Oral English Practice Report
Yangshuo is an incredibly beautiful place. It is well knownfor its incredible karst scenery, beautiful mountains, rivers, caves, and temples as well as its laid back cafes and bars. Furthermore, there is never shortage of Chinese tourists includemainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong tourists and other foreigners. And that’s why people want to choose there to travel and why every year English major students will go to there to practice their oral English. This year, it’s our turn to go to Yangshuo. From May 12 to May 17, we have a week to taste of Yangshuo. What a happy thing it is!
After almost 12 hours train trip, on May 13, we finally arrived Guilin railway station at 12 o’clock. Though hungry and tired, Iwas still excited just thinking the scenery, food, unique goodsof Yangshou. We then got on bus to our final destination. Looking out the buswindow, I saw endless green mountains and smeltscents of the grass and wild flowers. All these scenes were extremely different from Hunan province. I felt surprise and couldn’t wait to embrace the whole county. About 2 hours later, we reached hotel. Since our team was hungry, we quickly found a restaurant andordered some typical dishes such as beer fish,steamed sliced pork with taro.Unfortunately, all these food tasted like cardboard and none of them were authentic Yangshuo cuisine.Quickly finishingthe unsavory meal, we returned hotel and took a rest for several hours. At night, we couldn’t wait to visit thelegendary West Street. As soon as I arrived here, I surprisinglyfound there full of foreign travelers and standing numerous bars, cafes and shops that all present the colorful cultures. Wandering in the West Street, I felt I came to a foreign country. Nearly every store had bilingual shop signs, some stories were opened by foreigners. Moreover, almost every local resident could speak fluent English especially shop assistant. If one of our team members hadn’t reminded us that we should back to hotel before 10 o’clock, we would certainly lost in West Street’s beautiful night scene.
On May 14, our team went to West Street again to practice our oral English. Discussed how to chat up with foreigners, we decided to find a Western restaurant at first. After careful deliberation, we entered a pizza shop. There were many foreigners chatting over a cup of coffee. Ordering some pizza and coffee, we were waitingfor opportunity. Suddenly, an old man with hair as white as snow came into our vision. He was alone and had already finished his meal. We guessed he must have leisure time, so we sent our team member Hunan to invite him to join us. In a moment later, he joined us happily. Through communication, I was filled with amazement about his experiences. He was born in France, studied at college in Hollandand worked in America. This was his 21st times to visit China and he also traveled lots of places such as Japan, Germany. What a wonderful life experiences he owned! I asked him why he wanted to travel to China. He answered that he loved China’s idyllic scenery, pure folkway, and old traditions. Moreover, he thought China was a peaceful country and he really liked it. I was happy to hear that. Actually, I really liked to talk with old people not only becausethey treated you like their granddaughter or grandson but alsobecause they could share their rich experiences with you. Indeed, I had learned a lot from this old man’s rich experiences.Later we talked about how to learn English
well, He told us only brave enough to open our mouth we could make progress in learning English. Happy time always files fast! Half hour later, we ended the conversation. We then continued wandering in West Street. At night, we went to a bar and hoped foreigners would come. Unfortunately, no one cameuntil we went back to hotel.
On May 15, it was a sunny day. We decided to ride bicycle through countryside, for it a good choice to get a general view of different scenic spots such as the Butterfly Spring Cave, the Big Banyan Tree,the Moon Hill, etc. About one hour later, we rode tothe Butterfly Spring Cave. At the entrance to the Butterfly Spring Park there is a huge Monarch Butterfly model mounted on a cliff beside the gate. Entered the Butterfly Grotto, We saw spring water oozing from the sandy layer in the rock.The grotto holds many stalactites with varieties of shapes, such as fruits, mountains, divinities and the moon. Amongst them, there were some which looked like butterflies and were absolutely lifelike.Enjoyed the beautiful scenery ofthe Butterfly Spring Cave, we continued riding and came toBig Banyan Tree. It was said thatBig Banyan Tree had survived from wind and rain over centuries since the Sui Dynasty. Although its stem was very old and its roots twist, its branches and leaves stretch out so lushly that the sunshine hardly penetrated its shadow. Sitting in its shadow on even the hottest day of the summer, I barely broke out in a sweat. It was under this tree that the Liu Sanjie declared her admiration to her lover A Niu. So this tree was one symbol of love as well, attracting many lovers come here to make wishes.Visited other places, we finally finished our bicycle trip.
On May 16,we went to the oldest town in Yangshuo, Xing Ping ancient village.It was said that this town was built 1000 years ago and once the former president Clinton had been visited this ancient village.Following the footprint of former president, we sawwell-preservedbrick buildings with painted rafters and carved patterns windows, beautiful hills and rivers.There also had many shops selling unique goods such as local handicrafts, Chinese landscape painting, masks and puppets. Through hard bargain, I bought a scarf and a dress at a reasonable price. Aftershopping, we took a long time stroll out of town on a nice path which crossed a branch of the Li River. Then we arrived at the spot where weviewed the same vista printed on the back of the 20 yuan note. The hill printed on the 20 Yuan RMB was called Yuan Bao Hill.And actually the shape of this hill was also looked like “yuanbao” which was only used in the ancient time. After enjoying the beautiful scenery, we went back to the West Street for supper. Surprisingly, in the western restaurant we met many classmates. And they were all talking and joking with foreigners. We naturally joined them. The group of foreigners was from Canada and came to Yangshuo for vacation. I talked with one of them and amazedly found he could speak some Chinese. He said because he loved China’s beautiful scenery, traditional culture, he made a decision to learn Chinese. However, he thought Chinese was too difficult to learn for it is difficult to muster its tone, Chinese character and idioms. For a moment, I was proud of my mother tongue. In fact I indeed thought Chinese was the most elegant language in the world. Later, we talked a lot of things and the subject of conversation always changed. We talked the special tasty and snacks in Yangshuo, places of
historic interest in Canada and comparison between Chinese and Canadian education and so on. I really admired these foreigners for they were too talkative and I appreciated the happy times they brought to us.
Soon 5 days past, we finished our oral English practice. During this short period, I really broadened my horizon and enriched mylife experiences. And I was aware of my shortage of leaning English, that was, lack of practicing. Lack of oral English practicing leaded to uncertainty about my speaking skills. Uncertainty leaded to lack of confidence and lack of confidence causedme to be quiet even when I didhave the precious opportunity to practice speaking English. While travelling to Yangshuo did give me a chance to practice my oral English. After communicating with differentforeigners inYangshuo, I felt more confidence about saying English. Practice makes perfect. I would keep practicing in my following study.