Dec 14, 2008

My experience and journey of English study Chongchong Que

As the fall semester is slowly coming to an end. I do not know how to express my feeling at this moment. I can just feel my heart beating so quick. Actually, English writing baffle me all the time, but the happy thing is ENG 2F taught me a lot. I would sincerely like to thank my professor Bai and classmates.
It seems that writing skill is extremely difficult to master for us. Here, I would like to talk some personal experience about how to improve it.
Firstly, you need to think in English as if you were a thoroughly native speaker, and then write down what you've come up with. In my opinion, it's the best way to learn a second language.
Next, do not stop reading. Making Reading one of your hobbies can be a great help Since those articles and books make you see the way in which those native speakers think and express.
Thirdly, I find that to speak with and listen to those natives can also be helpful, for the written english is more like the spoken one in terms of syntax than what you thought it should have been. It means that the most fundamental part of writing is to write down what you want to say.
Finally, those quotes and poets are great sentences, but bear in mind while you use them that much of them were composed in some abnormal ways of sentence structure, which can be different from those we run into each day. If becoming a newspaper editor or a professional writer is not your dream, it is not necessarily appropriate to imitate the ways those poets and authors do.
To me, learning English is not exactly like learning other subjects, to be frank. I haven't tried seriously learning it yet. A language is not like Chemistry or geography which requires hours in the classroom and a whole lot of textbooks, and most importantly, a teacher there to tell you what to do from one detail to another. I have definitely rejected to follow. I don't know, I figured that English is more like an art, like symphony or a movie that can't be understood through the description of another person.This might sound gross but it's true, you have to be there, try to feel the words and grasp the rules. Just like how you've learned to say your first Chinese words.
Before I came here, I remember, there's this one summer when I was at the most boring and wandering age, 22 maybe. I had nothing to do all day except suffering from the hot weather during my vacation. I picked up this VOA tape of my friend's which was covered up with dust. In the following days I spend much time listening to that tape, for it was what I then thought the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. There were news about the wars in middle-eastern Asia and instructions of making tofu out of beans. My favorite part was the story of cowboys in the western desserts of America. From what I remember, I chewed each every pronunciation as if they were strawberry gums, they were perfect. I guess I could fall in love for another language such as French or Spanish just like so. There's a whole wide world hiding behind the scene consisted with letters and words, there's history, there's culture, there are pounding hearts. The language itself is alive. That summer is what I call the real gateway to English learning, and that tape is the best English tape I ever owned.
Later I became addicted to movies and rock music, I guess they are part of the reason why I somehow managed the language in an invisible way. After all, I embarked on a American journey and continue with English learning.
Tempus fugit, although, it's the end of my Eng 2F class, but I believe it's the new beginning of my English writing journey. Everything I remembered in the class that will help me a lot in the future, whatever I am a student or working.

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