ChristineThis is a featured page

English songs have been wandering in my brain in recently years. The songs of Avril Lavigne, Hilary Duff have triggered off my motivation to understand the lyrics. Due to laziness, I was not used to checking the dictionary even there were loads of words that I did not know. Nevertheless, I started checking dictionary since I wanted to understand the lyrics. As time went by, I got used to it and it has become my habit. Not only did I learn loads of vocabulary from songs, but also several sentence structures. That is how I started my English learning journey.

(source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKGAdE6wwTM)

“All you need is LOVE” is nothing more than a sentence. But it is a sentence which is pregnant with meaning. It is a song from the movie “Love Actually”. This movie intermingled love with friendship which make it worth watching. If you haven’t watched this movie, please watch it without the slightest hesitation. While enjoying the movie, you’d better listen to the songs carefully because the lyrics are really fabulous. You may watch the video I attached above if you are interested. This movie inspired me a lot. My ardour towards Western movies has then been ignited. Since then, I watched a lot of western movies like "The day after Tomorrow", "Spiderman", "Hancock" and many others. Honestly, watching movies could not improve my sentence structure because it is difficult for me to write the dialogue down and investigate. What I learnt from that was oral English. In my belief, listening is the best way to learn a language. The more you are exposed to a language, the faster you can learn it.

HKCEE was a disaster to me. I used to think that my English was not that bad. I had this “illusion” until the result of HKCEE released. Thanks to Avril, Dido and loads of movies, I got an A in Oral. Unfortunately, I got a D overall. You can imagine how terrible I performed in other sections. I am a competitive person who really hates to lose. Being traumatized, I was dedicated to getting a better grade next time. Therefore, I decided to retake English again and at the same time further my study in Secondary 6.

Although I had promised myself that I would spare no pains to get a higher grade, not much had been done to improve my English. Until one day…

Actually it was a normal school day but it was somehow essential to me. During the English lesson, my teacher distributed something like a flysheet to us. It was her routine and I used to pass it to my classmates without a glance. But I don’t know why, on that day, I didn’t pass it to my classmates. On the other hand, I read the passage seriously.

It was an English learning history of a “well-known billionaire in Hong Kong. I used a quotation mark on it because I had not heard of his name. Until today, few years since that day, he is still an “unknown” to me since I even cannot recall his name, let alone how successful he is. In the passage, he mentioned that his English was poor in his young age; however, he started to write down words that he did not know in a small note book. From time to time, he would take it out and read it, trying his best to memorize as many words as he could. Frankly speaking, I had heard of this method no less than million times before. Unfortunately, my laziness blurred my eyes for years. From that day, I told myself, I could no longer be a lazybones if I did not want to lose again. Starting from that day, I really used this method to learn English; meanwhile, I also wrote down well constructed sentence in my tiny "word bank". That is how I started learning English seriously.

Where there is a will, there is a way. Through all the effort I put in English within around eight months, I got a B eventually. Although it is not that good, it means a lot to me because it is already two grades higher than a D.

My eagerness towards English has not been remitted. I am now studying English in the City University of Hong Kong. I am taking a course about phonology which is sort of like linguistics - a brand-new subject to me. My enthusiasm for English outweighs my insufficient knowledge of linguistic techniques. In my belief, I can handle it as long as I am fond of it.

It is almost the end of my English learning history but NOT the end of my English learning journey.

My English learning journey is ENDLESS.

“I love English” is the last sentence I want to say. ^v^
Christine - Wanderland
(source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/finbarro/2248742647/)


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wanderlandcrim
Latest page update: made by wanderlandcrim , Sep 29 2008, 8:32 AM EDT (about this update About This Update wanderlandcrim Edited by wanderlandcrim

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writaholic LOVE~ 1 Sep 23 2008, 11:50 PM EDT by wanderlandcrim
Thread started: Sep 23 2008, 11:10 AM EDT  Watch
Christine, I can see that you really love English!!!
English's like part of our lives now, not only because we're studying English,
but also because we're exposing our daily lives to English!!!
Anna@Writaholic
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writaholic I have to learn from you !@! 1 Sep 23 2008, 11:45 PM EDT by wanderlandcrim
Thread started: Sep 23 2008, 3:23 AM EDT  Watch
Hi Christine,
I can feel your determination in learning English!
I really appreciate your effort and I will try my best to learn your spirit.
Please keep your spirit !
Looking forward to enjoy your coming works!!

Cynthia @ writaholic
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amitie wonderful 1 Sep 23 2008, 3:11 AM EDT by wanderlandcrim
Thread started: Sep 23 2008, 3:05 AM EDT  Watch
After reading your story,I think I have to review the ways I had used before to improve my English.
I never think of learing English through lyrics,moives and some daily things.

JENNY
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