澳洲Thoughts on Using the Internet for Language Learning

在澳大利亚英语学习



So I thought I'd take the time to write a post sharing some of my experience with language learning - specifically, how to use the Internet to improve your language skills.  Hopefully those of you learning English (or any other language) will find it interesting and maybe even gain some benefit from it.

Before I begin, I'd first like to provide a bit of background as to why I'm writing this post, and why I'm writing it entirely in English.  English is of course my native language, however I'm not writing this in English because I can't speak Chinese.  In fact, I've been learning Chinese for the last ten years, and although I still have plenty to learn, I like to think that I've had at least some sort of moderate success.  For those who haven't seen it yet, you can judge for yourself what my Chinese is like by reading a post I made yesterday in the personals section of this site (see here).  Depending on your point of view, this may or may not provide some validation for the ideas I'm going to put forward in this post.  

It's quite amusing for me to read some of the responses in that other thread, especially those who say it was obviously written by a Chinese person (for those posters, what impression do you think this gives me about your skills in logic and reasoning?).  Even more amusing are those posts casting aspersions on my English ability.  I'll be the first to admit I'm not the greatest of English writers, but I do have my pride, and this post is therefore partly to dispel such suspicions.  Undoubtedly there will still be people who won't believe me, but what can you do?   Haters gonna hate.  

A number of people also expressed that they would like to know how I learnt Chinese and if I could provide some tips and advice on how to approach learning languages, and so I thought it might be worthwhile to share some of my thoughts on the matter here.

For those people, I'll begin by pointing out that if you are reading this, you have made your first, and quite possibly your biggest mistake.  Why you ask?  Simply because this is being posted on a forum targeted at native Chinese speakers.  If you want to improve your English, why are you spending your time here?   

Go and spend some time hanging out in forums written by native English speakers for native English speakers.  If your English is not so good, this might be difficult at first, but like with everything the more you practise the better you'll get.  By the same token, if you don't practise, you'll never get any better.  By visiting English language sites, you'll also learn all sorts of vocabulary specifically related to Internet sites and their usage.

A not uncommon remark in that other thread was words to the effect of "..the OP can't be a whitey, he's making comments like 'derailing a thread' which are specific to Chinese Internet forums..".  Hmmm, well, perhaps if such posters had used their brains before posting they might have realised that the very reason I know this sort of language is precisely because I hang out on Chinese Internet forums.  It's not like *BAAM* suddenly out of the blue I appeared on a Chinese speaking site and magically knew all these words.  It's because I've already spent time here reading posts and making small contributions when I felt my knowledge could add something to the discussion. It's also because I like to look up words that I don't understand - this activity is called "learning", and I would encourage everyone to do it (some people even find it enjoyable).   And it's not like it's difficult to find out what such words mean, many of them are obvious from context, and for those that aren't, a quick Internet search will return hundreds (and sometimes even thousands or millions) of pages with relevant results.

Anyway, if you're going to visit English language sites, it's probably a good idea to try and find a forum or site related to something you are interested in.  If you like cars, find a site related to cars.  Do you like fishing? Find a site related to fishing.  Computers and IT?  Same advice.  The Internet is a wide and wonderful place.  No matter what your interests are, you are almost guaranteed to be able to find a related website in English.  Combining your hobbies and interests with your language learning is a sure-fire way to make rapid progress.  

If you decide this sounds like a good idea, I would first caution you not to just rush in and start making posts.  First spend a bit of time getting to know the site a little better.  Most sites have their own little communities with their own little customs and sub-cultures.  It's a good idea to spend a couple of weeks or even months just reading things in order to get a feel for the lay of the land.  You'll also make a good impression on other readers if you can demonstrate that you've taken the time to understand the culture of the site.

When you do start posting, I would also discourage you from pointing out in every post that you are Chinese or that English is not your native language.  Just start participating in the discussion.  The reality is, most people couldn't care less whether you are Chinese, or English, or American, or Australian, or any other nationality.  Other people visiting those sites are there to talk about fishing or cars or computers or whatever.  If you repeatedly mention you are there to practise your English, you'll only start to annoy people.   Actually it's quite amusing to me that a single line regarding my nationality in that other thread has generated so much discussion in a such a short period of time.  If you made a similar comment on an English language forum, most people wouldn't even bat an eyelid.   

It's also worth remembering that other posters probably won't care if you make mistakes with your grammar or spelling.  Grammar and spelling have never been the Internet's strong point.

Which brings me to my next point, which is that it's also important to be aware of the sort of site you are visiting.  Some sites contain well written content, with reasoned and intelligent discussion, and are frequented by well-educated native speakers.  Other sites are the dregs of the Internet and are full of sloppy writing, poor spelling and grammar and ignorant people who like nothing more than to prove to the world how great they are and how stupid everyone else is (although they often achieve the opposite effect).   With the amount of variety available on the Internet, you'll be able to find sites that cover the entire spectrum of these extremes, and the more time you spend on a given site, the more your language usage will start to incorporate nuances and habits that you picked up from that site.  Beware of this, unless you particularly want to give people the impression that you are sloppy and uneducated.

There's so much more I could write on this topic, but this post is already getting a little long, and some of you are maybe already bored of reading it.  I'll finish off by saying that in order to learn a language, you need to use it.  Simply studying from books and memorising words from a dictionary is not enough.  So, find a way to use the language you're trying to learn and before long you'll start to see the benefits.

评论
我都看不懂英文，是进来膜拜的

评论
bench

评论
LZ， 你让我说啥内？

评论
我对楼主是本地人一点儿都不怀疑。只是想出几个网络短语考考楼主，看看楼主是不是都掌握了。

以下短语如果不雅，楼主可以笑而不答。

wk，
lz，
ld，
nb，
rpwt，
mlgbd，

评论


I totally understand your points & your frustrations, however I do want to point out that there are good reasons for a English learning board to exist here - lots of people who are at similar stages of learning can exchange tips & help each other, and encourage each other too. Other than this, well written, cheers~

评论
Oh, and I'm not saying people shouldn't go read English-only materials. People should do that A LOT. I do that a lot myself. You do that for yourself, then come here to share tips & ideas with everybody.

[ 本帖最后由 bulaohu 于 2011-7-12 13:42 编辑 ]

评论
very useful stuffs, keep up the passion and waiting for your more sharing and good advices

评论

Yeah, I agree completely.  Blame anything unreasonable that I said on my frustrations from the other thread.  I also didn't want to come across as so sarcastic in some of those sentences above, but well, it is what it is.

评论


楼主可能都知道。我只知道第2 + 3. 哈哈哈，太逗了。

评论
if lz turns out to be a Chinese, it'd be a great con.

before proved guilty, everyone is innocent. i choose to believe lz.

great effort on the post, thanks for sharing.

评论
G'day
may I ask:  r u from a  British background?

评论
再次膜拜

评论


在中华文化圈里生活，是需要一套坚强的神经滴

评论
我年轻的时候，在中国生活，学习英语。那时候一个外教，尤其是一个来自欧美的外教是受群众膜拜的，甚至可以轻易的占有他相中的任何一个女学生。

一个美国人，跟我关系不错，后来知道他在中国交了30多女朋友（同时）

评论
To the OP:
(For 不知道的同学， OP 在英文论坛里是 Original Poster = LZ)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on learning English here and welcome to Oursteps!

Just my two cents though on the topic:

I think you wrote a little too much in one thread. When I saw your post, my first reaction was 'holy crap, wall of text', even though I too am a native English speaker.
I think the only people who will whole-heartedly read your post will be those with the capability of doing so but I don't think that is your intended target audience. So, I suggest you repost it in Chinese Muahahahahah

On the other hand, to be honest, the overall reading comprehension of the Chinese populace is already very strong. They (people who truely want to polish their English/foreign language) should really try to use it in daily conversation.

评论
Good on you  Mate
you should be proud of yourself coz  you are too good  in Chinese writing  which was thought as untrue!


评论
赞一个,欣赏楼主的学习精神.
要是能分享几个像 一样的英文论坛,文章就更完满了.

评论
thank for sharing....

评论
祝lZ 找到志同道合的另一半
很多华人也会去英文论坛，包括我自己，不过没有胆量发主题贴，最多跟跟贴，找到自己想要找到的信息就可以了，而并没有深入论坛
LZ值得赞扬

[ 本帖最后由 S明月S 于 2011-7-12 15:02 编辑 ]

评论



Among the points you made I most agree with the advice to combine your interest or hobbies with your language learning. Its literally a rule of thumb in my experence.

As a pioneer  in the capacity of a local Oz advertising your intention to seek your significant other in a Chinese online forum with such amazing Chinee language skills,    you have obviously created a milestone effect (albeit unintentioanlly) both in terms of this particular website per se and curiocity those fellow posters have fanned, and as such I believe you are bound to become - if not yet - a celebrity right here at .com.au

bravo, mate!

p.s.One thing that is out of my own curiocity to you (or maybe out of lot more fans-to-be), can you share with us why and how you became interested in learning Chinese since ten years ago and obviously devoleped an affection - if you like - upon Chinese cultrue and then oddly that was coupled with learning information technology. These two are naturally of extreme apart, how are those two traits of interests grown into your life?

评论
Whirlpool.net.au
oz都去那里基本上

评论


& with dismal English...

评论
姐姐有模有不dismal的e文论坛介绍个我去下哈,还是说学英文就得像LZ达人一样混迹于各种哩语黑话间,最终修炼成魔啊, 又还是说看地道英文只有读AGE了

评论

And that was the short, condensed version   

那就糟了。人怕出名猪怕壮。

This would be another long post, so I'll maybe leave it for another day :-D  The short version is, it began with an interest in martial arts and spread from there.   Plus I just love learning things in general.  Choosing such disparate disciplines is also a great way to broaden the mind.

评论

除了第五个都知道。现在第五个也学会了。谢谢。

评论

Yep.  Father's British, mother's Australian but from a British background.

顺便给你提一个小意见，要是想把英语写得更好看一点，少用u、r之类的缩写 :-)

评论


cannot wait that another day to come by. Wish it were yesterday
澳洲中文论坛热点