Advice 11. Distinguish yourself from others by...

As a second language learner, do you think there is a way to distinguish yourself from other native or non-native speakers? How??

Yesterday I met a person on the street. I was supposed to go to a party to celebrate succesfully finishing one academic year. Due to lack of a sense of direction, I had a hard time finding the location. At that time, there was a man passing the street and I asked the direction to the resturant. After he let me know the location, he asked me where I am from. I said "I am from Korea." He said he could notice that I am from Korea. Embarrassingly, I asked "Can you recognize my nationality from my Korean accent?" He said that he is very familiar with Chinese accent, so he just assumed that I might be from Korea or Japan. At the end of the conversation with him, he said that please don't give up your accent. He also said that distinguishs me from other English speakers. He continued saying that because what I am saying is understood by others, don't try to disgard your accent.

How beautiful mind it is!

It took me almost 30 years to figure out this idea, but he, not a linguist, knew it so well.

I hope you understand my message for you.

Distinguish yourself from others by keeping your local accent unless you are intelligible.

See you later~

Advice 10. Nobody judges you!

Are you afraid of speaking in English because your English might be judged by others?

Fortunately or unfortunately, you are the only one who judges your English.

If you have this misconception, please do not forget the fact that the reason others exist is to help you and to communicate with you.

How do you feel now?
I hope you feel much better now by taking the reality as it is.

Advice 9. Don't be afraid of writing.

I can't believe it is already 9th advice.

What I brought to you is ... don't be afraid of writing in English.

What you do think about that?

I am pretty much sure that you are waiting for yourself to be ready to write your journals, letters, and so on in English. It might take forever to meet your expectation. Just start writing your diary, blog, and so forth from now on. If you are afraid of being judged by others, write a private diary everyday.

A large number of ESL and EFL students have a misconception, separating grammar learning from using them by speaking and by writing. I really hope you do not waste your time and energy until you figure out they are same. What you need to do is to apply what you learn by speaking and writing.

Are you ready for write something in English~

Good luck!

Advice 8. Don't be obsessed with a new way!

My 8th advice is that we have what you need.

Sometimes we are so obsessed with finding out a new and effective way to learn English that we waste our time, not realizing that you have what you already need.

Don't waste your time, energy, and money to find another way, which is confirmed by other learners.

You can be the one who lets others know your own way!!

Study hard and take care~

Advice 7. Reading Comic Strips in English

What about reading comic strips? Do you like reading a book, a magazine, or a newspaper? If you are not interested in any of those I mentioned above, how about reading comic strips uploaded on-line for free? It is very simple; more important, it is so fun. Especially, you are concerned about choose a "right" word or phrase for speaking, not for writing, it will give you what you want. Are you ready for web surfing for comic strips right now? Go~

Advice 6. Don't isolate yourself too much.

One misconception that a lot of English learners has is "I'm not ready to speak and write in English, so I need to practice more." Thinking like that, they isolate themselves in the safest places such as ESL classrooms or home. When on earth are we ready to speak and write in English? With your so high expectations, it will take forever.
However, don't misunderstand me by thinking that I am saying that you have to give up the ways that you think you are doing for improving your L2. What I want to say is please having balance between your input and your output. As you receive and get input from the ways you are doings, you have to give opportunities to yourself to utilize the input.
Please, check yourself whether you are isolating yourself or not.

Advice 5. Authentic materials..

My 5th advice is having as many authentic materials as you can expose yourself. As one type of authentic material, how can I not mention watching dramas, movies or DVDs, which is one of my favorite ways. By watching them, you can learn culture as well as language. Also, I want to recomment you be watch one at least twice. If you are able to have subtitles, you have to watch it without subtitles and then with subtitles. If you have some time to take a note, I strongly suggest you be take a note. Do you feel you want to go to Blockbuster today?

Advice 4. Know yourself~

My fourth advice is knowing yourself. Namely, we have to know our current level of English proficiency. How fewer amount of vocabulary do we know? Because my field is TESOL, I think I am pretty good at academic vocabulary in the TESOL field. Unfortunately, I am so dumb in other fields. So, what I want to say is that we have to build up the knowledge of L2 vocabulary by reading newspaper, magazines, novels, and any other hands-on materials you can easily reach out right now!
One more thing, as soon as you look up a word in your English-English dictionary, do not go to other word to look up. Just have one or two second to internalize the definition of the word by putting it on your own image. It will work when you have difficulty memorizing words. Internalize the meaning of words by using your own code! And then you have to decode them again!! Good luck~

Advice 3 Stick to your English-English dictionary!

This is my third post.
As you can see, my third suggention is to use English-English dictionary, not your bilingual dictionary. One thing we have to keep in mind is that it is impossible to translate your L1 to L2 or your L2 to L1 with exactly the same meaning. Therefore, even though your bilingual dictionary publisher wanted to be, there are some gaps that cannot be covered with your L1 or L2. What do we have to do, now? We have to have a habbit to use a English-English dictionary. Are you ready for carrying your dictionary, now? Let's do it!!

Advice 2 Don't judge your second language level with your first language proficiency

Hello, everyone out there.
Are you trying to have the English mind that I mentioned for the first advice? I know, I know, it is very difficult to have it in a day. That advice is also what I have been trying to have.

As you can see above, my second advice is that we must not judge your second language level with your first language proficiency. With your very sophisticated L1 level, a large number of L2 learners make themselves a fool. No matter what your L2 level is, please be proud of yourself.

See you later,

Advice 1 Have an English mind!!

One of mistakes made by English learners, including myself, is to translate from their L1 into L2 when they want to speak or write in the target language. Having an English mind is very important but very difficult. That is why I set up this as my first advice.

Let's have an English mind, not your first language mind.
Good luck with learning English wherever you are.