English Learning

The important is to contiue practicing, it is not the important to excel at one activity. The imoratn is to continue doing what we like to do, we share the passion for learning English, and this is an activity included in our daily routine. Once we learn the foreig language we will continue learning beacuse as in any language, it is not an fixed or inmobile subject, it is like a growing, alive living being,, alwasy changing and evolving.
We don't win prizes for speaking our native languages. We learn for the sake of learning, for the happiness of learnig new words, or improving our vocabulary and for keeping our mind in shape. Readig is for the mind as physical exercise is for the body.

What we are doing now, it will affect in our next years of our life. The best we keep our mind and body the more we will enjoy life.

Sorry for my long absent!

Hi all,
As title, I am busy on my Toastmasters Career recently and hadn't been to the earth.
There are several things I will mention later,

You've got mail! 2
Go exercise!
Election in Taiwan
My dream and Career
Sharing Digital Fortress
Facebook

Hopefully you guys are going well recently, talk to you later, Cheers!!!!

Frankie

You've got mail!

Hi, all,
I did a fantastic job on my speech though i didn't win the contest. But some of my audience appreciated my speech and came to talk to me.

I couldn't fall asleep at that night before the tomorrow's speech cos' I didn't want to use my old script to deliver my speech. I got so confused with my script cos' i delivered it for too many times, about 10 times, and I revised it for several times. So I don't know what to say and how to give this talk in the best way. I really wanted to give up this contest cos' it was my first time that i needed to deliver a speech without memorizing the script.

Whatever, I was gonna give it a try. However, i faced another difficulty on that day cos' i was the final contestant. It means I needed to wait for 9X7 minutes for my turn, it was a suffering, which i finally found out. It also means that you will miss some of great speeches on that day.....><

I told myself, calm down and try to write your points on the paper, and I made it. And one of our contestant told me, Frankie, you are so hardworking! Hahahaha....Writing is a very good way to help me figure out the difficulty, you know.

Keep Smiling, try to forget all that stupid script, simply deliver your speech with you true heart, like delivering an impromptu speech. That one minute of silence before my speech, I found a lot of great things, one of them is my friends' supports. I like it, it is like the time has stopped and you are the Hero in that short moment!!!!!!!!!

"Frankie, you are shinning on the stage!" "Frankie, are you native Taiwanese?" "Frankie, you can be a great saleman!" "Frankie, I like your speech!" Although I didn't win the contest but some of my audience appreicated my speech, it is something that really counts.

My president told me, Frankie, you had worked hard on your performance before, but this time you improved a lot, you delivered your speech with your confidence, with you heart....I was touched by her words, cos' she is always the best evaluator in my heart.

Topics

There is not an interestic topic to talk about, that is the main problem when one is writing. But it is not entirely true. There are a lot of topics to talk about. Of course, my favorite topic is about English learning, but there are other interesting subjects like family, health, science, religion, well being, lifestyle, global warming, etc.

Exercise is good for your health. One should exercise everyday, it helps to relax, it help to think, it improves health keeping the weight, avoiding obesity. My favorite exercise is walking. When possible I walk half an hour every day in a park near my home.

English Practice

Learning English is a permanent job, it is a continual practice. It is like a major. It requires time, and commitment.
I have reached a good level, but ones need to continue learning grammar, and improving vocabulary, and in your free time to play word games.
I have a goal of everyday, if possible to read a book, everyday if possible. When I feel very tired I watch programs on television. It is important to write everyday, not matter what. It could be mail, or a diary for yourself. The important thing is the practice. Finally, to have conversation with someone who have a good command of English.

Elections in US.

I have not read the novel that I am reading, instead I have been watching the news, especially the candidate race for the presidency in the United States.
There are two main democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
The main candidate in the republican side is Mac Cain.
In my personal opinion I think that Clinton will win the election; if so, she will be the first presidential woman in the US.
Some say that Americans are no prepared to be governed by an black President.
The presidental election is on Nov. 2008 and the elected president will began his term on Feb. 2009.

Plans For 2008

Dear All: Frankie asked me about the plans of 2008. There are several plans I will perform this year. First of all, the thesis is by all mean the most important task that I need to complete. Hope everything will be smooth as I think. Secondly, passing the National Exam of Public Servant is my desire. I hope I would pass it within 5 years from now. Thirdly, the GEPT high level test is also a suitable challenge for me, so I will prepare it and attend it this year. In the end, I think I will do these three tasks and then go to do my military duty this year.

Novels

One of my resolutions for this new year is to continue reading novels, and magazines. Mainly novels but I read everything that I can. Now I am reading a novel that is difficult to read to me because it is a big book,.anyway I will finish reading it. The important thing is to keep the habit, althought frequently I don't have time to read as I would like. I will continue posting in this blog about the books that I will read during this year. Actually I have bought a lot of used books, they are cheaper and I have bought some classics and others from un known authors. The advantage of keeping reading is to continue learning vocabulary and always is a good topic to talk about.
I hope that Frankie fulfill his resolutions for this year.

Happy New Year!

Dear Pedro and Sean,

Happy 2008!!!! What goals are you gonna achieve in this year? I have several resolutions for 2008. The first one, sure, i am gonna read several novels, Digital Fortress, Deception Point, the Phanton of the Opera, A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, Davil Copperfield, Matilda, the Jungle Books......I will try to read them in this year.

The second goal is that I will go to join Marathon races and some swimming activities this year.

The third goal is about my career, i am gonna prepare for my national exams and go back to my original field, criminology.

There are a lot of things watiting for me to deal with, the most important one is reading novels. I am so glad that I met Pedro, who also likes reading a lot. I only read the devil wears Prada and Crime and Punishment and Alice in the wanderland last year. I will share my feeling about crime and punishmenht with you later. I will give you more clear plan of my 2008 reading later. That is all for you, Happy New Year and hope you have a fruitful 2008^_^

Frankie

New Year Resolutions

Some people don't belive in New Year Resolutions; no one acomplishes their resolutions. They are the same every day: to eat healthy food, to exercise, to improve family relationships, learning something new. Anyway, I will plan to do some resolutions which are to continue reading books more often, on a daliy bases, I also want to continue exercising, walking is my favorite excericise and to continue learning and improving my English.
This year about to finish was a good one because I read some books, not many and I continue writing mails or blogs.
I wish to all of you a happy New Year celebration!

¡Merry Christmas!

I just want to wish to all of you enjoy this holiday season with your family and friends.

¡Merry Christmas!

Hello!

I just want to write something. There are many things to talk about, I can talk about my weather, which is almost alwas sunny in the morning. Righ now it is a little cold. I continue practicing conversation. I watch English shows every day in order to understand what they say. Once that I understand what they say at 100 percent I will feel happy. I have no problems at reading. I need to practice in order to be completely bilingual. I take it as a personal challenge. I have read some books this year, not many books because I choose to read big books of many chapters. I usually read a chapter a day, and if the book has 40 chapters it will take more than one month to finish reading a book. In short I am forming a dalily habit of reading, learning and remembering vocabulcary, watching television, learning grammar, writing and playing word games.

Daily Routine

I need to write everyday. When one wants to learn something well, then we need to do it everyday. And that is my case. I want to write about my daily activities. It is good to have a routine in our everyday.
First of all we need to wake up early in the morning. I usually eat fruit at night at dinner time, for example I ate papaya, it is a sweet and juicy fruit.
I watch the international news, in order to see what happens in this chaotic world.
Then I have my breakfast, I ate yogurht,bread and coffe with milk. I also like to know about the local news reading the local newspaper. I shined my shoes. I have not shined my shoes for a long time! and then I partially washed my car. I had not time to wash all the car. Then I went to walk for half an hour. Then I read the book "The Sum of all Fears" by Tom Clancy, it is a book difficult to read like their other books. and now I am writing this blog.
I try to learn some new words everyday and words that I have already seen but I forget their meaning.

Re. The Recent

I had no idea about how to write today. I didn't receive mail today so I wanted to write something, anything for practicing writing and then I read the post of Frankie and that gave me the topic to talk about.
First of all I feel sorry for you broke up with your girlfriend, now you need time to heal your soul, however we don't need to depend of other persons in order to be happy. Hapiness is inside ourselves. Imagine that you need other people to be happy, you will never be happy if you depend of others. If I am happy I will transmit this feeling to others, if I feel sad I will transmit that feeling to others. And this happend all our life, there are many conflicts between spouses because they think that the spouse should give you the hapiness in your life, instead we need to be happy for ourselves.
And what is happiness? for me hapiness is to do what you like to do, is not only to have a fancy car, or a big house or to have a lot of money, they give us happiness but for only a short period of time.
What I will do in 2008 or 2009? I will do what I am doing now, I will not wait next years to do what I like to do, I am doing it now.

The recent

Many things happened recently, I failed applying for Evergreen Airlines, my ABC girlfriend broke up with me, my best friend’s mother was passed away, taking TOEIC test, visiting American and Canadian and UK and European Education exhibition, continue joining Toastmasters meetings, forming the ABC and the China Post studying groups…..

You've Got Mail!
I was so sad about the break-up, but I need to respect her choice. I learned a lot from my ABC ex-girlfriend, who is charming, sweet and laidback. She was my latest Epal in my life so far, the break-up reminded me of not only the movie but also inspired me to deliver a speech for the joy sharing. This speech came across my mind many times recently, the story began with my first Epal, Angela, who is a Chinese Australian. I learned a lot from my Epals and you Pedro, so I will tell u more about the speech later.

What is up in Taiwan?
It is very good website on our good link list here, check this website sometimes. It is the Podcast program, and there is about 64 podcasts on this website. You can download them for free and listen to them. This website founders produced this program in order to introduce Taiwan to the world, so they interview with many foreigners, who live in Taiwan for a long time. I feel ashamed when I listened to many podcasts on this website. A lot of foreigners contributed to Taiwan so much. I study so hard in order to know more outside our Chinese culture but finally ignored our valuable Taiwan Culture.

Novel Reading
Pedro, I feel gratitude that you can keep posting articles on our website during this time, and I feel shamed that I cant show up recently. But I am still reading my novel now, Crime and Punishment, and I just read 1/3 of it and will finish it before 2008. Pedro, what should we do in our future 2008 and even 2009? Frankie still want to keep reading novels. I will pick up some interesting novel to read next year, like the phantom of opera and Dan Brown’s novels and more. I hope I could be a English teacher, who can share the joy of reading with my students. I will try to find more children novels to read next year, and I will tell you about it later.

To be contiued......

English Learning.

Learning English is a never end task, because English, as any language, has been described as a living entity.
Languages is evolving every day, and there are new words, especially related to new technology.
It depends of the preference and necessity of everyone. Some would like to be interested at reading, other at writing, or listening or speaking, although the best is to consider studying all these areas.

It doesn't matter if we have mistakes when we read, write or speak, the important is to contine practicing and learnign from our mistakes.

Food for the Mind

I have nothing important to say, I just want to write something.
I like to write something everyday, especially about my favorite topic that is English learning.
Always there are new things to learn.
I like reading, preferably an hour every day in order to keep my mind active and to learn new things.
I bought a Scientific American magazine, the main topic is the mind. I read an article about foods that are good for your mind, concentracion and memory. What is good for the body is good for the mind. The food that is good for the mind are vegetables, legumes, fruits, chicken, milk and to drink enought water or mineral water.

Clear and Present Danger

I have just finished the book "Clear and Present Danger" written by Tom Clancy. It was a difficult book to read, the chapters are very long, and it used many abbreviations. It is about an American government cover operation fighting drug dealers in a latino country. I only finished reading it because I learned new vocabulary.

My autobiography~

Hi friends: Sean writes an autobiography recently, and needs to send it in next Tuesday. Can Frankie ask one of your foreign friends to help me edit my autography? Thanks!

Roald Dahl

Frankie,
al least was an interesting experience even you didn't pass the test.
It will help you as experiencie for your next job interview.
Maybe you might be interested in learning Japanese.

Regarding author Roald Dahl, my opinion is that is a very good writer. As a matter of fact I have already read "Matilda" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". I have seen the movies but I prefer the books, another good book from this author is "James and the Giant Peach."

The final result of JAA test

It is my father that made me to apply for this job, which you need manage all kind of flight documents, and i doubted my ability as the beginning. However, I felt that i was gonna get the job when i passed the interview and the tests, but I finally failed in the final and also the third test. I was so lucky to passed the first and second tests though since i knew nothing about Japanese. However i failed in my final test mainly coz' my poor Japanese and my poor English answers, i didn't answer the question well coz' i knew so few about the job. Most importantly, working here wasnt my dream in the past 25 years.

Qs were used in my final test, the second interview, like introducing urself in 2 minutes; did u join any club when you were in university?; were u satisfied with the result of ur club participation?; do u have any plan to study abroad?; would u want to be a lawyer since you studied in Law?; Please introduce urself in Japanese?

It was great to challenge myself to apply for this job since i can't speak any word of Japanese.
I did learn somethinig from it, and I got a lot of tresures from the second English test, and it made me like reading english so much, here are some things which i would like share with u...

There were three biographies in the reading conprehension, which i wanna share with u,
The first one was the biography bout the famous writer, Roald Dahl. He wrote a lot of famous books, the best one would be Matilda. Have u heard of Charlie and Chocolate factory? It is one of his works. Go to check this website, http://www.roalddahl.com/ and u will find a lot of treasures there.

The next one is the biography of Vincent Van Gogh, a crazy artist, he cut off his ear, and he committed suicide to end his life. Poor Van Gogh became famous after his death. One of his painting, Starry Night, which also is quoted in Don Mclean's song, Vincent.

The final one is the biography of chimpanzee reseacher or lover, Jane Goodall. It is her institute website, http://www.janegoodall.org/default.asp "Although it was unheard of for a woman to venture into the wilds of the African forest, the trip meant the fulfillment of Jane Goodall's childhood dream. Jane’s work in Tanzania would prove more successful than anyone had imagined." Quoted from the website.

Enjoy it....^_^

Frankie

Japan Asia Airways (JAA)

I went to Taipei last two Sundays for my JAA tests and i was sooooo happy that i passed the first interview(English and Japanese only) and also the tests (Chinese, English, Japanese). I will decribe its content more when i get more time, especially the English interview and test.

I will go to Taipei this Sun for my second interview and i will try my best to win the interviewers' trust and pass it. I will also have the health examination next Tue if i pass the interview. I will get the permission to enter this fantastic Japanese Airways if i pass the health examination. Ooooooooh, i can't wait for it.......

"Let ur dreams be winged that fly as far as stars." It is the sentence from my English test, which i quite like. Share it with u. Have a nice weekend ^_^

Frankie

Listening Comprehension

Now you can read, you can write but then follows learning pronunciation.
In order to improve pronunciation is basic to listen dialogues in English. There are several ways to hear dialogues in English, either by watching television, watching a movie in DVD selecting the option "languages" in English with or without subtitles.
If possible, to have an native English speaker teache be American, British or Australian.

Writing Practice

For practicing English we can write to pen pals (pen friends).
The important is to write at least some lines every day.
Preferably to write to a native English speaker or to someone who is learning English.
We would not be afraid to commit mistakes; native English speakers also make mistakes. If possible, ask them for correcting your writing.
Blogs, like this, are good for improving your writing, posting or writing comments.

English Learning

There are many ways to learn English, there is a matter of preference.
It is needed to practice everyday no matter what your preferences are.
As we are not native English speakers sometimes is difficult to us to learn English because we tend to use the grammar of our own language.
In my case I like reading. I started reading magazines many years ago, before computers where everywhere. Now, in the era of the Internet the access to material in English is almost infinite.

I like also to write in English. One thing is to read, and another thing is be able to write, and it is not so easy al least for me.

Reading Books

Definetly reading books is good for learning English, especially to improve our vocabulary, althought reading magazines, articles or news on the Internet is good too.

Some books are difficult to read, we need to look up in the dictionary frequently, but with time we will be able to read faster, but the important is to continu reading. The important thing is to understand the meaning of the text no matter it would take more time to finish a book.

I have heard of the book "The Devil Wears Prada". I will read it some day.

I love Prada!

I finally finish this novel, the devil wears prada, it is my sixth english novel so far.

At first, thank sean, posted an article about learning english by reading novel on his BBS, so i got this good idea to start my english-novel-reading life. I started reading my first novel, Robinson crusoe after my graduation, till now the Prada, and it is about one and half years since then. I will keep reading some good novels in the future.

Secondly, thank pedro, keep sharing some thoughts about your novel reading on this board and discuss some topics with me, many thanks.

Thirdly, it is about my prada reading, hmmm....i like it.

"Fuck yourself, fuck your runway, " said Andrea and left her boss alone in the party. It was her way to quit her job, which thousands of girls in states would die for. Her boss, miranda, was a typical workacholic person, the runway will be undoubtedly collapsed without her. There are a lot of chores and impossible missions behind the so-called high efficiency of the Runway, and Andrea was one of Miranda's two assistants who managed these things. Being working in the Runway for eleven months made her like a simplton. She kept enduring her boss' bad temper but finally was erupted in one important party.

The story ended in the song, American pie, it was quite special ending, ok that is all for u, i will share more with u later

frankie

The Chronicles of Narnia

I finished reading the seven books of " The Chronicles of Narnia" by the British author C.S. Lewis.
They were books easy to read, and it was an opportunity to learn new words to improve my vocabulary.
I am not a fast reader, it took me three months to read them all.
The most famous book is "The Lion, the Witch Wardrobe and the Lion" because of the movie about this book.
These books are for children, short stories where magic is everywhere, and the main characters apart from human children are talking beasts.
Some books are more interesting than others but it worths to read all of them.

Cash Box

It was my first day of my first job in Cash box after my 20-year-long school life. Cash Box is the number 1 KTV in Taiwan, where you can enjoy singing and have a fun party in an closed space with your friends.

Everything is new, exciting, great and fantastic here, i really like here though a lot of my friends disagree with my first choice. I chose this job cos' you need to walk for a long time without a rest. I could get a lot of exercise through my job. I hope this job can make my health better.

5/7 was my real working day, i found it was a quite tiring job cos' i had worked for 5 hours with a rest. My daily working time is only 8 hour and 1 meal time.

What can i learn from this job? Where am I different from others? I was thinking about where my adventages are when i work here. I am very proud and confident of myself and my ability though i don't know about this job.

A bacholer degree of law+paratrooper+marathon racer+english toastmaster=?
It will be a good result though i don't know what it will be.

It is a biggest risk to choose this job cos' it is a very easy job, A Waiter. So, i need to think about this Q.

A totally different life, most of my coworkers are just graduated from high school and only know how to play. Can frankie learn something great from them, something meaningful or helpful for ur future? I don't know it, but there are some good people here, like my mentor, the first person who i met in Cash box, she is sooooooooo friendly and country-like girl. The way she talks like my way or my style, very country-like.

About the profession, it is very very very very very important in this society, but my job lacks this profession, that is why peopel don't agree with and why it is sooooo risky.

How can I solve these problems????? Keep on my work and figure out them!!!

I will cherish my first job whatever people say, it is good to start earning money and also great that i can think and find out my future crisis. Frankie, gogogogogogogogo!

Social Intelligence

Hi Frankie,
you are right, one should learn from our mistakes. If you fall you should get up and keep on.

Social Intelligence is a book that I read at the beginnig of this year, it is considered the second part of the book Emtional Intelligence.

The Social Intelligence book, as its name implies, is about how one reacts to another person, and it describes the last psychologic experiments and the latest about the images obtained by functional magnetic resonance imagen machines.

It is a good book that worth the time to read.

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