【英语泛听】01 如何像本地人一样说英语？

English

My story starts in Moscow.I was 15 years old.
My best friend and I, we were part of a group of Westerners,visiting the Soviet Union.This was in 1987,a few years before the fall of the communist regime.
We were given an official tour guide who was assigned to us.
And the tour would start in the morning,and we were checked in to our hotel rooms for the night.
My friend said to me, ‘’Let’s go outside and look at the city.’’
I thought it was a great idea.
Dumb idea.
So we grabbed our coats, and we snuck out past security and into the street.
We found the entrance to the metro.
The Moscow underground transportation system is the deepest one in the world.
The ride down the escalator took a full minute.
Once we were down there, my friend headed right to an open train,and I pulled him back and said, ‘Wait!
Let’s write down the name of the station so we can find our way back.’So I had a notepad, and I took a notepad,and I wrote down the letters of the station,and we hopped down the train and went on train hopping.
And that was fun because -Well, actually, it was weird.
There were a lot of people, probably all coming home from work.
They were all dressed in brown and gray clothes,and it looked very, very different from what we were used to at home.
But the stations were lovely.
There were stations with statues, with paintings on the wall,and glass displays.
It was really like museums.
We would never have expected that.
And everything was perfectly clean.
Well,what was weird though is that the people - nobody seemed to speak,and everyone seemed to be looking at us and it kind of weirded us out.
So after about 20-30 minutes,we’d had enough and we wanted to go home.
I showed my note to someone and they directed me over there.
Then over there, I showed my note to another person,and they directed us to the other way.
And then a third person directed us sideways.
That was a little confusing.
Aw, then I saw it.
Over the stairs, the sign.
It turned out I had written down the Russian word for ‘Exit.’So we headed upstairs and we found a taxi.
That was great.
And we told the driver, you know, ‘Intourist Hotel,’and then he was willing to take us.
And I remember sitting next to the driver, handing him 50 rubles.
And he looked at me and he said,(Russian) No, dollar!
Fifty dollars?
That was like I don’t know 20 times that amount or something.
That was not an option for us.
So we had to get out of the taxi,and he drove away, leaving us standing there.
It was a cold night,and you know everything was strange for us,and we were teenagers,and we were pretty nervous, didn’t know what to do.
Well, we started walking.
We walked to the end of the block.
We turned the corner.
And 200 yards in front of us, the Intourist Hotel.Well, this experience affected me in two ways.
The first is that anytime after this trip that I would hear anyone speak Russian,I was just cringe.
And the second one is that it taught me the importanceof understanding the local language when you’re traveling.
And it actually led to me learning another four languages fluentlyover the following years.
Now, before I go on, I’d like to know in the audience -Can we have a little bit of light maybe in the audience?
I’d just like to know who’s -By a show of hands, who is not a native English speaker?
It must be 99%.
Anyone who doesn’t speak English, stand up!
Alright, so I can assumeall of you have, you know, gone through the process of learning a language.
Anybody who speaks three or more languages?
Wow, that’s maybe 70%.
Four or more languages, anyone?
That’s still quite a bit.
Anyone speak five or more languages?
Wow, come see me during the break.
To me, learning a language is…
For me, it’s like a deck of playing cards lying faced down on the table.
As you start learning and understanding, the cards start opening up for you.
Now there’s no standard way of classifying this.
But as you learn, you reach certain milestones.
And the first one would be when about 25% of the cards are turned up,you reach like a basic level.
At this level, you have a base vocabulary, some grammar,and you’re able to have maybe very simple conversationsand communicate a little bit.
And your study goes on until you reach this magical point of fluency,what we call being fluent in the language.
Now what does it mean, being fluent in a language?
It means that you’ve turned up more than 50% of the cards in the deck,and that is the point where you have -where the language becomes part of your subconsciousso that even if you don’t use it anymore for 10 years or longer,you will not forget it.
You can get back into it within a very, very short time.
So this is a level where you’re comfortable thinking in a language,and comfortable communicating in a language.
Now, some people go on and, you know, reach like a mastery level.
By that time, you know classic literature in the other languageand have maybe in-depth knowledge of specialized fields.
That’s often the point taken in academia.
For me, when I learned my first foreign language,I had a head startbecause I was born to a German-speaking mother and an American father.
Now, when I was a baby, I didn’t really understandthat what my parents were speaking to me were two separate languages.
But by the time I was two years old, I had figured it all out.
Women speak only German.Men only speak English.Imagine the fun my parents had when they introduced me to couples.
Being a bilingual was actually pretty helpful in learning my first language.
It definitely helped.
If you’re -But it also gave me something else.
It gave me two identities and the ability to switch between them.
When you’re a native speaker of more than one language,then your personality, your humor, your value system,they change as you switch languages.
This can have huge advantages.
I mean, some studies have shown an increased problem-solving abilityor even a higher resistance to Alzheimer’s disease.
But what I’m almost interested inis that it’s actually given me a lot of social benefits.
When you’re a native speaker,then you feel at home among native speakers or in a culture,and also native speakers accept you as one of theirs.
Now is this only relevant to native speakers?
And that’s the big question.
But wouldn’t it be coolif a person learning a foreign language could actually develop another identityand actually enjoy the social benefits of a native speakerthat go beyond communication skills?
Well, that’s what happened to me.
I was able to do that,and I want to show you from my experience how I think this can be achieved.
So if we say this green area here is the level of the native speaker,the first thing to note is that on your way to reaching fluency,there is not really any shortcut.
There are some methods that you can use such as the Burrito Principlewhere you identify 20% of the most effective materials to study.
There are some apps, like stuff for time-spaced learning,that increase vocabulary retention.
They save a little time,but in the end, there’s no way around working with the material, practicing it,until you reach the fluency level.
But the second thing to noteis that going from fluency to mastery is a much slower process,and it requires proportionally more effort.
That’s why most people - they just stop at fluency.
They know how to speak English, good enough,and they don’t even attempt to venture on,and I can understand it.
But the good news is,to get the benefits of a native speaker, at a native-speaker level,you don’t have to go through mastery in the academic sense.
In fact, you can skip this step altogether.
So if you think about it,there are many native speakers do not have an in-depth knowledgeof specialized fields or sophisticated vocabulary.
So, that’s not really what is required.
So how do you do it?
What is required?
Well,I want to give you three areas to focus onwhen you’re learning and interacting with native speakers.
The first is: work on eliminating your accent.
I’m aware I said eliminating.
It should be at least minimizing it.
This is, in my opinion, the most overlooked aspectof language learning today,but it’s also the most important oneto reach what I call a native-speaker level or a speaker-like level.
If you communicate without an accent or almost without an accent,this changes how natives behave towards you unconsciously,and it also gives you an ability to adapt to a new self-image.
The best way that I’ve found -the best exercise I’ve found to improve your pronunciationis what I call the perfect-sentence technique.
What you do is you find a native speaker to help you,and you take a book in the foreign language,you open it at a random page,and you read the first sentence.
Then, you ask a native speaker to rate youon obvious accent, slight accent, no accent.
Then the native speaker will read this sentence back to you.
You have to listen carefully and then you repeat.
And you repeat this process over and over until the native speaker tells youthat he can no longer hear an accent when you read the sentence.
Now, I realize it can take a very long timeeven just to get one sentence right.
But I promise youif you are persistent, and if you patiently work on this,you’ll be amazed by what happens to your accent.
The second area to focus on is using verbs and expressions that locals use.
Now, we all know the situation that vocabulary can be region-specific.
Like, in the US, you use ‘stand in line.’In the UK, you ‘queue.’That’s all good.
But sometimes, the spoken word is so different,the speech is so different from what you get in textbooks,that the books are almost useless if you want to converse with natives.
I want to give you an example.
In the French language, there are words like ‘le travail,’which is ‘my work.’A French person talking to his friend would probably say ‘mon boulot,’which is a completely different word.
The same for ‘the clothes,’ ‘le vestments,’but you’ll hear ‘le fringues.’Or money is ‘l’argent,’but people say ‘le fric,’ ‘le sou,’ or many other expressions for this.
So, obviously I’m only scratching the surface here.
But here you actually have to learn all of these words and expressions one by one.
And of course, you have to interact with natives to do that.
But after you reach a critical mass that you’re comfortable with,it’ll actually be easier when you encounter something new.
You’ll just pick it up in one go, like native speakers would,who hear words or expressions that they didn’t know before.
The third area to work on is adopting cultural traits.
What do I mean by that?
So let me ask you:what does this gesture mean to you?
Any Italians here?
OK, now, depending on what culture you’re from,this could mean something rude,or it could just mean it’s something incredulous,like, ‘Why did you do that?’
Or, ‘How could you?’
Or it could just be signaling food, ‘Give me food!’
Interesting!
In the Middle East,this is just a standard way of signaling ‘Please, wait!’
So these kind of traits you have to internalize,and sometimes, they’re hard to spot,and it takes a lot of active listening.
I want to give you a few more examples.
So imagine I am with three of my friends: an American, a German, and a Frenchman.And, like, we’re walking and maybe the American bumps his head,and his initial reaction might be, ‘Ouch!’
That’s how you say it in English.But the German that, you know, gets, I don’t know, elbowed in the crowd,he would say, ‘Ow-ah!’
And the French person might step on the nail and say, ‘Ay!’
So this, of course, in your target language,this is something you have to observe and also internalize,and it has to become part of you.
If…
Again I’m with these three friends, and I sit with them,and let’s say I serve them tea,and I ask the American, ‘Would you like a biscuit with your tea?’
And if he answers in the affirmative, he might say, ‘Uh-huh!’
And I can ask the German, ‘Do you know what tea this is?’
He’ll say, ‘’Mm- hmm!’’
And then I ask the Frenchman, ‘Do you like this?’
He’ll say, ‘Hmm!’So these difference, they really require active listening.
So all of these three things that I told youwhich is pronunciation,and colloquial speech and adopting cultural traits,they all require that you interact with natives as much as possible.
Ideally, you should fully immerse yourself in the culture.
Now if you have the chance to live abroad for a while, that will be great.
Or maybe live among natives in your hometown.
Perhaps just have a romantic relationship,or even just spend time, you know, with co-workers.
So, romantic relationships, I could do a whole talk about that.
That works really well for these things.
But yeah -So this will be different for everybody, of course.
But even when you’re not around natives, your learning must not stop.
Because what you can do is you can watch TV shows and films,you can mimic the characters,you can write down anything that you haven’t heard of before,and practice that.
I also want to encourage you to learn the lyrics of songs.
Songs are really great because they tell stories.
And they not only help your pronunciation when you sing them,but if they’re emotional,they can anchor these expressions into your active vocabulary.
And it’s like speaking all day and really using the expressions unconsciously.
It’s a great way.
So music, definitely.
The other thing you need to move towards native-speaker statusis the right mindset,and a belief that if you sound like a native,express yourself like a native,talk like a native and act like a native,you’ll actually achieve a native-like level.
So if I could only leave you with one thing today,it would be: work on your pronunciation.
Because pronunciationhelps any stage of the learning process,even in the very beginning.
It’ll speed up everything.
And it also is the key to reaching a native-speaker level,or almost-native-speaker status.
So before I go,I’d like to tell you how I was able to overcome my fear of the Russian language.
It was a very, very elegant solution.
I married a Russian girl.
And I now have little kids in my home that speak Russian to me every day.
So I want to thank you.
(Applause)
And before I go, I just want to wish you(Spanish) A lot of success with your language studies.
(French)
It was a pleasure to present for you today.
(Hebrew)
I wish you lots of success with your studies.
(Yiddish)
Thank you for listening.
Good luck to you all and…
(Russian)
Thank you.
(Applause)

English-Chinese

My story starts in Moscow.I was 15 years old.
我的故事从莫斯科开始，当时我15岁。

My best friend and I, we were part of a group of Westerners,visiting the Soviet Union.This was in 1987,a few years before the fall of the communist regime.
我和我最好的朋友，我们是一群西方人的一部分，访问苏联，那是在1987年，共产主义政权垮台前几年。

We were given an official tour guide who was assigned to us.
我们得到了一位分配给我们的官方导游。

And the tour would start in the morning,and we were checked in to our hotel rooms for the night.
旅行将在早上开始，我们被登记入住了我们的酒店房间过夜。

My friend said to me, ‘’Let’s go outside and look at the city.’’
我的朋友对我说，’我们到外面去看看这个城市吧。

I thought it was a great idea.
我认为这是个好主意。

Dumb idea.
愚蠢的想法。

So we grabbed our coats, and we snuck out past security and into the street.
于是，我们拿起外套，偷偷溜出安检，走到街上。

We found the entrance to the metro.
我们找到了地铁的入口。

The Moscow underground transportation system is the deepest one in the world.
莫斯科的地下交通系统是世界上最深的地下交通系统。

The ride down the escalator took a full minute.
乘坐自动扶梯花了整整一分钟。

Once we were down there, my friend headed right to an open train,and I pulled him back and said, ‘Wait!
我们一到那里，我的朋友就直奔一辆敞篷火车，我把他拉回来，说，’等等！

Let’s write down the name of the station so we can find our way back.’So I had a notepad, and I took a notepad,and I wrote down the letters of the station,and we hopped down the train and went on train hopping.
于是我拿了一个记事本，拿了一个记事本，写下了车站的字母，然后我们跳下火车，继续跳火车。

And that was fun because -Well, actually, it was weird.
这很有趣，因为——嗯，实际上，这很奇怪。

There were a lot of people, probably all coming home from work.
有很多人，可能都下班回家了。

They were all dressed in brown and gray clothes,and it looked very, very different from what we were used to at home.
他们都穿着棕色和灰色的衣服，看起来和我们在家里习惯的衣服非常非常不同。

But the stations were lovely.
但是车站很可爱。

There were stations with statues, with paintings on the wall,and glass displays.
有雕像的车站，墙上有画，还有玻璃展示。

It was really like museums.
这真的像博物馆。

We would never have expected that.
我们从未预料到这一点。

And everything was perfectly clean.
一切都很干净。

Well,what was weird though is that the people - nobody seemed to speak,and everyone seemed to be looking at us and it kind of weirded us out.
好吧，奇怪的是，人们似乎没有人说话，每个人似乎都在看着我们，这让我们有点奇怪。

So after about 20-30 minutes,we’d had enough and we wanted to go home.
所以大约20-30分钟后，我们受够了，我们想回家。

I showed my note to someone and they directed me over there.
我把我的纸条给别人看，他们把我带到了那里。

Then over there, I showed my note to another person,and they directed us to the other way.
然后在那里，我把我的纸条给另一个人看，他们把我们引向另一条路。

And then a third person directed us sideways.
然后第三个人把我们引向一边。

That was a little confusing.
这有点令人困惑。

Aw, then I saw it.
噢，然后我看到了。

Over the stairs, the sign.
在楼梯上，标志。

It turned out I had written down the Russian word for ‘Exit.’So we headed upstairs and we found a taxi.
原来我写下了俄语中的“退出”一词，于是我们上楼，找到了一辆出租车。

That was great.
那太好了。

And we told the driver, you know, ‘Intourist Hotel,’and then he was willing to take us.
我们告诉司机，你知道，’Intourist Hotel’，然后他愿意带我们去。

And I remember sitting next to the driver, handing him 50 rubles.
我记得坐在司机旁边，递给他 50 卢布。

And he looked at me and he said,(Russian) No, dollar!
他看着我说，（俄语）不，美元！

Fifty dollars?
五十美元？

That was like I don’t know 20 times that amount or something.
这就像我不知道 20 倍的数量或其他什么。

That was not an option for us.
这对我们来说不是一个选择。

So we had to get out of the taxi,and he drove away, leaving us standing there.
所以我们不得不下车，他开车走了，留下我们站在那里。

It was a cold night,and you know everything was strange for us,and we were teenagers,and we were pretty nervous, didn’t know what to do.
那是一个寒冷的夜晚，你知道对我们来说一切都很奇怪，我们是十几岁的孩子，我们很紧张，不知道该怎么办。

Well, we started walking.
好吧，我们开始走路。

We walked to the end of the block.
我们走到街区的尽头。

We turned the corner.
我们转过了拐角。

And 200 yards in front of us, the Intourist Hotel.Well, this experience affected me in two ways.
在我们前面200码处，Intourist Hotel.嗯，这次经历在两个方面影响了我。

The first is that anytime after this trip that I would hear anyone speak Russian,I was just cringe.
首先，在这次旅行之后的任何时候，我都会听到有人说俄语，我只是畏缩。

And the second one is that it taught me the importanceof understanding the local language when you’re traveling.
第二个是它教会了我在旅行时了解当地语言的重要性。

And it actually led to me learning another four languages fluentlyover the following years.
在接下来的几年里，它实际上使我流利地学习了另外四种语言。

Now, before I go on, I’d like to know in the audience -Can we have a little bit of light maybe in the audience?
现在，在我继续之前，我想知道观众席上——我们能不能在观众席上有一点光？

I’d just like to know who’s -By a show of hands, who is not a native English speaker?
我只想知道谁是 - 通过举手，谁不是以英语为母语的人？

It must be 99%.
它必须是 99%。

Anyone who doesn’t speak English, stand up!
任何不会说英语的人，请站起来！

Alright, so I can assumeall of you have, you know, gone through the process of learning a language.
好吧，我可以假设你们所有人都经历过学习语言的过程。

Anybody who speaks three or more languages?
有人会说三种或三种以上的语言吗？

Wow, that’s maybe 70%.
哇，大概是70%。

Four or more languages, anyone?
四种或更多语言，有人吗？

That’s still quite a bit.
这还是相当多的。

Anyone speak five or more languages?
有人会说五种或更多语言吗？

Wow, come see me during the break.
哇，休息时间来看我。

To me, learning a language is…
对我来说，学习一门语言是……

For me, it’s like a deck of playing cards lying faced down on the table.
对我来说，这就像一副扑克牌面朝下躺在桌子上。

As you start learning and understanding, the cards start opening up for you.
当你开始学习和理解时，卡片开始为你打开。

Now there’s no standard way of classifying this.
现在没有标准的分类方法。

But as you learn, you reach certain milestones.
但随着你的学习，你会达到某些里程碑。

And the first one would be when about 25% of the cards are turned up,you reach like a basic level.
第一个是当大约 25% 的牌被打开时，你达到了一个基本水平。

At this level, you have a base vocabulary, some grammar,and you’re able to have maybe very simple conversationsand communicate a little bit.
在这个级别上，你有一个基本的词汇，一些语法，你能够进行非常简单的对话和交流。

And your study goes on until you reach this magical point of fluency,what we call being fluent in the language.
你的学习会继续下去，直到你达到这个神奇的流利程度，我们称之为流利的语言。

Now what does it mean, being fluent in a language?
那么，流利地使用一门语言意味着什么？

It means that you’ve turned up more than 50% of the cards in the deck,and that is the point where you have -where the language becomes part of your subconsciousso that even if you don’t use it anymore for 10 years or longer,you will not forget it.
这意味着你已经翻出了牌组中超过50%的牌，这就是你拥有的地方——语言成为你潜意识的一部分，所以即使你不再使用它10年或更长时间，你也不会忘记它。

You can get back into it within a very, very short time.
你可以在非常非常短的时间内重新进入它。

So this is a level where you’re comfortable thinking in a language,and comfortable communicating in a language.
所以在这个层面上，你可以自如地用一种语言思考，也自在地用一种语言进行交流。

Now, some people go on and, you know, reach like a mastery level.
现在，有些人继续前进，你知道，达到了精通的水平。

By that time, you know classic literature in the other languageand have maybe in-depth knowledge of specialized fields.
到那时，您已经了解了另一种语言的经典文学，并且可能对专业领域有深入的了解。

That’s often the point taken in academia.
这是学术界经常采取的观点。

For me, when I learned my first foreign language,I had a head startbecause I was born to a German-speaking mother and an American father.
对我来说，当我学习我的第一门外语时，我有一个良好的开端，因为我的母亲说德语，父亲是美国人。

Now, when I was a baby, I didn’t really understandthat what my parents were speaking to me were two separate languages.
现在，当我还是个婴儿的时候，我真的不明白我的父母对我说的是两种不同的语言。

But by the time I was two years old, I had figured it all out.
但到我两岁的时候，我已经想通了。

Women speak only German. Men only speak English. Imagine the fun my parents had when they introduced me to couples.
女人只会说德语，男人只会说英语，想象一下我父母把我介绍给情侣时的乐趣。

Being a bilingual was actually pretty helpful in learning my first language.
作为一个双语者实际上对学习我的第一语言非常有帮助。

It definitely helped.
这绝对有帮助。

If you’re -But it also gave me something else.
如果你是——但它也给了我别的东西。

It gave me two identities and the ability to switch between them.
它给了我两种身份，并能够在它们之间切换。

When you’re a native speaker of more than one language,then your personality, your humor, your value system,they change as you switch languages.
当你的母语是多种语言的人时，你的个性、你的幽默、你的价值体系，它们都会随着你切换语言而改变。

This can have huge advantages.
这可能具有巨大的优势。

I mean, some studies have shown an increased problem-solving abilityor even a higher resistance to Alzheimer’s disease.
我的意思是，一些研究表明，解决问题的能力有所提高，甚至对阿尔茨海默病的抵抗力更高。

But what I’m almost interested inis that it’s actually given me a lot of social benefits.
但我几乎感兴趣的是，它实际上给了我很多社会效益。

When you’re a native speaker,then you feel at home among native speakers or in a culture,and also native speakers accept you as one of theirs.
当你是母语人士时，你会在母语人士或一种文化中感到宾至如归，而且母语人士也接受你作为他们中的一员。

Now is this only relevant to native speakers?
现在，这是否仅与母语人士有关？

And that’s the big question.
这是个大问题。

But wouldn’t it be coolif a person learning a foreign language could actually develop another identityand actually enjoy the social benefits of a native speakerthat go beyond communication skills?
但是，如果一个学习外语的人实际上可以发展出另一种身份，并真正享受母语人士的社会利益，那不是很酷吗？

Well, that’s what happened to me.
嗯，这就是发生在我身上的事情。

I was able to do that,and I want to show you from my experience how I think this can be achieved.
我能够做到这一点，我想从我的经验中向你展示我认为如何实现这一目标。

So if we say this green area here is the level of the native speaker,the first thing to note is that on your way to reaching fluency,there is not really any shortcut.
因此，如果我们说这里的绿色区域是母语人士的水平，首先要注意的是，在达到流利程度的道路上，实际上没有任何捷径。

There are some methods that you can use such as the Burrito Principlewhere you identify 20% of the most effective materials to study.
您可以使用一些方法，例如墨西哥卷饼原则，您可以确定 20% 的最有效材料进行研究。

There are some apps, like stuff for time-spaced learning,that increase vocabulary retention.
有一些应用程序，比如用于时间间隔学习的东西，可以增加词汇量的保留。

They save a little time,but in the end, there’s no way around working with the material, practicing it,until you reach the fluency level.
他们节省了一点时间，但最终，没有办法使用材料，练习它，直到你达到流利的水平。

But the second thing to noteis that going from fluency to mastery is a much slower process,and it requires proportionally more effort.
但第二件需要注意的事情是，从流利到精通是一个缓慢得多的过程，并且需要成比例地付出更多的努力。

That’s why most people - they just stop at fluency.
这就是为什么大多数人 - 他们只是停留在流利度上。

They know how to speak English, good enough,and they don’t even attempt to venture on,and I can understand it.
他们知道如何说英语，足够好，他们甚至不试图冒险，我能理解。

But the good news is,to get the benefits of a native speaker, at a native-speaker level,you don’t have to go through mastery in the academic sense.
但好消息是，要获得母语人士的好处，在母语人士的水平上，您不必经过学术意义上的精通。

In fact, you can skip this step altogether.
事实上，您可以完全跳过此步骤。

So if you think about it,there are many native speakers do not have an in-depth knowledgeof specialized fields or sophisticated vocabulary.
所以如果你仔细想想，有很多母语人士对专业领域或复杂的词汇没有深入的了解。

So, that’s not really what is required.
所以，这并不是真正需要的。

So how do you do it?
那么你是怎么做到的呢？

What is required?
需要什么？

Well,I want to give you three areas to focus onwhen you’re learning and interacting with native speakers.
好吧，我想给你三个方面，当你学习和与母语人士互动时。

The first is: work on eliminating your accent.
首先是：努力消除你的口音。

I’m aware I said eliminating.
我知道我说过消除。

It should be at least minimizing it.
它至少应该最小化它。

This is, in my opinion, the most overlooked aspectof language learning today,but it’s also the most important oneto reach what I call a native-speaker level or a speaker-like level.
在我看来，这是当今语言学习中最容易被忽视的方面，但也是达到我所说的母语水平或类似说话者水平的最重要的方面。

If you communicate without an accent or almost without an accent,this changes how natives behave towards you unconsciously,and it also gives you an ability to adapt to a new self-image.
如果你没有口音或几乎没有口音地交流，这会无意识地改变当地人对你的行为方式，也让你有能力适应新的自我形象。

The best way that I’ve found -the best exercise I’ve found to improve your pronunciationis what I call the perfect-sentence technique.
我发现的最好的方法 - 我发现的改善发音的最佳练习是我所说的完美句子技巧。

What you do is you find a native speaker to help you,and you take a book in the foreign language,you open it at a random page,and you read the first sentence.
你要做的是找一个母语人士来帮助你，然后你拿一本外语的书，你随便翻开一页，然后读第一句话。

Then, you ask a native speaker to rate youon obvious accent, slight accent, no accent.
然后，你让一个母语人士对你的明显口音、轻微口音、无口音进行评分。

Then the native speaker will read this sentence back to you.
然后母语人士会把这句话读给你听。

You have to listen carefully and then you repeat.
你必须仔细听，然后重复。

And you repeat this process over and over until the native speaker tells youthat he can no longer hear an accent when you read the sentence.
你一遍又一遍地重复这个过程，直到母语人士告诉你，当你读这句话时，他再也听不到口音了。

Now, I realize it can take a very long timeeven just to get one sentence right.
现在，我意识到即使只是把一句话说对，也可能需要很长时间。

But I promise youif you are persistent, and if you patiently work on this,you’ll be amazed by what happens to your accent.
但我向你保证，如果你坚持不懈，如果你耐心地努力，你会惊讶于你的口音会发生什么。