WHAT IS YOUR OBJECT IN STUDYING ENGLISH？

I ask you this question. But I do not want you to answer me.I want you only to answer yourself. You might answer me falsely. You might answer anybody falsely. But you cannot answer yourself falsely. You do not need to answer yourself falsely.

I do not suspect that your object of studying English may be a dishonourable one. It cannot be to kill a friend，nor to win your neighbour’s wife，nor to pick pockets in the street.

Still your object may be one that you do not like to tell me or anybody else. It may be to please your parents，to be “modern”, to get through an examination as through a fever. Do you，reader，care to say so to me or anybody else？

Whatever your object may be, you must feel free to tell yourself truly.

However，I hope you are a serious student of English. I hope your object is a serious one. It may be to read the English classics in the original, to introduce the best in Western civilization into China, to help foreigners to understand what is now misunderstood of China and things Chinese.

Whatever your object may be，you must aim at the ability to read general literature and to speak and write correct and idiomatic English.