The Language I Almost Quit
After two years of studying English I went abroad for the first time.
学了两年英语以后，我第一次出国。
At the airport a man asked me a simple question.
在机场，一个人问了我一个很简单的问题。
I understood every word, and I could not produce an answer.
每个词我都听懂了，可是我说不出答案。
He waited, then said it was fine and walked away.
他等了一会儿，说没关系，就走了。
I sat down and seriously thought about giving up.
我坐下来，认真地想过放弃。
Two years of work and I could not answer one question.
学了两年，一个问题都答不上来。
On the flight home I tried to understand what had gone wrong.
回程的飞机上我想弄清楚问题出在哪里。
I had read thousands of pages. I had done hundreds of exercises.
我读了几千页，做了几百道练习。
But I had almost never spoken out loud.
但是我几乎从来没有大声说过。
I had been training one skill and testing a different one.
我练的是一种能力，考的是另一种。
So I changed one thing. Every day I spoke for ten minutes, alone, out loud.
所以我改了一件事。我每天一个人大声说十分钟。
It felt ridiculous for about three weeks.
大概有三个星期，我觉得这很可笑。
Then it stopped feeling ridiculous and started feeling normal.
后来就不觉得可笑了，开始觉得正常。
Progress in a language is not slow. It is invisible, which is not the same thing.
语言的进步不是慢。它是看不见的，这两者不一样。