Learning English is not a matter of months.

A former student who graduated from NHSH about 7 years ago called me last night and we chatted over the phone for about 40 minutes. 

He has been very good at math since I taught him English in his 2nd year of high school.  He was studying math textbooks in English then.  Later, he was admitted to National Chinghua University and then NTU graduate school.  Now he is planning to go abroad for his PhD degree. 

Last night he told me he spends almost 10 hours studying English every day for the TOEFL and GRE.  He asked me to tell my students how hard he is working on English though his major is math. 

I remember 7 years ago when he entered university, he told me he often stayed up studying math.  I told this to a math teacher at NHSH who knew him too.   Hearing what I said, the math teacher said, "Tell him to study English."   He suggested that the student go abroad for his Master degree and that in this case, he should be equipped with good English ability.  I relayed his advice to my student.  However, my student's great passion for math kept him from spending time on English.  And now he seems to regret.  Since he doesn't have the habit of speaking English, he finds the oral test especially scary.

It takes years to master a language.   There is no short cut.