When I was in Grade 4 in primary school, I started to learn English. However during primary school, I learned almost nothing. Probably most of the pupils did not work hard in learning English at that time. At the beginning of Grade 1 of Junior Middle school, the English teacher started to teach the IPA (international phonetic alphabets). But I still did not learn well. The truth is that I did not like the teaching methods of the English teachers. The English teachers usually could not give me answers which could satisfy me. So I had to find my own way.
      
        I bought some phonetics books and quite a few grammar books. After school I read the books by myself and tried to acquire IPA and grammar. At the same time I sometimes listened to English programmes on radio. In the 1980s, there were no TV sets and no recorders for most Chinese families.  But radios were already very popular at that time. Of course, I also bought some dictionaries including English-Chinese and Chinese-English ones. So after 3 years in Junior School, I could read and remember almost all the words in the textbooks.
      
     Because of the time and effort I put in when I was in Junior School, the high school English learning became much easier for me. Although I could remember all the words and phrases learnt in high school, my listening and reading skills were still not good. The reason is simple. There were not many chances for practice in real life 20 years ago.
      
     After 2 years spent learning English in college, I started to teach English and have been an English teacher for 7 years. In 1995 I chose a career in golf. After 15 years of work in golf and studying golf terminologies and techniques, my English improved.  At the same time, my listening and speaking skills have also improved.  In the past 15 years, I learned Business English, Hotel English, linguistics and other aspects of English.  Of course I spent a lot time on golf. Now I can understand the golf rules without the use of dictionaries and can solve almost all the rule problems in golf.
      
     I have to mention that DVDs, the computer and Internet are very useful tools for English learning. The new generation is very lucky to have access to these tools which we did not have in those days. There should be no excuses that their English is not good.
      
     2010 marks another milestone in my learning English because Ms Lee S L came to Sun Island. I will keep reading to improve my command of English. I believe that if you work hard at something, you will definitely get your returns finally. You deserve it.