Hi, friends! As you know, the English language is getting more and more important in our studies and lives. Why? Because most people in the world speak English? Because it is one of the five working languages in the United Nations? To be more exact, that's because the English language is used as the world language nowadays.

I hadn't ever seen the English alphabet until I entered Hangzhou Foreign Languages School. During my first English lesson, the importance of learning¹ English was clearly explained. I suddenly realized how bright my future would be if I learned² English well. I would be able to enjoy English cartoon movies. I would be able to understand English short stories and novels. I would be able to communicate with most foreigners in this world without difficulty.

How could all these come true?

Textbooks were surely not enough for me because the world today is full of new information. Reading more out of class be-came so necessary. However, the most important was to speak English as much as possible. Just as my English teacher, Miss Hua, always says, "We learn English not only for exams. We are studying English to get closer to the world. We read to know more while we must speak to get known, or we can never com-municate successfully.

Little by little, I found English a really interesting subject at school. After two years' hard work, now I can speak directly to my American teachers and be fully³ understood. I can sing beauti-ful English songs at parties. I can exchange ideas with friends on the other side of the Pacific through E-mails. I can even read orig-inal English novels with the help of my dictionaries.

See! English means so much to me. I feel incredibly happy about myself too. It has become a part of my life as well.

It is true that I am learning about the western countries. Nevertheless, this is not my final purpose of learning English. At school, we have American teachers every semester⁴. During class, they inform us of their culture as well as their country. But out of class, they are more interested in learning about our hometown, our country, our people, our culture and customs. This reminds me to try harder to introduce China to more westerners. I always keep in mind: we are learning about the world and the world is learning about China at the same time. Communication is mutual⁵.

English has become a bridge between China and the western countries. Friends! Let's work hard together to improve our Eng-lish 1 Let's practice English wherever and whenever we meet! Let's use English to let the world learn more about China! Come on!

指导教师：华莹