Reality really bites

I don’t recall how many times I’ve had students ask me to help them with their English because they planned to study in the Unites States. The thing is they usually don’t realize preparation in advance counts a great deal when it comes to studying in English.

I believe there are many people who can carry on a decent conversation in English; yet it does not mean one is able to do studies well at university in the US. Speaking and writing are two major obstacles for lots of Asian students, let alone doing some profound academic research and oral presentation.

If someone tells you he wants to go to graduate school next year and is going to take the TOEFL exam in September and expects you to help him to increase writing skills in a month, what will you do?

Many think as long as they spend money; and time is never an issue! Sometimes I want to shout at those students! Wake up! It’s a mission impossible! Getting an excellent score on TOEFL or GRE takes time to prepare and practice; especially those tests have been modified to a more difficult level nowadays.

I’m the 'best' example! Having thought of my studies in the States, I thought I could easily get a high score on GRE. Therefore, I didn’t really prepare a lot. Guess what? It was a flop! I didn’t even finish my exam! For both verbal and quantitative sections, I had to guess many answers because I was too slow… I realized practice plays such an important role on those tests. Basically, one has to answer each question within 30 seconds and if there is any hesitation, he will fall behind the time.

Oh well, such is life! I will challenge myself again! And certainly, I will do all I can and study all is germane to the test before I embark on another test. Besides, I will time myself for each practice exam I do at home.

So, is it really difficult to mast a foreign language? I doubt it. Since our brain is full of plasticity; it should be able to acquire language skills regardless of the fact a person has passes the critical period. My speculation is as long as a person had been exposed to linguistic stimulation before the critical period and his or her brain had developed the necessary neurons for learning a language, it should not be too daunting for the individual to learn other languages.

It all depends on how much effort a person puts in and how much stimulation his or her brain has received in order to produce new neurons for the new language learning.

If a subject takes 20 minutes thinking in the target language, how long will it take for the subject to express fluently in the target language without major difficulties? I would love to conduct a research in the near future!

So, those who want to study abroad should be aware of the truth: Start preparing early if you want to study overseas. Giving yourself enough time to learn and digest and internalize English, then you should be fine!