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"Speaking of English, I used to think I was good at it before studying abroad, and you might as well.
The truth is 90% of Vietnamese students who study abroad think that they're good at English.
This is because you might always have perfect English grades, super high TOEFL score, or get used to watching US movies without subtitles,
or because you go to Hanoi-Ams High School. Those who have gone to this school always think they're great at English."
Is this really that all those who have gone Hanoi-Ams High School always think they're great at English?
Well I'm a little different. Before studying abroad in the US, I myself thought that I would actually become better at English when I got there.
So what did you get that 90% statistic crap?
"There're two very simple ways to find out if you're good at English or not.
The first one is if you can have a US girlfriend. I'm talking about US, not Myanmar, Laos, Campuchia, or Vietnam. US!"
So having a girlfriend that is from the US will prove that you're at English?
It doesn't prove anything at all. First of all, US girls are all different kinds.
There are those who just prefer looks, or sexy body kind of guys. Others attract to funny well-talking guys.
Then there are those who just fall in love with mature guys.
Those first two kinds of girls, I don't think you have to open your mouth at all to attract them.
About those last three kinds of girls, whether y'all become couple or not mostly depend on personalities, attitudes and similarities between 2 people.
Second of all, according to your own words, having an American girlfriend will prove that you're good at English.
Okay so if you have a Korean girlfriend, does it mean you're good at Korean?
Or how about having a German girlfriend, does it mean you're good at German?
There're plenty of examples out there that will show you that your belief is completely wrong.
For example, I have a friend who is Mexican and have an American girlfriend.
You know why? Because they talk to each other in Spanish.
Another example is if you live in the US, you should understand that this is the country that has all different kinds of cultures and languages going on.
A lot of people are US citizens but don't even speak English at all or very little.
Therefore having an American girlfriend who happens to be worse at English than you won't prove that you're good at it, right?
Imagine what your English teachers could've said when they saw you use those supporting materials for your belief in your academic essay huh?
In conclusion, how well you communicate in a different language is not shown by having a local girlfriend
but by how successfully you can express your ideas and opinions to the person in front of you.
That's the first thing I want to show you,
the second thing according to you which is asking Americans for money also shows you're good at English
I will talk about it later because there are a lot of information you give out that need to be corrected.
"Let me see how you study English at home, you may study really hard, practice words, sentences, grammars crazily.
You may know many difficult words or advanced-level grammar structures that normal Americans never use on their daily basis
and you think that you're super amazing at English, and you may even think that you're better at it than those Americans.
But there's one important thing in English that is communication that you completely forget about,
because you cannot practice communication by yourself.
Imagine like Vietnamese, if you study it hard, practice Vietnamese words, sentences, grammars crazily, read many Vietnamese books,
it doesn't mean you'll talk better or flirt better or communicate better.
The truth is communication is the key to be part of something, if you want to get along with new environments, you have to go communicate."
Here you've just mentioned a part of communication which, in this case, is communicating to get along.
This is real-life communication in our community; it's just normal conversations between people, friends, and families.
It doesn't have to follow any rules at all.
Here you use slangs more than anything you've learned from schools, like: chem gio, chem bao, nem da giau tay, vet muong vet mang..."
That is why this is just normal real-life conversation.
However, once you have to present yourself in front of your classmates, or in public to express
your own opinions about something then it will no longer be "communicating to get along."
You'll have to follow some speech rules like using appropriate words, sentences, correct grammars, or how to present your ideas in a proper order smoothly and clearly.
This is when "studying and practicing words, sentences, grammars crazily or know many difficult words and advanced-level grammar structures" becomes very powerful and priceless.
"How to communicate well, the answer is only one. If you want to flirt with girls well, you have to flirt more.
If you want to talk well, you have to talk more. If you want to communicate well, you have to communicate more.
It means that you have to go out and talk to people instead of stay home to read books or do homework."
Practicing talking is only a small part of communication, especially in having a normal conversation.
The important thing is that you have to have a brain and know how to think;
otherwise you're just going to end up becoming a you-talk-to-***-much-shut-the-***-up type of person.
Back to your second point, which is asking Americans for money also shows you're good at English.
First I thought what you meant was that you have to communicate so well that whenever you open your mouth,
a random person you're talking with will eventually give you some money.
Turned out it wasn't the case, and you were actually talking about phonathon.
For those who don't have any ideas about this job, basically this is a job that is paid by hours to call alumni to get them donate money for your college.
In my college it is $8/hr, 4-5 hrs/day and about 3 days/week. It's actually the same as those commercial calls to your home to ask you buy their products.
The only difference here is those calls serve the purpose of selling stuff, while phonathon serves the purpose of fundraising for school.
I'm not sure if we have anything like this in Vietnam, but you can think about this job as those people who knock on your front door to ask you buy their stuff.
The problem is here you exaggerate it way further from reality.
First of all, this is probably the easiest job to get hired and the pay is usually a little higher than normal but nobody wants to do it because it's boring, exhausting and time-consuming.
Second of all, it's more professional than those commercial calls that you will be trained for the job, like how to start the conversation,
how to ask for information, how to send your message... which are all printed in a piece of paper that you can actually read out from it.
Third of all, when you describe that you have to use your own knowledge, your own skills, everything to talk to alumni into donating money, otherwise you'll be ***, well that's just not true.
You can practice your skills as much as you want, there's just no way you'll get fired whether you succeed or not, unless you decide to quit yourself because you're too bored.
And last but not least is that you have to understand how fundraising in the US works.
In the US, most of the people support fundraising because it's part of their tradition, especially when it comes to education.
That's why we see all different kinds of fundraising campaigns and their huge supporters in all levels: elementary, middle school, high school and colleges.
Phonathon in this case is the same. It's basically another form of fundraising through phone call that focuses on alumni.
The reason why focusing on alumni is simple, for a normal random person, the chance of getting his/her money is low,
but for an alumni who has connections with his/her school, the money will be likely right there.
That is phonathon, and because it's just a normal job paid by hours like every other jobs, it can't be used to prove to people that whether you're good at English or not.
If you mean that you can (somehow) get $1000 from a random American dude out there, I'll be glad to call you grandpa.
And I have a passion that everybody will have faith in investing their money in me; I want to prove why they should invest in me,
and what I'm talking about here is FDI, Foreign Direct Investment. Vietnam needs FDI.
That's why my perspective is every single abroad student needs to carry 2 duties. First is one's personal duty, which is for yourself, your family and your goal.
Second is one's duty for the country. All the abroad students have one goal,
that is to bring money (investment) back home, not just persuade one but all of them foreigners to invest in Vietnam.
Your jumping point from having a US girlfriend and phonathon thing to, all of the sudden, FDI and abroad students' duty just doesn't make any sense.
This is way out of my ability to comprehend common sense.
In short, I think if you still use the ideas of having a girlfriend and asking for money to measure someone's knowledge,
then your conversation or talk should just stay as chatting or having a good time.
It's way too ridiculous for that kind of talk to be used when speaking about abroad students' duty for the country.
Oops almost forgot,
Thanks for listening to my ***. If you like it, like it. If you find it interesting, subscribe to my channel.
Lol