can-do attitude

Tell me what you know about accent before you give your "expert advice
What the hell are you saying here??? What was wrong with spinesplitter??? When he said "Never think you can speak exactly like a native", he meant that a Vietnamese, including himself, finds it almost, if not absolutely, impossible to mimick a native speaker. And this is the fact that 99% of the learners recognize. Maybe you're ****ing bad at reading comprehension, so you didn't understand what he wanted to say!!! If you ever speak like a native speaker, just as a parrot mocks human beings, I'm dead sure you learn it from a very young age, or you've spent so many years studying abroad, say in the UK or USA. Don't be so illusory about a Vietnamese learner's ability to mock a native's accent!!! You're so irritating with your criticism of his truly constructive, helpful comments!!!
Được fight_to_death sửa chữa / chuyển vào 21:01 ngày 09/07/2003
Được fight_to_death sửa chữa / chuyển vào 21:05 ngày 09/07/2003
[/QUOTE]
Được galleryofsuicide sửa chữa / chuyển vào 11:02 ngày 10/07/2003

Calm down... This is actually a very helpful topic. Now I just want to add some of my experience when I learn English.
Well, it is said that to master English and build up a wide range of vocabulary, u should emerge yourself into English. That's completely right. Watch more English movies, listen to BBC, CNN, sing English songs, and read English books, newspapers, magazines... as much as possible. However, we also need to be aware of our English level, and choose what to read and listen to carefully. So is our interest, our passion... We should do what we really like, what works for us. For example, I am a bookworm, so I like reading English stories and novels. A long time ago, I bought a classical novel titled "The last of Mohican", and soon realized that I had made a big mistake. When I read every 10 words I was faced with a completely new one, formal, outdated, literary, and it discouraged me so much that I gave up reading it right from the second page (not the second chapter). Thank God! Then I never look at any books written before the year of 1900.
Oh I must go now. I'll come back later.
VERITAS

Where is my post??? This is the third time I post in here
Hey guys, let me remind you this is the place for you to discuss, not to criticise impolitely one another just because of sth you disagree. There''s no point in shouting at people with such bad words. Everybody has his own opinions, and definitely has the right to speak his mind. I''m extremely grateful for your contribution to this topic as well as EC but remember not to argue that easily! Why don''t you guys post your own thought and experience in speaking English rather than arguing aimlessly? I can say without hesitation they''d be much highly aprreciated than these low-quality argumentative posts. I''m sorry to say this, but ... I''m looking forward to constructive posts from fight_to_death and galleryofsuicide
Yep, we can''t deny the fact spinesplitter mentioned. Only a minority has good facilities for learning English. Even people in big cities may yet have access to English-spoken channels and the Internet, not to mention those living in the rural areas. I''m totally sure you cannot learn anything if you use the Internet service since you will probably read posts without attention and some of them really needs reading many many times to understand thoroughly. Now, helping people learning English especially those in the countryside is absolutely a big challenge... do you guys have any idea how can we help them?
As we go on, we remember all the times we had together
As our lives change, come whatever
We will still be FRIENDS FOREVER

THANKS A MILLION, BRITNEY SPEAR, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, SPINESPLITTER, ETC, FOR YOUR WELL-INTENTIONED POSTS.
CAN YOU TELL US HOW LONG IT TOOK YOU ALL TO BECOME FAMILIAR WITH THE LIKES OF CNN, BBC, OR SUCH STUFF ON TV??? I STILL FIND THESE RATHER HARD. I CAN''''T GET ALL THE WORDS THEY SPEAK!!
THANKS A LOT
Được nooneknow sửa chữa / chuyển vào 13:37 ngày 11/07/2003

[red] Hi ! Today I wanna contribute something that i''ve just read. I think it might be useless to someone , but anyway, it''s from a very famous book : 7 habits of highly effective people" by Stephen R.covey. I hope you will like it. [/red
There are two very basic conceptions that Covey concerned: Personal Ethic and Character Ethic.

First of all, What does ethics mean? According to our dictionary, ethic means moral principles.
Standing on his studies through 200 years of literature, Covey discovered that almost every successful literature works were superficial and really dominated by something called Personal Ethics. This ethics teaches people to use technicques, skills which are absolutely manipulative and even deceptive. The purpose of doing such these superficial things is getting people like them. These action r just like Quick-fixes with band-aid and aspirin, very temporary. Let?Ts image: If u first meet someone, he seems like very friendly, lovely, easy going, u initially will be very pleasant and happy making friends with him. But after then , u realize that he just has pretty appearances and sweet voice but everything he says is totally untruthful. How will you feel ? do you still wanna associate with him ? Of course not and certainly u will disappoint a lot. U don?Tt dare to work with him anymore coz in your eyes, hê?Ts quite superficial, dangerous, and deceptive.
The guy in this example below did choose a very temporary solution for the way of his behaviors. ?oQuick_fixes appeared to solve them temporarily, but left the underlying chronic untouched to fester and resurface time and again.?_ said Covey. That one might thinks that he is smart to act as if he were a superb person and friendly also. But actually , after just a short time , he will be revealed by himself, regardless of how high his level of pretending is. And everyone will know that hê?Ts superficial.
But in life, things are not simple ( I myself just know that it?Ts co mplicated but not exactly how ). Despite of that fact, Covey brings out Another ethic that he thinks deserves appreciating and following. It?Ts Character Ethic.
?o Character Ethic taught that there are basic principles of effective living and that people can only experience true success and enduring happiness as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character.? This ethic is really foundation of success . And the basic characters I concern here are like integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty , and the Golden Rule.( integrity = strength and firmness of character or principles// Humility = having a low opinion of oneself and high one of others //
Fidelity = faithfulness, loyalty // Temperance = self control // Industry = continual hard work // I am sorry , but I don?Tt understand much about the Golden Rule, I know how we call it in Vietnamese ?o Khuon vang thuoc ngoc ?o , it sounds like something belongs to Buddha. Does anyone here can explain it to people about this ?)

After World Was I , Personal ethic seemed to dominate Character ethic. Thatâ?Ts really a huge damage to the whole world. People tended to live selfishly and hypocrisily .
Covey brought out the Primary and Secondary greatness : Character ethic certainly plays the primary one to people. Covey never said that elements of CE _ personality growth, communication skills, and education in the field of influence strategies and positive thinking _are not good. But anyway, it just deserves the second role. WE live in a society, so we must interact with others. Relationship which plays the most important role in our life must base on the TRUTH.
I myself think that success must be a function of every moment in life. Whenever we do something and we achieve the purpose we put before. Thatâ?Ts really a success.
If u have not finished your work yet, but others tell you that u r successful, and then u feel satisfied, u are a loser. But itâ?Ts what I think , and also what adults say, but they r theory. he he , if we wanna enjoy successful feeling, should move ourselves right away. Now I would go to bed, and I wanna get up at 7 am tmr. If I really can do that, itâ?Ts a success . And certainly I will tell you if I can make it real.

Hey lauren, did you finally manage to wake up at 7 o''clock? I guess you were sucessful huh. Don''t stay up late like the other night when I saw your last article posted at nearly 3. It will do great harm to your health and someone may really worry about it, cool girl Reading your articles is fun, really. But it''s somewhat difficult to digest, especially the first one. I had to read it twice to understand what it''s all about. Anyway, keep up your work!
Well, can you tell me what the 7 habits are??? Is the first habit "Success should be the function of every moment of life?"
As we go on, we remember all the times we had together
As our lives change, come whatever
We will still be FRIENDS FOREVER

Hi Brits!
The 7 habits covey mentioned were divided into 2 parts : Private victory and Public victory. It goes like this:
Dependence---->Private victory------>(become) Independence. Independence------>(go through) Public victory---->(become) Interdependence.
Private Victory includes 3 habits :
1.Be proactive.
2. Begin with the end of mind.
3. Put first things first.
Public Victory includes 3 habits :
4. Think Win/Win.
5. Seek first to Understand....Then to be understood.
6. Synergize.
Habit 7: Sharpen the saw.
I have just read a little bit. Now i am waiting for Mr. Longarm coming back. He read it a long time ago. And really it goes to his blood. I hope that in the furture not so far, we will see something really interesting by him about 7 habits.

Thanks Britsmoon and Britney for your contributions to ?oCan-do attitudê?. ?oThe seven habits of highly effective peoplê? might be difficult to discuss in here since most concepts and terminologies taught in that book are strange and complex to our members. However, I would suggest that we open a discussion on ?o7 habits of highly effective English learner?. I?Tm pretty sure that there are quite a few superb English learners on ttvnol and hopefully they will share with us their effective habits of mastering English.
Let me start our discussion with habit number one: "use English consistently to communicate with people who speak English as a first or second language".
It might be difficult at first and you might be afraid of making some mistakes but believe me, you?Tll do just fine. It?Ts just like when we learn or do something for the first time, such as swimming or riding a bicycle, we often felt awkward. But after practicing it for a certain period of time, it?Td soon become a part of us. Let?Ts take learning to ride a bicycle as an example. When we were small, being able to ride a bicycle was a dream of every kid. It usually takes a kid a dozen of times learning to ride and practicing riding. And it would take another few weeks or few months or even few years to master riding skills. I bet all of us must have encountered some form of accident, such as hitting some tree or hurting ourselves several times due to many other reasons, you name it. But after a while practicing, you became excited with the feeling of riding a bicycle. You could take yourself further away from home to many places you had often dreamed of. You could also sing a song or glance at some beautiful girls/ handsome boys while riding your bicycle. And of course you can do dozens of other things while riding your bicycle without paying close attention to every single move of your two legs and arms as you did the first time learning to ride.
That?Ts the same way habit number 1: ?ouse English consistently to communicate with people who speak English as a first or second languagê? is all about.
There is a lot more on ?ohabits of effective English learners? to come from other members. I hope you all will join me here to make our English club a better place.
Longarm
Have a nice day!

Great to see you again, longarm. Your example is real interesting and it illustrated your point very well. Before anyone goes further to habit number 2, I wanna discuss habit number 1 more in this post. For American English is favorable and Americans are known to be friendly and open, people who speak English as a first or second language mentioned in my article often refer to Americans.
I heard people complain all the time: ?oHow can I communicate with people who speak English as a first or second language? I don?Tt know any native in Vietnam.? Well, if you don?Tt know them, get to know them! Go to places where native speakers are likely to hang out. Some sugesstions might be music shops, library or bookshops opened by foreigners, clubs organized by Americans, studying places where you spend most of the time having interactive discussions with Americans. Most important, be bold and friendly to open conversations and make friends.
I?Td like to re-post an article by longarm since it?Ts written basically and concisely about American communication style and values.

Được sebastian sửa chữa / chuyển vào 00:15 ngày 19/08/2003