LEARNING English can be a hard process. If only there were some shortcuts! Though hard work is a must, winners of a recent English speaking competition say there are some strategies that can certainly help you enjoy the process and naturally pick up English.

　　Fu Shuning, Shao Yushi and Tiffany Ip are the top three winners of the senior high category of the 11th China Daily “21st Century Cup” National High School and Primary School English Speaking Competition, held in Xiamen, Fujian on March 22-23. These students impressed the judges and the audience with their strong command of the English language.

　　Fu, the 16-year-old first-place winner from Nanchang Foreign Language School, Jiangxi, owes her good performance to watching English movies and TV series. Easy and relaxing movies about school life, like High School Musical and Camp Rock, are her favorites. “I can easily relate to the stories and I learn the idiomatic expressions with the help of my foreign peers ,” Fu said.

　　She added that she doesn’t use the Chinese subtitles when watching movies because they are distracting and sometimes “not completely accurate or even wrong”. “Use the English subtitles to learn the vocabulary or just listen to strengthen  your listening ability,” she suggested.

　　Besides watching English movies, 17-year-old first runner-up Shao from Jinhua No 1 High School, Zhejiang, reads English novels and magazines. She has finished many classic novels like Emma and Pride and Prejudice, and she subscribes  to American magazine Time online.

　　“Only when we have enough ‘input’ can we present excellent ‘output’ – speaking and writing in English,” Shao said.

　　However, as one important part of the “output”, speaking has always been a big problem for many students. The second runner-up, Ip, from Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong, said her way to overcome it is to “seize every opportunity to speak English”. The 17-year-old goes to English schools and has taken part in many English activities like debates and speech competitions.

　　“Your school might either offer no classes in English or hold few English activities. But you can speak English with your classmates during the break, create English activities by yourself or find related opportunities online,” Ip said. “When the environment doesn’t offer you what you want, you should create it on your own.”