The Internet site I use to study English.

In this semester, I am taking an elective course about English. The instructor for this class told his whole class one site that is useful in studying English (mostly listening practice). I like using this site because it has a lot of listenings, some questions about them and there are also short videos that are related to each listening topic.
Some of the listenings are easy but a few of them are a little difficult.

This is a screenshot of the site.

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - http://esl-lab.com/

The only thing I don't like about this site is some pronunciations are unclear. I might have this problem because of my inability to understand English completely but kids talk a lot more unclearly than real kids in English-speaking countries. Other pronunciations are pretty clear because they sound almost as same as the ones in TOEFL and TOEIC listenings. Exercises are useful because they ask ones that are necessary to remember and therefore important. However, I remember reading questions that ask for details that are not so important. I think the creator of this site did a great job on coming up with questions with unimportant answers because those questions truly test our listening abilities.

Not only listening, but there is also a vocabulary lesson. Learning more about language is also possible by using this site because the creator didn't only focus on listening. Study handouts are also available in PDF files and there are also vocabulary quizzes to test your English vocabulary knowledge.

Even though there are a lot of functions and English-learners can use this site well to improve their English skills, I still don't think listenings in this site are as well-made and well-recorded as TOEFL and TOEIC listenings. They are all too short since they range from less than 40 seconds to 5 minutes. Also, there are only four or five listening problems. Therefore, this site will be a better use if it is used only for a reference, not a main source of studying English.

The person I truly admire.

In my life, there is one person I truly admire. This speical person is my mom and I'd like to tell you about her briefly.

My mother.

My mom has been a perfect role-model for me since I learned to walk and talk because she is such a wise, smart and an awesome person. My mom and I sometimes don't get along well (we hardly fight) because our personality is so different and we pursue different styles in basically everything (from fashion, interior design, art works, foods, etc.). However, our bond is very close because I am her only child and she tried so hard to raise me as a righteous and a smart person. When she was young, she never talked back or complained to her parents even though they weren't able to provide a lot of things my mom did for me so far. What I love most about my mom is that she usually tends to be cold and speaks plainly but when I talk to her about my personal problems, my mom is the best adviser and encourager for me. I think all of my family is a great adviser, but I think of her as the best because she cares mostly about me. I sometimes feel sorry for her because she sacrificed her life for me and I think she still is. I am getting older and it's time for me to sacrifice my life for her but unfortunately, I am still studying. Of course, I can work to earn money and give allowance to her and buy her some clothes even though she still has a job. I hope I can get a decent job as fast as possible so that she can rest at home, cook and do what she wants to do. I owe my mom everything and I hope I can pay everything I got from her since I was born from now on.

On this weekend.

I think this entry is going to be a short one...-_-;;

Well, I was on my way to home after I saw my orthodonist. I was taking a bus and when I almost got close to my stop, I heard and felt a crash in the back of the bus. I was so shocked as well as other people because the sound was huge. Thankfully, no one seriously got hurt and the accident wasn't bad at all. However, a truck that was standing in the middle of the intersection lost its sideview mirror. I think the bus driver tried to avoid getting hit with this truck but he failed to do so because of how close the truck was to his bus and its size.

I think some people who were sitting in the back might have hurt their back or waist, or possibly everywhere. I was standing in front of the door in the back getting ready to get off the bus. To my expectations, I feel completely in health. I hope there will be no one standing in the intersection from now on everywhere.

About my hobbies.

There are a lot of things I like to in my spare time.

Here is a list of my hobbies:

1. Watching movies.

2. Reading books. 

3. Playing the piano.

4. Singing.

I think these are my hobbies. Since I have a lot of hobbies, I don't get to be bored even though I get to stay at home often. Now, I will briefly talk about each hobby in more detail. 

1. Watching movies. 

I love watching movies because I don't exactly know why, but they entertain me a lot. Of course, there are some kinds of movies that I don't really like to watch because they are either too violent or too vulgar to watch. For example, I don't like movies that have to do with murder and horror. Every time I watch these kinds of movies, I suffer from a few weeks to as long as two months with nightmares and from seeing things that aren't really there. Thus, it's a good idea for me to avoid watching these kinds of movies for mental and physical health. My most favorite movie of all-time is Pride and Prejudice. I love this movie because it's very romantic and it's based on the very famous novel written by Jane Austen. Also, my favorite actress is the main character for this movie. Some people don't like watching movies because they need to seat on one spot for more than an hour and they simply don't like staring at a screen for a long time. However, it's definitely different for me. Watching movies helps me relieve stress that I get daily and it's a wonderful way to entertain myself. I always get excited every time I go see a movie. 

2. Reading books. 

My second hobby is to read books. I didn't like reading books when I was a lot younger than now (approximately, when I was in elementary school) but I learned to like them step by step because it's a good idea to be able to create my own imaginary world by reading stories and the ones that are impossible to happen in our real world. Also, I started learning English with the start on books. Therefore, books mean different to me from the way they generally mean to others. I don't really differentiate among genres for books the way I do for movies. However, I always try to avoid reading violent and vulgar books such as the ones about murder and ghosts. Also, I don't like reading mysteries because they can be extremely spooky, they give a huge amount of goosebumps and scary parts about those books appear as my worst nightmare. I also think that reading books helps people improve their vocabulary skills and expands a level of one's knowledge. I am also interested in famous people's autobiography (biography as well) and non-fiction books about current issues and any topic in general. My most favorite genre for books is romance, fantasy, non-fiction and classics. 

3.  Playing the piano.

My third hobby is playing the piano. I started learning how to play the piano since I was five and I enjoyed learning till I was thirteen years old. I continued to learn through my middle school times with a private tutor, but I had to study a lot more than before and sadly, I had to quit. Still, I play whenever I have time. Unfortunately, I gave my piano to my grandmother who loves to sing and play the piano as well. I have a keyboard which my mom bought for me when I was living abroad so that I can play anything I like. I think of it as a piano, even though it is a lot different from piano in a few ways such as feelings I get when my fingers touch the keys and sound. I personally think that the piano sound is extremely beautiful. It is also becoming with other musical instruments and I feel so relieved and free by listening to those sound combined together harmonically. I usually like playing classics. They are pretty difficult to play but I think playing them is a lot worthwhile than playing pop songs. Besides, it's not such a bad idea to know about classics and to play those songs in front of people once in a while if I can have the opportunity to do so. The best thing I love about playing the piano is I feel like I am in a brand-new place when I flow through the rhythm I hear in my ears. Of course, I don't like seeing the reality after I opened my eyes because it's so much different from my imaginary paradise, but I don't mind it as long as music can take me to my musical paradise.


4. Singing.

To be honest, I am not a good singer. However, I love singing and I've been singing since I learned to speak. I am in my church choir and I sing whenever I want to at home. I usually like singing slow songs and not many fast songs. I enjoy listening to slow songs more, too. I love going to karaoke and I mostly don't put down a microphone if I go in. But these days, I somehow don't sing that much in karaoke but that doesn't mean that I started losing interest in singing. I think I got my love for singing after my family because most of my family sings too. My aunt, grandmother, my uncle, my aunt and my cousin are all in our church choir. One thing I regret about my singing is that I used to sing a lot better than now when I was in elementary school. However, when I went on to middle school and left Korea, I began to be far away from being active in choir and singing which led to losing my singing abilities. My heart breaks into pieces every time I think about my singing ability back when I was young. I want to try anything to get it back but I can't find any way to do it. I just can't go high as I used to and every time I sing gospels, my voice becomes so thin that makes me hard to sing for a long time. I sound okay when I sing pop songs, however, and my aunt isn't pleased with this fact at all. No matter what the circumstances are, I love singing and I will love it forever and ever.

My favorite sites.

1. Youtube. Visit Youtube.

I like Youtube because there are a lot of videos on a variety of topics. I use these sites to watch sitcoms and dramas in America such as Friends, Gossip Girls, etc. Also, there are a lot of music videos which I like a lot. (Not much these days, though.) After Youtube launched the Korean version, more people started visiting this site for videos. Not only movies of singers and actors, but people can also film themselves and upload the completed video on Youtube. However, not all videos are fun to look at. There are some movies that are related to violence and some rated-R videos. Of course, these kinds of videos that could cause a problem are deleted but since people can film anything, these types of noneducational videos are likely to be added.

2. Facebook. Visit Facebook.

I used to use Myspace about a year ago but I started using Facebook instead. I like Facebook because there are more widgets to add and I don't need to upload a blog entry for my friends to read. Just like myspace, I can upload pictures here and keep in touch with my friends. One thing I don't like Facebook is people I've never seen before add me as their friend and some people even send me personal messages saying that they want to be my friend. All I need to do is just click ignore, but it's still worse than not getting invitations from people I don't know. I think Facebook is more convenient than Myspace. Besides, more people use Facebook than Myspace these days. 

3. CGV. Visit CGV homepage.

I know that this site is just a movie site. However, I often visit this site because I love watching movies. When I visit this site, I just scan the movies that are playing and that are going to be released soon. I click the ones I want to watch and those movies move to my personal page. I can also buy tickets online and choose where I want to sit. This site is convenient because I don't need to wait in line trying to buy tickets. It also provides all movies that were released before. Therefore, I can watch some movies that I wasn't able to watch before. It's a little expensive to watch movies these days, but I love watching movies whenever I can. 

These three sites are my favorite sites. Youtube also helps me keep up with what's going on in the world because the main page shows videos that get a lot of attention from Youtube users. Other two sites are just for my pleasure and I am thankful that there's an easy way to keep in touch with my friends abroad rather then calling and sending mails which cost a lot to do.