Name 

Yuan Liu

Mother tongue 

Chinese (Mandarin)

Lives in 

I currently live in the United States. My hometown is Changzhou, which is in Jiangsu province, in the eastern part of China. 

Can you tell me a bit about yourself?

I am a PhD student in Civil Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I study extreme precipitation and floods and their impacts on our lives. 

Can you tell me about your language-learning journey?

As far as I remember, the first time that I started to seriously improve my English by myself (rather than through mandatory courses by the school) was in my second year in college (in 2017). At that time, I started to improve my speaking skills by practicing some example conservation questions for the IELTS test. 

During the second and third year in college, I spent a lot of time (about an hour a day) preparing for the IELTS test and GRE test. This included doing lots of reading, listening, and writing exercises. A big chunk of time was spent on expanding my vocabulary. The way I tried to memorize new words was to write them down, along with their translations. I used an app to help me build a schedule, where I learned about 5-10 new words and reviewed 30-40 old words each day. 

However, in my current opinion, simply writing down new words is not an effective way of expanding vocabulary. I think it is more useful to learn the English explanation of the new word instead of memorizing the Chinese translation of it. Also, pronouncing and writing down a whole sentence (or even paragraph) with the new word. This helps learning the appropriate context of using the new word.

During my college, I also spent some time doing shadowing, using movies like The Godfather, the Iron Lady, the Legend of 1900, etc. as my source material. This turned out to be very helpful in improving my pronunciation and speaking skills. 

After I left college in 2020 and started my graduate life in the US, I practiced English mostly through conversation with people. I spent a lot of time doing shadowing with video clips and podcasts in my free time. I’ve tried to read books, but it was a bit mind-consuming after a week of doing research and reading papers. 

What have you found the hardest thing about learning English?

I think it is learning the culture of the English-speaking country (either the US, UK, or Australia). There are so many traditional words, phrases, expressions, as well as things, people, events, that are familiar to local people and appear in their daily conservations. The local culture is so profound and evolving that there aren't suitable courses for them.

What's your main goal for improving your English?

I learn it because I enjoy the process of learning a language and being able to use it in conservation.

What are your other favourite ways to improve your English? (e.g. reading books, YouTube vidoes)

Shadowing short video clips (like those from the Big Bang Theory). Basically, listen and immediately repeat the line. Repeat 2-3 times for each video clip until you can memorize the whole conversation.

Do you have any special tips for someone trying to improve their English?

Do more shadowing for movies, video clips, podcasts, or anything you are interested in.

Do you have any special tips on staying motivated?

Try to make it a hobby. However, I understand that not everyone can make learning a language a hobby. In that case, I would say make and stick to a schedule of practice.  

Why did you decide to become a member of Leonardo English?

Because I can listen and do shadowing with the podcast without getting lost or distracted when I am driving 😊.

Getting high quality content every week and getting involved in this community of learning English.

Can you share a little bit about your “podcast” routine? How do you use the podcasts to improve your English, and do you have any tips for others?

Like I said, I listen to it and do shadowing when driving to school or grocery. The starting and ending speech of the podcast has stuck into my mind...This is also a tip for others who want to improve their pronunciation and speaking skills.

If I have more time, I will read through the podcast text and figure out the new words. I will repeat this podcast to see if I catch those words and understand them. This usually takes an hour.

What's your favourite English Learning for Curious Minds episode (and why)?

The Cambridge Five 😊

It’s cool! I like things like the USSR, espionage, and cold war stuff.