I am trying to articulate my toughts on learning. In my opinion, TOEFL test is an "easy" test. The definition of word "easy" here is a bit different. Of course, unless you are a language genius, it will take you months of hardworking to get a fair score on TOEFL. But I still see TOEFL as not challenging. Why?

That's because TOEFL is a well studied area. (at least in China) When studying TOEFL, you don't need to worry about how to do it. There are tons of materials and instruction of how you can master the test. All you have to do is putting your feet on the ground and studying 12 hours a day. That will sure solve the problem.

However, in many other things, there is no step-by-step instruction. I heard some people say the best way to improve badminton skill is to play with those good ones. I don't totally agree. I believe the best way to improve badminton skill is training like a professional. You may hire a coach and spend hours and hours perfecting the same form, or take aerobic exercises to improve stamina. That's the right way to do it because world-class players are all trained in this way. Only practice is not enough, you need to be trained.

When it comes to, say, English learning, it is the same story. (Practical English not English test) All I've heard is, if you wanna speak better English, the best way is talking to people. Of course, it is A way. The "best" way? Doubtfully. For example, it would be much faster to learn new words from dictionary than from conversations. I think there must be a better way to learn English scientifically and systematically. Not like TOEFL or badminton, there is no off-the-rack tutorial on things like interpersonal skills or public speech. There are materials, but no guarantee they will work. You gotta keep questioning if you are on the right track. What's even worse is, you don't even know where you're going. In TOFEL test, If I scored 108 points out of 120 (which I did ^_^ ), I'd be glad. And it would further motivate my learning. But how could I tell if my interpersonal skill was improved?

So this's what I call "challenging". Working hard doesn't solve all the problems here, you have to work wisely. Practice doesn't make perfect when the person is under-trained.

I have been heavily engaged with English courses recently. In the pronunciation course, I found that I almost failed correctly pronuncing every syllable.

When the time I started learning Badminton, I read an article from the internet says "It is bad to mix up Tennis and Badminton because Tennis gives you bad habits." It was talking about the form and skill like how do you channel the muscle power. Of course, for different sports, there are different ways to do that. Hence I think, after being speaking Mandarin for tens of years, how many "bad habits" do I have when speaking English?

Quite a few I think.

They say it is hard for grown-ups to learn the pronunciation. Indeed, most aged Chinese Immigrants I met have even worse accent than me. But I don't think it is unchangeable. In many ways, speaking a language is like playing sport. It takes years to learn your skill, and that perfection procedure never ends. I have been play badminton for 2 years almost. It took me months to give a fair clear-shot, and I picked up slice-smash the very last month. There is always a way to improve your skill. You just need to keep the knowledge in mind, and train like heck, again, again and again. Sometimes, I really wanna be a athlete.

The reason I didn't improve much is because I lost the pressure. When I just came to Canada, no doubt there was great pressure on me. I was afraid if I failed anything, I could be packed and sent back to China. Well, it sounds like a joke now but, in those days, it was terribly real. Since I eased off, there was no struggle on survival anymore, and my motivation of learning English faded away. It was bad, really BAD.

Pressure makes ordinary people do extraodinary things, if you don't stressed out of course. The life as grad student here in UVic is too tranquil. They deserve enjoying it. Most of my friends are married and have kids, or at least have a girlfriend/boyfriend. For those who are single like me, they have a promising future waiting ahead. What do I have then? Nothing. I will be in constantly moving in the coming years. I gotta realize that if I don't work my way up or everything could fall apart, and it will. Sometime when I log on my MSN or some SN website, I contemplated on the friend list and thought, wow, how I wish I could exchange my life with any one of them. Heck, It is just not happening.

New year's Resolution (Goals must be achieved):

Gaining weight to 70kg while keeping the body fat percentage.

Graduating from UVic, and finding a job in Canada/US.

Further polishing my badminton skill.

Finishing my novel.

This is me heading to a suite party.