An English thread.

To the topic''s owner: What a great threat !!!
Hi everyone,
Generally speaking, there is no perfect way to learn English.
However, by sharing our different methods we have used for improving our English, we competely help each other to achieve higher level.
I''ve just been studying English for about 2 years, after spending 10 years on French. I believe that experiences I got from learning the 1st foreign language are very useful for me to start the second one. This explains why I can reach an intermediate level in English in the short time.
My best skill is reading. I''ve done an course"Preparation for the IELTS" in 3 months, and I''ve been tought how to read a document effectively, even you don''t know all of the words. In fact, you just have to find out the key words and try to understand them. Don''t abuse the Dictionary, and if you need one, the best choice is an English - English, not a Vietnamese- English.
In order to improve my speaking skill, I bought some necessary CDs, such as Tell me more, from level 1 to 4. I think Tell me more is a very good CD which helps you to get the most basic skills in speaking. Moreover, you should find a friend to talk to each other of join in some English club to practice your spoken English. Making friend with a foreigner is excellent.
My listening skill is not good, and I know this is the common difficulty of most of English learner. And the only way to get it better is listening more and more. Records, radio, TV, CDsõ?Ư are my choices. I spend about 1 to 2 hours on practicing this skill and after a very long time, and Iõ?Tm now quite satisfied.
Good luck!!

hi everybody.
tomorow is Monday, a new week has come
I feel more tired
My English is bad
I hope that
i can learn more after i read this theard.
I think, in my text, i don''t know how to name it, has mor mistake .

repair it for me pls .
thx you very much
Nice week ,
love everybody .
kiss U .

Hi,
I have some questions for GenDo san
- when can we change the topic?
- who can change the topic?
Thank you!

Yeah right, good question
Though I think Gendosan is a facilitator, but I believe you guys have to decide whatâ?Ts on the menu. Experience in learning E is a good start, though this kind of sharing ultimately leads to the same, sometime boring, stuff. For advanced learners, have we stepped on this same path for a zillion times already. Bottome line is, letâ?Ts change the subject.
If everyone is cool with that, Iâ?Td love *****ggest a topic for discussion â?oTechnology & Privacyâ?

I guess GenDo san would see eye to eye with us but can u be more specific. The topic is rather big and general, don''t you think?
P/S: GenDo san, where r u?

Dear all,
I am sorry for disappearing last weekend. For your information, I live in the US so the time I post my response is usually the time you all go to bed. Therefore, please forgive me in advance if I didn''t reply to some of your messages quickly enough.
I agree with some of you, as I have written in the original message, that I am just a facilitator. This is a public thread, so any of us could change the topic. However, I may want to caution all of us not to change the topic too often, since it will make the aim of this thread a little too sporadic.
Also, there are many styles of writing. The easiest and least formal way is to write as if we are talking, or conversational style. Then it will be descriptions, analysis, arguments, and other more formal styles. So, though the topic is trite, there are always a way to make our writing interesting. In fact, the more familiar the topic, the harder it is to write it into an interesting piece of writing.
I think "technology and privacy" is a potentially good topic to write about. But we probably need Uhohwtf to elaborate more about this topic.
In the mean time, please keep writing. You can write something that''s close to your heart and your life. Write about your schools, loved ones, families, and friends in general. I encourage you to make your writing as rich as possible. For example, if you write about your grandmother, please try to convey something more than her physical appearance. Try to go deeper and describe her personalities instead of how she looks only.
I hope everyone a wonderful week.
GenDo

Technology & Privacy
How to simultaneously protect our privacy and allow us to enjoy the benefits of our increasingly digital world.
In this topic, we will try to explore the social, political, and legal collection and use of personal information in computer databases. Now in industrialized countries, people lives are documented in digital dossiers maintained by hundreds (perhaps thousands) of businesses and government agencies. These dossiers are composed of bits of their personal information, which when assembled together begin to paint a portrait of their personalities. The dossiers are increasingly used to make decisions about people lives - whether they can get a loan, a mortgage, a license, or a job; whether they are investigated or arrested; and whether they are permitted to fly on an airplane.
So we can discuss from all aspects, such as:
Do these developments pose a problem?
Is it possible to protect privacy in a society where information flows so freely?
How businesses gather personal information?
....
....
P.S: I recite a a lot in the above piece (aka ''''đạo văn'''') with aim to present the topic in the best angle, so don''''t bother to give comments on the writing but the ideas instead.
Được uhohwtf sửa chữa / chuyển vào 09:46 ngày 12/08/2008

I am confused which topic to write about

In that case, write about your confusion

then it would be against the original idea of the topic facilitator and this thread would become a mess. No one wants it to be like that, right?