Yan writes:

Thank you for answering my letter so quickly that I didn't expect... I remember that you encouraged me just to fire away with questions when I for the first time write to you for some answers, so, here I'd like to talk about my trouble with my English learning. I've been longing for some kind of magic that I could read just like an average English native. To reach this goal, I keep on reading whatever I get. The point is there're so many questions during my reading that I need the answers, even though I try my best to figure them out most of the time, but there are always a few I could not get them right by myself, and how I wish some day I could appreciate or enjoy English literature, especially those masterpieces by those great masters. I've been trying step by step and disappointedly find that I made little progress. Take some phrases, like "no less than/ no more than", and to put one of them into a sentence, "He is no less than a politician", what's the meaning? Still, another, "Try as he may", does it mean "盡管他努力了"?

Longing for your reply badly...

My comments:

Last things first. Don't long for a reply too "badly", or you may get a bad reply.

Now that I've warned you, let's proceed to see how this reply takes us. First you've got it right with "try as he may." For example, "Try as he may, he doesn't get the result he wants."

Similarly in your case, even though you've tried, you feel you're not getting results. "Try as he/she/they/I/you may" is always trailed by a negative statement. And so, it's perhaps time to stop trying. You, in consequence, turn to ask for magic bullets from me.

You're not alone. A lot of people want to learn the magic, or "the trick" of learning English. But the first thing I always say is: There's no trick.

Nor are there magic potions you can drink and transform yourself overnight.

Oh, no. Don't despair. I'm only joking. There are magic potions.

Of course, there are and aplenty. But these potions are for myself alone. They are not very good to share. The only efficacious part to share is that you can make your own magic potions.

I'm only half-joking. Seriously, you must realize that we don't look at things the same way and therefore we get different pictures. For instance, all I see is good progress from you (and as a result I'm happy). I'm not going to air your first letters in public but I can tell – you write much better now.

You, on the other hand, seem to pay too much attention to your deficiencies and therefore despair (despite all the honest good efforts you've put in along the way).

What you need is perhaps a shift of attention. Shift your attention more to what tiny little progresses you've been making rather than toward the big goals you're going to one day get, such as a big raise in salary. Much in the same way that a raise can be an illusion (you get a raise and you think you're rich. You buy a bigger car and you wind up as poor as you were), our deficiencies are also deceptive, and destructive if we obsess over them.

The thing to do is to enjoy the process and not bother with the outcome, which will come one way or the other. Like it is with your letters (the last of which is remarkably much better written than the first), you've been making progress but your attention has been elsewhere. You can't see it. But it's there. Learn to see it and feel proud of yourself.

Proud, but not too proud. If one doesn't try, I always say they perhaps should try. If one tries very hard, then they should relax and look elsewhere. Don't obsess.

If you don't obsess, then perhaps you can afford to obsess a bit. I could spin round and round ad nauseam but won't (you've learned that word, now a second time).

You see, it's a matter of attitude, and a healthy flexible attitude can be cultivated just like building a muscle or learning a language.

Improve your philosophy and your current problem will go away. And perhaps a lot faster, but precisely at what speed, I don't know. You should know, because after all, it's your problem.

Last but not least, you also said you long to be able to read English like "an average English native". That's ambitious alright but my question is, why just "average"?

Beware what you want because you're going to get it one day. And that day, when you indeed can read like an average, only average, English native, don't blame me for not having warned you first.

But then again, it wouldn't be too late to change your mind at that point in time, either. So there.

Have no fear. Persevere.

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.