Ron's ESL Blogs

I am a chinese, i have beenn studied english for about 10 years. The first time leaning english was in my primary school, i think the english is fresh and interesting, i was reading every day that is fun.

howere, i transferred to high school. The english is very dry and difficult that is one of the most important sujects in my high school life. Almost every one knows that we should learn english well, but i don’t know how to learn it well. My english exam failed again and again , i am worred. English is very difficult to me, i try to give up, because i don’t need use it in my life in china. But the god will make a joke to people.

In the end of my high life, i got a chance to go to  the Unite State, but  i was so afraid, because i am not ready and i cant speak english as well as, i regretted why i didn’t study english. At present, i am almost afraid of talking to people. usually,” sorry i don’t understand.” i knew english is very important in my life. I try to study it now, It is the first step that is troublesome, and i lost much time in my before, i should get a new start.

I try to get some english class in my college, i got key points in study english. firstly, we should be brave to talk with in english, by doing this , i can improvetalking and listening skill. secondly. i try to listen to all kinds of english programmes,news,radio as much as possible. in this way , i can gradully improve our pronunciation. thirdly, i should often reading in english.

let’s start on the way!

When you are a child and you start to speak, it is easy, because your parents and people close to you are talking in their language all the time, that is why you learn to speak it, and it becomes your native language.

After a few years, school begins, you meet other children speaking the same language and you start to communicate with them that is the way to improve your language; with practice.

I lived in Mexico, where the official language is Spanish and it seemed to be difficult to learn a different language, because everyone around speaks Spanish and you can’t practice well.

In my case I started to learn English when I was 5 years old. At that time I met an uncle who used to live in the US but he had to go back to Mexico. He liked to take me to the park, to the movies, to buy an ice cream, everywhere. And when we went out, he taught me some words in English. I still remember the first words I learned: Pumpkin, lobster, pillow, cat, dog, mom and dad. I really enjoyed his “classes”, although he didn’t teach me grammar, he helped me to discover a new skill.

Everything was perfect, but one day my parents and I moved to another state and I couldn’t see my uncle very often, only on vacation.

However I felt excited to keep learning and I decided to do it by myself. How? Sometimes I don’t know, I started to listen to music, memorize song’s lyrics, watch tv or movies in English, of course. Also, I had a vocabulary notebook with all those words that I didn’t know.

Time went by, and when I was in high school I took English classes at school but they didn’t work to me, because I knew already everything that the professor was teaching us, and of course I always got the best grades. I felt frustrated but glad at the same time; I had a great knowledge, but I wanted to learn more and I couldn’t do it with those poor classes. That’s why I kept using my own method.

When I decided to come to the US, I knew it was going to be a challenge, but I took the risk, and now I can practice cause all I can hear all day long is English, and I believe this is the best way to improve my new language.

I remember I took my first English class in Mexico, when I was in middle school. I have to admit that I was so excited about it. However, a few days after I started my English class, I lost all the interest, and also I hate English at this time. But destiny is hard to describe and I come to the United States of America, and for firs time in my life I realize how important was to learn English for me.

I remember my first English professor was so nice with me. He helped me a lot understand my second language. He also motive me to learn English. For first time in my life a felt happy to be in an English class. One of the things that I remember most is; when I was out from school and I was walking to my home, I used to read every sing, or flyer that I founded while a walked. Days after I start to read my short stories from my a little sister’s book.

After some months, my next step was tried to watch TV in English or listen English radio. But for me this practice was so hard, and I almost desist of these activity, because I couldn’t understand a single word. Then I used one strategies that really works for me, when people are talking in English I translate in my mind, every word that I heard. I remember one day that I was in class, the professor started talking, and talking then I realized that I was understanding every word without translation. That day I felt so good. That day I started to watch TV again.

However, the process of learning how write English have been very difficult for me. One of the reasons that I felt that happens to me, is because I’m a very good writer in my first language. So a lot of the times, when I write, I think in Spanish. However my last class of ESL help me a lot with my English writing. My professor was a very good teacher.

I don’t know if my way to learn English is the best way to do it. However I’m pretty sure that is the one that works for me. At this moment of my life I enjoyed a lot my second language. I also enjoyed the music, movies, but one of the things that I most enjoy is the opportunity to communicate with people of different cultures.

It is obvious that English is really important nowadays, people start learning English when they are in elementary schools. As a type of western language, it is really difficult for Asian to understand it. As a Chinese, the language I learned is quite different from English, different word structure; different grammar; and different pronunciation. All those things prevent us from learning English well.
However, no matter how difficult problems are, there will always be solutions for that. People try difficult ways: they listen, they shout, and they go abroad for study. Being a college student, I also have my own ways of learning English.
When I was seven years old, I had my first English lesson in an elementary school. At that time, I found English was so hard that I absolutely have no idea how to speak that weird language, and of course, my score on English was really poor.
Thongs begin to change when I attend a middle school. I was lucky that I met a really good English teacher. His name was Mr. Fire, he was my father’s best friend and they used to be colleagues. Like his name, Mr. Fire was passionate and friendly. Because of him, I began to feel interested in English. And one of the most important things that he taught me was one way of learning English. At that time, we were learning a book called<New Concept English>. Every student of Mr. Fire was required to recite all the texts and Mr. Fire told us, if we want to speak English fluently, we should read English out loudly, not in silence. Besides, we should listen to tapes and follow the right or standard English pronunciation, Even now, I still keep that habit, I like reading English out loudly when I read books or newspapers. I think that is a good way of learning, and that helps me a lot with my English pronunciation.
The method of association is also a good way of learning English. When I read English stories or scientific articles, I will not use the dictionary at first; Instead, I’ll try to figure out the meaning of the new words by reading through the whole passage. After that, I’ll check the new words up in the dictionary if I still don’t understand them. I think that’s also a good way of learning English. Actually, when we learn Chinese, we use the same way when we come across new words while reading.
In spite of the methods above, some of my teachers also recommend that it is good to learn English by watching English movies. Here are several reasons: First, watching movie is fun, we won’t feel boring when we study English. Second, we usually learn formal English in school, but through movies, we are able to learn some spoken English that is useful. Third, pronunciation. In some movies, the actors or actresses speak really fluently and clearly. Because of that, we can practice our listening, and learn how to speak English like a native speaker.
In conclusion, reading English loud, using the method of association, and watching English movies are my three ways of learning English. I think those ways are useful, reasonable and I highly recommend them.

Starting back in Middle School, I had three brilliant skills to learn English. A faster way to do it was having all of my friends talk to me nothing but English. Read many books and watch TV.
First, I started by making friends that were Chinese, Americans, and Japanese anyone whom would never talk to me in Spanish. People had asked me why I was doing hanging out with individuals that I could no understand a word of what were they saying. My answer was simple; for me to speak as a native languages I need to think and feel like them. “I am hungry of a new language! I want to feed my tongue and feed my ears of English. Crazy huh? But until this point it is hard to believe it only took me about six months to learn basic skills. What I mean with this is I was already able to communicate with others. My English teacher was amazed to see my progress in such of a short time. She said my English level was equal to students who had been in this country over a year.
However, my English teacher was tremendous help on my way to learn English. Twice a week, she had our class to read the news paper and choose two interesting article which we be able do a research. As follow, we had to read one inside class and outside book. The inside class book was chosen by our teacher. We had to write a summarize of twenty page everyday, along with a ten question about the reading. Besides, we had our out side reading book which we had to read every day and turn in a summarize by the end of the week. I am not going to lie, I was afraid to fail. My main problem was I was too embarrassed to talk in front a class. Students used laugh about me because of my accent and poor vocabulary. But soon I understood that was all part of my learning.
I also believe watching TV was and still a fun way to learn a new language. I remember I use to sit down in front of the screen and paid attention to the actor’s movement of their tong and lips. I watched programs like SIN, NBC and Criminal Minds. All of these programs would always teach me a new word, or a different way to use it.
In conclusion, there is many ways to learn English is just up to us to know how to adapt them to our need.