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?

所有跟帖： 

• 閣下英語超棒！歡迎加入！我的英語是這裏最差的，還望多多指點！ -sportwoman- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 07:04:37

• 太客氣了，多謝！ -forgotmyID- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 09:19:15

• haha, what a surprise! -非文學青年- ♀ (257 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 07:10:11

• 校長好！很是想念校長的音容笑貌！ -sportwoman- ♀ (219 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 07:20:46

• 哈哈，小曼好！ -非文學青年- ♀ (210 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 07:26:16

• Pleasant surprise to see you today WenQing :) -同學小薇- ♀ (162 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 09:24:38

• 謝謝薇薇，應該是的，沒有特殊情況的話周五就work from home。 -非文學青年- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 11:36:50

• 吳蔓謹替師兄多謝校長和各位朋友的問候！師兄他現在在高家莊探親。。。 -sportwoman- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 09:38:31

• 他行蹤詭秘，我猜應該是了。現今本公主落得一地的雁的和雁毛沒人幫我打掃，真是狼狽不堪。 -sportwoman- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 09:44:08

• 校長？！以後這旮瘩俺就跟著你混了 -forgotmyID- ♀ (19904 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 09:34:08

• haha, I don't even remember this French phrase -非文學青年- ♀ (129 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 11:28:14

• Nice to see you back. -jingbeiboy- ♂ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 10:07:25

• thanks, Zhuma! good to see you too! -非文學青年- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 11:28:52

• 哇哇哇，真高興你果然如期回來！！！ -beautifulwind- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 11:08:59

• 看我不僅回來了，還拉了一個朋友過來。她和恰恰都是我大學同學。 -非文學青年- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 11:29:46

• 太好了。多拉幾個人來玩！ -beautifulwind- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 11:42:14

• 英文寫的地道。向你學。法文（還有德文）是我以前拿學位前要求要學的。現在我一個字都不認識了。 -cloudless- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 08:59:24

• 慚愧慚愧。我就韓語還可以聽聽，看韓劇太多了大概。 -forgotmyID- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 09:20:28

• Welcome new friend! -同學小薇- ♀ (213 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 09:25:34

• Thank you! -forgotmyID- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 09:34:49

• 好高興看見那麽多高手雲集！我除了俄語，德語，越南語，韓語，法語，西班牙語 -sportwoman- ♀ (33 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 09:27:03

• Great writing. I am very much into movies myself. -jingbeiboy- ♂ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 10:02:45

• 看樣子是個會玩的。拜了！ -bmdn- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 10:29:29

• 歡迎歡迎，熱烈歡迎牛人來玩！ -beautifulwind- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 11:10:33

• 多謝各位！不過本人時間有限，請允許我先潛水學習一段時間再來玩吧 -forgotmyID- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 12:37:14

• Super! Welcome! -EnLearner- ♂ (0 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 20:23:33

• 寫得好極了。歡迎你有空就來玩，分享你的影評文章等。 -美語世界- ♀ (1315 bytes) () 07/06/2012 postreply 21:01:20

• From your writing, I realized who you are! Good writing skill an -rockcurrent- ♂ (0 bytes) () 07/07/2012 postreply 10:24:27

• Welcome! -衝浪潛水員- ♂ (0 bytes) () 07/07/2012 postreply 11:00:48

• 說的是文青吧! welcome on board -tingfeng- ♀ (0 bytes) () 07/07/2012 postreply 13:23:06