Last Monday, our English teacher, Tang Ying, gave us a wonderful lesson on an English-learning strategy called taking risks wisely. She gave us three people’s examples on how to use this strategy to improve our oral English.

    First, Tang gave us three stories which separately summarized Li Yang, Li Wei and Tang Ying’s learning experiences by using the strategy of taking risks wisely. What impressed me most is Li Yang’s story. His English was so poor that he didn’t pass the English exams in college, but he never thought of giving up.

    On the contrary, he became very brave and attended English corners to practice speaking English. Finally, he became confident enough that he could speak loudly to foreigners without feeling nervous. Although he made many mistakes and sometimes the mistakes were ridiculous, he still kept trying. Having made such a great effort, he finally achieved success and became a successful person, famous in China for his “Crazy English.”

    His experience gave me so much inspiration and motivation. I think I should learn from him. I used to be nervous when I spoke with foreigners because I thought they might laugh at my pronunciation. I never dared to use the words or sentences I was not sure of. But now, I try to talk with foreigners and use some words and sentences that I have never used before. I catch every chance to speak English. I even acted as a teacher to introduce my experience on how to write a lesson report to my classmates. Though I sometimes make funny mistakes, the listeners seldom make fun of me. On the contrary, they point out my mistakes patiently. I feel I have become much more confident than before and never feel frightened when I speak English.

    I hope that Tang can help me with my speaking in my future studies. Moreover, I will always be a brave and confident person.