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So I thought I'd take the time to write a post sharing some of my experience with language learning - specifically, how to use the Internet to improve your language skills. Hopefully those of you learning English (or any other language) will find it interesting and maybe even gain some benefit from it.
Before I begin, I'd first like to provide a bit of background as to why I'm writing this post, and why I'm writing it entirely in English. English is of course my native language, however I'm not writing this in English because I can't speak Chinese. In fact, I've been learning Chinese for the last ten years, and although I still have plenty to learn, I like to think that I've had at least some sort of moderate success. For those who haven't seen it yet, you can judge for yourself what my Chinese is like by reading a post I made yesterday in the personals section of this site (see here). Depending on your point of view, this may or may not provide some validation for the ideas I'm going to put forward in this post.
It's quite amusing for me to read some of the responses in that other thread, especially those who say it was obviously written by a Chinese person (for those posters, what impression do you think this gives me about your skills in logic and reasoning?). Even more amusing are those posts casting aspersions on my English ability. I'll be the first to admit I'm not the greatest of English writers, but I do have my pride, and this post is therefore partly to dispel such suspicions. Undoubtedly there will still be people who won't believe me, but what can you do? Haters gonna hate.
A number of people also expressed that they would like to know how I learnt Chinese and if I could provide some tips and advice on how to approach learning languages, and so I thought it might be worthwhile to share some of my thoughts on the matter here.
For those people, I'll begin by pointing out that if you are reading this, you have made your first, and quite possibly your biggest mistake. Why you ask? Simply because this is being posted on a forum targeted at native Chinese speakers. If you want to improve your English, why are you spending your time here?
Go and spend some time hanging out in forums written by native English speakers for native English speakers. If your English is not so good, this might be difficult at first, but like with everything the more you practise the better you'll get. By the same token, if you don't practise, you'll never get any better. By visiting English language sites, you'll also learn all sorts of vocabulary specifically related to Internet sites and their usage.
A not uncommon remark in that other thread was words to the effect of "..the OP can't be a whitey, he's making comments like 'derailing a thread' which are specific to Chinese Internet forums..". Hmmm, well, perhaps if such posters had used their brains before posting they might have realised that the very reason I know this sort of language is precisely because I hang out on Chinese Internet forums. It's not like *BAAM* suddenly out of the blue I appeared on a Chinese speaking site and magically knew all these words. It's because I've already spent time here reading posts and making small contributions when I felt my knowledge could add something to the discussion. It's also because I like to look up words that I don't understand - this activity is called "learning", and I would encourage everyone to do it (some people even find it enjoyable). And it's not like it's difficult to find out what such words mean, many of them are obvious from context, and for those that aren't, a quick Internet search will return hundreds (and sometimes even thousands or millions) of pages with relevant results.
Anyway, if you're going to visit English language sites, it's probably a good idea to try and find a forum or site related to something you are interested in. If you like cars, find a site related to cars. Do you like fishing? Find a site related to fishing. Computers and IT? Same advice. The Internet is a wide and wonderful place. No matter what your interests are, you are almost guaranteed to be able to find a related website in English. Combining your hobbies and interests with your language learning is a sure-fire way to make rapid progress.
If you decide this sounds like a good idea, I would first caution you not to just rush in and start making posts. First spend a bit of time getting to know the site a little better. Most sites have their own little communities with their own little customs and sub-cultures. It's a good idea to spend a couple of weeks or even months just reading things in order to get a feel for the lay of the land. You'll also make a good impression on other readers if you can demonstrate that you've taken the time to understand the culture of the site.
When you do start posting, I would also discourage you from pointing out in every post that you are Chinese or that English is not your native language. Just start participating in the discussion. The reality is, most people couldn't care less whether you are Chinese, or English, or American, or Australian, or any other nationality. Other people visiting those sites are there to talk about fishing or cars or computers or whatever. If you repeatedly mention you are there to practise your English, you'll only start to annoy people. Actually it's quite amusing to me that a single line regarding my nationality in that other thread has generated so much discussion in a such a short period of time. If you made a similar comment on an English language forum, most people wouldn't even bat an eyelid.
It's also worth remembering that other posters probably won't care if you make mistakes with your grammar or spelling. Grammar and spelling have never been the Internet's strong point.
Which brings me to my next point, which is that it's also important to be aware of the sort of site you are visiting. Some sites contain well written content, with reasoned and intelligent discussion, and are frequented by well-educated native speakers. Other sites are the dregs of the Internet and are full of sloppy writing, poor spelling and grammar and ignorant people who like nothing more than to prove to the world how great they are and how stupid everyone else is (although they often achieve the opposite effect). With the amount of variety available on the Internet, you'll be able to find sites that cover the entire spectrum of these extremes, and the more time you spend on a given site, the more your language usage will start to incorporate nuances and habits that you picked up from that site. Beware of this, unless you particularly want to give people the impression that you are sloppy and uneducated.
There's so much more I could write on this topic, but this post is already getting a little long, and some of you are maybe already bored of reading it. I'll finish off by saying that in order to learn a language, you need to use it. Simply studying from books and memorising words from a dictionary is not enough. So, find a way to use the language you're trying to learn and before long you'll start to see the benefits. |
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在悉尼养老院做义工的收获 (2015-7-28) stevenwu73 
以爱的名义 (2011-2-22) 明河素月 
发表于 2011-7-12 14:15
发表于 2011-7-12 14:30
Muahahahahah
