Stop 'Cramming' English – You're Learning a Language, Not a Menu
Have you ever felt this way?
You've downloaded the most popular vocabulary apps, ploughed through thick grammar books, and collected countless study notes from "English gurus". Yet, when a foreign friend stands in front of you, your mind's a complete blank. After struggling for ages, you can only manage an awkward "Hello, how are you?"
We always assume that learning a language is like shopping at the supermarket: put words, grammar, and sentence structures one by one into our shopping trolley, and at the checkout, we'll naturally acquire the skill of "fluency".
But what happens? Our shopping trolleys are bursting at the seams, yet we still don't know how to use these ingredients to cook a decent dish.
A Change of Mindset: Learning a Language is More Like Learning to Cook
Let's forget the word "learning" and replace it with "experience".
Imagine you're not "learning" a language, but rather learning to cook an exotic dish you've never tasted before.
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Words and grammar are your ingredients and recipes. They are important, of course; you can't do anything without them. But just memorising a recipe by heart and staring at the ingredients all day won't result in a good meal.
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"Language sense" – or feel for the language – is like the "heat control" in cooking. This is the most fascinating part. When should you stir-fry, when should you add seasoning, when should you turn off the heat? These aren't things cold, hard words in a recipe can fully teach you. You have to cook yourself, feel the change in oil temperature, smell the aroma spreading, and even... mess up a few times.
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Making mistakes is like burning the dish. Every great chef has burned a dish before; it's no big deal. The important thing isn't whether you burned it, but whether you tasted it to figure out if the heat was too high, or if you added the salt too early? Every small "failure" helps you master true "heat control".
The problem for many of us learning a language lies here: we focus too much on memorising recipes, but forget to light the stove.
We're afraid of ruining the dish, wasting ingredients, or having others laugh at our cooking skills. As a result, we always remain in the preparation stage; our kitchens are overflowing with the freshest ingredients, but the hob always remains cold.
True "Fluency" is the Courage to Light the Stove
So, how can we light that hob?
The answer is simple: start by cooking the simplest dish.
Don't always aim to cook a "Manchu Han Imperial Feast" (engaging in a perfect, in-depth conversation) right from the start. Begin with "Stir-fried Tomatoes with Scrambled Eggs" (a simple greeting).
Today's goal isn't to "memorise 100 words", but to "use 3 words you just learned to greet someone".
Where is this "person"? This used to be the biggest challenge. We don't have many foreign friends around us, and flying abroad specifically is too expensive. We're like a chef who wants to learn Sichuan cuisine but can't find Sichuan peppercorns or chillies.
But now, technology has given us a perfect "global kitchen".
For example, tools like Intent are like a "smart hob" with a built-in translation function. You don't have to worry about whether you can speak; AI will instantly turn your "everyday language" into authentic "exotic cuisine". You just need to gather your courage and boldly start chatting with people on the other side of the world.
When you use it to chat with a French friend about their favourite films or discuss the latest anime with a Japanese friend, you're no longer a "learner".
You are an experiencer, a communicator, a chef who is enjoying the pleasure of cooking.
The true charm of language isn't in how many perfect sentences you've mastered, but in how many interesting people it allows you to meet and how many different cultural "flavours" you can experience.
So, stop clinging to your recipe books.
Step into the kitchen, light the stove, and boldly create, communicate, make mistakes, and taste. You'll discover that the most beautiful part of language learning is precisely this steaming, vibrant essence of human life.