《人人都能用英语》新稿节选（1）口语差很可能另有原因……

很多人因为自己的口语差而苦恼，更多的，是自卑。然而，口语差可能有更深层次的原因，也许不是因为你笨，恰恰相反，你的英语口语差更可能是因为你并不笨，甚至是因为你太聪明。从另外一个角度来看，头脑简单的人更容易习得外语口语。

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20110906164757/http://www.lixiaolai.com/archives/10258.html

Everyone Can Use English, New Draft Excerpt 1: Poor Speaking Probably Has Another Cause

> By Li Xiaolai · 2010-12-01 · [Original (web archive)](https://web.archive.org/web/20110906164757/http://www.lixiaolai.com/archives/10258.html) (Chinese)
> Our translation from the Chinese original.

Many people are troubled by their poor spoken English, and more than that, they feel inferior. However, poor spoken English may have a deeper cause: perhaps it's not because you're stupid; quite the opposite, your poor spoken English is more likely because you're not stupid, or even because you're too clever.

From another angle, simple-minded people find it easier to acquire spoken foreign languages. Because their needs for expression are simple. Their minds are simple, so when they meet people they only want (and are only able) to discuss simple questions, for example, nice weather today (nice day, huh?), how have you been lately (how you doing?) and so on...

A simple-minded person, meeting a stranger and asking "What's your name?", doesn't feel there's anything inappropriate about what he's said at all. But in fact, please seriously recall when, in the real world, you would ask "what's your name?"

In the real world, the more likely situation is this:

> 1. First, people willing to tell you their names will tell you on their own initiative, and people unwilling to tell you their names won't say even if you ask;
> 2. After the other person tells you his name, the problem you face is very likely not knowing how the specific characters in the name are written (in English, how it's spelled)...
> So a real conversation might go like this:
> You say: You are... (You are …)
> The other person takes it up: Li Lei. (Michael Johnson.)
> You may need to write the name down, so you go on: Lei as in the 雷 of thunder? (Michael as Michael Jordon? [Translator's note: "Jordon" is as written in the original])
> The other person says: Yes. (Correct.)
> You say: Oh. (OK.)

In fact, in the real world, perhaps only the police often use this sentence: "What's your name?"

Compared with those simple-minded people, people whose minds are not simple face more difficulties when they open their mouths to speak a foreign language, because their needs for expression are more complex, perhaps even too complex. They have no great interest in discussing the weather with the other person, or where the other person comes from; they want to explore with the other person "which issues, among the global-warming problems people are currently concerned with, are misunderstood by most people," or "what possible risks the renminbi's steadily rising exchange rate poses for ordinary city dwellers"...

And so, besides the difficulty brought by more complex needs for expression, people whose minds are not simple face too many hidden problems. For example, because their needs for expression are too complex, the same training simply can't have the same effect on them—they actually need more and stronger training. For another example, they rarely meet people capable of exploring deep questions with them, so they rarely have the chance to exercise their speaking ability in practice—by comparison, those simple-minded people are much happier: they can grab anyone at random and start practising...

Some people's spoken English is poor not because they're stupid, but precisely because they're not stupid. However, this conclusion doesn't hold in reverse. Among those whose spoken English is fluent, apart from a few who are simple-minded, more are clever. Because speaking itself is a highly coordinated systems-engineering task: you need continuous input (capturing all the other person's feedback), high-speed processing (so-called adapting to circumstances is no easy thing), and effective output too (saying it accurately, correctly and brilliantly is even less easy)... All this requires long-term exercise and accumulation.

Even when speaking their mother tongue, the differences between people are enormous. Some people are articulate and rigorous in their thinking. And many more don't even enunciate clearly, are logically confused, and speak incoherently... However, this is only the final manifestation of accumulation; in fact, there's not much difference in everyone's starting point.

The point of the text above is to encourage those whose spoken English is poor. In second-language acquisition, whoever you are, you start from zero; whoever you are, you can't reach the summit overnight. Moreover, if your spoken English is a bit poor, there's no need at all to feel inferior, because that doesn't necessarily mean you're stupid or have no talent; more likely it's only because you're not stupid and your mind isn't simple.