If you wonder why I recently write my posts in English, then, well, that’s because I’m preparing myself for TOEFL. As you may know, there is a writing section in TOEFL in which you are given a topic and then asked to write an essay based on that topic. And I think the best way to prepare myself for the writing section is by writing my blog posts in English. That will be a good exercise for me.
And, yes, I have been preparing myself for other areas of TOEFL too. For reading, I think I have been reading quite a lot of reading material in English every day, so that can be considered as the exercise for reading section. For listening, I prepare myself in a fun way, that is by watching DVDs with the subtitles turned off. So I can get two benefits at once: increasing listening capability in English and excitement from the film ! Isn’t that a fun way to learn English ?
I have another motivation to learn writing in English, and it comes from an excellent article written by Joel Spolsky entitled Advice for Computer Science College Students. In that article, he wrote that English writing skill is a very important skill in the computer field (well, actually not only in the computer field). The ones who can write well in English is the ones with the most power and influence. Why ? Because other people can only understand and appreciate what you’ve done if you can communicate it well with others. So, he encourages the reader to start a weblog, because “the more you write the easier it will be, and the easier it is to write, the more you’ll write, in a virtuous circleâ€. I agree with him, and that’s exactly what I’m doing right now !