Welcome to my new blog! Perhaps your first question is: Why?: Why another blog on learning English? To answer this question, I must list the reasons why I think I can help you to learn English.
1. This blog is meant to add to your current studies, not to replace them. Learning a language is not easy, and a variety of materials makes the job more fun and more rewarding.
2. I have been teaching myself Spanish for three years now, and I think I have gained some insight into the process of learning a foreign language.
3. This blog will be written in English. One of the ways to learn a language well is to work at reading it. At first, this is a difficult job, with many trips to a dictionary. However, in the long run, that process doubles your understanding of the new language.
4. Because this is not a professional study program, I am free to write lessons randomly, as well as to address questions and suggestions from my readers.
5. I plan to use four lesson categories: Grammar, Vocabulary, Usage, and Pronunciation. Sometimes, these categories may overlap, but there will always be one major focus.
6. I was born in, studied English in, and have lived my entire life in, The United States. Although I am familiar with some aspects of British English, my orientation will always be the English used in the United States.
7. I plan to use four lesson levels: Basic, Easy, Medium, and Difficult. I understand that these levels are MY opinion, and not yours! I will try to be consistent.
8. This blog is fungible, and the more comments, questions, and suggestions I get, the more I can plan future lessons. I will always answer specific questions that are asked in the Comments.
9. My aim is to improve communication. I am not so interested in perfect grammatical correctness, which is a noble goal, but too much concern about perfection sometimes makes it more difficult to communicate on a basic level. This basic understanding should come first; perfection may follow at a slower pace.
10. Finally, my single word of advice to my Spanish-speaking readers is this: RELAX! Believe me, having lived in the United States for 50 years, I can promise you that few people here speak or write English well, or clearly. Yes, the people who write language books DO, but you must not compare yourself to those professionals.
Please feel free to tell anyone you wantabout this blog, if you like it. I am excited by the chance to help people learn English. I have had so much help from my Spanish-speaking friends in my own studies that I look forward to returning the favor as well as I can!
February 6, 2011 at 10:21 am |
-.; that seems to be a great topic, i really love it :-’
February 6, 2011 at 12:54 pm |
Yes, I am sure I WANT to do it, but I fear I am not fluent enough in Spanish to do it properly.