In order to learn a language well, we should also learn about the country as well as the cultures and lifestyles of the people who speak it.
    To what extent do you agree or disagree?
    我完全贊成這個(gè)斷言，即：要學(xué)好一門語言，我們還應(yīng)該了解這門語言的國家、文化和人民的生活方式。
    I fully support the assertion that to learn a language well, we should also learn about the country as well as the cultures and lifestyles of the people who speak it.
    先來看看我們一般情況下是如何定義“真正學(xué)好一門語言”的。按照我的理解，學(xué)好一門語言意味著能夠妥當(dāng)?shù)厥褂盟?。這里，對于妥當(dāng)使用它而言，我們需要知道：由于文化上的差異，很多東西會因此而非常不同。比如，中國人常通過問“吃了嗎？”來表達(dá)問候，而這對于西方人來講便構(gòu)成了午飯或晚飯的邀請。因此，缺乏了對不同國家文化方面的知識，就會引起對所發(fā)送或接收到的信息的錯(cuò)誤理解，結(jié)果便會導(dǎo)致誤解。這樣一來，我們就不能說我們講得妥當(dāng)，再進(jìn)一步，我們就不能說我們講得好。
    Let’s first see how we normally define “l(fā)earning a language really well”. By my understanding, learning a language well would mean being able to speak the language in a proper way. Here, with speaking it properly, we need to know that due to cultural differences, many things are just so different from culture to culture. For example, the Chinese often greet each other by asking ‘Have you taken your meal?’ which, to the Western ears, would make an invitation to lunch or dinner. Therefore, the lack of a knowledge of the cultures of different countries will give rise to wrong interpretations of the message issued or received and as a result, lead to misunderstandings. In this way, we can not say that we are speaking the language properly and further, we can not say that we speak it well