Don't study TOEIC!
Hello everyone. I'm Park Hyun-Ung from Andong University, and I'm majoring in computer engineering. I want to tell you about studying English.
How long have you been studying English?
I am sure that most university students have studied it at least 6 or 7 years since middle school. They have studied it for a long time, but they can't speak well with foreigners. What is the problem?
Don't they know the grammar? Yes, they know a lot about it.
Don't they understand an article? Yes, they understand it well.
The real problem is that they have studied it not for communication but for tests. When they were in highschool, they studied it just for midterm or final exam. In university they study it for a high TOEIC score or scholarship. Of course a good test score is important but I think the main purpose of studying English is to communicate with foreigners through letter and speech.
Solving only TOEIC questions is an inefficient way to study. If you study English to find the right answer, you will get a high TOEIC score. But your true English skill will not be improved. I'm not majoring in English education and my English isn't very good. So what I'm saying could be seen as being conceited. However I have a strong conviction from my experience that the following three methods are efficient.
First, listening, reading, speaking and writing are equally important. If you are biased to study one of these, you will soon reach your limit to express yourself. For example if you study conversation all the time and don't study grammar then you could have easy conversation very well but it won't be efficient and effective. You need to study all of them.
Second, connect English with your hobby. You may think that you don't have enough time to study all the language parts. That's right. You have to study your major and write papers and so on. Time is limited. In order to save time, you need to connect studying English to your hobby. If you like sports, then read sports article or watch sports news. If you like TV dramas, then watch American TV dramas.
Finally, take an English conversation class. You need to practice to speak what you want to say and ask teachers anything that you don't know. If you ask the teacher a question, he or she will explain about it in English. In this way you can improve listening, grammar and expressions.
If you take my advice, studying English will not be boring anymore. The only thing you need to do is enjoy English.
Do you still want to study TOEIC for English?
Thank you for listening to my speech. Thank you.
