Way to learn english for a non-english ?

[R01dz]

Hello,

for my first topic on this forum, I would like to ask a question that I consider "useful". How would you, an English speaker, recommend a non-English speaker to speak and write/read English? Reading and writing is my main concern at the moment as I don't have much opportunity to interact with people other than at work. I would like to be able to read English and speak in a forum without using automatic translators that I'm sure distort a lot of what I want to say in the first place and distort the English pages to my original language with a lot of nonsense. Beyond the social aspect, I would like to know more English because I think it is a career boost because all the best documentation on all areas of life are in English.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, this topic comes from a 20 year old Frenchman who has not been very attentive at school but wants to catch up.

 

[arrall]

I would like to be able to read English and speak in a forum without using automatic translators that I'm sure distort a lot of what I want to say in the first place and distort the English pages to my original language with a lot of nonsense.

That is freakishly good English coming from a translator. You using DeepL or something?

I've heard from many that mastering the accent is the key to learning any language. So pick an English-language actor that you're a fan of and try to mirror their voice. The inflection, the tone, the rhythm of how they speak.
As for reading and writing, practice is key. I'm not sure how well sites like Duolingo actually work. But what matters is just having actual conversations in English as often as possible. Writing posts on a site like here will probably be easier than speaking it over the phone or in person, since you can stop to look up the translations of different words.

English and French are relatively similar languages, so you should be able to learn English with some consistent effort put into learning it.

 

[jasperkent]

^ good advice ^

 

[JoshLobbs]

This might sound odd, but online videogames are good for learning English. some of my online friends are from Germany and France and they all say that videogames helped them learn to speak English and they all have quite good written English.

 

[AbbeyLee]

Hello,

for my first topic on this forum, I would like to ask a question that I consider "useful". How would you, an English speaker, recommend a non-English speaker to speak and write/read English? Reading and writing is my main concern at the moment as I don't have much opportunity to interact with people other than at work. I would like to be able to read English and speak in a forum without using automatic translators that I'm sure distort a lot of what I want to say in the first place and distort the English pages to my original language with a lot of nonsense. Beyond the social aspect, I would like to know more English because I think it is a career boost because all the best documentation on all areas of life are in English.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated, this topic comes from a 20 year old Frenchman who has not been very attentive at school but wants to catch up.

Hello,

My mother was an English teacher and I won awards for it in school.

I have a friend in Armenia and I have seen his English go from limited to better than most Australians I know.

Films and TV series Find things in English that you enjoy.

Abbey x

 

[December Flower]

I learned English through cartoons, movies and series - also read lots of books later, but started when I was already very familiar with the language..
Just never get lazy and always watch in original audio/read untranslated.

You have to surround yourself with the language to properly learn it

Also English is really easy. No idea what language you speak right now,
but it is sure to be more complex than English. I'm a German native and in the beginning it helped me a lot to stop thinking so complicated. English is simple. It needs you to understand its simplicity, and not think too complicated,
to properly grasp the spirit of the language.

Also English-speakers are really not the people to ask about learning foreign languages, because they don't put a strong emphasis on learning foreign languages in school. English-natives usually only speak English well, and maybe have a few phrases here and there they can say in other languages. No offense, that's just how it is. Like compare that to Germany where we have up to 15 school hours per week in foreign languages alone.

Start early, be regular, surround yourself with the language, keep learning vocabulary over and over and over, familiarize yourself with the grammar, and then start writing things down in English, also over and over. Do translation work as often as you can.
Maybe watch something you have already seen many times in your language, so your brain already knows what everyone is saying, just makes it easier to pay attention to the new language.

 

[nznity]

When I was 13-14 back in 2008. I stsrted playing this MMORPG called Maple Story and it became my life for almost 3 years when I sold my acc for 1000$(a lot of money for me back then) just practicing, interacting with other ppl, later I started skyping and also I've always liked englidh so id read in English, watch movies in English, my whole life was in English. And later in life I ended up working as a medical interpreter. who says playing video games Is a waste of time?

 

[nznity]

I have a friend in Armenia and I have seen his English go from limited to better than most Australians I know.

Abbey x

Are u implying that aussies have a very limited english and that they're all drunken methheads? XDDDD

 

[AbbeyLee]

Are u implying that aussies have a very limited english and that they're all drunken methheads? XDDDD

Pretty much lol.

You are like my Armenian friend btw.. I did tell you that

 

[AbbeyLee]

Well I never spoke to you with limited English @nznity

 

[nznity]

Pretty much lol.

You are like my Armenian friend btw.. I did tell you that

No,
I'm younger, cooler and prettier, Abbs.
xoxo hahahsha

 

[December Flower]

Are u implying that aussies have a very limited english and that they're all drunken methheads? XDDDD

I have met many English-natives and many German-natives,
and I gotta say, I think most people anywhere just don't have much of a grasp on their own language.

They speak it because they always spoke it, but many things are remembered wrong, or certain rules will not get any attention, just an example of "they're" "their" and "there" - that's something foreigners often do better than English natives.
Same in German with "das" und "daß" - it's often the foreigners that do it much better than Germans.

Funny that way, I think we all just don't give much of a fuck about our native language,
because we never really had to make an effort learning it. Especially my English spelling is much better than my German spelling

German's just so fucking complicated, and you never know what to write as one word and what to write as two words,
because multicomposita are a big thing here. I make shitloads of mistakes in German because of that rule alone.

 

[plumbus-nine]

I want/need to learn Spanish, which is a lot harder for me than it was to learn English. That I learned as a teen and on my own because all the interesting stuff online happened to be in English. Of course also had lessons at school but I was more advanced already, getting best marks without much learning. But things have changed.

Native German speaker too, and I agree that many people seem not to really know their own primary language which is kinda funny.

Thing is first one needs to learn the very basics, before you can hold conversation or watch movies, play games in your target language and with my possible brain damage from dissociatives overuse (basically like ADD, it's become very difficult to spend attention to boring stuff, currently no doc to prescribe me stims and no RCs as well) this is annoying as fuck. I tried Duolingo and Busuu, both have their flaws but differently than with the Langenscheidt book I at least don't get so frustrated that I'd stop learning but it makes me depressed to know that other people get much much further in the same time, no that I was much faster in other time.

Any ideas or tips?
@R01dz Yeah, I'm interested too in what translator you're using. Google usually fails with longer texts.

 

[nznity]

I have met many English-natives and many German-natives,
and I gotta say, I think most people anywhere just don't have much of a grasp on their own language.

They speak it because they always spoke it, but many things are remembered wrong, or certain rules will not get any attention, just an example of "they're" "their" and "there" - that's something foreigners often do better than English natives.
Same in German with "das" und "daß" - it's often the foreigners that do it much better than Germans.

Funny that way, I think we all just don't give much of a fuck about our native language,
because we never really had to make an effort learning it. Especially my English spelling is much better than my German spelling

German's just so fucking complicated, and you never know what to write as one word and what to write as two words,
because multicomposita are a big thing here. I make shitloads of mistakes in German because of that rule alone.

That depends on the person tbh. I have a fucking outstanding ortography on my native language(spanish) and my english is pretty fkn good too. Not just writing, my listening, speaking is ️ . Yeah man I totally get u.
For example I hate when ppl who think they're ghetto talk like this : how tall is u? Or stuff like that when clearly the correct way to say it is how tall are you. Or when they say " we WAS smoking in the car? I'm not racist but ppl who I've heard/seen make those mistakes commonly are black ppl Or white trash xd haha there's ignorance everywhere, even in the 1st world. That shows how well edicated u are aswell.

If u want an example of stupid ignorant talentless fucktards you can Google the island boyz btw....those kids are a fucking new breed of stupid ppl.

 

[December Flower]

I want/need to learn Spanish, which is a lot harder for me than it was to learn English. That I learned as a teen and on my own because all the interesting stuff online happened to be in English. Of course also had lessons at school but I was more advanced already, getting best marks without much learning. But things have changed.

Thing is first one needs to learn the very basics, before you can hold conversation or watch movies, play games in your target language and with my possible brain damage from dissociatives overuse (basically like ADD, it's become very difficult to spend attention to boring stuff) this is annoying as fuck. I tried Duolingo and Busuu, both have their flaws but differently than with the Langenscheidt book I at least don't get so frustrated that I'd stop learning but it makes me depressed to know that other people get much much further in the same time, no that I was much faster in other time.

Any ideas or tips?
@R01dz Yeah, I'm interested too in what translator you're using. Google usually fails with longer texts.

yeah spanish you gotta learn verbs, and then you're already not bad.

conjugation is key in spanish, because you often entirely let out pronouns,
unless you want to pronunciate.

So get acquainted with how to conjugate words that end on -ir, -er and -ar,
start with present term first, then maybe learn the simple future and past forms with "haber" and "ir a",
they are super simple and give you a nice basic form of speaking, until you learn the more difficult ones.

best would be to travel there. Always helps so much to travel to the country

 

[AbbeyLee]

I have met many English-natives and many German-natives,
and I gotta say, I think most people anywhere just don't have much of a grasp on their own language.

They speak it because they always spoke it, but many things are remembered wrong, or certain rules will not get any attention, just an example of "they're" "their" and "there" - that's something foreigners often do better than English natives.
Same in German with "das" und "daß" - it's often the foreigners that do it much better than Germans.

Funny that way, I think we all just don't give much of a fuck about our native language,
because we never really had to make an effort learning it. Especially my English spelling is much better than my German spelling

German's just so fucking complicated, and you never know what to write as one word and what to write as two words,
because multicomposita are a big thing here. I make shitloads of mistakes in German because of that rule alone.

*runs away*

 

[December Flower]

That depends on the person tbh. I have a fucking outstanding ortography on my native language(spanish) and my english is pretty fkn good too. Not just writing, my listening, speaking is ️ . Yeah man I totally get u.
For example I hate when ppl who think they're ghetto talk like this : how tall is u? Or stuff like that when clearly the correct way to say it is how tall are you. Or when they say " we WAS smoking in the car? I'm not racist but ppl who I've heard/seen make those mistakes commonly are black ppl Or white trash xd haha there's ignorance everywhere, even in the 1st world. That shows how well edicated u are aswell.

If u want an example of stupid ignorant talentless fucktards you can Google the island boyz btw....those kids are a fucking new breed of stupid ppl.

I did say most people.

Have you seen my English or German? I'm excellent as well, but I did study my native language very "meticuloso"
I'm a complete nutjob about languages, and I do speak many.

Still, most people will never have much of a grasp on their own language, because it does not really occur to them to properly learn it. Sounds like attending a lecture on how to properly move your rectal muscles to defecate in an orderly manner, you know?
It's just so far off to learn your own language

 

[plumbus-nine]

Best would be to travel there. Always helps so much to travel to the country

I'm already in Mexico which is why I need to learn the language. When I decided to come here I stupidly assumed that when almost everybody under 50 speaks some English in Europe, the neighbour of the states couldn't be worse...... Well, assumed too fast. They have an English school in every second street, it's the most abundant thing next to police, but nobody actually speaks it, specially not the people working in shops, restaurants, police, even doctors know just the very basics. Thought for doctorate you'd need English.

I am much much better in understanding than speaking myself and better with written than spoken but still too n00b to watch movies, I grew lazy with learning because it's so frustrating, I don't know how much is condition and how much conditioning. Need to source some stims, gas adult ADD diagnosis even before the dissociatives but these years exacerbated my attention deficit.

Yeah, Spanish is quite different than German and English, will need to exercise verbs.. Hated that already with French in school.

 

[December Flower]

I'm already in Mexico which is why I need to learn the language. When I decided to come here I stupidly assumed that when almost everybody under 50 speaks some English in Europe, the neighbour of the states couldn't be worse...... Well, assumed too fast. They have an English school in every second street, it's the most abundant thing next to police, but nobody actually speaks it, specially not the people working in shops, restaurants, police, even doctors know just the very basics. Thought for doctorate you'd need English.

I am much much better in understanding than speaking myself, I grew lazy with learning because it's so frustrating, I don't know how much is condition and how much conditioning. Need to source some stims, gas adult ADD diagnosis even before the dissociatives but these years exacerbated my attention deficit.

Yeah, Spanish is quite different than German and English, will need to exercise verbs.. Hated that already with French in school.

just surround yourself with Spanish-speakers and learn your verbs(!!!!)
I cannot say how much it helped me to properly study verbs in Spanish.

 

[R01dz]

Thank you all for your answers, for those who asked, I am currently using DeepL, I discovered it when I started working because I only knew google translate and it was really bad. Also, I already have "minimal" knowledge of English but I think I'm going to have to live in an English-speaking country for a year or two anyway although it's inevitable if I want a decent career path in my current field. Also, as some people have asked me, I am indeed French.