Description of the picture:

1. International volunteer in Nong Khai, Thailand; 2. Courchsurfing friend Ivan who is from Uganda; 3. The same international volunteer, a British girl Sar; 4. JP Courchsurfing friend Chika; 5. Trip to Nepal and with Nepli friend Padam; 6. British volunteer friend Debbie; 7. Trip to ChengDu with vietnamese,Russian friends Thanh, Maria and Jenya; 8. Orphanage in Thailand, Australian Nurse Kate; 9. courchsurfing friend, Polish girl,PHD, Monika; 10. Trip to South Korea, Australian friend, Senior PM, John; 11. international volunteer, Australian guy, Thor.

1. 2.5 years English Learning Summary...

I am neither an English teacher nor expert English learner but in the past 2.5 years, English learning experiences have changed the status of my work and life a lot. I would like to share all of them with you and I hope especially for someone who is an English beginner or struggling with painful English level improvement.

1) Work

Support English hotline
Translate APJ Newsletter of our company, Dell Privatization news, Dell news etc.
English version translating/training program
Global Projects

2) Life

Translate Master Degree Self-statement, English articles
International volunteer
Language exchange, travel overseas experiences let me know many more great people
Because of our group (GlobalEnglishGroup), I have talked with people who are from more than 30 countries

2. Before get started, you should prepare...

Ultimate Goal
Duration
Methodology

1) Goal:

I roughly divide the level into 4(as the picture shows). For most of the Chinese students maybe they think that if they pass the CET4 or CET6 that means their English is no communication barrier with foreigners. Well, in my opinion, to pass the CET4/6 means that you just have a medium vocabulary status before you get your English REALLY GOOD. The reason why I make this statement because for most of the Chinese schools, at least the same generation as mine, we all focus on more reading and writing. Crudely speaking, I array the 4 skills on practicability: listening-Speaking-Reading-Writing. Even 2.5 years ago my English sucked, my goal was-to be an English native speaker!

2) Duration:

Before make your plan, you should know an important rule,10,000 hours Rule which proposed by Malcolm Gladwell.

In my opinion, to learn a language, the key is to use it. Firstly, you have to go over many more new words and it takes time. Secondly, to look for opportunities and use it. With the vocabularies you learned, it helps you build confidence in conversations with others. I think to make a monthly plan is better. For example, the first 3 months you work hard on vocabularies and grammars, the 4th month, you can try to talk with people to practice listening and speaking. Meanwhile, you need to improve vocabulary since it's infinite :-)

3) Methodology:

Step I: Vocabulary and Grammar

Confidence plays an extremely important role in learning. In my opinion, expanding your vocabulary will help you on that. I would like to recommend 2 books on this point, especially for Chinese and people who work for multinational company:

For this subject, repeat and repeat again is a must at first. So learning at least 1 hour a day is better.

Step II: Listening

For listening comprehension, the key is to practice your ears to be familiar with the "rhythm”. It likes a daily "Training", I mean you have to practice every day at least 10 minutes.

For beginner, you can choose VOA and if you would like to try many more accents, I recommend APPS "Learn ABC" for individual learning.

Step III: Speaking

For some people who are "shy" or worried about making mistakes: You can try Italki. It provides wide, decent and good price foreigner teachers. Teachers would never laugh at you.
For some people who are eager to talk and make friends or help others achieve their goals: I highly recommend our weekend chat.

3. Dictionary

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, it’s really a creditable dictionary, one of my friend who is also one of our group members Tata recommended to me and you should use it.To the point, if you are a Chinese, you can use "Youdao" to know the meaning of a new word and use "Longman" to know how to use the word properly.

The last, I wish the article would be useful for you. And I would like to highly recommend our group again since I practice my oral English here every weekend. if you join us,

You will have opportunities to talk with people all over the world
You will be familiar with more and more accents
You will be able to know different cultures and wide your eyes...

Good luck to you!