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
Hey there, my dear friend…
Wow… This “How?” post was AWESOME, I think those four words really can help you with your skills.
Hey… Did you see my tweet about the Abrão Coelho’s English skills? I thought that we can practice a lot some days with Skype, so tell me: What do you think about it?
Watch videos and screencasts in clean English without subtitles is fu** good, but a little recommendation is to take your time and make some notations about it.
So the things will be more clear when you finish.
One more thing… I know an English teacher and maybe I contact her and ask for some help with text corrections. Do you know anybody there?
I hope to start my English articles soon.
See you Brother. Keep movin
Hi Elomar,
First of all, I have to congratulate you for your courage doing it. And now I have some corrections to help you, ok?
“[...]how I am preparing to get this.” Preparing what? I think it could be “how I am preparing myself to get this.”;
“the two things in which[...]” It should be “two things [...]“, without “the”;
“what I will do get ready to the TOEFL”, I think the right manner is “what I will do to get ready to the TOEFL”;
“I will try read some non-technical book.”, it should be “I will try to read some non-technical book.” or “I will try reading some non-technical book.”, ok?
“and will speak as much as I can”, you can not forget the subject, “and I will speak as much as I can”.
“in this classes”, the right sentence is “in these classes”.
I do not know if I found all mistakes, but I hope I can help with this.
Helton de Melo Duarte
heltonduarte.wordpress.com
Hello, Juarez!
Thanks for the nice words! ;D
I think it would be great to practice with you guys at skype. I don’t know yet when we can do it, but I will try to find some time to do it.
I liked the idea of making some notations about the videos I watch. I will review some videos I watch here on this blog.
When I start my English course I will ask my teacher to review my posts. Hope she helps me. =D
Thanks for the tips and for producing an audio version of the post!
See you ;D
Hello, Helton!
Thank you for the corrections! I really appreciate this kind of help! =D
Hope to see you here more often ;D
Hi there Elomar!
This is a great to achieve your goal! I went to college in the United States when I was 18 also and it was a great experience…
When I arrived in JFK (New York’s international airport) I didn’t have any english speaking skills (only reading, writing and listening).
To change this situation, I enrolled in a ESL (English as a Second Language) course at college and also watched TV shows with Closed Caption (subtitles in english for the hearing impaired). It was a great experience and in less than 2 months I was speaking and doing everything by myself.
Also I never spoke in portuguese with brazilian friends: I felt I had to speak in english as much as I could. And it was the best thing that I’ve could it done by the time.
I hope you get the scholarship and then we will meet at RailsConf and other conferences…
I have just one question: Why did you choose Daytona State College? Which course are you interested in?
I wish you the best!
Hello Christopher!
Thanks for the tips! I also hope to see you in RailsConf (or Rails Summit)
I’m happy to know you enjoyed living in the USA, and I have some questions: How many time did you live there? Did you finish the college? What course did you take? Sorry asking you so many questions ;D
I interested in courses related to Software Development and Computer Science. I hadn’t choose Daytona State College, I just think it’s where Fulbright sends the students interested in these courses.