Understanding the Essence of English: A Review of What English Really Is

Recently, I took about two weeks to finish a book called What English Really Is. Frankly, this book is truly remarkable. The author has been working in the ESL education industry for a long time and claims to have taught numerous Chinese students, thus understanding the common problems they encountered in learning English. He claims this is a self-study guide for Chinese students on mastering English. After reading it, I wanted to write a review to share my feelings about this book. I hope it can help other people who are learning English and encountering the same problems as me.

For those readers who are not Chinese, I want to add some background knowledge about learning English in China. Most Chinese high school students have at least 10 years of English learning experience, but after graduating from high school, their English speaking and writing skills are ofthen still not good enough. Something is definitely wrong here and we need to figure it out. Perhaps this book can offer us valuable insights.

The book mainly focuses on one theme that DO NOT EXIST IN CHINESE, BUT ARE CRUCIAL TO ACCURATE COMMUNICATION IN ENGLISH. It is divided into 8 parts:

1. What It’s About, In this part, the author introduces the purpose of this work, such as providing students with a new view on learning English, to help them become aware of their repeated mistakes in English and so on. At the same time, the author highlights other views, for example, One language is not a word-for-word transaction of another and keeping in mind that “how” is as important as “what”. That is to say, the students not only need to memorize the vocabulary but also should know how to apply these words to their lives. Because English is alive and flexible! All learning involves a “feel”, the author hopes students aim to cultivate a “feel” for English in all their work, which will help them to reach success.
2. First Things First, Here, the author stresses the real problem of studying English for many students is not vocabulary. their main problem is understanding and using the fundamental grammatical structures of English correctly. Which structures? That does not exist in Chinese but is crucial to accurate communication in English. Due to these blind spots existing, many Chinese students easily tend to ignore them and make some mistakes.
3. The 4 Golden Keys to English, In my opinion, this the most important chapter in this book. Because the author introduces four vital concepts that less exist in the Chinese language, It delves deeply into the core theme. The author thinks these concepts are the very foundation for success in English, the accurate communication depends on them. The 4 golden keys are Plurals, a, the, and Tense. As a Chinese who is learning English, I think these concepts wowed me. In this part, the author detailed these keys respectively. But there is another key concept that doesn’t exist in Chinese and many students frequently neglect is the third person singular. If the author can add this concept to this book, It would make the book more substantial.
4. Expressing It Correctly in English, the author found that the majority of Chinese students can not ask a question correctly in English. Because the structure of English question sentences is different from that of Chinese. They often rely on intonation to ask a question, following the Chinese pattern of learning English. Students need to open their minds and break up this pattern. Another thing about this part, the author claims that if students know how to ask a question will remarkably improve their English skills, especially in phrasing a constructive question. At the end of this section, the author reiterated the importance of grammatical structures and introduced some vocabulary and error-prone grammar structures.
5. Your Pronunciation Will Make You or Break You, the author thinks that clear pronunciation is critical to student success in mastering English. This part focuses on four vital pronunciation points: 1) The American English vowel sound(a); 2) Final consonants & liaisons, especially the Chinese language doesn’t have consonant sounds at the end of its words. Making it important for Chinese students. 3) “th” (θ) and “th” (ð), the two pronunciations are easy to make mistakes among Chinese students. 4) Contractions, The author hopes students will pay more attention that Americans always use contractions. It is the natural, spontaneous way of speaking English.
6. Some Thoughts on Vocabulary, As the title leaked, this part focuses on vocabulary. However, the author stresses that vocabulary is only part of the picture, the grammatical structures and practising play a crucial role in your speaking and writing. I quote a golden word from the book: IT’S ONE THING TO KNOW “WHAT” A WORD MEANS, QUITE ANOTHER TO KNOW “HOW” TO USE IT CORRECTLY IN A SENTENCE OR QUESTION. The author suggests the students use an authoritative dictionary to look up vocabulary and learn the sample phrase. At the end of this part, students should pay attention to the interchange of parts of speech of English words, such as nouns that can also be verbs.
7. A Word about Writing, In this part, the author mainly states that too long sentences will lead to complications and confusion. He used three examples of long student sentences to support his point and explained that a good English sentence is concise and to the point.
8. Afterword, At the end of this book, the author stresses again the importance of remaining open and aware in a study journey. To learn a new thing, you need to free yourself from the old mindset and start to practise, practise and practise. Keep in mind that ONICE IS NOT ENOUGH. To go over these concepts repeatedly until they become your second nature.

As the author mentioned, this is a book for Chinese students. so the author mainly focuses on where Chinese students tend to make mistakes. He divided these contents into eight parts and meticulously introduced each of these themes.

From my perspective, as a Chinese who is learning English as well, It is an amazing book. The author involved some concepts that less exist in the Chinese language, for example, the four golden keys. Honestly, I made a lot of grammar mistakes related to these, but I had never considered why I repeatedly encounter these issues and what causes them. The four golden keys illuminated the reasons behind these errors and offered solutions to avoid them.

In conclusion, though the text may be somewhat repetitive and verbose in parts, it effectively addresses the challenges faced by Chinese students and provides guidance on how to shift their mindset for successful English learning.