This evening Mark brought me a keychain and a box of shortbread rounds all the way from the U.K., where he went to study abroad for a month. It's so sweet of him. I really appreciate it.
I'm glad to know that he found the right directions and the key to studying English after this expensive trip. That is to return to the basics for the purpose of communication. In my opinion, most Taiwanese students or even teachers have picky ears. When they listen to people speak English, they tend to keep their ears open only for American English or Canadian English. When it comes to other accents, such as Singlish, Indian English or even British English and Australian English, they tend to turn a deaf ear to them and claim that they are not standard English. However, I don't think that's the right mindset for English teachers or learners when it comes to teaching or studying English. After all, when people travel abroad, they have to talk to people not only from the North America. Instead, they will meet people from all over the world and communicate with the same lanuage, English, but with different accents. If they don't realize how important accent-tolerence is, they might feel depressed and think their English is not as good as originally thought. In other words, we can choose to learn one specific kind of English, and try to speak like them. But when it comes to listening, I think we might as well stay open-minded and listen to various accents instead of shrugging them off.
Mark also felt the same way after the trip. Although this trip might be costly, it's going to be worth every penny as long as this trip can broaden his horizon and serve as a big break to change his English studying methods and mindset. I'd also like to thank him for introducing a great London radio station to me, which is LBC (London's Biggest Conversation) at http://www.lbc.co.uk/listen-to-lbc-3576. If any of you wants to improve your listening about British English, here is the website that you can not miss out on. Give it a shot!
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