Zhang Hong is planning to go to the United States in the spring semester.

W: Hi, Zhang Hong!
W: Hi, Mr. Anderson!
M: I haven’t seen you for a long time. What keeps you so busy lately?
W: Studying English.
M: What makes you study English so hard?
W: You know I’m planning to go to the United States this coming summer. I’m a bit nervous about my English.
M: Your English is very good.
W: Thank you, but I’m afraid my pronunciation isn’t accurate enough and that I might get confused.
M: Don’t worry about it. As an American I understand you quite well. Besides, you’ve passed the "PETS Level 5".
W: Yes. I have passed the "PETS Level 5" but I still find the word order very difficult. Sometimes I know every word in an expression, but I don’t know what it implies. Honestly, when I see an English film, I understand very little.
M: Well, the speakers in the film may speak so emotionally and sometimes with so much local accent that even native audience can hardly tell exactly what they say.
W: I used to study English for entertainment because I didn’t have a special hobby, like playing mah-jongg, to kill time. Now I have a particular purpose for it.
M: So what’s the problem?
W: The teacher assigned me a bunch of homework. She wants me to memorize all the phrases and expressions.
M: She simply wants you to practice them over and over again until they are fixed in your mind.
W: Yes, she said it is necessary to drill as much as possible and the more I apply it in real situations the more natural it will become. Drill is boring!
M: She is right.
W: So, that’s the problem, I need so much practice and I’m getting discouraged.
M: Actually, the fastest way to reach your goal would be to have a VCD player or a tape recorder.
W: Really?
M: The laser discs or tapes have native voices and you can study them by listening again and again and imitating the sounds as many times as you wish.
W: That way I’m not only training my listening comprehension but also my speaking ability.
M: Besides, since English is not your native tongue, you must develop the muscles of your speech organs to produce unfamiliar sounds. When you read, read aloud.
W: And my teacher also said that language is an instrument.
W: Yes, language is intimately tied to man’s feelings and activities. It is bound up with nationality, religion, and the feeling of self. As groups of men developed in different areas of the world, each group created its own spoken language. However, the written language came about long after the spoken language was created.
W: She said that too.
W: She surely sounds like an expert.
W: She is, I guess.
M: You’re certainly lucky to have her as your teacher.
W: I’m glad to hear you say that. And one more problem with’ my English is that I’ve so got used to British English that I feel it hard to understand American English. British English and American English are really about the same, aren’t they?
M: Yes, but it seems to me that some of the spellings are different.
W: That I know. Words like theater and center end in r-e in England instead of in e-r as Americans spell them.
M: Right. And many words which end in o-r in American English are spelled o-u-r in British English.
W: That is not the biggest problem to me. What puzzles me is the American accent. I mean, if someone comes here from England, can you understand what he’s saying completely?
M: Practically no problem at all. But I remember seeing an English movie where the actors kept calling their apartment a flat. Half of the movie was over before I realized what they were talking about.
W: So there are slight differences in spelling and some vocabulary.
M: And pronunciation, too. But basically, we all agree that British English and American English are the same language.
W: Not so different that it prevents Americans and Englishmen from understanding each other.
M: That’s what I mean.
W: Thank you for answering so many questions.
M: My pleasure. Good-bye!
W: Bye!