Writing is considered to be the toughest of the four major language skills.  In many cultures, there is relatively little expectation that people will ever do much original writing, and the expectation for students to write is limited.  However, in the US, writing is one of the primary ways that students are expected to demonstrate subject knowledge, and no student, even in Math and Science, can be expected to graduate without at least some skill in writing. Obviously, to develop ones writing skill to the level needed to get into an American university, and to succeed there, requires time, dedication, and the help of professionals (such as the staff at EC San Francisco).  You can learn vocabulary on your own, you can study grammar from a book, but to develop the needed facility with language that skilled writing requires, you need some trained outside help.  You can’t learn what you are doing wrong in an essay simply by writing a lot of them.  You need someone to read them. That said, there are some simpler approaches that can get you more comfortable with writing in English.  I had one student who made hugely effective use of a journal.  Every day, whether he felt like it or not, he wrote in his journal.  It might be as simple an entry as a description of the weather, or as complex as a heartfelt expression of his homesickness, and depression about his “slow” progress.  Once a week he let me read it, and make suggestions for improvement. This was a challenge for both of us.  I was faced, essentially, with multiple genres, from pure descriptive writing through narrative autobiography, and into the fringes of self-analysis of personal psychology.  For him, he had to write every day, even if he didn’t want to, or … Read more

Of the four primary language skill areas, reading is the most demanding.  In fact, it is so demanding that many people never become proficient readers in their first language.  If you don’t like to read, you don’t read, which means you don’t get better.  It’s one of the big problems in American education, and the problem has spread to Europe and Asia as well.  Smart Phones and the Internet haven’t helped matters either. The real problem is not that people don’t read well, but that, even with electronic technology, reading remains the key to learning, to developing many types of job skills, and to accessing detailed information.  For students who want to attend a college or university, skill in reading is a must.  Yet this is hard to develop in a second language, even if you like reading in your first language.  If you generally never read, it’s even harder.  So what can you do? Well, there’s no easy fix, no magic pill you can take to make reading in English come easily.  If you like to read, developing English reading will still be a chore.  If you don’t like reading it will be harder still.  But if you are really serious about your future, you move forward.  And it can be done. The most common two mistakes are to attempt to read something that is too difficult, or to read something that doesn’t interest you.  Of the two, I think interest is more important.  If you really want to read something, you will, even if it is a challenge.  When the third Harry Potter book was coming out in Britain, children and parents were lined up outside bookshops in London.  The stores were going to open at midnight, just to sell the book.  I saw an interview with a … Read more