This comment was made by Chris, an English man who was studying Mandarin. He finds that blog really helps his Mandarin language since he gets two Chinese local, I mean the native speaker of the language, to actually review his writing and assist him and guess what?? It's totally free!!Blogging for language learning
This post is part of my Chinese learning experiences series but is not tagged as such, it is something I can pull out and link to so that my next post on the first three months is not too long.
Almost immediately after starting to learn Chinese I started blogging about it, that was deliberate, there are many reasons for and styles of blogging, this one was part of my objective to learn a language primarily from the Internet, also a loose record of my thoughts and discoveries, on the whole it has been a success. I think that blogging about language learning can be very helpful and an aid to the process, reading and commenting on blogs of other language learners is also very useful particularly if you don't have time to blog yourself.
This blog doesn't attract enough comments to be a really useful place to test new ideas and engage in heated discussion or to refine/test beliefs (some are though, but I only average around 30 visits a day which isn't quite enough) but there have been some surprising side benefits, many people have approached me with resources and ideas via email and two Chinese speakers local enough for local language exchange have approached me resulting in some very helpful exchanges :). Besides that some of the comments I have had have been very useful. I had to engage moderation recently though as there were a number of thinly disguised adverts.
Looking back, I can see how much I have missed out, see how rushed many posts were, but I don't regret that, I am time poor, I need to leave some time for learning Chinese (although there is nothing stopping me from listening to Chinese whilst I blog :))
Blogging has made connections attracted help and helped me organize my thoughts. On occasion blogging has represented a statement of commitment that may have helped me through sticky patches.
A blog is a commitment of time, but the connections, feedback and reflection received have more than payed me back, I am convinced that I would have not have progressed as far with my learning without it and like an iceberg much of what I have gained has not been visible on the surface. A long time ago I was even interviewed by the Financial Times(I was that 39 year old programmer) although I was slightly misquoted and they missed out some key points (I am told that is par for the course though)
Reflection is useful, I have tidied up a few old posts that had duplicated first paragraphs and realized I need to make a blog roll of other learners blogs.
As we all know, "Practice makes perfect" right. With the latest technology today, almost every university student posses a laptop or a desktop complete with internet connection including me. Having a blog meaning I will be updating my blog every now and then. So, the writing is continuous and blogging is so much fun compare to writing using conventional way; pen and paper. How bored and tiring. 
In order to write about anything, for example like what I'm doing right now, I am forced to read some articles to get some ideas and facts to support my opinion. At the same time, I get to widen my knowledge, improve my grammar and vocabulary, and compare my writing with others. For those who use blog as their online diaries can also benefit from it. They can share their stories, exchange ideas and gain many network friends. If I am too lazy to update my blog, I still can read others blog and give comments to them.
"Sharing is Caring". Some blogs that I frequently visit are used to share things. For example songs, recipes, tips, wallpapers and many more. Some are used as a platform for business like selling something. You see how useful blog is? The question is how can sharing or selling things on blog can improve your writing skill? It's simple, like it or not, you still have to write isn't it? Just like online reading whereby in order to browse through the websites, I have to read, I must read. Furthermore, this way is so much fun. Like if you are selling things on your blog, then someone is interested to buy it, for sure they will leave a comment to you on your blog and you are required to reply it. Besides helping you with your writing skill, it can also help to improve your communication skill because you are dealing with real people. And once your business is successful, you can start advertise for other big companies and gain money every month.
Here are the list of the blogs that I frequently visit:
- iGoogle Gadgets and Blogger Widgets Collection - blog that shares a lot of widgets for blog
- Mama Leza's Recipes Collection - since I love cooking, this is the right place for me.
- Recipes collection from the internet - another very helpful recipes blog.
- Sharing is Caring - this blog shares everything. (Software, wallpapers, widgets, etc.)
- Boonga Art Shoes - a blog that sells custom made shoes whereby you can design your own.
- Gunting Store - a blog that sells selendang, of course for girls only.
- Aremean - a blog that I manage on "aremean", and indie nasyeed group.
Truly,
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