A journey of learning

This journey actually began 15 years ago. But for most of the time it was a package tour, led by knowledgeable tour guide. After that tour I hadn't been spending much time to explore, only until recently I decided to continue the journey - in the form of backpacking.

Resuming the journey was actually at the top of my list of things that I want to achieve in these 4 years of U-life. But there were so many things to be taken care of that I had slowly forgotten this objective.

And then a sharp question suddenly occupied my mind so much: is there a major improvement in my English for these 4 years? What will be the difference in my English skills before entering university and after? Did I do enough to improve it?

The answer is no. Although I am more used to using English to think, write and speak; I still feels there isn't any major improvement because I didn't really resume the journey of learning. As I didn't sow, I shouldn't expect to reap. So this is my last chance to sow, before I starts to work.

I am now alternating between different methods in improving my English to keep my interest fresh. These include learning idioms, collecting and expanding vocabularies in certain fields like soccer and politics, listening to Western songs, listening to English news, browsing forums, reading grammar handbook. Of course there is one habit I have been consistent in doing it, which is to blog in English. So I've call upon addictive force of blogging to help me in this endeavour.

My first destination will be to think, to write and to speak as natural as I am using my Mandarin to do so. Second will be to bridge English and Mandarin so that I can use both languages interchangeably with a solid understanding of differences between both languages. These could be life-long journey so perhaps there will not be an end for it.

After ENS presentation I've also noticed my shortcoming in speaking English. Although I can talk without much prior preparation, most of it are rubbish sentences which couldn't convey a clear message to audience in an efficient way. That applies to some of the daily conservations too. So I need to change my style of talking and purposely slow down to think properly before uttering out the words.

Hopefully the more I write, the more I can write. Quoting from the grammar handbook that I am currently reading, "the best way to improve your writing skills is to write a lot and make a lot of mistake while always in your mind thinking that there might be better way.“

The journey resumes again.