers, and greatly improve oral English.

Besides borrowing books, the library also organizes activities for babies. For example, 0- 1 1 month, 12-23 months, 3-5 years old singing and reading activities. In these activities, I learn to sing and dance with my children and chat with my mother at the same time. After several years, I can understand not only Australian English, British English, Indian English and Irish English.

3. recite words with the back word app.

The back word apps I have used are "Hundred Words Cutter" and "Hujiang Happy Ci Field". I used a few hundred words to chop my back for a while before, and then I used Hujiang Happy Word Field. Hujiang is what I use more now. But Hujiang is a bit boring. Hundred-character chop can have picture options, combined with graphics and text, which is easier to remember. The advantage of Hujiang is that it is multilingual, the team recites words and goes through customs. Because I have been in France, I have studied French myself, but I gave up learning French because I don't like France very much. Until one day last year, I found that I could understand so much French, so I began to learn French again. My method is mainly to memorize words and get familiar with each other. The current level is to be able to read French web pages. Of course, I heard that the writing is still a lot worse. But this French-memorizing word gave me a great inspiration, that is, water drops wear away. Ten words a day, more than 3000 a year.

4. Information search, English website is preferred.

Some problems in the process of child-rearing. My usual practice is English keyword search. I usually open websites such as the US Food and Drug Administration in www.fda.gov, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in www.cdc.gov, or the Australian Ministry of Health in health.gov.au, or official website. Au from the American Academy of Pediatrics to get the news. Don't believe what you found on Baidu, especially when Baidu knows that it will only be an answer from a netizen. In his own experience, whether it is true or not is another matter, or how experts say so. These days, experts, you know.

5. Take every opportunity to speak English.

Community parks, also known as playgrounds, usually have children's play facilities such as slides and swings. There are also fences in the park. It is safe for children to play in it. Parents can chat boldly and safely. There are also children's activities in churches and hospitals, which are places I often go to. My home is close to Sydney Children's Hospital, where the emergency nurses know me very well (burying their faces because I really go too often). Because children are young and often sick, I always take them to the emergency room. To see a doctor in Australia, you should first see a family doctor (GP), which is equivalent to a domestic clinic. If you need to see a dermatologist, ophthalmologist, otolaryngologist and cardiologist, the general practitioner will introduce you to a specialist, and the general practitioner will write you a letter of recommendation. Or refer you to a public hospital. The outpatient department of the hospital does not accept patients and needs GP referral, except for emergency. If you need an emergency, just take the children to see it. The emergency department is open 24 hours a year. But usually the queue time is very long, and one can be seen occasionally. I remember one weekend, I took Bao Xiao to see it at noon and Dabao to the emergency room at night. A mother with two children should know that it is sad for two children to get sick together. Go to the hospital to communicate with doctors and nurses. Including going to the hospital for examination and talking to a midwife (sage-femme, French horn). Last year, I also saw a psychologist, took my children to sleep school to chat with nurses and counselors there, and called my online teacher. In short, I default to one-on-one free oral practice in all occasions where I can speak English.

6. There is no China rule.

I saw a Ted talk before. The topic seems to be how to speak a language in three months. Two American boys went to four countries and stayed for three months respectively. These four countries are Spain, Brazil, South Korea and China. Their methods are not British rules. Just don't speak English, just speak the language of that country. They made a video, the first week they spoke the language of this country, and the second week they spoke the language of this country. It's amazing. Obviously, in three months, their language has made rapid progress.

Therefore, I want to say that the best way to learn English is to speak English only (there is no Chinese rule). Such opportunities need to be created by everyone. For example, go to the English corner of the university. Or recite the text. At that time, I memorized 50 new concept English 4 (60 in the old version and only 48 in the new version).

7. Watch American TV series to practice pronunciation and listening.

When I used to live in France, an American neighbor chatted with me. He thinks I studied in America because my accent is beautiful. There are still Australians who think I have an American accent. This is really the loss of American TV series. Of course, now that I have two children, I have long since stopped following plays. I like to see friends and friends best. I don't know how many times I watched it. However, the relaxed and humorous scenes, standard American pronunciation and uncomplicated expressions will certainly be of great help to your oral English and listening. Besides Friends, I have watched American TV shows such as Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, CSI, Grey's Intern and Gossip Girl. I haven't followed American TV since. Of course, only by this passive input, the efficiency of language learning is very low, but it is very helpful for pronunciation.

8. Persevere and drop stones.

As I said before, I am still memorizing French words with Hujiang Happy Word Field. In fact, I am also memorizing German words. Why should I recite German words? Because after reciting French words, my French level, at least my reading level, has improved a lot. I can read the French children's picture books I borrowed from the library. Therefore, this has given me great encouragement, and I know that as long as I persist, my language level will definitely improve. So I began to recite German words. I have a little knowledge of German. I studied for a while when I was pregnant in France. I looked through the grammar books several times and got to know the grammar system of German. At first, I struggled to recite German words. After a long pause, I began to recite them again. The current record is that German B2 1200 is coming to an end. It is equivalent to reciting almost 3600 words. Mainly because the pronunciation is off, I know how to read it, so I can recite it quickly. And review every day. Why did you start reciting German? Because Germany is my favorite country. I hope I can speak German one day. I stayed in Germany for several months, and I really like Germany.

If learning a language is building a house, then memorizing words is equivalent to moving bricks. Only when you have enough bricks can you build this house. If you recite more words, you will know the words and naturally guess the meaning of this sentence. So I think the most important thing of the eight items I summarized above is persistence. I think a large part of learning French and German is to study with children and set an example for them. Because of the experience of living overseas, I understand the importance of language. It is cool to travel abroad and communicate with local people in the local language in the future. Even if I don't speak French and German, it helps to understand menus and place names. Maybe one day I can give a speech at TED and talk about how I learn languages. Haha, a dream of mine. I hope that you who read this article also have dreams. Really, you should stick to it.