2023年12月30日发(作者：三星note10配置参数)

本文为笔者本人为QQ号码369582271所作的一篇Application Essay，但由于客户爽约拒绝付款，特此上传至百度文库供各位分享。

本文讲述了作者英语学习中对于口音的纠结，从最初的“一定要纠正口音”，到最后的“坚持练习，如果口音还有，那就保留吧”展现了作者的完美主义遭遇现实困境时，内心所遭遇的成长历程。追求完美是好的，但切勿为了追求完美，而忽略了事务的本质。

It was a sultry afternoon in early summer. The air was hot and damp, carrying the saline scent of

the tropical sea. The class had just finished their lessons of the day, and noise was arising while

Mr. Darrel was collecting his teaching books before heading for the office.

“XXX, will you come with me to the office, please?” Mr. Darrel stopped at the door and asked me.

“Not again!” I was a bit reluctant, but still I followed him to the office.

The story went back to a summer camp in XXXX, when I was selected to attend a summer

program in Lake Forest Academy in Chicago, where I got mingled with people of different

nationalities. I studied and lived with these lovely friends for five entire weeks. At the end of the

program,there was an English Talent Competition in which all students were required to

participate. I was a bit exhilarated because I had participated in and been awarded championship

of similar competitions in my home country. All went well until the commentary session. The

impartial judges gave high praises and I quite enjoyed it. Then one of them remarked, “You

remind me of my last trip to China. I recognize your Chinese accent!” It was only an unwitting

joke, but to someone who had always thought that her oral English was impeccable, it was the

beginning of a nightmare.

Before that I had always thought my oral English sounded quite native. As one of the top students

in the class, I started reading English novels when I was in junior high school, and the Harry

Potterseries was my favorite. Among all Hogwarts Houses, my favorite is Slytherin, who honors

the spirit of “using all means to achieve ends and never stopping without conquer”.After the

summer camp, I was really frustrated, but the“Slytherin” spirit inside my heart motivated me to

fight.

So I madewell-plotted plan. I downloaded English movies and repeated the lines sentence by

sentence; then I recorded my voice and compared it with the original version, and revised my

pronunciation again and again. Sometimes I had to repeat one sentence for hundreds of times.

Yet it didn’t seem to work. After several months, my accent wasn’t experiencing satisfying

changes. In fact, it seemed as stubborn as I was and resisted any change.

Then Mr. Darrel noticed my change and invited me to his office.

“I have noticed that you are struggling with your pronunciation lately”, said Mr. Darrel. “Is there

anything I can do to help?”

This wasn’t the first time we had similar conversations, and my answer was as usual.

“Thank you, Mr. Darrel, but I think I just need more time to practice.”

“Are you ashamed of your accent?” he suddenly asked. Confirming his conjecture from my

averted sight, he continued. “Do you know that people’s accents will hardly change after they are

12 years old?”

That was something that I had never heard of before, and I was stunned.

Mr. Darrel continued, “Your pronunciation has improved lately, though not as significant as you’d

expected. However, always remember that English is but a tool for communication. Some things

are more important than accents, for example, your ability to properly organize your thoughts in

English.”

His words stroke me like a lightning. I instantly realized how superficial I had been all the time. To

me learning was a process that could give me a sense of fulfillment and superiority, but I had

never pondered how I could use what I had learnt, which, however, is exactly the purpose of

learning. My stubbornness to perfect my pronunciation had some rationale, but there were more

important things that I should focus on.

I still spend half an hourpracticing my pronunciation, but I do not care that much about my

accents now. I guess they will learn to perfect themselves, just like I learn to grow and mature.