What I am going to tell you today might help you save thousands of dollars. Forget about the idea that the best way to learn a foreign language is to live in a foreign country. You can learn a foreign language well at home if you have the motivation.

　　今天我要告诉你的这件事可能会帮你省下几千块，别信学外语最好的方法是住在外国。只要你想，在国内也能学好一门外语。

　　I am living proof. When I was 13, I learned that my aunt was going to immigrate to the US.

　　我就是一个活生生的例子。13岁的时候，我听说我的阿姨要移民美国。

　　"Can you please take me with you? I want to improve my English," I asked.

　　我问她：“你能把我一起带走吗?我想提高我的英语。”

　　She patted my head and said, "You are a smart girl. You can go native without going abroad."

　　她拍拍我的头说道：“你是一个聪明的女孩。不出国也能说得一口地道的英语。”

　　Later on, I learned that she was actually saving money for her own children to study English in the US, which is a "common-sense truth" among many Chinese parents.

　　后来我了解到，她实际上是在为自己的孩子到美国学英语而省钱，这是许多中国父母“常识性的真理”。

　　I was disappointed, but I wanted to prove she was right that I could go native without going abroad.

　　我很失望，但是我想证明的确如她所说，我不用出国也能说一口地道的英语。

　　Fifteen years later, when I travelled to the US for the first time, my American friends were impressed at how well I spoke English.

　　15年后，当我第一次去美国的时候，我的美国朋友都很惊讶我的英语居然说得如此之好。

　　"Where did you learn English," they asked.

　　他们问：“你哪儿学的英语?”

　　"In China," I answered. They did not seem to believe me.

　　我说：“在中国。”他们似乎不信。

　　My secret to learning English well at home is to learn it like a child.

　　我在国内学英语的秘诀就是像一个小孩一样去学这门语言。

　　You know how children learn their mother tongue or a second language without formal studies. Observe your child’s language development if you have one. They listen bore they can even speak, and when they start speaking, they simply repeat the words.

　　你知道小孩是怎么学习母语，或是之前没有学习过的情况下学习第二语言。如果你有孩子，观察一下你的孩子是怎么学习语言的。他们甚至在还不会说话之前就会听人讲话，而当他们会说话之后，他们会简单重复同一个单词。

　　To avoid accidently boring myself to death by listening to and repeating the same text, I picked my favorite TV show, downloaded it in MP3 and listened to it repeatedly. The first time, I got lost and I had no idea what they were talking about. The second and third time, I picked up a little more. The fifth time, I was able to follow along the story without understanding every single word. I listened, listened and listened until those dialogues were stuck in my head.

　　为了避免重复听相同的文本把自己无聊死，我把我最喜欢的电视节目下载到了MP3里，一遍又一遍地听。第一遍的时候我完全摸不着头脑不知道他们在说些什么。第二遍第三遍的时候，我抓住了点儿什么。第五遍的时候，我已经可以在不明白每个单词的情况下知道整个节目的来龙去脉了。我听、再听、还听，直到所有对话都被我记在脑子里。

　　The next step is to find a conversation partner at home. Back in the 1990s, I used to go to those "English corners" where Chinese people gathered to speak English with all kinds of accents together. I eventually stopped going and started talking to myself in English. For a while, my mother thought I had a mental problem. However, in 2017, you can make technology work for you. You can simply look for language exchange events through sites such as Meetup or Skype with your foreign friends.

　　下一步就是在国内寻找一个对话伙伴。回到上世纪90年代，我经常去“英语角”，中国人会聚集在这些地方，讲各种口音的英语。最终我不再去英语角，转而用英语自言自语。有那么一段时间，我妈甚至认为我得了精神病。然而现在是2017年，你可以让一些技术为你所用。你可以在Meetup和Skype这些网站上寻找语言交流活动，和你的外国朋友们对话。

　　Finally, have you ever heard people saying they can’t learn a language because they work full time? My advice is to make your job work for you. Find a job that you have to use a foreign language. That’s 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week of practice time.

　　最后，你有没有听人说过因为他们要全职工作，所以不能学一门语言?我的建议是让你的工作也能为你所用。找一份你必须要使用外语的工作。那样你每天就有8小时、每周就有40小时的练习时间。

　　Let’s get back to my aunt who immigrated to the US. One day, she took me to a restaurant when I visited her in Chicago. I wanted to test her language ability, so I let her do the talking.

　　让我们再回到我那个移民美国的阿姨上来吧。当时我去芝加哥看她，她带我到一家饭店吃饭。我想看看她的语言能力，所以我让她点单。

　　"We order," she said to the server.

　　她对服务员说：“我们要点单了!”

　　"We want this, this and this," she pointed on the menu, "Oh, we no drink, thanks," she concluded.

　　她指着菜单说：“我们要这个、这个和这个。”最后她还说了句：“我们不喝，谢谢!”

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