I can learn English like a native speaker

 Yanni is one of the best composers that I have ever seen. His music is really nice, simple, spritual and natural.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vDoff-h9hs&feature=related

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time.  Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs? 

~G.K. Chesterto

 This article from eslgolddotcom has mentioned some steps to achieve whatever people want.Please click this link below.

http://www.eslgold.com/fyi_four_steps.html

On the weekend, the 20^th and 21st of December, almost 50 centimetres of snow covered city roads. People were busy shovelling in front of their homes three straight days. My husband piled up a huge amount of snow in front of driveway. He was run-down. He had back pain because of shovelling. On his weekend, he was run-down instead of taking some time to rest . He was just shovelling, shovelling and shovelling.

When we went shopping, the salesman said that he was also run-down. Tens of thousands of shoppers came out of their home in order to shop for Christmas and upcoming New Year. The salesman was also run-down. My husband and I started off the weekend by shopping some foods. We were worried. If snow comes again, we will run out of foods. We bought meat, chicken, bread, fruit and honey.

One of our friends had invited us to dinner on Friday night. We called it off and stayed at home. We were afraid of going out in harsh weather conditions. Driving on slippery roads stress us out. So my husband and I prefer staying at home drinking hot tea and watching TV.

How was your weekened? What did you do on the weekend?

 I remember first time I wanted to speak in English. My refrigerator does not work properly so I had to get someone to fix it. I went to apartment manager office and explained that I called them two days ago. But, instead of saying “two days ago”, I said “two years ago”. The clerk was shocked and surprisingly asked me: “two years ago?” I was so embarrassed and laughed at myself a lot at the same time because it was really funny too.  

The next time that I made mistakes was on the phone talking to TOEFL exam center. I wanted to register for the test. ETS clerk asked me some questions about the name, address, time and date of the exam and finally asked me about a phone number. I gave her my land home number but she asked me something which I could not understand. I asked her again to repeat her question but nothing was changed. I could not still understand what she said. After a couple of repetitions, I guessed maybe she wanted another phone number and I gave her another phone number. That worked. Finally I was right.

I am still making mistakes while talking. Sometimes I do not even know what native speakers are talking about but I do not show them that I can not understand what they are talking about. I think it is not polite. Consequently, I keep my face like a person who knows English very well and understands everything. I would rather be calm in these kinds of situations and try to listen to them very carefully. I know I am not the only person making mistakes, all people who like to learn another language make mistakes. I think these mistakes are really funny and I  at least have something to tell about to my friends. So, what do you think about these embarrassing moments? Did you have any? How were them? What feelings do you have about them? Are you angry, embarrassed, happy while speaking incorrectly? What are people’s reaction toward this moment?

Tonight, December 20th, is the longest nights in the year. We, Iranian people, celebrate this night which  was called Yalda. Iranian people get together and eat some special foods such as nuts, pomeogranates, watermelons and cookies. The idea behind this celebration is welcoming the advent of winter and by eating these kinds of foods they prepare their body and souls for coming season. Family members, friends and relatives feast this night by reciting Hafez poems. Hafez was a famous poet in 1310 CE. I would like to say Happy Yalda night to everybody. I wish  you a great winter full of peace, happiness and healthiness.

You can read more about Hafez here. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafez

“Take me home country road” sang by John Denver and is a really nice song. Every time I listen to this song I remember my home country. That is why I really like to listen to it over and over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC8nDdPM_Qk

Almost heaven, west virginia
Blue ridge mountains
Shenandoah river -
Life is old there
Older than the trees
Younger than the mountains
Growin like a breeze

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

All my memories gathered round her
Miners lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty, painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine
Teardrops in my eye

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice
In the mornin hour she calls me
The radio reminds me of my home far away
And drivin down the road I get a feelin
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads
Take me home, now country roads
Take me home, now country roads

I collected some advice in related to Enlish Learning, which I think help studying English more effectively. I will mention some of them here.

Listen to conversations as much as possible. While listening, pay attention to words, which words are used in the conversation, how they are different from the word in reading passages, how speakers pronounce words, how a speaker links words, what kind of intonation they use , words have happy, angry , surprising and exciting tone, which words they use most while speaking and etc.

Listen to many conversations on a same topic. This has benefit because an English learner can easily remember the words used in a special subject.Listening to one new word many many times make learning fast and easy.

Listen to one conversation as many times as possible until it become more natural and easy to understand.

Keep listening even if you do not understand and do not try to understand everything was said.

 Select one audio tape suitable for your English level. Listen to it many times, for example 10 times. Then, listen to it while looking at the transcript. Once again, listen to it without the transcript. For best results, you can write everything was said and compare it to the original transcript.

Listening to English musics makes learning English easier.

What advice would you give to an English learner? Please share it with us, we need your help. 

Learning English is the most difficult tasks I have ever encountered in my life. There are moments that I am extremely hopeless and I do not even know what I should do.  As a result, I need teachers and students’ advice. In this post, I give some advice based on my personal experiences to my friends who is just begining the study of English Language and in upcoming posts, I will write about teachers’ advice, which I collect from different teachers and students who learned English successfully. The advice is related to how students can learn English better and effective ways of English studying. Here is some of my advice:

Do not look for shortcuts. I was looking for a simple and fast way to learn English but I understood that there is no such a way. The only way is studying hard and being responsible for my learning. The only person that can help me is just me.  Learning a language is not easy and fast. It needs time and patience and of course discipline. 

Attitude is the most important factors in the learning process. Learning English is like a road with a lot of bumps in it, up and down.  Sometimes one skill will be improved easily and another time is the opposite.  You do not even understand a talk or a reading passage. You can not comprehend a grammar rules and so on. All these difficulties make a student disappointed, thinking that there is no desire to continue learning English. But, a positive thinking overcome all the problems. All these negative thoughts has come to people’s mind while learning a second language. So, you are not the only person who faces these dilemmas. Consequently, think positive and imagine the time you understand English like a native speaker.

Repetition is a key role for learning. I thought that studying a lot of materials is better than one material. For example, reading 10 passages is better than one passage. But, I was totally wrong. Studying one passage carefully is more effective because every time you study mind catch more words from the passage and comprehension becomes more effective. Using a new vocabulary over and over makes learning easy and naturally. So, focus on one material and read or listen to it as much as possible.

 What advice would you give to an English learner? I appreciate if you give your advice. 

I gave TOEFL test three weeks ago. There are three kinds of TOEFL test, paper-based, computer-based and Internet-based. I took Internet-based TOEFL. This kind of TOEFL is totally different from the  three others. It has speaking section and includes six tasks. Two of which are independent tasks and the rests are dependent. Test-takers should speak about familiar subjects or listen to a talk. Then, summerize what they listened to and say their opinions. Unlike Paper-based and Computer-Based TOEFL, there is no section for Grammar. Test-takers should use grammar rules in speaking and writing section. Writing has two sections like speaking part, Independent and dependent. Students should listen to a talk and read about the same subject, then write about it. Listening section is like a real classroom. Students ask and discuss on a topic which the teacher gives a lecture on. Reading section is like Paper-based and Computer-based TOEFL. Test-takers read two or three passages and asnwer comprehension questions. I thought IBT was very difficult to pass before I took the test.But, It is not a horrible test.

I always afraid of TOEFL exam. So, I postpone it until three weeks ago.  It was easier than I thought. Listening section was as exactly same as TOEFL sample books. If you study TOEFL examples in different books, you will get a good score. All people in TOEFL center were really friendly and helpful. During the test, some computers which students work on do not operate properly and interrupted occasionally. But, TOEFL center workers came and help students. At the end, ETS sent me a feedback on each skills. Right now, I know much better about TOEFL and how to approach to my goal. My result was OK but I still need more practice in English in order to go to my favorite university.

To sum up, TOEFL test is not scary. Studying sample books are exceedingly helpful and do not be panic  when your computer does not work during the exam. This happens very often.