一步一个脚印

My students are always very interested in boosting their English vocabulary. However, I noticed that many of the vocabulary books published in China are of a poor quality – they are either full of Chinglish or don’t select the most practical words for students to learn. So I decided to create a few of my own vocabulary lists for my blog readers. 我的学生总想提高他们的英文词汇量。可是我发现，中国出版的词汇书，大部分质量不好，要么是充满着中式英语，要么是选的词汇不够实用。所以，我决定自己写些词汇表给我的博客读者使用。

One important thing to remember: vocabulary are like vitamins. Absorbing a few each day is good for your health, but there’s no point in taking in too much, as there is a limit to how much information your brain can handle. Also, regular exercise (i.e. practice!) is just as important in learning a new language. So when you learn new words, don’t just memorise them – try to put them into use as well! This way you won’t end up forgetting them. 有一点要注意的是，词汇就像维生素一样。每天摄取一些，对健康有益，但摄取太多则没有必要，因为你的大脑能接受的信息是有限的。而且，学外语时，常规锻炼（即练习！）一样重要。所以，你学新词的时候，不要死记硬背——尽量把它们用出来！这样你就不会忘记它们。

I have chosen these words based on their frequency of use and degree of usefulness. When reviewing them, pay special attention to their pronunciation and example sentences. You may find some of the usages strange – they are not. Actually, this is what we call “idiomatic English”. One of my students, upon reading these sentences, remarked, “My God! Could it be I have been learning ‘fake’ English for all these years?!” 我选这些词，是按照它们的使用频率和有用程度来选择的。复习这些单词的时候要特别注意发音和例句。你可能会觉得有些用法读起来怪怪的——并非如此。其实，这些都是我们所说的“地道英语”。我的一个学生读到这些句子，说：“天啊，那么多年我原来学了个假英语！”

Jokes aside, teachers see the trend of students from China memorising large volumes of ‘fancy words’ as disturbing. It is not only a waste of time, but does little to raise their proficiency in English. The reality is the only way students from China can make any breakthrough in their English is to ‘unlearn’ the deep-rooted mistakes they have learnt and start again from the basics. They should focus on learning the correct spelling and pronunciation of simple and practical words, as well as their common usages and collocations. 说真的，许多英语老师们发现，中国学生背诵大量“装逼词汇”已经成为了令人极度困扰的现象。这样的做法不仅浪费时间，而且在提高英语水平上没什么作用。现实的情况是，中国学生要在英文学业上有突破的话，必须unlearn（忘记）他们学过的根深蒂固的错误，然后重新从基础开始。他们应该集中于学习简单而实用的单词，包括其正确拼写和发音，以及常见用法和固定搭配。

I hope these vocabulary lists provide a good starting point for students to do this. 我希望这些词汇表可以给学生一个良好的出发点来实现这个目标。

Download Carl’s Recommended English Vocabulary – Part 1

下载傅君恺英语词汇表第一部

Download Carl’s Recommended English Vocabulary – Part 1 here