It's a universally acknowledged fact, that learning a language is not an easy job. This is not only true for learning a new language. Even though I had lived in Hong Kong for nineteen years, I still don't dare to tell anyone that I can really master my native language. It seems that thirteen years of formal education in Chinese language doesn't really help, as I can still frequently find grammatical mistakes in my Chinese writings, and words that are totally unknown to me while reading Chinese novels. So it's obvious that in order to succeed in learning a new language, one must has the opportunity, the courage, a little bit luck, and must be willing and ready to learn a language. Learning the natural way, learning from friends and through a formal class are three basic techniques that I think cannot be excluded during the process of learning a language.

First of all, learning a language in the natural way is one of the ways that works pretty well for me, as I don't really like the feeling that I was forced to learn something, just like taking a formal class. Myself serve as a very good example in this case. I remembered the first time I went to a fast food restaurant, aft

Secondly, learning from friends is another way for me to gather useful information about a language. Since I came here to the United States, I have made friends from my math class whose native language is English. Whenever I don't understand some vocabularies they are using, such as 'wither', 'pimple' and 'ponder', I asked them and they explained it to me immediately. Also I need to speak to them in English and thus have more chances to practice using the language. Besides, I also learn from friends who are learning the same language as I do - those in my ESL class by sharing and exchanging ideas while we were helping each other to proof read our essays. It's more likely for me to find my friends' mistakes than finding my own. I remembered last quarter Freeda and I were taking different ESL classes, and every time I asked her to prove read my essays before I turned in to my teacher. It turned out really helps as she frequently find tense mistakes, such as 'he do' and 'they does' and 'yesterday I go to' that I used in my essay. I read hers too, and we discuss about our common problem - tense confusion, and we both learnt from 'our' mistakes. Now I can do it correctly the first time by learning from my friends' mistakes, instead of making the mistake myself and learn from it afterwards. Peers understand your situation and problem, whereas teachers already knew the language themselves, and perhaps they might not have even thought of your problem as a problem.

In spite of the above three techniques - learning the natural way, learning from friends and through a formal class, there're many other paths that lead to the same destination - becoming a successful language learner. We shouldn't neglect any of those techniques, but we should focus on those that make us feel most comfortable while using it. Learning the natural way, learning from friends and through a formal class are three basic techniques that I think work for me. Anyway, learning a language is a tough job, and it requires one to put a lot of effo

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1361
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)