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Macaroon Posted 13 years ago
Song Writing & Lyrics

Please correct any erroneous sentences and grammar if you have time!

I want to improve my English skill very well. I've been trying for awhile but I'm having very difficult time mastering the English language. I have done some extensive research and found out that the most effective way to learn a language is to read and read. Constantly reading different materials will eventually help me to improve not only reading skills but also speaking, listening, and writing skills. Those people who constantly reads tend to speak and write more effective and eloquent.

However, constantly reading and studying are difficult for me. I have always had hard time focusing on a subject for more than 15 minutes; sometimes I would even lose my cocentration after 5 minutes or so. I have tried many methods to improve my concentration: trying to enjoy studying, recording my day in 15 minutes interval to prevent from sidetracking, dreaming about what I will become if I study hard, timing myself, comparing myself to others, and so on. However, none of these methods have been working effectively.

Not only I have problems with concentrating, but I also have problems with not being able to use my study time effectively. I feel like I always take so much more time to read one chapter of a textbook or finish a set of problems than others. Even when I finish reading one chapter, I feel like I barely retain anything. I fixed this problem by taking notes on a computer and reviewing; although I can now grasp the key concept better, this have drastically increased my time to finish a chapter. If I were a studious student, taking longer time to finish a section I've decided to study would have been no problem since I'm going to finished my studies no matter what. Eventually, I will learn to finish my assignments more effectively. However, as I have stated before, my attention span is extremely short. So even in during some rare cases where I was be able to concentrate for more than an hour and half, I would get disappointed by how little I have done for past 90 minutes; I literally read 3~5 pages with pictures and diagrams.

To improve my English, I have tried several different ways. Firstly, I have tried memorizing words after words from vocabulary books and the sentences with the words. Because a language is basically a list of words in different structures, so I have thought that if I learn or try to learn large quantities of words, I will have less difficulties in reading and understanding its meaning. However, I had hard time memorizing the words and retaining the meaning of the them. Some people told me this method worked for them, but with my study habbit and my ability, this study skill was impossible for me to improve. I have tried this for at least a month, but I barely retained anything. Secondly, I have tried reading articles from news papers or reading a book and looking up the words I don't know and jotting them down on a paper. I'm still doing this time to time but I'm not sure how much I'm improving from this method. I have trouble memorizing words even when I find them in the context. I have too look a word up at least 30-50 times to finally memorize the meaning of it. It's little frustrating when I have to do that for every single word. Thirdly, writing for at least 30 minutes everyday, which is what I'm doing now. From a writer's autobiography book I have read awhile ago, she said the key way to improve writing is to write everyday at least for short period of time.

I wonder if it's possible for me to speak, write, and read English fluently one day. And when would that day be here. I would dearly want to see myself reading Pride and Prejudice by Charlotte Bronte or Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky without getting help from a dictionary too often.
  
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