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The books and types sit silently on the top of the shelf just behind me, with the dirt of time cover their once colorful faces. If it were not for the click into the invite application post by rayer1798, the current BM of English Bar, the reminiscence of my English learning wouldn’t come up. Things would have gone as the song “Li Lei & Han Meimei” sings, lost in the deep ocean of memories. It was about the summer vacation of my Grade 4 in primary school; a chance happened to me that my neighbor, a younger boy went to the interest class which taught English in my school. At that time, English is not thought highly of as it is today, and for I was going to learn it in class one year later, I just went to the interest class with my neighbor as a way of killing time. However, it was exactly when I sit in the last row of the classroom as an “old” student among little brothers and sisters, that I felt the beauty of another language for the first time, and it was exactly in that class, that I learnt my first four English words: red, green, yellow, and orange. Simple as they may look, they were the first things I know about English, except for ABCD and “cm” learnt in math class. That was how I met English, just for 40 minutes. Later on I gave up going my neighbor for saving the expense. One year later, my first English class began. At the very beginning I didn’t put it in mind for the graduation exams of primary school didn’t include English, so quite a couple of classes were wasted in my chat or games with my desk mate. The ignorance of English stopped in one class when my teacher happened to ask students to make sentences, which she had never done before. Obviously, when turns came to me, I was chocked. The question was just “What’s your name, please?” and I just couldn’t answer it, stood there with my face burnt, not knowing the meaning of the question. I don’t remember whether I was the only student that couldn’t answer it, but I do remember the embarrassment which I had never tasted. From then on, a thought pushed me on to the way of English learning, that is, I don’t want to be chocked by such a simple question like that. I’m not sure if it was the shame or something like talent, I quickly picked up the lessons that once dropped behind, and even became one of the best students in English. Perhaps I am a person who is sensitive to literature, I just felt English charming as Chinese. In my childish eyes, English, or more generalized, language, stood for a way of live, which might be quite different from Chinese and Chinese life, but also the same in some senses. After that was six years of English learning in middle school and high school, as most student does. However, no matter how teachers and textbooks changed, or the accumulation of words and sentences grew, the feeling that English gave me just remained, that is, as the title of this article says, a symbol of life. Under the cognition built in my childhood, my interest in English grew with each passing day instead of vanishing. Time flies and I went in BUPT and a few days ago I graduated. Talked about the most regrettable things in college, one of them might be that I loosen the learning of English. As said above, I view English as a symbol of life, an exchange way more than just a tool. When friends were busy with engineering courses or the preparation of GRE or IELTS, English seemed not funning as it was, even in English classes it lost its charming color. The feeling of English as a symbol of life occurred to me only when seeing movies. As laziness silently conquered me, English gradually went of my life. Not until the moment that I began to prepare for the postgraduate entrance exams, did I realized how poor my English had dropped to be. These days, reading articles for the coming graduate life seems quite laborious. Thankfully, I saw the recruitment notice of English Bar, and the bright life style of the BM—rayer1798 and other students who stick the faith of study, which triggered me to look back my way of English learning, a way that I once have walked, run, and now draw aloof. I won’t make myself a promise that I should learn English to some certain level, but I would remind how I studied it and try to bring back the passion on it, for language is a symbol of life.

Language is a symbol of life