Language

wow..this is exciting!! i din realise that although i din have much to say in my first post, it actually turned out to be so long...readers may have to bear with me

majority of students today complain that the Chinese language and madarin is difficult to grasp. I believe i belong to the minority because i have quite a good command in the language..recently it dawned upon me the essentials in grasping this seemingly difficult language and probably also for any other languages...we often hear that the steps to learning chinese is to listen, speak, read then write in running sequence. i have to agree that this is 100% true and it hints alot about how one can master any language.

i say this becos i, personally experimented it as i grew up. As i've mentioned, i dare say i'm especially good in chinese becos i have been exposed to the mandarin television and radio stations from young... the 95.8 radio station and tv channel 8 were on at home everyday and i come from a chinese-speaking family...the daily exposure to news in mandarin from a young age, regardless whether i comprehend or not, played a tremendous role in building my strong foundation in the language...interestingly, i hardly read any chinese story books to learn or improve my chinese...it seemed so natural when i couuld articulate like a breeze and recognise and remember new vocab so easily...reading and writing in chinese seemed effortless as i learnt pretty fast.

For now, undoubtedly, i'm weak in my English and i face the exact same diifficulties in EL as many would in CL. However, i've realised a useful strategy: watch more news in EL on CNA and listen more at newsradio 93.8 whenever i can!! Hope that readers of my blog picked up a few tips (listen and speak)and learn any language like a breeze.........

In actual fact, i was not the first to come up with this strategy...u may not believe a word i say becos words from bloggers are essentially an unreliable source of reference!....but someone with enough credibility can vouch for what i've said...


i truly recommend u to read the book : "Keeping My Mandarin Alive" by our very own Minister Mentor Lee, in which he described many challenges he met in maintaining his acquired standard in CL. The most memorable qoute from him is that "your brain is like a hard disk" with a fixed capacity...hence "when you push in something, another comes out"...to say tha truth, i still doubt these words...well, that i'll have to experiment and experience for myself.

Thoughts

hello this is the first time i'm creating my own blog..not sure what i shld write but i think i shld be natural n write anything that comes to my mind..

i think many ppl will agree with me that looking back on how we have led our lives in the past few days, past week or the past year,we are dissatisfied becos it is far from the ideal way of living that we have in mind.We may have set some target or aim in life earlier on but it seems that instead of getting down to work on it, sth else has occupied our minds, causing us to move further away from what we want to achieve.

hence there has to be this constant reflection every day to find solutions to help us avoid pitfalls such as distractions, lack of discipline and laziness.

personally, i find it hard to draw a distinction between work and entertainment, esp in the face of tv whch poses great distraction to my work with its tremendous attention-absorbing ability. hence, i have to agree that serious work can only take place in a conducive env.

everyone has many they want to achieve n get done in life and only a focused mind motivated by strong passion can enable the person to succeed. of course, it really takes courage to make the first step and overcome the inertia or activation energy. afterwhich, momentum keeps the ball rolling..haha i sound like a physicist..hmm...u would say..easier said than done..thus the constant lament from ppl...life is difficult.

i think many ppl are often too engrossed in leading their own lives while they forget to take a look around them and foster friendship ties..that includes me, mostly for one reason....i'm not good at striking conversation or even sustaining one with people. truly, many ppl think there is not much to talk abt in life, esp sth fresh, becos we think that we are merely stating the obvious or saying sth redundant. In fact, these are the things we need to articulate to break the ice and narrow the "distance" u and the other person. maybe we don't bother to mention these in our hectic lives or some ppl actually want to conserve saliva. communication and interaction is an area i'm still learning and working on.

in fact, i realised one truth in this....u cannot expect the other party to always initiate a conversation or share everything in his /her life while u always listen n shut up...u too have to open up and share something about yourself...u need to share your feelings n opinions with ur friend to understand each other better...u may even let out some pent-up feelings and feel happier after that..

through conversations, your world opens up n u find that u are not the only person facing certain problems..there may be many common points among ur friends n u...u realise u are not alone n ur friends actually care for u..these will break the monotony in your lifestyle.