ESL Blogs

I have been blogging for two years on MYEC and I am going to share how it affected both my English and my spiritual aspect of my life:

My very first blog and the first reaction to it!

I wrote my very first blog on 22 of May, 2008 at 14: 26 pm. I described my first trip to majestic Niagara Falls and put it on a website in which English teachers would correct it. My first writing was full of mistakes and I put it here exactly the way I wrote it with all the errors. You would be surprised how many mistakes I made. Here is my very first blog:

 
A trip to Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls, one of the most powerful falls in the North America, attracts many tourists every year. It is also the capital of honeymooners. This widest fall is located in the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S state of New York, which is not very far from our location. So, on Victoria holiday, our friends and we decided to go there. We started one and half -hour trip at ten o’clock in the morning. Meteorologists broadcasted cloudy weather with some interrupting showers. The scenery was astounding. On the left and right side of Mississauga-Niagara road was covered by grapes’ farms and trees. Trees had beautiful pink and white blossoms and I saw many wineries. Shortly afterwards, Lake Ontario and Erie intensified the beauty of the road. We were surrounded by deep blue water on the way to Niagara. That was so graceful.
After one and a half hour, we arrived to the city called “Niagara-on-the-lake”. It is a really nice small city near the Niagara. There were lots of handicrafts, gardening tools, and outfits stores along the street. The street was decorated by red, yellow, purple tulips. The white carriages took the tourists around the city. The weather was so cold that we could not walk along the street. The wind was blowing severely so we went into the stores. We visited a handicraft store which had handicrafts from around the world such as Africa, Asia, Canada, Pakistan and etc. The prices were too high. I saw paintings from First Nations in Canada. Colourful baskets, marble kitchen utensils, jewelleries, African statues were very in nice shapes and colours which I had not seen before. I saw a sun clock in the gardening store.
We wandered on the major street until twelve and thirty o’clock. We all were very hungry so we decided to go to a Casino that we heard of its fantastic foods. We could see the Niagara fall through the Casino’s huge windows. The Casino was too crowded which was strange in this time of the year. After standing in line, it eventually was our turn to be seated. The buffet Casino restaurant had various delicious foods and desserts including fish, oysters, pizzas, roasted chickens and lambs, stakes with different sauce and etc. A really kind middle-aged waitress brought orange juice, coke and water for us. She constantly collected dirty dishes and asked about what we liked to drink. The interior designs were really nice. The ceramic floors were so shine that I could see my face on it. Many seniors and handicapped came to play. From sixth floor, the waterfall landscape was two times more beautiful. We took some pictures and then, we went around the Casino to see how people play. It was the first time that I had gone to Casino. I had always seen it on the movies. Therefore, it was interesting for me to see the most secured place which had lots of cameras on the ceilings. The ceilings were painted by the waterfall sceneries and angels. I recalled the oil-paintings of the old churches throughout the Europe.
Next, we went to visit the Niagara. Because of the cold weather, we could not take the cruise. I have learned many interesting facts about Niagara. Niagara has two benefits for Canadian government. In addition to tourist attractions, it provides the electricity and water sources for Ontario province. Many daredevils tried to defeat the waterfall. But nobody could succeed except a sixty-three –year-old female who traveled by just a barrel along Niagara.
On the evening, we returned to our home and prepared ourselves for the new week. I had a great time and I am happy that I have visited one of the most wonders of the nature.

An American teacher corrected my essay and I put his words here:

 
“It's not excellent. It's not even good. You started your trip in Canada, but I had to guess that. You didn't say it.
You should space between paragraphs... Words should mean something. "Shortly afterwards" has no meaning in that sentence. "That was so graceful" is also meaningless. Where are you from originally?”

  
This was the very first reaction to what I wrote. I got so upset, disappointed and frustrated. The reason for being upset was not because of criticism. It was because he expected me to be perfect and not to make any mistakes.

Moral consequence: Never ever give up even if someone tells you that you are the dumbest person on earth! Just enjoy the rollercoaster!

MYEC blogging: beyond writing
One year later, I could have a blog on MYEC. So, new adventure began. Blogging on MYEC has had unique advantages for me.

 
First, MYEC is a safe place to write. You don’t need to be perfect and no one blames you for your errors. No one asks you where you are from originally while making mistakes. Moreover, most members and teachers are friendly and try to help you. They correct your blogs voluntarily. They encourage you to write even if you make so many mistakes. Dear Bill kindly corrected most of my blogs. Therefore, this positive atmosphere is encouraging and makes you confident to write.

Second, on MYEC, you have to write even if you don’t have any intention for writing. It happened to me that I didn’t write anything for a while. And, my friends constantly asked me why I didn’t write. I got so many messages from my friends Manuela, Nadiyah, Hanane, Zahra, etc, in this regard [sorry if I don’t mention all the names here, but know that you all are in my heart]. Here you can see one of the emails that dear Manuela sent me asking me to be more positive and active on MYEC.

Sweet Nafis,

Since I received your first message after you came back from Iran, I have been thinking a lot about you. I could feel your deep sadness and though I wanted to write you a mail. I really didn't know which words to use to help you to feel better. Most of the time I am speechless in front of real sadness because I think that, in that case, words are non sense. All I wished to do then was to hug you tightly to make you feel that my heart was connected to yours.

Many times I sat in front of the computer to answer you, but as words were not coming naturally I preferred to wait .The song you downloaded then on your page, Delam Gereft by Fereydoun told me a lot about your state of mind. Though I love this song so much, I am glad to see that you replaced it now by a happiest one. Does it mean you are feeling better? I hope so dear Nafis.

I know how hard it can be to leave the loved ones, but sometimes we have no other choice.... Fortunately, nowadays we have internet to keep in close touch, so I hope you can communicate easily with them.
Life is so good in a country as Canada that I have no doubt you will enjoy being there again. From what I can feel, I know you will make it. You have your dreams and no doubt, you will make them come true.

Sweet Nafis, I wish you to be strong and full of positive energy to go on with your life and your studies. Remember, distance is nothing for the heart that is full of love.

Very tight hug and all my love to you,
Manuela

Writing challenges: to know yourself better 
I have discovered and known myself by writing challenges. I never imagined that I can write stories and people like it. Writing challenges showed me what my talent is or what interests me. I can be a journalist, a writer who writes for kids, a tour leader and a coach life. These are also the subjects that I really like to do. Moreover, I realized that whenever I put my attention on something, no matter how difficult it is, I can finally do it very well.

Moral consequence: writing challenges are another approach to know who you really are!

 

Being featured: somehow a danger
Some of my blogs have been featured and I am quite delightful because of that. However, I think being featured like gambling has a disadvantage. The first time that your blog is featured, you would be so delightful and you feel that you have climbed Mount Everest. As such, you have enough motivation and enthusiasm for writing the next blog. Like a gambler who falls in love with gambling, you fall in love with being featured. However, it takes a little more time for the next blog to be featured. Don’t worry, you’ll finally make it! You lastly get featured for the second time. But, for the third time, it won’t happen at all or it takes many months to happen. This makes you frustrated and may affect your writing. You may lose your enthusiasm because you haven’t got rewarded for a while.

 
Moral consequence: Being featured is not important at all and is not a good goal. Set your goal high in order to be motivated all the time.

Success on TOEFL exam
Blogging helped me to improve my score on writing section of TOEFL exam (The Test of English as a Foreign Language). In the beginning, it took one week to write about something. By blogging, I could reduce this amount of time to three days. And, ultimately, I could write within 30 minutes. We have two kinds of writing tasks on TOEFL exam. One is to listen to a lecture and read about the same subject. Then, test takers have to summarize what they heard and read. Another one is to write about a general topic. So, I had 20 minutes for the first task and 30 minutes for the second one to write. Blogging helped me to be quick at these two tasks.

Furthermore, to write well, you should read almost every day. So, I gradually made progress at my reading skills, remembering new vocabulary, reviewing grammar and writing in general.
Moreover, I realized how I should write to attract readers or what writing styles fit my personality. All these helped me to get 21 on my writing section of TOEFL exam, the score that Toronto University requested.

All in all, blogging has been a great experience for me. First, I was trying not to make any mistakes and therefore, I didn’t write that much. But, now, I have a different idea about it. When you write frequently, without being afraid of making mistakes, you would finally learn how to write. In addition, I could be connected with myself, to find who I am during these two years of blogging on MYEC. My writing still needs to be improved, but when I compare my very first writing with the last one, I feel so proud and get delightful. I have made so much improvement and hope in the near future I can get what I really longed for.