Search results for 'tag:Grammar tag:Learn English' matching tags 'Grammar' and 'Learn English'

Re: diversed tourists

Yoong Liat — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:12:36 GMT

Hi New2grammar

There is no such word as 'diversed'.

'Diverse' means 'varied or dfifferent': Students from counrtries as diverse as Columbia and Lithuania use Cambridge textbooks when they learn English.

Based on the above definition, you cannot use 'diverse tourists' in your sentence.

Re: there is/has been

Kooyeen — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:29:08 GMT

New2grammar
Can I say:

Grammar Geek
I've put my house up for sale for a month now

If not, why? This is confusing to me.

I don't think so, because once you have put it up for sale, it's for sale. You don't keep putting it up for sale. Once you've done it, you just have to wait for someone who is interested.

I think it's the same reason why you don't usually say "I've been starting to learn English for a year", but you say "I started learning English a year ago" and "I've been learning English for a year now".

In other words, a house can be for sale for a month, but the act of putting it up for same just takes a short time.

Teaching English using the Chatbot Game

amichail — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:35:48 GMT

I believe that the Chatbot Game can be used to help students learn English as a second language:

http://chatbotgame.com
http://chatbotgame.com/?cmd=chat_rs
http://chatbotgame.com/?cmd=chat_s

Players of the Chatbot Game shape the chatbot's personality and expertise by adding simple chat rules. The better their chat rules, the higher they will score. Higher scoring rules are more likely to be used to generate a chatbot response.

I think such a game may be useful for learning English as a second language. After all, to score lots of points, you will do well by focusing on common sorts of conversation fragments -- exactly the sort of thing that someone learning English should focus on. Moreover, you get to see how well your rules do in actual chats in terms of a rule score and actual conversation fragments.

If the player uses poor grammar in a chat rule, then that rule may not score well assuming that most people chatting with the bot already know English pretty well. Even if someone doesn't vote down a rule with bad grammar, he/she might comment on the bad grammar in his/her response.

In essence, the chat rules can be viewed as open-ended exercises that are graded by the people chatting with the bot.

What do you think?

Social anxiety+poor English=failure

akstylish — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:44:22 GMT

Hello there. Let me introduce myself first.

I'm an Asian-American who went to South Korea one month after I was born in the U.S. Then I came back 5 years ago when I was a high school freshman, so I had to learn English from scratch. For the first few months my English improved pretty well, but I hadn't made any close friend and things started going bad. I became more and more shy and was eventually diagnosed with social anxiety one year later. During my high school years I only made some acquaintances and rarely hung out with anyone. I slowly developed depression as well and once attempted suicide by taking 60 sleeping pills.

Fortunately I was still able to keep the GPA and SAT scores high enough to get into a moderate college(GA Tech). My parents and relatives kept telling me life in college campus is way better than high school life despite academic pressure and told me to rest assured everything will get better.

They couldn't be more wrong.

My anxiety was so bad at that point that I could barely breathe and my whole body became stiff wherever I could see someone or vice versa. And I had to walk around buildings and streets filled with hundreds of people everyday. Even in my dorm room I couldn't relax because I had a roommate. I got so depressed during the first week I just had to hide somewhere and cry, yet there was nowhere to. I also began to have difficulty concentrating, and it took me 5 minutes to read ONE page. On top of that my English skills were about the same as back when I was a high school freshman for the obvious reason(except grammar), so I got F's on every essay for English. After a month I lost my motivation to study and failed in other classes as well.

I eventually decided to withdraw from school and concentrate on treating social anxiety and improving English at home for the following semester. However, I've already been on therapy on medications for years and tried my best to get out of social anxiety. There's gotta be at least some improvement to keep me trying. So I've been wasting my life doing nothing but websurfing and sleeping at home this entire semester. Now it's time to go back, and my English and social anxiety got even worse.(I probably spoke to someone in English thirty times or so for the last 6 months)

Well, that's my story. Just venting here...I didn't really mean to write this for advice(I've already asked for help to so many people), but I'd appreciate it.

(By the way, you might be thinking my writing skills aren't so bad. Trust me, it is terrible. It's just that for some reason my first post on a forum is always the best. Plus, it takes me hours to write a post this long.)

Learn English Online

adamlearn — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:45:35 GMT

Hi friends,

I'd like to share with you this blog with free resources to learn English (videos, social networks, podcasts, grammar, online documents, ...).

English version:
http://learnenglishfromhome.blogspot.com/

Spanish version:
http://aprenderinglesonline.blogspot.com/

Hope you find it useful!

Learn English grammar through Tamil

KBthi — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:48:29 GMT

If anyone interest to learn English through Tamil pls visit to

[url removed by a mod, please add it to your perspnal contacts in your profile]

Re: registrar's office vs admissions office

Tuongvan — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:39:37 GMT

Hi Grammar Geek ,

Suppose I want to register to learn English at the level of book 2 Streamline English at a foreign languages center . Will I register at the registration office or at the admissions office ? I guess I have to register at the registration office .If that is right , when will I have to come to the admissions office ?

By the way , the person who works in the admissions office is called admissions officer .How do you call the person who works in the registration office ?

Thanks and Best wishes

Re: Hello! I am a new user

Mister Micawber — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:35:31 GMT

.
Hello.

My name is Alberto. I live in Sevilla, Spain. I am 15 years old and I want to learn English, because this summer I am going to go to England to learn English. Please correct my grammar and vocabulary.

Thank you.

Hello! I am a new user

Alberto R.C — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:23:28 GMT

Hello, my name is Alberto. I live in Sevilla, Spain. I am 15 years old and I want learn English, because this summer, I am going to go to England for learning English. Please, You correct me for my grammar, and vocabulary. Thank you

Alberto R.C

Teaching my mother English

Anonymous — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:15:18 GMT

My family has lived in the United States for about 9 years. I was born in Colombia, but I was basically raised here, so I know English better than Spanish. Unfortunately my mother has been unable to learn English beyond a very basic level. How can I help her learn English? She needs to learn practical english that can be useful to her in daily life, and not so much the complicated grammar stuff.