Ron's ESL Blogs

Candy Huang was my best friend in my high school life, who was a communicative, funny and easygoing girl. I still remember the first day we met in school. It was the first school day. We were all new in school, everyone was sitting in class and waiting for the teacher. I was also sitting in my seat silently, because I was a little nervous in a new place. Everybody in class was new to me. Just a moment, a girl came in with a big smile on her face, sat beside me. She said “hello” to me and introduced herself. It made me feel so comfortable. I made my first friend in school.

She always smiles like the  sunshine. Even though she was in blue, she could remain optimistic. She told me that, our lives were not long, we should enjoy our lives. Time would lapse, even though we were unhappy. Why not enjoy it? She failed the final Math test in the first semester. All our friends came and comfort her, but she just smiled and said it didn’t matter. From then on, she studied hard on Math, she wanted to do it well and get a high score on it. Finally, she did it.

She was not only optimistic but also eager to help others. I got a pneumonia in the days that SARS happened. I need to stay in hospital for one week. At that time, I was worried about my study because the final test was coming. To my surprise, Candy came to visit me in hospital everyday after class. She brought me the homework, and help me to solve the problems in my study. I was so touching at that time. From then on, we became the closest friends.

We are all grown up now, but we are still the best friend. After graduated from high school, she failed to enroll in a university, but she didn’t give up. She continued to study in college,. She is working now, but she still keeps studying, she goes to school at night and wants to get her bachelor degree. I wish she can succeed. And her insist encourages me. I will keep on studying.

My childhood life looks like an intriguing book. As a child, I did many interesting and stupid things. There are some memories that are blurry to me now, but there are still some unforgettable things in my memory. My most unforgettable memory was I drunk cleanser as milk.
When I was six years old, I liked drinking milk very much. One day, I saw my mother used milk as a face mask. Thus I thought milk could be anything. That was amazing. And my mother had a milk cleanser that looked like milk. One day, my mother went to market but I am at home. I want to drink some milk but no more. I tried to drink the milk cleanser. It felt wrong decide and tasted so bad. Then I vomited and washed my mouth. Suddenly, I hit the cleanser bottle and lost some cleanser. I didn’t know what to do. Then I put into some milk in cleanser bottle and shook it. Finally, my mother found it. But my mother just laughed me. She said, “You’re so cute.”
Until today, I still remember I drunk cleanser. Even several years after, it is funny experience in my mind. I will talking to my grandchild as my childhood story when I became grandma.

My best friend TVC has so many good trail. One of  his good trail is helpful. He is a helpful person, he likes helping people . He used to help me a lots.

One example happened three year ago, when we were in high school together. One of my classmate, his name is Vincent and he got sick. He couldn’t go to school and missed classes. No one in class help him but TVC. One day , TVC didn’t see Vincent come to class anymore, then he thought it would be something wrong. He found out that he got sick . He asked teacher Vincent’s phone number and address. He came to Vincent’s house and helped him to catch up with class. Ove week later, Vincent got well and came to class. He hasn’t missed anything, TVC helped him a lots.

To give another example, I am a student so bad at math , i always get low score for my math test. My score was about 50%-60%. TVC voluntered to be my math tutor,  to help me to improve my math skill. He told me to practice more , and my math skill would get better soon . He spent all his free time to help me . I was so worry , because the final test is coming , and if my math skills don’t get better ,i would fail that test. Finally , i got high score from my final test , after so many day study hard with TVC. I was so happy.

One more example took place a few months ago , I was on the way to school by motocycle. My school is kind of far from my house like 30 minutes away. I was taking freeway , and this car was driving behind me and hit me suddenly. i fell down and my hand hurts a lots and bloods were falling down. I was so nervous and did not know what to do. I called my house and there was no one pick up the phone, and i called my best friend TVC to help. He was in class and he left class to come with me . He helped me eveything , and went to hopital with me.

TVC is a helpful people. A good friend with good trail that I never had. I’ve learn how to be helpful person from him.

English has an ability to express an idea or concept with the finest details possible.

This can be done using synonyms.

A synonym is a word with the same, or almost the same, meaning as another word.

For example, you could say, “Janet wears a blue hat and a red dress.”

You could also say, “Janet sports a navy cloche and a burgundy gown.”

Let’s explain the second sentence:

“Sport” means “to wear in a proud way.”
It is a synonym of “wear.”

“Navy” means “very dark blue.”
It is a synonym of “blue.”

“Cloche” means “a woman’s hat that is shaped like a bell and fits close to the head.”
It is a synonym of “hat.”

“Burgundy” means “dark red,” like the Burgundy wine.
(That’s wine from an area in eastern France called Burgundy.)
It is a synonym of “red.”

“Gown” means “a long woman’s dress, worn in special occasions.”
It is a synonym of “dress.”

If we didn’t have the above words in the English vocabulary, we would probably say something like this:
“Janet proudly wears a very dark blue hat. Her hat is shaped like a bell and fits close to the head. She also wears a dark red long formal dress.”

This is longer and slightly less accurate. (Though definitely clearer if you are unfamiliar with the above words!)

- Now reread the first and second sentences.
- After reviewing each, Imagine Janet’s appearance.
She looks quite different, doesn’t she?  :-)

This is only one way of using synonyms.

Understanding synonyms (and their opposite – the antonyms) is important to truly mastering the English language with all its “colors” (= aspects).

1) So what are synonyms and antonyms?

2) Pretty, beautiful, handsome… what’s the difference?

3) Why are synonyms and antonyms important?

4) How to use them to improve vocabulary?

5) How to use them to improve writing skills?

Visit the Synonyms and Antonyms lesson to get the answers.

There are many ways on learning English such as attending school, buying English course, taking online classes, reading books and talking English frequently. Learning English is a challenge for some people although to others it is easy to learn.

 For me learning English is a challenge, because I’m a shy person to speak to others, when I speak English I get nervous and my tongue freezes then the pronunciation is different from the spelling also English is not my first language and learning a second language is not easy as it looks. These are some of the problems for me to learn English, but this time I’m very confident on myself to reach my goal on learning English that’s why I’m trying hard on it.

 These are my ways to learn English, first of all I’m coming to school every day, I pay attention in class, I’m doing my homework and the exercises in the book, also I’m reading books at home, listening to the radio and watching TV in English. Another thing that I’m doing is speaking a little more English with others.

 Second I’m writing every day a short paragraph without worrying about punctuation and spelling for me it is a way to help myself on how to write an essay. Another thing that I’m doing is writing vocabulary words this way; I learn how to spell and the meaning of the word.

 Third I download applications on my phone like grammar, how to pronounce the words, verbs, prepositions and more, also I’m studying on the web site the teacher gives us.

 The most important to learn English is studying hard and be a fighter to achieve the goal of learning