How has the internet helped me as a self-taught learner（Pt.2） Pt 1:https://www.italki.com/notebook/3420414/entry/720703 However, unforeseen by any of us, I left school yet again not long after. But this time the reason's that my eyes has suddenly developed a dysfunction which makes me unable to read for more than some minutes. This blow striked me hard, because at this point, the 'high school - university - a job to make a living' seems to be the one and only pathway, every single person I've known are following that path. All of a sudden I'm officially an outlier, floating helplessly on uncharted water. After some tough time adjusting, I started looking for other means to get knowledge, via listening. English turned out to be a 'life saver' which I didn't expect when I read those English books to myself as a kid. And of course, the Internet was vital. There were hardly any listening educational resources in Chinese at the time, however English opened the enlightening gate of Open Courses for me. I worked my way through many open courses (of UC Berkeley, Open Yale Courses etc.), especially those of psychology (and other social sciences) and philosophy. At the beginning this preference was only because these are the only subjects which primarily involve ideas that I can work inside my head, instead of using my eyes. However, gradually, I got attuned to them and they start to make sense with clarity. Apart from these heavy-duty study, I also learnt a lot from audiobooks and podcasts. I was addicted to Stephen Fry's voice for quite a while and marvelled at how he can portray all the characters in Harry Potter, sometimes even more vivid than the movie actors. In the mean time, I obtained a degree in English from the National Self-taught Higher Education Program. Looking back, I was lucky that my eyes got bad AFTER I've already got the basic tool of English under my belt, and I happen to live in a time where there's internet and the endeavor of open courses to equalize the opportunity for education. (There's a part 3 following this, surprisingly...)