The key to learning a language is getting input that you can understand, or at least easily figure out. It's how we learn our native language and how we learn foreign languages. We start small, with very easy, simple input and gradually increase the difficulty. Language teachers guide learners through this process by matching material to the learner's ability to maximize their language development.

One source of language input is reading. By reading material at or slightly above your language ability is the best way to build your vocabulary and learn sentence patterns: see them in action. Another important source of language input is listening. By listening to English, students can hear proper pronunciation and tune their ear to English sounds. Listening can also help build vocabulary and learn grammar. Both reading and listening are important ways to get language input, essential for learning. I've written about ways to get English reading material in previous posts, so now I would like to focus on how to get some listening practice.

For English learners who don't have the opportunity to live in an English speaking country, getting listening practice can be difficult. In large cities like Taipei, there are more native English speakers than in rural areas, but you may not have many chances to speak with them. In Taiwan we have ICRT on the radio, but for many English learners the speaking is too fast and too difficult. On TV, we have CNN International and a few movie channels, but these also may be too difficult for many learners to understand. So where can people get listening practice at a level that is right for them?

THE INTERNET!!

You can find many sites on the Internet that provide free English lessons, including MP3's for listening practice. On my main web site, there is a Useful Sites link with information on some excellent sources for free online English practice and I will add more, so visit often.

One of my favorite sites is ESLPod.com. There are over 600 2-person dialogs on a wide variety of subjects. The dialogs include useful expressions and idioms commonly used in day-to-day conversations, many of which you won't find in text books.  The site includes the MP3 and a transcript of the basic dialog for free! They also offer the option of paying for a more complete study guide, but the free material is very good.

Another site that I often recommend for listening practice is Voice of America Special English. You can read and listen to stories on current events, business, culture, arts, entertainment, US history, health, education and more. What makes VOA Special English useful for English learners is that they speak very slowly and clearly, much more so than the news broadcasts on the radio or TV.

Getting English input you can understand, or figure out with a little effort, is essential for learning. Even if you are taking English classes or have an English tutor, reading and listening must be a part of your regular routine. The resources I've mentioned above and included on my Useful Sites page are FREE!

There are some brands that are so famous and so iconic, that the brand name is used to describe the product. For example, many people  call all facial tissue - Kleenex, or all cola drinks - Coke. Well for most Americans, when we think of kitchen counter tops, we think of Formica.

The Formica brand is the world's leading name in the decorative surfaces market and is the single most requested brand of high pressure laminate among homebuilders and contractors.

The many applications for Formica products include work surfaces, furniture, flooring, counter tops and interior walls. You'll find Formica laminates in kitchens, bathrooms, offices, airports, hospitals, schools, restaurants, hotels, retail outlets, leisure facilities, ships, buses and trains across the world.

The product was so successful that the brand name became universally recognised in the USA... In its heyday in the 1930s, Formica was used in bars, diners and even the Queen Mary ocean liner. World renowned artists and architects had also begun to recognise the potential of the decorative laminates and specified them for Modernist and Art Deco interiors. By the time of its arrival in Britain from the US around 1947, it exemplified the smooth shiny ultra modern wipe-down luxury lifestyle of the US with its exotic patterns, bright colors and wood grain effects.

For decades, Formica seemed to be on the verge of laminating the entire world.

Why am I writing about Formica? That's a fair question.

First of all, I am very fortunate to have Formica Taiwan as one of my business English clients. They really are an amazing group of people and it's kind of exciting for me to be working with a brand that was such a household name when I was growing up. Second, we just had Formica brand flooring put into our home. It really makes our home look so much nicer. Here are some "before and after" pictures of the hallway. Notice the different flooring:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I am absolutely thrilled with the new floor and I just wanted to share it with you.

The most common complaint I hear from EFL/ESL students about reading in English is that there are too many words they don't understand. They spend a too much time looking words up in a dictionary so they can't really enjoy the book.

I understand the frustration. I felt the same way when I was learning French. First there was the issue of unfamiliar vocabulary words. Then there was the issue of different verb conjugation between spoken and written French. I didn't spend much time reading, either.

Guess what! You don't need to understand every word to enjoy a book and understand most of what's in it. Don't get stuck on every word that you don't know and stop reading to look it up in the dictionary. When you are reading, the best strategy is to focus instead on the main idea. Focus on the words you DO understand, instead of the ones you don't. This way, you can get the author's main idea and often figure out the words you were not familiar with.

Reading for the main idea is useful for both reading for pleasure (novels) as well as for study. When you are reading a novel, if you can get the author's main idea, you can still understand and enjoy the story.  If you are reading a text book or taking a test, you will usually perform better if you can at least get the main idea, even if there are some words you don't understand. In both cases, when you focus on the words that you do understand and read for main idea, you can often figure out the words you don't know on your own without looking them up in a dictionary.

Here is my advice:

When you are reading, underline or highlight unfamiliar words, but don't look them up in a dictionary. Read the whole paragraph first and see if 1) you can understand the main idea and 2) can you figure out what the unfamiliar words might mean. After you finish a chapter, then go back and look up a few of the unfamiliar words in a dictionary and see if you were right. Keep practicing this way and you will develop the skill of finding the main idea as well as figuring out unfamiliar words on your own. Reading will be more enjoyable.

When choosing a book to read, there are a couple things to consider. First, get something you are interested in. If you are not interested in the topic, it will be boring and more difficult to understand. Second, sometimes it's helpful if it's a book that you've already read in your own language or if it's been made into a movie that you've seen. When you are familiar with the story, you can more easily figure out some of the new words. Lastly, if over 20% of the words were unfamiliar to you, then the book is probably too hard for you. You would be better off choosing an easier book.

If your teacher is not giving you anything to read, one good source of easier reading is Penguin Readers . You can check out their web site, or find their books in many book stores in Taipei.

Everyone loves t-shirts.

When you are walking through the shopping mall, or one of the many night markets around Taiwan, you see hundreds, even thousands of different styles. There is a design for every mood and personality. There's also a t-shirt for every budget. I just came across online a Louis Vuitton t-shirt (Graffiti Sprouse) for US$875!! (Can you believe it?)

One of my best friends, Tuan Huynh,  designs t-shirts and I'm writing to share a little about his business with you. The name of his company is Pop Cotton. He launched his business online last year, displays his shirts at some local fairs and events and recently got some of his designs in local Bay Area stores.  Tuan is a very creative, down-to-earth person and his designs reflect these qualities. Here is an excerpt from his web site:

Pop Cotton...

We are a California/Bay Area brand producing high-quality graphic t-shirts. Our product is basically a light, soft, and comfortable tee screened with original artwork that is lighthearted yet thoughtful with strong visual appeal. We use sweatshop-free American-made quality t-shirts with only eco-friendly water-based screen printing. You'll look good and your body and conscience will feel good wearing Pop Cotton tees!

Last year, I bought a couple Pop Cotton shirts; Hanging Out and Summer Breeze. When I go home this October, I think I will buy Knowledge and Peace Shirt. Besides having really cool designs, the material of the t-shirt is very comfortable.

I encourage you to visit Pop Cotton's web site and check out some of Tuan's designs. If you are in the US, his shipping costs are very reasonable. For my Taiwan friends, just let me know if you are interested in buying any of the shirts and I can pick them up on one of my trips home.

I go through a lot of umbrellas. Either I forget and leave them someplace, or the umbrella was so cheap, it breaks after using it just a short time.

One of my friends who has lived in Taiwan for a long time told me that I shouldn't worry about it because here we have "community umbrellas". You will notice outside of office buildings and convenience stores racks full of umbrellas. I thought the racks were there so the customers wouldn't take their wet umbrellas into the shops, but my friend told me that it's sort of an unofficial umbrella share program. People pick one up where they need to and just drop it off at the next rack when they are finished using it. I'm not sure if that's true, but it is the reason why I will never put an umbrella into those racks.

All over Taipei, stores sell cheap umbrellas. I see prices as low as NT$100-200, which is about US$3-6. Pretty cheap, huh. I figure it's because no one wants to donate any expensive umbrellas to the community share program, but who knows. My partner tells me that he won't buy expensive umbrellas because he too forgets them and leaves them some place.

I just can't bring myself, though, to waste my time to buy another cheap piece of junk that will just break after a few uses, so recently when another friend said he was going to a shop that had very high quality umbrellas for decent prices, I asked him to get one for me. It cost about NT$500 (US$15) and appears to be very sturdy. When folded, it's small enough to fit in my bag and when fully extended, it's big enough to actually keep me dry. I'm really happy with the purchase.

Here's where Murphy's Law comes in. In case you are not familiar with Murphy's Law, it basically says that if anything can go wrong, it will. Here are some other ways to use this axiom:

If you arrive at the airport early, your flight will be late.

If you arrive late to the airport, your flight will be on time.

If you didn't do your homework, there will be a test on it.

If you did your homework, the teacher won't even ask.

So it isn't any different in the case of my new, fabulous umbrella. I got it almost 2 weeks ago, and guess what..... No, I didn't lose it or leave it anywhere, but in the past 2 weeks, it has not rained even once, which is unusual for Taiwan this time of year. I'm still waiting to give it a try.

Founded in 1966, RIF (Reading is Fundamental) is the oldest and largest children's and family nonprofit literacy organization in the United States. RIF's highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to age 8. Through community volunteers in every state and U.S. territory, RIF provided 4.4 million children with 15 million new, free books and literacy resources last year. All RIF programs combine three essential elements to foster children's literacy: reading motivation, family and community involvement, and the excitement of choosing free books to keep.

It seems that the only time I was reading for pleasure, until recently, was on my flights back and forth between Taiwan and the US. After all, what else can you do when you are stuck on an airplane for 12-15 hours? How relaxing and enjoyable that was, though.

Reading is more than just an enjoyable, relaxing way to pass some time, though. The better your reading and writing skills are, the more you will learn in school, which might allow you to get better jobs. Reading will broaden not only your vocabulary, but also your horizons. You will learn so much about different ideas, different places and different cultures.  Reading is fundamental!

What got me thinking about reading was not just my recently renewed joy of spending time with a good book or about the importance of literacy, but also my concern with how my EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students can enhance their English ability. Spending an hour or 2 a week in an English class is not going to result in much improvement. Additionally,  text books can only take you so far and may not really be interesting to you. I'm often asked by students for advice on other ways besides our classes to improve their English ability, and there is not a much better way than to read.

As I wrote in a previous post, I believe that seeing and hearing a language in action is the natural, most effective way to learn it. It's how we learned our native language,  and in my own foreign language learning experience I've found it to be essential. When I first started learning French, just studying grammar rules and vocabulary lists made it seem more like learning a secret code than an actual living language. It never really stuck with me.  Only after participating in a summer study program in France, where I heard it, read it and used it every day did the language really become real to me and my learning increased dramatically.

Language learners can't always spend a summer in another country, however, so we have to consider the next best alternative. It is not always possible to spend time every day with a native speaker, either. How can we get the most language input possible, therefore, without being immersed in an environment where it is spoken?

READ! Find a book or magazine or a news article on a subject that interests you, and at a level where you can reasonably understand around 80% of it (the rest you can usually figure out from context) and READ! This kind of language input can help you learn English naturally, rather than by trying to memorize it's rules and vocabulary lists. It's probably a lot more fun, too.

In general, for most learners of English as a foreign language, spending a lot of energy on pronunciation does not need to be a high priority. After all, which accent would you choose?  There are so many English speaking countries and so many different accents within each of those countries, who could say which is "correct"? In English, even though you may use a non-standard, non-native pronunciation , the listener will often know what you mean by context, so minor pronunciation differences do not interfere with communication.

There are times, however, when pronunciation differences can interfere with communication. This happens to me all the time in Chinese. Because I often use the wrong "tone" (there are 4 in Mandarin Chinese) , people have a hard time understanding me since the wrong tone changes the meaning of the word, and if I've used the wrong tone on several words in the same sentence, then it's a mess. In English, even "native" speakers from different English speaking countries, or different regions in the same country, might have a hard time understanding each other. On a summer study program I went on to France, I had a classmate from rural England whose accent was so different and so heavy, it took me nearly 2 weeks to be able to fully understand her.

There are other reasons why you may want to focus some effort on pronunciation. You may be far enough along in your language learning that choosing a target "native" pronunciation and more closely reproducing it is your goal. You might have some significant pronunciation differences that make it difficult for other people to understand you. Or, you have some obvious non-native pronunciation differences that you'd like to get rid of.

It's this last issue that has been on my mind recently, specifically the /th/ sound.  There is no /th/ sound in Chinese, so it seems to be a particular challenge for Chinese speaking learners of English.  Many Chinese speakers don't stick the tip of their tongue between their teeth to correctly make the /th/ sound, so it sounds like /s/; 'I think' becomes 'I sink'.

Come on guys, I know you can do it. It is not physically impossible to stick your tongue out. In fact, it's pretty easy but you just need to break the habit. If it helps, look in a mirror and make sure you can see your tongue when you make the /th/ sound. Generally, we will understand you when you say 'I sink' or 'San-Q' (3Q), but this would be an easy thing to fix.

I am fortunate to currently  have one of the sweetest, most affectionate dogs that I've ever known. WeiWei is a real blessing.

My aunt recently forwarded to me an e-mail called "A Pet's 10 Commandments".  I don't really have anything to add to it, but I was really touched by it and felt like sharing it here. It will serve as a constant reminder to me to treat my WeiWei right!

A PET'S TEN COMMANDMENTS

1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Any separation from you is likely to be painful.

2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.

3. Place your trust in me. It is crucial for my well-being.

4. Don't be angry with me for long, and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment, but I have only you.

5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I do understand your voice when speaking to me.

6. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget it.

7. Before you hit me, before you strike me, remember that I could hurt you, and yet, I choose not to bite you.

8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food, I have been in the sun too long, or my heart might be getting old or weak.

9. Please take care of me when I grow old. You too, will grow old.

10. On the ultimate difficult journey, go with me please. Never say you can't bear to watch. Don't make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there, because I love you so.

Now please pass this on to other pet owners. We do not have to wait for Heaven, to be surrounded by hope, love, and joyfulness. It is here on earth and has four legs!