A1.
In the first week of this term, I learned an interesting thing in the Advanced Pronunciation class. The interesting thing is that all students have their own pronunciation problems due to their first languages. I have a great chance to learn everyone's drawback of pronunciation since the Advanced Pronunciation class has students coming from six different countries (Japan, Cambodia, Colombia, Brazil, Vietnam, and Taiwan.) Because there are a lot of students coming from Japan, it is easy to recognize Japanese have trouble pronouncing "L" and "R." Colombia and Brazil students have fewer grammar errors than other students, but their English pronunciations are still influenced by Spanish and Portuguese pronunciation. For me, their speeches are harder to understand than Japanese students because I can speak neither Spanish nor Portuguese. The most special problem is Vietnamese style. Their language has no "s" sound so that they have trouble speaking "s." It is hard to understand when they talk if I do not know they cannot pronounce "s" sound well. I found that once I remember other students' pronouncing problem, I can recognize their speeches better, which greatly improves my listening skills.
A2.
I received a journal and a patent from my future advisor since I have to know what her current research is and what kind of knowledge I have to learn. I started to read the journal this week. It is about a new joining process technology of aluminum alloys which was created by General Motors in 2011. In the beginning, this study was tough because there are some jargons that I did not use before and most of them cannot be translated by normal dictionaries. Fortunately, I remembered that I brought my big heavy dictionary for mechanical enginnering with me to Hawaii, but I still spent a lot of time checking every word that I did not know. The studying was easier after I knew all the words in the article. If there are too many words we do not know in an article, we cannot read it even if we have good reading skills. I think the most important thing in a reading test is vocabularies over reading skills. For this reason, I think we still have to read news or articles that we have no interests in if we want a good score in English tests.
A3.
In my opinion, language learning is similar to other types of learning but not completely. The same part between language learning and other types of learning is that all kinds of learning need enough practices. We have to train again and again until we can use them fluently. Before I explain the different part, I think language learning should be separated into two parts for discussion. The first part is 0~6 years old humans and the other is over 6 years old humans. The different part of language learning of over 6 years old humans and other types of learning is that language learning of over 6 years old humans needs to memorize many things before practicing, such as vocabulary, grammar, and so forth. On the contrary, language learning of 0~6 years old humans is the same with other types of learning – they need not memorize so many things because we can remember what we need through practice. For example, soccer players learn skills through practice and their bodies remember how to control a ball by their feet, not their brains. I think people who need to develop their English skills should expand their vocabularies first and have enough practice when learning English. It is a little different with other kinds of learning.
A4.
To write an article full of Asian style (indirect, metaphor, and so on) is hard to read for Americans. We must write English articles in standard American style when we study in the United States unless we are masters in English literature. When reading, knowing standard American style is also very important since we can not always sense articles well. Once we know the strategies of reading, we can focus our attention on the right sentences; for example, we can usually find the key points in the first paragraph, the beginning of each paragraph, the last sentence of each paragraph, and the last paragraph. These strategies can increase our reading speed a lot. Speaking and listening strategies are also important because our first language is very different from English. If our English ability is not good enough to express a complex matter, the speaking strategies can help us to construct our expressions. We can know when we should talk about our main idea or what words we can utilize to emphasize our key points. Once we know where the main idea should be and which words can stress the key point, our listening skill will also develop. Another strategy of listening skill is note taking, which helps us remember the emphases of lectures. Learning strategies can improve our performance in English.
