The Third Ear Pages 17-18

In China,if We come from different provinces, we will speak different languages.It’s interesting and fun.when you go to the market,you always see two women who don’t speaking Mandarin Chinese are taking about something. they always don’t understand what you are saying,but they can use gesture to help another woman understand what she said.sometimes they can converse with each other all day.

I live in the Shenzhen,China.when I was child,I like watching Hong Kong programs in Cantonese. In that time,I can communicate effectively with other students in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.when I was 14-year-old,I left Shenzhen and came back my countryside .I found that in just two months,I can’t speak fluent Cantonese with my friends.My parents didn’t speak Cantonese so they didn’t care which languages I can speak. It’s terrible,but I can’t do anything,and now I only can speak the simple words,like ‘thanks’ and ‘please’.I fell nervous when people converse with me in Cantonese.and my dialect doesn’t well.My parents always don’t understand what I said.So I always speak Mandarin Chinese.

Initially,the author could not speak a word of Mandarin Chinese when he went to China.he was totally blank.He spent about six hours converse with railway security guard on the train . in the end,he was assigned in the intermediate class rather than a beginner’s class at the test time.and now he can speak fluent Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.I think the most important thing is practice more and more.you need to spent more time to converse with other people.if you have free time,you have to write the useful phrase in your notebook.even if you speak the language many years,you still will forget how to use it if you don’t use it in your context.

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