Batur's Language Log (English)

[Batur]

I haven't written English log here for really a long time. Today I notice that both Batman and Doris are still writing their logs here. I feel inspired.

I had a business trip last month, it lasted about three weeks. I had excuses for my laziness. I didn't like business trip much, but it offered me a chance to get away from my normal life. Though I didn't learn English as I should when I was in Changsha, after I came back few days ago, I felt more motivated than before. It's a good thing.

Yesterday, I uploaded an audio to Youtube. I am wondering if I should do more such things. I will keep trying.

Batman and I are exploring java programming together. I found that I was really bad at explaining. It's part about language, but also I should improve how to explain things clearly.

[Batur]

2017 has passed half, many commitments I made at the beginning of the year went slowly, or even not got started yet. I don't want to feel bad for myself. No matter how, I just stupidly feel optimistic. lol

Both Changsha and Shenzhen have been raining heavily these days. I had planed to go vacation after the project was done. But the planed had to get out of the table because of the bad weather. I went back to Shenzhen few days ago. I locked myself indoors to enjoy American TV on Netflix last weekend. What else could I do on the raining days? In addition, the movies are so great, I could not resist the temptation.

I feel more motivated to learn English after coming back from the trip. There were many works to do in Changsha compared here in Shenzhen, but still it's a way to get out of the mundane life and relax for a while.

[Batur]

I cooked myself omelette this morning. It took me several minutes to enjoy this simple yet delicious food. Alina took me her tea from her hometown, now I am enjoying it. It's a good start of a day with breakfast and tea.

I read Hank's Adventure in Spanish https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1833 on language learners forum. I quite enjoyed reading his posts. To read other people's language log can help my English learning for both methods and motivation.

I uploaded another audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmKR_TYzQy0 on youtube. I can see the technique of editing video is quite useful, I may try to learn it when I have free time. Batman suggested I could try speech shadowing, I don't think I have talent for it.

4th, July

[Batur]

When reading other people's language log, I can clearly see how poor my writing is. For a long time, I want to improve my writing skill. I had knew the importance of writing since I was in university. Like many other skills, writing asks for numerous practices. I am not as consistent as I should be, I tend to give up easily. In my mind, I didn't give them up, I just "leave them in the future". I know this is an excuse, but knowing that I will still work on them one day, not only makes me feel better, but it also reminds me from time to time.

Last night, I browsed around the Netflix, somehow I clicked Breaking Bad again. I haven't watched it for several months. It's a great TV show, I fear that I may get addicted to it, so I avoided clicking it when I was free. But last night I did, and watched three episodes in row. They were S3E6-S3E8. I could enjoy them with only English subtitles only, which I am proud of , but I am not sure if watching them will help my English learning. I could guess the meaning of new words based on the context, or simply ignore them and follow the plot. However, I won't remember any new words after watching them. Maybe it will help me get familiar with them, and will make me remember them easier in the future. I doubt it :'(

Anyway, I think I may keep watching Breaking Bad, it's so awesome!

Besides Hank's post, I decide to follow another post, Systematiker's on the forum. I was wondering why this forum is so old-fashion, and the new post should be in the front page like twitter so that people who want to follow the update can easily catch. And when people leave messages on author's post, it should have email reminder. These are good features, but I try to guess it's because the owner of this site want to keep it simple, and focus the language itself.

July 5th

[Hank]

I read Hank's Adventure in Spanish https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1833 on language learners forum. I quite enjoyed reading his posts. To read other people's language log can help my English learning for both methods and motivation.

Thanks for reading my log and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I feel like I probably use too many colloquial expressions, so I hope my writing wasn't terribly confusing.

Your English writing is very good. There are some mistakes, but there is no difficulty understanding what you write.

[Batur]

Thanks for reading my log and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I feel like I probably use too many colloquial expressions, so I hope my writing wasn't terribly confusing.

Your English writing is very good. There are some mistakes, but there is no difficulty understanding what you write.

Hank, it's cool that you noticed my log here. Thanks your encouragement, I don't have much confidence in my writing. I just followed your log on Mar 11, 2016. You must be an avid reader. I don't read too much, currently I am reading Trevor Noah's <Born a Crime>, but I haven't finished half of the book for reading it about a month. Busy work is an excuse, I am trying hard to defeat my laziness. Could you share a book with me according to my English level?

[Batur]

Thanks for reading my log and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I feel like I probably use too many colloquial expressions, so I hope my writing wasn't terribly confusing.

Your English writing is very good. There are some mistakes, but there is no difficulty understanding what you write.

Hank, it's cool that you noticed my log here. Thanks your encouragement, I don't have much confidence in my writing. I just followed your log on Mar 11, 2016. You must be an avid reader. I don't read too much, currently I am reading Trevor Noah's <Born a Crime>, but I haven't finished half of the book for reading it about a month. Busy work is an excuse, I am trying hard to defeat my laziness. Could you share a book with me according to my English level?

[Batur]

I watched several episodes of Ricky and Morty. This is a quite interesting cartoon TV show. I think I just spent too much time on videos. The book, Trevor Noah's Born a Crime, I have only gone through half after a month passed away. I should have spent more time with my kindle.

I found phrase is quite hard to master. For instance, The phrase keep up the good work occurred to me several times when I read language logs here. I can understand that it means keep on doing the good work, but I know that I won't use keep up myself, and even though I aware it now, I probably won't use it in the future either. That is kind of frustrating. Repeat is really important when it comes to language. I learned other phrases I was not familiar with like set someone off, spousal unit today. I knew that if I could use phrases like these, my English would sound like more nature.

I try to write English as often as possible, even though I don't have things to say sometimes, and maybe it's not related to English learning. Language should be a tool to express ideas, a window to explore another culture, a way to enjoy other brilliant people's work. So I will use English to write down whatever I think of.

6th, July

[Hank]

Even if you aren't very confident in your English writing at least you're brave enough to do it. I know that I need to write in Spanish more, and I often think about writing my language log in Spanish, but knowing I'll make a lot of mistakes makes me nervous. So using the phrase in your last post: Keep up the good work!

Learning Spanish rekindled my interest in reading books. I have read more books in Spanish the last two years than English books since I graduated high school. So I don't have too many suggestions. James29 recommended the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz. I read the first book in the series. I found it to be fairly comprehensible at an intermediate beginner level. I also found the Divergent series by Veronica Roth to be fairly comprehensible. I have never read these books in English, though.

When I first started reading books in Spanish I would buy two copies. One in my native language and one in my target language so I could compare. I learned a great deal from that.

[Batur]

James29 recommended the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz. I read the first book in the series. I found it to be fairly comprehensible at an intermediate beginner level. I also found the Divergent series by Veronica Roth to be fairly comprehensible. I have never read these books in English, though.

When I first started reading books in Spanish I would buy two copies. One in my native language and one in my target language so I could compare. I learned a great deal from that.

I will try Alex Rider series and Divergent series after finish Born a Crime
I have never tried reading two copies of a book, I think I can give a try. Hank, Thanks for sharing!

I've been attended two Toastmasters activities this week. Many excellent people were out there. Standing in front of people to give a speech is very different from chatting with friends, let alone using English. The English these people spoke were not perfect, you could spot mistakes during their speech. But their confidence and courages really inspired me. The process of preparing an English speech can be very helpful, I think. You have to repeat many many times before going to the stage, and repeat is very important for language learning.

I have finished half book of Born a Crime. I read it and listen the audio book at the same time. And just now, I watched Trevor Noah's the daily show. Trevor is so cool! Now one of my goals is going to his show as a guest, lol.

My friend and I agreed that storytelling is very hard when we chatted after a toastmaster telling a story. Even in native language, many people could not tell a good story. Telling a story is a gift, but I think it can also be trained. When I was reading Born a Crime the other day, I thought I could tell the story of Trevor Noah to my friends. "I want to share them with these amazing stories", I thought. I don't think I could attract them because of my poor storytelling skill, but it's the process of training.

I think I could retell the stories here.

July 15, 2017