So I came across this article from CNN about an interesting TEDtalk: “The secret power of YouTube”. You might still remember that we mentioned about TEDTalk a while ago in this post, and you can always visit their website for more talks at http://www.ted.com/. Please note that the talks there are more suitable for advanced learners only. The article, however, can be read with intermediate level.
In the talk, Chris Anderson defined the term crow-accelerated innovation, and he provided the three things he believe needed for such innovation to take off: a “Crowd”, “Light” and “Desire”. It is a notable article and talk, you should definitely try to have a look 😉
Now you might ask, “so what does it have to do with English learning?” Since I can’t practically add anything interesting to the table as his wording is just right, I will simply quote Christ here:
“Crowd: It can be any group, small or large, of people who share a common interest. The bigger the group, the better the chance that it contains real innovators. But successful crowds also depend on lots of other roles like trend-spotters, cheerleaders, commenters, and even skeptics.
Light: You need to be able to see what the very best people in the crowd are capable of. And the amazing thing about the Web is that even when the crowd is in the millions, the best contributors can readily bubble up to the surface — for example, by winning the most views or highest ratings on a website.
Desire: On the Web, this is provided through social recognition. If you can do something innovative and special, you get thousands of people viewing your work and talking about you. It’s intoxicating. And it’s driving hundreds and hundreds of hours of effort from potential innovators across the globe.”
This makes me think of our blog, of the reason why I decided to create this blog, ask for help from others, and why I decided to go back and keep the blog running.
I hope that I can create a bigger CROWD of students who are aware of the importance of learning English, who know how to learn English (as well as other foreign language) effectively and economically.
I have once been struggling with trying to get the best TOEFL test score out of the minimal amount of money my parents could offer me. I have made a number of trials, ranging from learning solely at school (university), at home, go to cheap to expensive learning centers. For the first type (cheapest) I only need to go to class once to decide that it does not worth my time sitting in and getting bored. For the most expensive one I only attend one of their class to realize that they don’t really worth the money I spent. I have also tried online study, and finally go back to self-study with a bunch of books and my cassette player. I realize that everything come down to HOW you learn it. That is the reason I would like to shred a LIGHT to you guys of what I have been able to do (and so you can, too), and asked that my friends help and do the same.
Of course there is that bit of DESIRE in it, that we have an audience, that we help 😉
We all know that we all DESERVE to be able to learn and get better.
English is not a goal, but more like a tool. High TOEFL or IELTS scores, however are our goal, and our tool to apply to study abroad. But after that, English come back again as a tool, to communicate and to help us advance in our life, as well as in our work. It burdens me that many of us have hard time to get better at English because of their financial problems. So, if you find us helpful, please, create a bigger CROWD and help your friends by introducing us to them. Spread the word.
The more people know English (or any other language), the more people go study abroad, the better we can help our country to develop. For a bright future of Vietnam 🙂
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Let's Study English - Nào ta cùng học tiếng Anh :) 