Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / January 2006

Bad news, bowo. Most non-native speakers of English never completely
get the hang of the -ing/to-infinitive problem.

You're going to have to memorize a few lists and work through lots of
problem verbs. Remember that most verbs are followed by the
to-infinitive, do a bunch of exercises based on those problem verbs,
and review your lists often. When you start catching Indonesians in
your country who claim to speak excellent English making serious
mistakes (you know, the annoying posers who go off to Britain,
Australia, or the States for some or all of their education and spend
the rest of their lives telling the people who never leave Indonesia
how wonderful living and studying abroad is, and how it's made them far
better than the madding crowd), you'll know that you're getting
somewhere.