It's a funny thing that we have learned English for more than ten years, but after graduated from school, most of us have abandoned it gradually. In other words, we stopped using it.
If we just stopped there, that's all right, and nothing would happen. But some of us are not reconciled to our defeat, and tried to restart learning it well. So we started and started and started, again and again. But we always start from the same beginning.
What is wrong with our learning? Why can't we move forward?
There's a story.
Some young students visited their Professor one day. They harangued freely like they knew all things in the world. The professor smiled and listened. When the time the students stopped and took a break, the professor gave them a question.
"If you go into a hill to cut a tree and you meet two trees. One is thick, the other is thin. Which one will you cut?"
The students said ," Of course we cut the thick one."
Then the professor added ,"That thick is a common poplar, but the thin one is pinus koraiensis. Which one will you cut?"
The students thought for a while, and then changed their mind," Cut the pinus koraiensis, it's more valuable."
The professor kept smiling,"But the poplar is straight, and the pinus koraiensis is crooked. Which one will you cut?"
The students felt confused," If so, we will choose the poplar. It is no use of a crooked pinus koraiensis."
The professor's eyes shined and said again," What if the poplar is too old that it becomes a hollow tree? Which one will you cut?"
Didn't know what was in their professor's mind, the students still followed his words and answered," Well, the pinus koraiensis is win. A hollow tree is more useless."
The professor didn't stopped there, and added again," Even though the pinus koraiensis is not a hollow tree, but it's so crooked that it's too difficult to cut. Which one will you cut?"
The students stopped considering what their professor wanted to conclude, and said," Then we will cut the poplar. Because it's easy to cut."
The professor kept added," But in the poplar, there is a bird nest in which has some birds. Which one will you cut?"
Finally, a student asked," Each time you changed the condition, we changed our choice. It seems to be endless. But what do you want to tell us?"
The professor stopped smiling, and answered," Have you ever thought about why you are going to cut a tree? No matter how the conditions changed, the choice still depends on your target. If you want fire wood, you cut the poplar. And if you want to do a artifact, you choose the pinus koraiensis. You won't go to the hill with you axe for no reason."
The students seemed to realize something, but they couldn't get it.
The professor looked into their eyes and said," I heard you talked about the worldly things, like you have clear ideas about all those things . However, when you set foot on the society, when a lot of things are in front of you, you will only be able to do those things. And in various variables, you will forget the original intention, and then do meaningless things. If you have a goal, don't forget the purpose right from the start. And you have to think about it all the time, in case of being confused by a variety of conditions and phenomena. That's what I want to tell you!"
So maybe we should stop and think clearly, that what do we want to do with English?
When the time you make sure that you really need to use it, set your goal.
And if you want to reach the goal, you have to get at it and stay at it everyday.
You have to think about it all the time.
You have to get up every day with your mind set on improving something.
You have to push through the pain to be the best that you can be.
There's no easy way around it.
From there, do what you need to do.
Period.