Strategies of learning a language I found out an interesting Youtube channel talking about the ways to learn English and then I watched almost all its videos which have given me a lot of inspirations. To improve listening skill, the video indicated that watching movies with subtitles is a wrong way because our brain chooses to receive information from the subtitles but not the actors’ conversations. Also, movies are too long so we waste a lot of time. Therefore, a good way to improve listening skill is to listen to podcasts because each of them is short and we can focus on listening only. We can listen to those dialogues when we are taking bus or having meals. To memorize vocabulary, there are some steps to follow. First, we determine the numbers of syllables and repeated letters. Then, we categorise the word as good, bad, or neutral. At last, we create a image. What we are trying to do is to process a deep memory so as to increase the ability of word recognition. These strategies make sense to me so I would like to try them out. Do you think they work or do you have any alternative ways to improve English? Please feel free to leave a comment. Thank you! (source of attached picture: internet)

Do you agree with him? Last week I went to Canton (Guangzhou), my father and the taxi driver were chatting about many topics including CCP. The driver sighed, “Who like the communist party? I also hate the communist party! In all those democratic countries around the world, the government tends to return the wealth to the people. However, we are the opposite! Our government takes our people’s properties away. The government is rich but the people is poor! I think that Chinese are always the most miserable in the world. People should go abroad as much as possible.” He sounded very sonorous and forceful. His Cantonese speaking mingled many foul languages among each sentence and I am trying to translate and decorate it into tidy English. Then my father replied, “Wow, you have seen everything through.” I am quite impressed by what the driver said and I still remember the foul languages he used because there is a bit difference between the Canton’s and the Hong Kong’s. Anyway, it is just a slight digression. I am glad to meet the driver. It is interesting. That’s all I would like to share. Do you agree or disagree with what the taxi driver said? You are welcome to leave any comments here. Thank you.

Why not listening to the customers? Recently I am thinking some entrepreneurial ideas and then I recall a quote from Steve Jobs, “It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.” It was quite difficult to understand before because I always thought that the way to make a product is to keep listening to the users’ feedbacks. Inversely, Jobs does not listen to the user requirements. Is his mindset correct or not? Now I think it again, actually his mind is a little bit similar to the father of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew's. Although both are considered as the dictator and the paranoid but with a lifetime achievement on their kingdom, they created miracles. It is easy to find like-minded. As the Ford Motor founder Henry Ford also said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” It means that customers only request for a faster car but they do not think of how a better car is and they also do not know how to tell you. Today I think of them together, these giants' words are interesting. they do not listen to their users because they are the user. They are doing a good product for their own use. It is just simple and straightforward and then many unique products are born. The product is not only thoughtful, but also has a leader's personality and charm to build a brand effect. And if we only listen to user requirements and follow what they say, apparently we actually do not understand our products made. The needs of users are scattered widely without a keynote. It is hard to identify the core values and direction of our products. Finally we cannot make a successful brand even if putting many efforts. Therefore, Steve’s mind is not a reverse but is on a sublimated level. And to become a great monarch, it is impractical to just keep emphasising to listen to the public opinions and the correct way is to become a civilian. Even when many people criticised Mr. Lee’s dictatorship, his unique way of thinking always made Singapura run on the world stage so the people is happy with the achievement and respect this great leader. Let me take my first step. Thank you for the giants' inspiration.

Movie Review - The Great Dictator and The Dictator Last week I watched two comedy movies - The Great Dictator and The Dictator, which humorously irony authoritarianism. The former is staged in 1940 and the latter is staged in last year. They both have similar plots. For example, dictator ruled the country and finally a man stood on a stage and announced the country was going to embark on the road of democracy to the public. And both of the main protagonist starred two roles that were dictator himself and a dunderhead civilian as a double of him. Not only the 3.5-minute last serious speech in The Great Dictator was inspiring but also the last interesting speech in The Dictator was enlightening. The former speech, which was presented by Charlie Chaplin starring Hynkel who is a dictator of Tomania and Omler who is a Jewish barber, uttered that dictatorship is inhuman and will eventually be replaced by democracy so he encourage people to build a democratic society and the latter speech, which was presented by Sacha Baron Cohen starring President Haffaz Aladeen and his double Efawadh, pointed out many benefits of dictatorship but actually it is a insinuation of absurdity and make people reflect on the value of capitalism. "... Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have a love of humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural...", quoted a climax of the last speech in The Great Dictator. "Why are you guys so anti-dictators? Imagine if America was a dictatorship... You could have rigged elections. You could lie about why you go to war. You could fill your prisons with one particular racial group and no one would complain. You could use the media to scare the people into supporting policies that are against their interests...", quoted a half of the last speech in The Dictator.

Personal annual review 2012 Annual review is too common around italki so I am driven to write my annual review of 2012. The last year has a good beginning because a accidental offer of a nice job received in January. It is quite uplifting as a programmer with experiences in PHP and Flash shifted the profession to JAVA EE and Objective-C. A young geek who lacks of social circle met many nice guys in a large local firm. Big thanks to all benefactors helping me to grow up and providing any advises. A remarkable trip in Osaka, Japan took in August broadened my horizons. Being active in photography made my life vivid from dull. Realizing the importance of English and Mandarin blazed up my enthusiasm of learning those two languages. In 2013, I will keep a attitude of optimistic outlooks for the future with well preparation for pessimistic situations. Life is motivated among a regular routine. Learning is the best approach to improve the personal quality. IMHO, the composition of humility, rationality, tolerance and humor is the key to be a better man.

Comment to Languages of Hong Kong Because of the faulty Hong Kong educational system promoting bi-literacy and tri-lingualism without adequate initiatives, students as victims are always embarrassed while speaking in English and Mandarin. Due to lack of speaking and listening training, Hongkongese generally cannot speak fluent English and Mandarin, and even they speak Chinglish or Cantonlish, which is a portmanteau of Cantonese and English, and Hong Kong Putonghua with their local accent.