A FEW WARNING WORDS

In this book you will find many bits of advice and information that you have not found elsewhere. I shall write in the light of my own experience and in the belief that what I say will be of practical use to you，and I hope that you will find it really useful.

Here I will say a few warning words. I say “warning words”，mind. I feel that most Chinese students of English— including you perhaps — need warning.

First of all, I have to warn you against spending money and time on books that profess to teach you something but really teach you nothing. There is no royal road to the mastery of English. You cannot master English in three years，still less in three months. You cannot learn composition by reading about some rules of composition. You cannot acquire the ability to write correct English by reading an outline of grammar. Don’t imagine that every author of a composition book or a grammar can himself write a composition or write correct English.

Secondly，I have to warn you against respecting persons. You learn English；you learn the English of the English people，not the English of a few professors and Ph.D.’s. You will do better to read a third-rate English novel by an unknown author than read any treatise by a Ph.D. who knows more about the way the English people eat or swim than the way they write.

Thirdly，I have to warn you against trying to be “literary” or “classical”. You should aim at a clear and idiomatic style, but not at any “literary” or “classical” beauty. You may have considerable literary talent or even genius. But you cannot possibly express it in English before you can write clear and idiomatic English.

Fourthly，and lastly，I have to warn you against confining yourself to a few school-books. You cannot master English without reading widely. By “reading widely” I mean the reading of not only books and magazines and newspapers but also anything else in English that you may come across. A poster or a signboard may teach you some practical English that you cannot learn from another source.