By Zhou Xingzi

At 2 p.m., on July 4, a lecture entitled "How to Learn a Foreign Language from the Perspective of Japanese Learning" was given by Professor Yang Quren from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Yang recalled all the difficulties when he started to learn Japanese at 24. At that time, there were few qualified teachers or materials, which constituted a big problem for a learner. He pointed out the students present were luckier for they were at the age of 18 to 23, a better age to learn a foreign language, and they had access to more materials.

Professor Yang then explained the difficulties and problems students might encounter and the ways to solve them. He illustrated false analogy, negative transfer of the mother tongue, and the Chinese way of thinking and so on and put forward 3 prerequisites for foreign language learning, i.e., confidence, self-discipline and self-control and 3 “き（ki）", i.e., “courage”, “perseverance” and “reciting”. He said that “reciting” doesn’t mean learning by rote and summarizing should be incorporated.

Professor Yang said, “When we’re doing something, we should not give it up half way; we should try our best to finish it.” “Knowledge could never be ‘in the red’, which means it cannot be borrowed; once we acquire it, it won’t be ‘returned’ to anyone." What he said touched the students.