I have been told by more than one bookseller that, here in China, so far as books on English are concerned, grammars sell better than other kinds of books except readers and dictionaries. And it seems to me that nearly every Chinese who learns English at all reads a grammar. I myself am a serious student of grammar; I have read I cannot tell how many English grammar books, by Chinese, English, American, Japanese, Danish and Dutch authors, and am always on the look-out for new ones.
The object of this article, however, is to advise you not to devote too much time to the study of grammar. I study grammar for grammar's sake, but I do not think every student of English should do so. You study English in order to be able to make practical use of it. This object is not to be attained by mere study of grammar. I do not even think I should now be able to write such simple English as that of this book if I have read nothing but grammars.
Grammar tells you some general rules, some exceptions to rules, and perhaps some idioms. But the correct use of English is not a mere matter of such. For example, grammar has what is called the double object, as in "He gave her a pen"; but it would be wrong to say "He introduced her a friend", in which "her" and "friend" seem to form the double object. The fact is that "introduce" cannot take the double object; but this point is not to be learnt from grammar but only from careful reading. Many Chinese students write sentences that might be justified by one grammatical rule or another but are certainly wrong.
I believe you have already read a few grammars, and probably have spent a great deal of time on the subject, though you may not now be able to write anything – say a short letter – grammatically prefect. Grammar may help you to use English, but only to a certain extent. Do not look on the study of grammar as all or nearly all that you have to do in order to master English. Careful reading and constant practice are far more important.
NOTES
1. as far as books on English are concerned 就论述英语的书而论
2. readers 读本
3. new ones=new grammar books
4. study grammar for grammar's sake
5. such=general rules, exceptions, and idioms
6. justified 视为正当
7. say 例如
8. to a certain extent 到某种程度
9. look on...as... 把...看作...
