For English only!

He he Thank you for your story, the end of the story is surprised to me. Perhaps, I should start my love by a salt coffee.

Bravo! Let''s go ^_^

How Poor we are
One day a father and his rich family took his son to a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be.
They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"
"Very good Dad!" "Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked.
"Yeah!"
"And what did you learn?"
The son answered, "I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden, they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, they have a whole horizon." When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.
His son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are!"
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^_^ Good to share!
Thanks all!

Hi mates, this is a nice topic here. as a new beginner studying English, there is a small question arisen on my mind. hopefully, some one can help me deal with that
supposed there are 4 skills of using English, i.e. speaking, listenning, reading and writing. so, which skill do you think is most important for a beginner and why?
Cheers

i think both 4 skills are important because they support each others!

It''s hard to say which skill is the most important. In my opinion, however, it''s probably benificial for beginners to focus on reading skill. There''re several reasons. First, reading is not as difficult as writing or speaking. You only need some basic knowledge of grammar and a good bilingual dictionary to get a general understanding of an English text. I''m sure you''ve already experienced situations where you can gerenally understand a piece of writing without knowing the exact meaning of all words in it.
This is not applicable to writing. Writing a correct English sentence, even a simple one, requires a lot of stuff: word choice, grammar, prepositions, subject/verb agreement, etc. And even if you can read a thick book in English without referencing to a dictionary, writing is still a big headache, simply because you cannot quickly recall the most appropriate word for the corresponding word in Vietnamese you want to translate.
Second, reading is a good start for learning a new foreign language. As you read, you''ll learn new words and consolidate your grammar, as well as expand your knowledge of common idiomatic expressions. This will become extremely helpful when you start writing or speaking.
BTW, does anyone agree with me that this week''s topic is about ''The importance of Learning English''? If all of you agree, we will talk about this topic. I think this topic is easier than last week''s one, and it''s also more interesting.

I agree with sutubiendong and opensky in some cases, thanks to help me answer that question. But because of thinking about it in different way, so let me explain my ideas.
From my understanding, studying a new language for beginners like the way children start learning their languges. therefore, we should look at the way they''ve done. Children start studying their mother language from 2 year old and spend at least 4 years for the first skill, which is SPEAKING. So why a beginner starts learning English with other skills.
I dont want to take a formal academic essay here, because it will let the forum become so boring. Therefore, let me give 2 examples I''ve met in my life.
I have a friend, he got about 550 on TOEFL and received a scholarship, which can support him studying abroad. So, to me, his English is quite nice . But when he tries to explain his ideas, or do presentation, oh my gosh, no one can believe in that. He can not go out regulary because of speaking skill, hê?Ts always afraid of that. And the result is he cannot exchage the ideas with his colleges, tutors. So the conclusion here is, less speaking skill will limite your expression, communication and achievement.
( i will continue the second story of my former teacher later. i do apologize about that)

Hi, my friends. Sorry for late coming back. Let me continue with the second story.
I have a teacher, from Singapore, whose namê?Ts Rajah. It is a quite long tale about that. I?Tve leant a lot from him, but the only thing I cannot foget, which is a suggestion on a party before he went back his country. He told me that, if i got children please teach them as soon as possible from something very simple such as this is a spoon, that is a pair of chopsticks. I was told that English is not his first language, but why he can speak very very well, the answer is he use English from childhood, when his parent always tell him in English. By the time, he never got problem in reading, writing because he is very good at speaking and listening. And, actually, this is not his opinion, it it Singaporê?Ts policy. the conclusion here is trying to speak out all of your opinion, discuss with friends, flat mates, house mates as much as possible and don?Tt need care too much about grammar, vocabulary, reading, which can improve very easy when you got stable speaking and listening skill.
One more, have you asked your self ?o oh my God, what?Ts hell in my brain, how don?Tt I can spell this word ?onecessary?, ?obibliography?, etc why we can use it but we cannot remember exactly the word when writing?? the question is, we don?Tt pronounce it in exactly way. Therefore we can remember a word when reading but we cannot use it in writing.
You can say, reading is the most important and speaking may be can use for going shopping or chatting with friend only. And you can say that, ?o no problem, I can use body language as a alternative way for the defected skill?. But, my friend, I don?Tt want to hear from you after 30 minute chatting ?ooh, mates, we have to stop now, I can?Tt continue anymorê? ?owhy, you don?Tt like discussing with me?? ?oNo, because, I feel so tired in my hands, very very tired?.
And you? How do you think about that question? Because, i think deciding what the most important skill''s from very beginning is very helpful for any begginer. Thanks for your attention, ma
@ bluesky: how about this topic for this week? did you decide it?

We are adults and we won''t imitate what a two-year old child does! Forget it; just kidding!
Well, your idea is excellent, but I think your argument supporting it is flawed. Let me list some facts that you haven''t considered:
- A two-year old child cannot know the alphabet. This means that a child is "forced" to learn his/her mother tounge by speaking and listening.
- A child has a very good environment to learn his/her first language by speaking because all people around him/her speak it. Your situation is very different: people around you often speak Vietnamese, not English.
- And... anything else? We''ll talk more in another post. (Sorry for using the same writing scheme as yours.)

- There are many two-year old children can''t speak fluently their mother tongue, not including some of them can''t ponounce any vietnamese word except "Ba, Bà, Mẹ...."!