idk what kind of environment. I mean when i first came to america, the
middle school that i went to, there were not that many chineses around,
almost all of my teachers and classmates were non-chinese speakers. The
only time i was able to speak chinese was during my esl class, there were
several ppl there that knew how to speak chinese, so i remember during my
first couple yrs living in the states, all the friends that i made were from
my esl class, :-). I think i mentioned that in one of the journals that i
wrote in my_blog. My english was pretty good after i graduated from hs, but
during the first 2 yrs of college, i was living in the dorm, and my
roommate was a white guy; we were friends back in hs, so i had to speak
english 24/7 for almost 2 yrs, thats when i really start thinking and
perceving in english, sometimes speaking chinese all the time became sort of
a difficult thing for me. Even in the threads that i wrote, if u pay
attention, rarely, you will find 1 thats written completely in chinese.
Anyway, i understand what u are going through, wyysmile, i don't think
english is something that can be improved over a short period of time.
Especially for ppl that came here after the age of 22, even if u wanna to
practice english w/ americans, sometimes u just don't know what to say to
them. But don't give up, if u really really want to, i guess i don't mind
practice english w/ u, maybe not orally, but at least verbally. English is
one of those things that you just have to put the time and effort into it,
day after day, wk after wk, and eventually, you will see the results.I
remember when i first came to america, i wanted to improve my english
desperately, but it ended up taking me almost 3, 4 yrs to be able to really
speak the language. I wish it took me much shorter, 3 or 4 months would be
great, but that wasn't the case at all.
All in all, gl with learning english, i feel ur pain, cuz i was just like u,
if not worse when i first came to america 10 yrs ago.Hope everything works
out in the end and God bless, :-)