I believe that practice makes perfect. Nobody was born to know everything or to be perfect at everything.

我相信熟能生巧。没有人生来就无所不知或无所不缺。

I grew up in Lang Ping, China, a small rural town located by a large lake. When I was a child, I did not know why the kids in my neighborhood were able to solve math problems so quickly, read so well, or even have beautiful handwriting. At times, I am worried about my life and about going to school. I was afraid that every student would do much better than I did. I felt stupid because there were things that everyone did better than me. I would ask them how they did it and they would answer that “practice makes perfect.”

我在中国的浪萍长大，那是一个坐落在大湖边的乡村小镇。当我还是个孩子的时候，我不知道为什么我的邻居的孩子能够很快地解决数学问题，阅读能力如此之好，甚至有漂亮的书法。有时，我担心我的生活和上学。我担心每个学生都会比我做得好。我觉得自己很愚蠢，因为有些事情每个人都做得比我好。我会问他们是如何做到的，他们会回答“熟能生巧”。

I really did not believe it until I entered first grade. During the first couple of months, the teacher taught us English and Mathematics. Many of us were confused. Some of us couldn’t even memorize the alphabet. However, the teacher was very patient and told us not to worry and that we just had to practice more.

直到我上了一年级，我才真正相信这一点。在最初的几个月里，老师教我们英语和数学。我们很多人都很困惑。我们中的一些人甚至不能记住字母表。然而，老师很有耐心，告诉我们不要担心，我们只需要多练习。

After several months, I memorized all the letters of the alphabet, and I was able to solve additional problems after some hard practice. It was then that I began to believe that practice makes perfect. I started to spend more time practicing tasks such as solving math problems that I found difficult, hoping to one day become “perfect.”

几个月后，我记住了字母表中的所有字母，经过一些艰苦的练习，我能够解决额外的问题。就在那时，我开始相信熟能生巧。我开始花更多的时间练习任务，比如解决我觉得很难的数学问题，希望有一天能变得“完美”。

When I was 10 years old, my life drastically changed: my family emigrated to Brazil. Then I had to study in another country with a language that was completely different from Mandarin. At first, I had a really hard time, and many times I wanted to give up. I couldn’t understand what everyone was saying, and I felt that I was wasting my time there. However, my mother and my friends in China reminded me that “practice makes perfect,” and they encouraged me to keep striving. They reassured me that anything was possible. As long as I spent time working towards my goals, I would see the seed that I had planted would bear beautiful fruit.

当我10岁的时候，我的生活发生了巨大的变化:我的家人移民到了巴西。然后我不得不在另一个国家学习一门与普通话完全不同的语言。起初，我过得很艰难，很多时候我想放弃。我听不懂大家在说什么，我觉得我在那里是在浪费时间。然而，我的母亲和我在中国的朋友提醒我“熟能生巧”，他们鼓励我继续努力。他们向我保证一切皆有可能。只要我朝着我的目标努力，我就会看到我种下的种子会结出美丽的果实。

With everyone’s support, I worked hard and learned Portuguese. In school, I tried to make more friends and communicated with them as much as I could. After school, I would hang out with them and watch Portuguese TV shows. I also spent twice as much time as them studying. Slowly, my Portuguese improved, and I was able to follow the lessons being taught. My grades in school have improved. I was so proud of myself with the results. It made me realize that if I worked hard and spent the time working on something, I would get a good result.

在大家的支持下，我努力学习葡萄牙语。在学校里，我努力结交更多的朋友，尽可能多地与他们交流。放学后，我会和他们一起玩，看葡萄牙电视节目。我花在学习上的时间是他们的两倍。慢慢地，我的葡萄牙语有了进步，我能跟上老师教的课程了。我在学校的成绩提高了。我为自己的成绩感到骄傲。它让我意识到，如果我努力工作，把时间花在某件事上，我会得到一个好的结果。

I know there will be many difficult tasks that I will encounter in the future, and I probably won’t do well at first. However, I will not be afraid to face these challenges nor will I give up on them. If I feel that something is hard, I know that I must work hard because “practice makes perfect.”

我知道在未来我将会遇到很多困难的任务，我可能不会在一开始就做得很好。然而，我不会害怕面对这些挑战，我也不会放弃他们。如果我觉得有些事情很难，我知道我必须努力工作，因为“熟能生巧”。