Deeply Impressed

I thought that now we have reached the half-way point of our blog together, that I would give you my thoughts about your blog so far. I’ll comment on your latest post tomorrow.

Firstly, I really like the range of topics which you have chosen to write about. It’s so great to read about lots of different things which are happening in your life. Your warm personality also clearly comes out in your writing, too. These two points are why you have become such a popular blogger!

Secondly, I am deeply impressed by the sophistication and accuracy of your English, especially as you have only studied English for three years. When I read your blog it’s always a pleasure to see such a variety of natural expressions used in an appropriate way. It’s also pleasing to see many of the phrases I highlighted in my blog, appearing in yours. In this respect you are a model learner.

In addition to this second point, my advice for anyone learning a language is to read as much as you can, but it doesn’t have to be difficult to be useful! You should read books/magazines/newspapers and enjoy the content first of all. Don't immediately reach for a dictionary if you don't understand a word. Instead, try to understand the meaning from the context. After you finish reading you should reread it, but this time try to force yourself to ‘notice’ useful vocabulary – especially phrases and collocations (words which are commonly used together). Make a note of the phrases or collocations and their patterns. For example, is there a dependent preposition? What is the verb form used after it? –ing or to do? If you find a noun, what adjective is used with it? See the end of my blog posts for examples of how to record useful vocabulary.

Thirdly, you write in a clear and logical way which is easy to follow and understand. This is helped by frequent uses of ‘linking words and phrases’ such as ‘I will tell you about...’, 'firstly', ‘next’ and so on. You also usually write in clear, well-defined paragraphs which contain only one main idea. You could try to split longer paragraphs up into slightly shorter ones which focus on one topic – but this is only a suggestion.

Overall, please keep up the wonderful blogging. I really look forward to the next two weeks.

Lewis


Useful phrases which I hope you ‘noticed’ from today’s post:

(to) reach the half-way point of something

(to) give someone your thoughts about something

(to be) deeply impressed by something

(something is) pleasing to see

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