Everyone must has a dream, because the dreams can make them work harder and not loiter their time away. Hoping to become a promising person, I have been a student of English learning in Beiwai Online for more than one year.

I absolutely do remember what was my first clue. At the beginning, I wondered if I was competent for this new role, that is, as an online learner. I found there are too many things for me to deal with. As a leader of product department, I must spend a great deal of time and energy on my job. Meanwhile I must take extra time to take care of my family as a wife. The anxiety of no time to achieve the whole courses made me lose my balance, and yet it is grateful that the experiences in my freshman year have rebuilt up my self-confidence, persistence and learning efficiency.

First of all, I derives my self-confidence from constant practices. The famous aphorism from Beiwai Online -- knowing something does not mean knowing how to do it and knowing how to do it does not mean that one can actually do it -- has given me great inspiration. Therefore, I strictly follow the principle of learning by doing it myself during the past year. For example, I wrote my learning objective on paper and made some plans to achieve it. In this way, I would know how to arrange my time and to spend my time properly.

In addition, I thought web based College English learning gave few opportunity to practice my oral skills. But when I start to embark upon being a distance learner, I find the fact is totally opposite. There are so many chances to improve my spoken English during the online learning. I can enter into the VOB or VOC almost everyday, and upgrade oral skills with my tutor and my classmates whenever I want to. With a click of the mouse I could log on to the study platform whenever I long for tapping a great pool of academic resources. It seems to me that I have greater advantages even in comparison with students receiving regular education. This obviously brings me a lot of confidence.

Another helpful support provided is from my tutor, Mr. Zhang, who gave me many valuable suggestions. He always explains profound theories in very vivid  language, such as, he said, persistence was just like a lamp, guiding you in darkness and helping you overcome obstacles on your way. What he meant was that you must keep your direction on your way to success. I have been greatly impressed from his tutorial. So I have a belief that I am sure to succeed as long as I keep my direction all the time.

By the end of the first semester I became more initiative in my learning. I could set up my own study schedule and make my own decision on when to or not to study.

But one problem always follows on the neck of another. With the extended difficulty of curriculum, it seems to me that they are becoming tougher to deal with. Moreover, I feel confused on developing my own appropriate learning strategies in order to create efficiency for better progress. Sometimes I fuss up and down all the time but gaining nothing.

Fortunately, Beiwai Online zero in on efficiency. It offers many worthwhile learning strategies for us to choose. Among all the strategies I have learned, I find the key one is to identify which type of learner I belong to. What's the point of doing this step above all? Only when you gain a better understanding of yourself, you will be able to know your strengths and weaknesses in learning and then shape your own learning style. Therefore, firstly I have looked into my inner world to find out what is my scholastic motivation. This task is not easy because I am often aware of little part of myself rather than of the whole self. Sure enough, I have realised that my aim from online learning is mainly to obtain an academic certificate which will help me to get job promotions or job shifts and further career development. I used to tend to do very little beyond what is to be examined and often forget things very quickly after exam. That is why I have a bottleneck in English learning.

So the next step I have taken is to correct my attitude towards online learning. As a group leader of our class, I have organized several panel discussions with this topic. I feel the action of correcting attitude will bring a life-long benefit to me, whether online or not.

Then, I set some goals to work towards. When I complete each goal, I will reward myself with something fun. Because I am not in a traditional classroom, it is going to be up to me to find ways to motivate myself. And it is also necessary to encourage each other when we have a face-to-face class.

Finally, forming my own learning habit is the most important strategy. Many good habits have been formed and I have been their slave. There are many good methods deserved to be recommended. For example, try to choose a time when you can study most effectively; jot down any interesting English words or phrases you learn at any time; develop a steady partnership with a fellow learner; diagnose learning problems by comparing the finished task with its feedback.

Those methods above I have already adopted are extremely helpful in vocabulary building, writing enhancement, and lecture comprehension. Among them note-taking is especially helpful, because it is easy to handle and easy to stick to. But there are few strategies that I rarely tried, such as organizing English corner and gatherings practising English together. Though it has proven to be a very effective way to improve oral English and face-to-face communication, we online learners are too busy to achieve it.

In addition, I have another online learning strategy designed by myself to be shared. We need more interactive modes in addition to the tutorials every two weeks, thus we can create a campus newsletter about English events based on newspapers, magazines, websites, or even bamboo telegraphs. It can be organized by every learning group in turn and be handed out to every student by email. The edit work could be very challenging and interesting. I believe if you go through the whole process yourself, you will obtain more than inside classroom. This is also in line with the gist of Beiwai Online, that is, learn it by doing it.

Beyond my own expectation, I have received lots of huge progresses. I got some rewards in the essay contest and the recitation competition rather.

In truth, language learning, especially online English learning is a tough task for everyone. But if you did well in Beiwai Online, surely you can achieve success not only in study and work but also in all aspects of life!