In the summer of my 4th grade,I took a trip to Beijing with my family and some family friends. As we toured the Forbidden City,wewereawed by itssolemnityas well as the presence of packs of foreign tourists.I had never metanyforeigner before,soIwas overwhelmed. I wondered where all these peoplewere from, what languages they spoke, and what they thought about China.

I had the urge tocommunicate with them, but there was just one problem:I didn’t know a word of English. Someonein my group knew a bit of English, and he probablyread my mind,turning to meandoffering a quicklesson, “Just go and say ‘Hello’ to them.”I did. I went totwo tall blondsstanding nearby anduttered the word to the best of my ability.Throughthe help oftheirinterpreter, I learned theywere fromRussia. I don’t remember much except that they had big smiles. We parted beforesnappinga photo in front of one of the palaces.

Looking back,this is abrief, uneventfulencounter with a foreigner,but to me,it means the firstbaby step I took towardsspeaking Englishto know better about others,a yearningformakingcontact with the outside world, a prequel to more sophisticated conversations with people from far and wide.Ipretty much plantedthe seed that years later would germinateandgrow into a toweringsequoia.

I was11.

Back in the days, English was not offered at school until junior high, so I wasexcitedwhen Istartedto take English classes. However,it was not a breeze andtook quitea bitof getting used to. I found the pronunciations and grammaticalideas particularlydifficult. Asmanyclassmates had already had some tutoringbeforejunior highstarted, I felt I was lagging behind.Thanks to the patience and encouragement of my teacher, Ms. Li, I caught up fast and was soon getting the hang of the language.

Then, as now,English wasa core subject on a par withmaths andChinese. Soon, however, it became more than a subject to me,as Iventured out on the streetsof Pingyao,an ancient city known for its intactly preserved city walls anda then-new darling onthe UNESCO WorldHeritage list.

Theprestige certainly mattered,but it wasalso helped by two bigfactors. For one thing,Lonely Planet, a popular travel guide,helpedspread the wordandput the city on the map.It was so popular that it’s hard not to seeatraveler armed with acopy (though it was as fat and heavy asadictionary).For another,Pingyaois conveniently locatedhalfway between Beijing and Xi’an, two must-see cities to themajority of foreign tourists, meaning it can bean invitingstopover fortravelers tospend a couple of days.

To outsiders, Pingyao was a distinctivedestination; to me, itwasan exhilaratingfairor amassiveEnglish Corner, but so much more fun than a conventional one.By this,I mean Iwould spend many hours on thestreets,breaking the ice and mingling withrandomforeign visitors.Englishwas themagical key toan otherwiseinaccessible world. It was a dancing language, nothing like a subject enthroned in the school curriculum.

Among the many interesting people I have met, some were Jews hailingfromToronto andNew York, some wereSingaporean and American diplomatsseeking a quick respitefroma hectic week in Beijing, yet otherswere from obscure places I had never heard ofbefore(Surinameand Gabon, to name just a few).The national,racial,culturaldiversity was dazzling.

Icame upwith a meticulous planthatprepared me fully andmade speaking Englishlessstressful.At first, I couldonlyunderstand a little English, so to make it work, Ibought abook onspoken Englishand used it as a reference book.First,I wouldask myself what questions I could ask strangers, what their responses would be, what questions they’d have for me, and how I could answer them. Second, I would note down theanswers andpick relevant phrases and sentences from the book. Then I wouldplaythe imaginaryconversations in my head andwritemy own scripts, so to speak. Finally, I wouldrehearsethedialogsagain and again to the point of memorization.

It worked.Not only was I able to reproducethe languageI had worked so hard toprepare,but also I foundmyEnglishwas farmoreableand flexible than I thought.Inretrospect, it is not hard to see why:in real-life conversations,I could take in nonverbal cues andmake sense of whatI didn’t quite get;also,conversations are fluid, which meansI could instinctively usethe contextto puzzle outcertain questions. As myspeaking kept improving, I was able toimitate my interlocutoron the spot. I could even improvise.

Learning to speak Englishwas not the only gain.Most peopleI met were friendly,tolerant, andencouraging. Almost everyperson I met gaveme the thumbs up for my guts andEnglish, even though Iknew my English was far from “excellent”.The more encouragement I received, the more confident I got, and the harder I worked.

By the time I finished high school, I hadconversedwith hundreds of people from 70 countries withouthaving traveled abroad.Todaythat number standsat around 100.English hasmetamorphosed fromthat”Hello” Ispokein the summer of1998intoacompetent skill, and I, too, have grownfrom a small-townteenager into awell-traveledcosmopolitan.

孟庆伟 Justin

个人微 ID：justinqmeng

联合创始人

初中英语 70 分（满分 100）

两次获雅思写作 8 分，口语 8 分

题图：2003年和一个法国人摄于平遥古城