Learning to Learn English

Hello, folks! Long time no see!

I came here today to give you a little tip: In case you don’t know yet, Fabiana Lara, from InglesJa, is giving a free course on “How to Learn English”.

Course on How to Learn English

The course consists of little videos, one each day, that give you some advice on how to become a better English learner. There are already three videos on-line and she is plannig to post at least thirty (but I hope she makes more!). This is the kind of material that can really help you in your learning journey and that you can’t find easily. Don’t lose this opportunite.

ps: I didn’t post anything during all this time because I ran out of ideas about what to post. Is there something you want to see here?

Tips to improve your reading skill

In my opinion, reading is the less difficult part of the TOEFL exam, maybe because I am used to read a lot in English. My goal is get at least 90% of the score on the TOEFL’s reading section, and I will share with you what I am going to do in order to achieve this goal.

Reading on the platform - by moriza @ Flickr

Obviously the better way to to improve your reading skill is reading, but not in the way you may be used to. You need to broaden your vocabulary and make sure you understand what you read.

The first step to get this is choose what to read. You should read texts on a wide range of subjects, in different writing styles. Make sure to add in your feed reader blogs from successful people in areas other than yours – marketers or businessmen, for example. If you will take the TOEFL, you shoud also read introductory academic material from different courses, because this is the kind of text most used in the exam.

There are some exercises you can do after reading a passage to better understand what you read. I saw these on the TOEFL guide:

• Identify the passage type (e.g., classification, cause/effect, narration, and so on).
• Create an outline of the passage to distinguish between major and minor points.
• If the passage categorizes information, create a chart and place the information in appropriate categories.
• If the passage describes the order of a process or is a narration, create an outline of the steps in the process or narration.
• Create an summary of the passage using the charts and outlines.
• Paraphrase individual sentences in the passage, and then progress to paraphrase an entire paragraph.

Hope it helps. Good reading!

How?

I already told you why I want a Fulbright’s internship. Now I will tell you how I am preparing myself to get this.

Practice makes perfect - by kitperry1983 @ Flickr

I am preparing in two different fields: personal and English skills, two things in which I will be evaluated to get the internship.

I guess that what they look for in the candidates is their ability to lead, responsibility, pro-activity. They look for people that can fully enjoy the internship – people that are worth it. I will try to show them I am one of these people they are looking for with +web, a web development study group I founded and lead in my college. +web will be very active this year, with monthly meetings and a big event in July. I will also release the web app I am developing in my free time. I hope it helps me with the interviews.

My English skills will be evaluated in the TOEFL exam. It is divided in four sections: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Four words describe what I will do to get ready to the TOEFL: practice, practice, practice, practice. =D

• I am used to read book and blogs in English. I am going to keep doing it, and I will try to read some non-technical book.
• I will watch videos in English without subtitles to improve my listening skill. With Lost, The Big Bang Theory, Heroes and Confreaks I have videos to watch for a few years.
• I will post on this blog regularly, at least twice every week.
• Speaking will be the hardest thing to practice, because I do not have many friends that speak English to practice with me. I will take English classes this semester, and I will speak as much as I can in these classes and make some friends to practice with me.

I am sure this year will not be easy, but if I manage my time wisely I think I can do it.

ps1: Juarez did an audio version of this post. Thank you guy!

ps2: Updated with the corrections suggested by Helton Duarte. Thank you! =D

Why?

Does it answer your question? This is the Daytona State College, where I will probably study and live if I get the Fulbright scholarship. But studying hot things in a terrific college is not the only reason I want it.

One reason is to dive into and learn English, which will open me many doors. English is the de facto world language (Esperanto? don’t think so) and by being fluent in it I can be in any country I want to. English is also the most used language in my field of knowledge (information systems development) and most books, videos and people speak English. It will be a lot harder to me growing up as a professional without reading these books, watching these videos and talking to these people.

Learning English is a good reason, but it is something I can do without getting out of my country or going somewhere else – UK or Canada, for example – but USA is where things happen. I want to attend conferences like RailsConf, QCon (TED is dreaming too high) meet the people that get the things done and where many innovations that matter to me are born.

I also want to be more independent. I’ve never lived alone, and I want to learn how to survive by myself, cooking my own food and cleaning my mess by myself. I think this will make me more adult.

Last, but not least, I love to travel, know new places, different people. USA is a big country with many many many places I want to be.

Some people may yet argue that I don’t need an internship, that I could study in a greate college here, learn English here, live alone here and travel to USA sometimes to go to the conferences I want and know these cool places. Well, this is easy to answer: An internship will be waaaaay more funny (and I don’t have the money needed).

That’s it.

ps: All the photos were shamefully stolen from Thiago Augusto, that got the Fulbright internship last year and is now studying in Daytone State College and enjoying the life. Hope he doesn’t mind.

ps2: Corrections added. Thanks Marcos Toledo!

Hello, World

I am a brazilian eighteen nerd student looking for an opportunity to study in another country. Why? because I want learn more, I want be more, I want change something and I think getting out of the country can help me to do some big and crazy things.

This year I am trying to get a scholarship from Fulbright to study in USA, and I started this blog with two things in mind: document my journey with Fulbright and improve my writing English skills. Hope that  this blog help me to get it and that you have some fun along the way.

Bye