Blogging from the Base Camp

So, I'm looking up high at this huge mountain called "Chinese", wondering how I'm ever going to climb to the top of it.  I've been working at it for over three years now.  I'd go to one side of it, thinking it looks like it would be a good way to climb up, and start climbing pretty consistently.  But after a while, not happy with my progress, I'd circle the mountain again, looking for yet a better way up, only to find myself in the same situation as before.  Now I'm sure there are more efficient ways to tackle this mountain, but I've not found them yet, so here I am just doing the best I can.

Since this is a site for learning English, I imagine many of you might be feeling the same way about learning English.  Since I'm a native speaker, I can tell you that the best way to learn English is to sjk dhkjh ey3 88 JDULKklj sdoukn dslk----

(Oops, must be a software problem...)

Sorry, I'm just having some fun with you.  I guess the best way to learn any language is to immerse yourself in it, both with deliberate study, as well as frequent casual practice.  It's good to attack it from mutliple directions, in particular, studying dialogs, learning grammar patterns, memorizing vocabularly and common sentences (perhaps with the help of a flash card program), writing or translating to and from the language, and then heavily applying what you've learned through practice, with native speakers if you can, or other people speaking English (such as here in the chat rooms).

Anyway, that's it for now.  I'm back to climbing...

-John