Learning English is one of the few things I have been doing consistently over the past 16 years. So, why did I start to study English in the first place?

Like most Chinese students, I started learning English because it was a compulsory course in my middle school. More importantly, English was a central subject for the college entrance exam. To put it even more directly, my initial motivation was based on exams.

At that time, studying English was not a pleasant experience for me. There was no fun in the process of learning. The focus of our English education was getting a good mark in exams. Under the guidance of our diligent teachers, I memorized the English words, phrases and sentences in my textbooks, I completed a large number of exercises in reference books. I was even taught special "frameworks" for essays in order to crack exams. However, I was seldom taught to write in English for the purpose of freely expressing myself. Nor did I have any chance to speak in English, other than reciting sentences and articles. In fact, most of my English teachers in the middle school had never been outside of China or even talked with native speakers many times. Nobody told me that the real meaning of studying another language was communication.

When I became a university student, I spent nearly half of my time on English. The reason was that a good command of English was a prerequisite for getting a good job. In fact, more than 90 per cent of the job offer ads in Shanghai list "proficiency in English" as a main requirement.

How did I improve my English? People told me that TOEFL was very helpful and useful. As a result, I took a TOEFL training course and studied like mad. After six months' preparation, I took part in the exam and got a high score. My classmates, my teachers, and I myself thought my English was good enough.

But that was not the end of the story. Later on, I had a chance to further my study in Britain. I soon discovered that all of my past English learning had been futile. When I first went shopping in a local supermarket, I really felt panicky and lost - I could not understand what the cashier was saying at all (was it that I had never learned English, or was the cashier speaking some other language?). When all my British friends burst out laughing on hearing a joke, I was left confused, having no idea what was going on.

It was then I realized I had totally missed the point. Instead of just passing exams, the main function of learning English or any other language is communication. What is more, language does not exist independent of culture. Hence, mechanical memorization helps very little in communication. That's why I was still unable to freely express myself after learning English for many years. Almost every sentence that came out of my mouth had grammatical mistakes. The only thing I could do was to restart my English learning. And it took me more than six months not to mix "he" with "she" when speaking!

By no means am I talented in any foreign language. I am still learning English. Why?

First and foremost, my job requires me to use English everyday. Secondly, English helps me to have access to more information. Thirdly, as a bookworm, English gives me a chance to dive into the huge pool of inspiring English books. Last but not least, it is such a great experience to write in another language. Indeed, English has become part of my life.

Nevertheless, I wonder: If the method of teaching during my high school days had been less test-oriented, and if there had been less spoon-feeding and mechanical repetition in the teaching, would I then have wasted less time on futile approaches and begun to enjoy the beauty of the language much earlier?