May さんのインタビュースクリプト（その１）May:
Sure. My name is May. Uh, May Youn. I am Korean. I was born in Korea, but I came to the United States
when I was four. Four years old. I have lived in Southern California ever since. I’ve traveled to manydifferent places, but I’ve lived in Southern California—So. Cal. as we often say here. And, uh, for myundergraduate degree I went to UCLA and got a degree in linguistics, uh, study of language. And afterthat I went to Biola University to get an MA in applied linguistics and TESOL, which is Teaching English toSpeakers of Other Languages. And I am currently working at Biola University and this is my fifth, I think
I’m going into my fifth year. And I also work at Pasadena City College. And, and um, what else? Right now
I’m engaged and I am set to get married next month.
Interviewer:
Congratulations.
May:
Thank you. Thank you very much. It’s a very crazy time right now, but I’m alive. So. . . um, yeah, that’s
pretty much a quick life story about me.
Interviewer:
What is the best way to learn foreign languages?
May:Foreign language. Um, that is a great and excellent question. I think, first off, it’s really psychological andvery mental, too, I think. For me, when I was in junior high school, I learned French for a very, very longtime, junior high until college. But while I was in the process of learning French, it was more of, I had to tellmyself I’m going to speak like a French person. Really you just psychologically tell yourself that. And I see
that with my students. For the students that don’t really care, they’re just. . . “Nah, as long as I speak, it’sfine.” They always will maintain that extremely thick accent. But for those students that are really tellingthemselves I want to sound as authentic as possible, um, how do they learn the different. . . I guess, uh. . .
accent is from being constantly exposed. It’s really us going out of our comfort zone, and if you’reconstantly comfortable going to the nearby supermarket where they speak your language, you’re nevergoing to learn it. But you have to jump out of that comfort zone and go deliberately put yourself in a place
where you are surrounded by English. So, I guess that’s kind of first two points – one: psychological; two:
put yourself in the environment.
May:
Now granted, I understand that if you are learning from your home country it’s really difficult to find thatkind of place. So therefore, what you can do is, thankfully we have the Internet, and we are constantly
surrounded by so many things over the Internet. Um, Youtube, I don’t know if you’re familiar with Youtube,
but you could find five thousand different things on there. Even just online radios, uh, don’t listen to theradio that’s in your native language, but listen to a radio, um, that’s in English. And um, I think, listening tomusic, uh, listening to the radio, watching American television, and when you are a beginning learner, I
think subtitles are very helpful, because at that point they’re not able to really differentiate. But many
learners are auditory as well as visual learners. Myself, I am a visual person and, but if I see theauditory-visual connection, it – tink! – goes off in my head. So for beginning learners, I believe they should
be listening, but at the same time see it visually, so they can make that connection. They’re not going to
make the connection right away, um but given enough time and practice they will. And after as they get tothe intermediate levels, start leaning off, leveling off on the subtitles and really try to just, only depend on
the listening. So it’s really “practice makes perfect”, we have that saying in America, and it’s true.
May:Um, I wish there was a very quick formula like mathematics, but unfortunately, fortunately but
unfortunately, people have different speed. Some people pick it up like this. And they are so quick,whereas other individuals, it takes years and years of hard work and perseverance but I think just tellyourself it’s like working out. You cannot, um, lift the two-hundred pound in one day. You have to graduallywork from five pounds, ten pounds, go up. So I think just have patience and perseverance.
Interviewer:
Patience.
May:
Yes. Patience is extremely important. And don’t be too discouraged. English, in my opinion, is probably
one of the most difficult languages in the world because there are too many exceptions. Um, it’s special
cases, D3you have the same spelling but four different pronunciations, like the “ough” – rough, through,bough – it’s just, why do we have so many pronunciations for the same spelling?
Interviewer:
Okay, thank you.
May:Sure.