Don’t rely on books alone to improve your English
Even if you’ve got everything it takes to excel in academics, you may simply fail to perform due to your lack of verbal or written English skills. It’s never too late to make a new start with a bang. Lim Chuwei from Champion Tutor shares advice on how you can master English Language by using online resources.
It’s really hard to understand that the language courses at NUS Extension are now done away with.
The official reason is to “align with the strategic direction” of the University. But what’s so strategic about closing down something that is successful that people are lining up for to join? What’s so difficult about at least finding a way to keep the teachers and students together, even if it’s not inside the NUS?
But enough complaining. If you were hoping to join a Korean, Mandarin or English course at NUS Extension, you will have to figure out an alternative now.
Here are the options that I can see. I don’t know everything, please feel free to comment if you have additional information.
NUS Extension Korean: alternatives
Some people have a natural talent for learning languages whilst for others it can be a task that’s much harder to grasp.
Without a flair for foreign fluency, you can become tongue-tied, confused and end up deflated. So what hope is there for the not so linguistically gifted to learn a foreign language?
One recommended method is to simply listen to the language, to learn the sentences almost by parrot fashion without questioning why it’s structured that way, how to distinguish between the tenses, or what each individual word means.
People have a tendency to need to understand the meaning or spelling of something before they say it, or to see it in the written form, otherwise they don’t feel that they have learned it correctly. But if they just listen to the phrases and repeat them, they’ll actually find that they pick up the language very quickly.
How can I learn in this way?
Which way to go?
There are many reasons to learn a language. If you fall in love with a person whose mother tongue is different from yours, that’s a powerful reason to learn their language.
And there are lots of other reasons why you may want to learn a particular language.
But if you’re wondering which language to learn, things are probably not so clear cut for you.
Quite likely, you’re wondering which language is going to be most helpful for your career.
Can language learning benefit your career?
Star Wars? No, it’s a wuxia movie.
What is wuxia? A quick and dirty way to explain it is to compare it to Star Wars. Some people say Star Wars is wuxia in outer space, and they have a point. If you took the story of Star Wars, set it in the Chinese empire, replaced the Jedi with xiákè, replaced the light sabres with Chinese swords, replaced ‘the Force’ with Taoism/Chinese medicine/Chinese martial arts/etc., then the result would be indistinguishable from wuxia.
Actually, you don’t even need to replace the light sabres. The weapon this guy from the movie The Buddha Palm is holding sure looks like a light sabre to me.
Wuxia has been a big, BIG help with my study of Chinese.
In last week’s post, I shared how the first 3 Habits of Highly Effective People from Franklin Covey could be applied to language learning. I’ve now finished the book up to habit # 7, and in this blog post, I’ll cover the last 4 habits.
Part 2 should be even more exciting. In part 1, I covered the habits that are “private victories” – things you need to master within yourself first, before you can be successful in your interaction with others.
And language learning is all about interacting with others. So let’s get started with habit 4-7!
Habit 4: Think win/win
With thanks to Teach Yourself for allowing us to publish from their materials
When you start a company, the number of things to learn is simply overwhelming. And there isn’t much time. I’ve become the library’s best friend and it times I would just borrow a “How-to” book and apply what it teaches pretty much immediately.
But is it possible to learn a foreign language from a book or audio book only?
I’ve done it. I’ve made a start with learning Mandarin using a book from the “Teach Yourself” series. Come to think of it, my wife and I have used “Teach Yourself Dutch” to help her learn Dutch.
It it the ideal way of learning? Read more
Are your kids missing out on the three top life skills?
Do you remember how you learnt the three top life skills?
Those three skills being financial management, cooking and social etiquette (including grooming). If you could give yourself a grade in these areas what would it be?
Financial Management
Think about your financial story – how did you learn this crucial skill?
When I was growing up I was a Brownie (the younger arm of the Girl Guide Movement) and I took the Thrift Badge which aimed to teach financial skills. I remember having to keep a savings account to show how I could save money, and also show how I cared for the things I owned. This was probably financial management at its most simplest and today is woefully inadequate.
Before you start studying for a degree, it’s important that you can express yourself well in both written and spoken English.
James Cook University Singapore turned away 16 students for not speaking English well enough, according to The Straits Times.
English Reality
How can you benefit from any good quality diploma or degree course if your English language is dodgy?
You can’t.
Requirement Reasoning
If your English is not up to the mark, don’t even contemplate a diploma or degree.
Learn English first.
Requirements are there for a reason.
Who should read this article?
Little Bears
I teach a Little Bears class for children officially aged at least 2 and half, although if the child is ready before that age they can join. Usually children are in the two to three age group. In my experience, kids have to be at least aged two before they can appreciate some of the activities.
