雖然說我是外文系畢業，慚愧的是，當我在當兵時，當時已經畢業一年多了，對於講英文仍有相當的障礙。打電話到加拿大，我的破英文讓我見識到，不能再沉浸在「我是外文系畢業，從小英文就很好」的光環上。如果我連要講一句英文，需要練習半天，真正講的時候又還是吱吱嗚嗚的，那麼英文比我好的人實在太多了！說實在的自從上大學之後，我就已經不能算是「英文好」的人了！

我想了一些方法要增進自己的英文實力，其中一種有效又不會無趣的方法當然是找老外聊天嘍！但是老實講，我之前每次找老外聊天的經驗都不是很愉快。因為我常常不知道要聊什麼，每每只能聊一些膚淺的話題，我雖然覺得無聊，但是更深入一點的，我有這個能力跟他們聊嗎？用中文聊天，我可能是個有趣的人，但是用英文聊天…嗯，我或許離有趣還差很遠。

在我有了全新的讀書方法之後，我的思考方法也改變了。為何要讓話題來找你，話題為何不能自己找？

於是我自己寫了兩三個題目，舉如「日本男人與女人說話有明顯的差異，但在英文中有類似的差異嗎？」我開始狂跑高雄的「Fridays」以及外國人常出沒的地方，假扮我是研究人員，並宣稱「我需要外國人來當試驗品」，首先我就問他們我手上的問題，再者我就會問到哪裡可以找到最多的外國人。在問這兩個問題的當兒，就可以聊很多了。由於外國人對於「研究」的態度是比較不同的，台灣人看到研究第一個想到的大概就是「書呆子」，但是外國人對於研究比較沒這麼排斥，往往還會看你的題目是否有趣，如果他覺得有趣，還可以跟你聊上很久呢。我因此還結交不少外國朋友。

之後我再接再厲，想出「抽籤聊話題」的辦法。跟一群老外出去，總得想辦法讓大家認識認識，於是我做了三十幾張簽條，裡面會有「自己最喜歡與最不喜歡的事」之類的題目。我到是還不能完全聽懂他們說什麼，她們卻常常自己已經玩得不亦樂乎了！！

Although I majored in English language, speaking English was still a great obstacle for me when I was in the army. After making the call to Canada, I realized how poor my English was. I used to think that I graduated from the university majoring in English, and that my English had not been thought poor ever. Things must have been changed. If I have to practice a lot just to make a call, and still tripped over when I actually talked on the phone. There is no English command to speak of as an English major like me.

I figured out several ways to improve my English. Talking to foreigners was one of them. The problem is that I didn’t have very pleasant experience of that. I could usually do a little bit chatting about things skin-deep, and eventually failed to find topics. In Chinese, I am kind of funny, but in English, I am far from that.

After I had a new thought about my study, I had a different scenario about that too. Why wait for the topics when you can actually create them?

I wrote down several topics, such as, “In Japanese, there exhibits a great difference between male and female speakers. Do you think there is any similar kind of difference that exist in English?” and claimed that “I need native speakers to do this! ” I would firstly ask them the question I have in hand, and secondly ask them where I could find the most foreigners. Many questions can be asked in between. I made several friends there.

Then, I would figure out several topics about personal information. When I went out with a group of foreigners, I would have them draw the lots, which contained questions like “what are the things that you like and hate most?” I could understand them quite well at that time, but I was sure they really had a good time going out.