TED Conversations

For those who want to practice English writing, TED Conversations, a new social media platform on TED, is a good place. There you can either start or join a conversation with people from all over the world. Even if you don't have anything to contribute, just browsing through the conversations will give you ideas for writing.

http://www.ted.com/conversations

For example,here's a topic I find interesting: What's one thing you wish you had learned in school? Click on the link below and you'll find hundreds of responses to this question.

http://www.ted.com/conversations/6813/what_s_one_thing_you_wish_you.html

The following are two responses given by people from the US.

Andrew Abeles:

"I think it's very important to emphasize the importance of creative classes like dance, art, photography and others. I also think that creativity needs to be valued and fostered in the more traditional classes like math and English as well. I'm about to graduate high school and the one thing I wish I had done more of in my classes was generate my own ideas and creative solutions. I recognize that there are certain standards that must be met and striking a good balance between freedom and structure is difficult, but I think curriculum should be written in ways that allow for more student interaction and more creative problem solving."

Augustus Yuan:

"I wish high school taught me more communication skills. I learned how to speak by getting involved with organizations but schools don't necessarily require or promote that. I wish I was more encouraged to do Speech and Debate or I had an option to take a public speaking class. Right now I'm taking a public speaking class in college -- I thought I was pretty good but it turns out I'm terrible. I shake, I stutter, I freeze up, and sometimes my leg shakes violently. It's nerve wracking but also thrilling that I'm learning something useful and I realize how useful public speaking really is. Communication is ALWAYS important and being able to converse, share, and create new ideas should be something that is done on a daily basis. I am thankful that because of TED and watching so many inspirational speeches and committing time to practicing my own speeches, I'm getting better and one day I'll be able to give my own TEDTalk :] "

Better yet, there are links to related talks on TED. Click on the links and you can practice listening.