A motivational story about learning
Even if you are the last, don't give up on the college entrance exam. After taking it for three years, I finally got into Peking University. The founder of New Oriental, Yu Minhong, encourages high school seniors with his real-life college entrance exam experience: With the big exam approaching, you need to learn to encourage yourself. Yu Minhong admits that from elementary school to university, he never ranked in the top 20 of his class, but through 'self-encouragement,' he got into Peking University. From a score of 33 to 90, self-encouragement got him into Peking University. Many know that as the founder of New Oriental, Yu Minhong took the college entrance exam three times, but the subject that once held him back happened to be his current strength—English. Yu Minhong said that the first time he took the college entrance exam, he only scored 33 in English. In the repeat year class, with a weak English foundation and no encouragement from teachers, he relied on his strong 'self-encouragement ability' to persevere until the end. In the second year, he scored 55 in English—an improvement from before—but his total score was still low, and he failed again. Amid widespread doubts, Yu Minhong insisted on repeating another third year of high school. That summer, he enrolled in an English tutoring class. With the accumulation from the previous two years and the intense effort in the final year, 'fifth-year student' Yu Minhong scored 90 in English and was finally admitted to Peking University. For students about to take the college entrance exam, Yu Minhong says: As long as you don't give up on yourself, no one can knock you down. 'If no one encourages you, encourage yourself.' After getting into university, 50 elite students from all over the country were grouped into one class, and Yu Minhong was one of them. 'During university, I never ranked in the top 40 of the class. But I didn't give up on myself because of this. If I couldn't memorize the text in one day, I would spend a week practicing it every day, and in the end, I could perform it from memory,' Yu Minhong says. When classmates had similar intelligence levels, the only thing that could make a difference was extraordinary effort and perseverance. He advises struggling students who are about to take the college entrance exam: Even if you are last, maintain a heart that strives to improve. Daily 5-minute vocabulary practice to study English requires camel spirit. 'New Oriental has many talented people, many of whom are returnees from abroad. In terms of speaking, I am not as good as Wang Qiang and Zhou Chenggang (two other New Oriental founders); there is a noticeable accent in my English. But my English vocabulary is unmatched by them,' Yu Minhong says, adding that no matter how busy he is, he takes 5 minutes every day to consolidate vocabulary. 'I have an English-Chinese dictionary app installed on my phone.'Yu Minhong bluntly stated that he is not a genius, and the more than 30,000 words stored in his mind were not accumulated in just a day or a few months, but are the result of reinforcing them every single day over many years. Regarding the vocabulary issue that many people find troublesome, Yu Minhong said there is absolutely no shortcut. One can only struggle against the law of forgetting, spending a certain amount of time each day to consolidate the memory of words, so that vocabulary takes root in the mind over time. Yu Minhong said that many parents focus too much on results when it comes to their children's English learning, neglecting the process. He believes that learning English should embody the spirit of a camel, not the spirit of a fine horse. 'No matter how excellent a racehorse is, if it runs without rest for a moment, it will eventually stop; but a camel on the long desert road requires long-term perseverance, trusting that an oasis will eventually appear ahead.'
