新人拜壇

A friend's blog gave me some major shocks today.

The other day I asked for her suggestion about improving my language skills (as I've heard about her "new" passion to language learning about 1-2 years ago) and she pointed me to this bbs board with a hint that she's kind of famous there. I wasn't exactly sure what it means until I logged onto the bbs, and found her online blog.

It's her journal of improving and perfecting English language skills, with study notes, weekly essays, recordings of textbooks, listening drills, translation practices.... The pure quantity of her posts surprised me, and the quality of her writing amazed me. I knew she's smart, and passionate, and driven, and talented in many ways, but i didn't know she's been so addictive to the language itself, especially phonetics. I weren't able to listen to her sound tracks somehow, and barely have the time to read through her numerous essays, but her addiction is evident without much poking around.

Yes, addiction is the right word here. A mother of two young kids, who also happens to work full time, how did she find the time to do it all? That's more of a question for me myself. We have a similar load as to work or family, and I've been blessed with the help of grandparents for the past year or two. Now where did my time go?

With the inspiration and momentum, I'm going to begin learning English, again. As much as I want to learn, I'm not going to let it dominate my life though. My friend is obsessed, or shall I say, has a serious affair with phonetics. That's just not me. My goal, loud and clear, is to improve conversational English, to enjoy the fun of reading, and to express myself more freely. My ultimate love is still the Chinese language. That's simply part of my identity and I'm very happy to stick with it that way.

With all that said, where should I start? I've decided to begin with movies and TV shows -- it's obviously the easy way, and more enjoyable. Maybe I'll watch a movie and read all about it, watch interviews of the actors/ actresses, listen to its music. I have a list of good movies to watch, but never thought I could use it to learn English and kill two birds this way.

So, for today I'll finish "Midnight in Paris". Then this weekend, I'll critique the movie. Petit à petit, l'oiseau fait son nid. Wait, it sounds just beautiful. Or maybe I should study French instead?