The beginning of a long road
Lai admired Tsao Chin-hsi enormously and at that moment in class, he decided to devote himself to studying English so that he too could show off his skills. In fact, this desire was the beginning of the young student's road to mastering English. He implored Tsao Chin-hsi to teach him. His classmate readily agreed to do so and went with him to choose a basic English conversation book.
Peter Lai was keen to improve his English as quickly as possible, but he became dejected after only a few days study. In addition, he was sometimes ridiculed because of his poor English in Bible-study class. He felt stupid and vowed to give up, turning to Japanese instead. At the same time, he was thinking about changing to the music department and setting up a band. However, he recalls that "shortly after, I decided to try English again, following Tsao's method: to see oneself as a baby and learn from the very beginning." Once again, it was the strong influence of Tsao Chin-hsi that helped him overcome his fear of failure and press on.
Lai realized that most people cannot speak English well because they are afraid of being ridiculed, so they dare not open their mouths: "The first condition for learning English is to have a good, thick skin!" After that revelation, he allowed nothing to stand in his way.
Washing cars for English
Firstly, on Sundays, he went to Tienmu, the Taipei suburb where most foreigners live, in order to learn Standard English from American soldiers. His idea was to make a deal to wash cars in exchange for English conversation. This move required a lot of courage and, in fact, most of the Americans ignored or rejected him at first. He went there regularly for four weeks and with luck, finally met an American soldier, Turnbull, who was willing to talk with him. Turnbull invited him in, and Lai, feeling very pleased, immediately put on his shorts and went to work on Turnbull's car. He washed it every week for a year.
At the same time, he also started to read widely. Opportunities and resources for learning English were few and far between in those days, so reading was an extremely important skill. Lai realized that it could not only improve his conversation abilities, but also introduced lots of new words and grammar. As the old Chinese saying goes: "If you can learn the Three Hundred Tang Dynasty Poems by heart, even though you cannot write poetry, you will be able to recite poetry." Lai always read out loud, because he realized that if you read only to yourself, it doesn't help you to speak. His main reading was a copy of the English-language edition of the Readers Digest. He read it every day and took regular notes.
With a dictionary by his side
Lai thinks that his English improved so quickly because of his meticulous system for taking notes. After checking his dictionary, for example, he wrote down not only the word, but also a complete sentence in order to remember the word and how to use it. He also wrote down all related words and their meanings. He was never satisfied until he had explored and understood a word completely. The young student spent one year finishing this one issue of the Readers Digest, and in this painstaking way, he built up a deep and solid foundation for his English.
In his third year at university, he started to learn translation. In those days, nobody worried too much about copyright, so he bought a second-hand English-language magazine and translated a number of short stories into Chinese, which he then sent to the family section of the Central Daily newspaper. After a number of tries, his work was finally accepted. The first payment was an encouraging NT$400, more than the small monthly allowance allowed him by the military, and so afterward he did more translation.
At this time, Lai was like a starving tiger looking for food, his particular food being language skills. So as not to drift apart from his classmates because of his study, he often spent time with them during breaks listening to their chatter and trying to translate their conversation into English on the spot. He always carried a dictionary, and when he heard a new word like "submarine" or "hypertension," he immediately looked it up. This habit became very useful for his later interpreting work.
Knowing how to learn is the key
During his four years of college life, Peter Lai strove under his self-imposed rule to "study English every day," and his abilities grew by leaps and bounds. However, because of this dedication and the fact that he often walked around speaking (English) to himself, his classmates gave him the nickname "Crazy Man."
His friend Tsao Chin-hsi eventually finished his doctorate and settled in the US. Recalling his time with Lai, Tsao remembered giving him a number of ideas that he accepted and carried out with his customary zest. "Many people wish to learn English well," Tsao says, "but they are often lazy and impatient. Lai was different. He would never give up before he achieved his aims." Tsao Chin-hsi himself was an outstanding English student because his father educated him from childhood. He commented that during college, he had helped many students with their English, but there were few like Lai Shih-hsiung, who was so wholehearted in his approach.
After Lai graduated, he served for two years as a platoon leader. Then, he gained admittance to a foreign language-training institute in the military and went on to another major stage in his studies. In the college, he was like a cat with the cream: reading, listening, writing, and speaking, all in English every day. If anyone spoke Chinese, they were fined. In this situation, his English improved incredibly quickly, and he graduated as top of the school. According to one teacher, Chang Wei-lin, Lai was the ideal student: highly motivated and incredibly enthusiastic. Chang believes that although there are no shortcuts to learning English, with intelligence and enthusiasm, a good student can achieve twice the result with half the effort. He thought that Lai was such a student: one who knew how to learn.
"I'm still learning!"
At 25 years of age, although Lai had never studied languages at a major university and had never been abroad to study, and even though he didn't start working hard until he entered Fu Hsin Kang College, he had already made the study of English his life's work, and he never stopped. As a result, his English abilities reached greater heights than those of even advanced, university-educated students.
In 1973, the Voice of Free China radio station was recruiting new English-language journalists. Many university and college graduates applied for these positions because of the very attractive salaries offered. In fact, more than 400 hopefuls sat for the examination, amongst them the children of ambassadors, graduates with master's degrees, and even the heads of university foreign language departments.
Lai had just graduated from foreign language school, and because of the excellent salary (up to NT$10,000), and also because he wanted to put his abilities to the test, he applied for a position. The examination was divided into an audition, a writing test and an interview. He passed the first two sections, and in the final part was competing with six others who were all graduates of the foreign language departments of well-known, even famous, universities. Before the interview, when they discovered that Lai was merely a graduate of a military college, they were dumbfounded and asked: "Can a soldier speak English?" Peter replied shyly: "I know only a little English, but I am learning."
Later, nobody could believe that this modest man was the only one offered a position, defeating some of the best language talent in Taiwan. Lai later said that this was the greatest honor of his life, but he had also recently passed another examination to study overseas at government expense, and was in fact preparing to study for a media and communications degree at the University of Minnesota in the US. Consequently, he never took up his position at the Voice of Free China.
During the two years in the US, Lai not only obtained a master's degree in media and communications, but somehow also managed another master's in English pedagogy. Originally, he had planned to study for his doctorate as well, but his wife developed a kidney problem, and her health was becoming worse, so he had to put an end to his studies and return to Taiwan. Because his wife's dialysis was extremely expensive, Lai had to do part time teaching after work in order to make ends meet. Finally, mainly for financial reasons, he retired from the military to teach English full-time.
Teaching through print and music
For his students, Peter Lai is an interesting and inventive tutor, full of wit and humor. He utilizes a variety of teaching techniques and can imitate a number of different English accents. As a result of these qualities, his classes are always packed. When he taught English in Merica TOEFL Institute, there were about 500 students in his class and seats were fully occupied an hour before the lesson began, so there was standing room only for latecomers.
In 1982, in order to teach English more widely, he established a magazine, Ivy League Analytical English, and also taught students who were preparing for university or college entrance examinations over the radio. He explained the structure of sentences, grammar points, vocabulary and how to complete fill-in-the-blanks exercises. In the beginning, the magazine had only a small circulation, so Lai had to be a jack of all trades; not only was he in charge of the academic input, but also developing a market for his publication, so his life was once again very busy. Fortunately, because of his popularity and reputation as an effective and interesting teacher, subscription numbers increased rapidly. At present, Ivy League Analytical English is the most popular magazine of its kind in Taiwan.
Lai has always been an admirer and collector of the Western pop songs that he loved as a high school student. He spent a year of his life translating many of these songs into Chinese, analyzing sentence structures, developing explanations of the grammar and printing the music for his readers, so they can learn English as they enjoy the songs. He says that while there are many ways of learning English, studying through music is one of the better. Audiences can come to appreciate and enjoy the meanings of the songs through an understanding of the structure of sentences and grammar. This method is much more gratifying, and therefore more efficient, than studying textbooks, and it has become one of his favorite techniques in recent years.
Changing, but staying the same
This year, Lai Shih-hsiung is 55 years old. He had been planning to retire, but he feels that he still has a weighty responsibility because of the recent upsurge in the number of people from all walks of life who want to learn English. Since January this year, he has been editing teaching material for Taiwan's English Proficiency Test in the hope that he will be able to help people at all levels to improve their English.
In addition, last year he became a grandfather, and as he witnessed his little granddaughter learning to speak, he realized the importance of building the basics of language abilities at an early age. While he is editing the material for the English Proficiency Test, he is also busy launching a new project aimed specifically at children. This new curriculum, with the friendly title of Peter's English, will hopefully provide the next generation with a sound foundation in the language.
Although Peter Lai's methods for gaining his mastery of the English language may appear diverse and unusual, they are based on a simple and unchanging principle. Today's society is a treasure-house full of rich resources for the study of English. It is there on radio and television and in magazines, but a student needs the conviction, courage and patience to work hard and take full advantage of these resources in order to succeed.