Last Saturday I took my son to attend an oral English class for kids around his age. It was the first lesson and their teacher Sam, an Africa-American, got lost in heavy traffic and was much, much late. As a last minute understudy, Mr. Zeng, who is running this weekend school, walked bravely into the classroom and started teaching.

       With all respects, I have to say it’s a disaster. Mr. Zeng once joked that he was good at mute English. I had no doubts about that, and this lesson just confirmed that belief.

     The old way of learning made our generation deaf and dumb English. And in this lesson, Mr. Zeng once again showed us how this traditional way had worked.

“Follow me, please” he said to seven or eight toddlers in the class, “Apple, a-p-p-l-e, 苹果”. Several childish voices followed automatically, with not much enthusiasm.

      My stomach dropped to the bottom. It was like back to my school time, only now the audience was much younger. It won’t work. Not surprisingly, the audience started to stir, and a bold girl already left her chair and tried to leave. Mr. Zeng changed his strategy and started to ask simple question one by one. When he asked my son: “How old are you?” He answered proudly: “I’m four!”

“No, no, you should say I’m four year old”.

       For a moment, I’d like to throw all the politeness away, grabbed my son and ran away as fast as we could. For a four-year-old, the quickest way to damp his interests in learning is to stress his mistakes, beside that is not even a mistake. Language, after all, is flexible, no need to be as precisely as doing math. I am certainly not an expert in teaching English, but as a constant English learner, I know what the worst way to learn it is--- and that just comes on the top.

      Thankfully, Sam came to rescue us all. He doesn’t speak Chinese, but he certainly has his way of interacting with his students.  He soon attracted all the children’s attentions. He didn’t try to explain what Plural is, simply said: “One eye, two eyes, eyes see, see, see; one hand, two hands, hands clap, clap, clap…..” With rich body language, games, pictures, he made himself understood and taught the kids a foreign language. Mind the key word, the language-- not the word, the spell or grammar rules.

      Do you remember how you learnt your mother language? A mother would not teach her baby to speak by explaining all the grammar rules, or the writings process. It’s always like the same: she would point at, say an apple, and tell the baby again and again--- “苹果” Sooner or later, in the baby’s brain, the image of an apply would link to the sound of the word. Once the link is established, the baby learns a word!

        Unfortunately, for most of us, the English learners, such link has never able to be established. Why? Because when we study English, our brain has processed too many information. “ Apple, a-p-p-l-e, 苹果”, Listening, Speaking, Writing, Translation----all at once! It’s just against all the rules of mastering a language, and our brains simple messed them all.