Search results for 'tag:Writing styles tag:Learning English' matching tags 'Writing styles' and 'Learning English'

Re: Can You say?

Goodman — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:25:44 GMT

I am not trying to crucify anyone, or negate the effectiveness of certain learning method. What I have observed is that many ESL learners opted to learn the patterns of speech rather trying to work on the understanding of fundaqmentals, but often misinterpreted the answers from the forum. This is evident from the sentence structure of the posted sentences which are often awkward and unnatural. Personally, I used the media to itâs full extents. For many years, I watched Discovery, BBC and channels like History and recently The Science Channel. With the aide of closed caption and narration, itâs much like sitting in an English class. Watching a program in certain topic and reading the captions, we can build comprehension and foundation of sentence structure. I had revealed my non-English speaking origin in the past and many of you may not know it from my posts. I am still trying to polish my writing style and enlarge my vocabulary. That said, I think my tone comes very close to being that of nativeâs. I know learning English isnât the easiest task for those whose mother tongue wasn't English. I had to learn it because I need to survive in my second mother land, the US. If I could learn it, Iâd venture to say, many coming to this forum can as well. Choosing the correct method to learn any skill can cut the time and effort in half and double the results. Thatâs my experience.

Re: Present perfect tense question

Goodman — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 00:07:44 GMT

Umâ¦.Where do I begin? Well, I am almost sure one or two of you on this forum may have already heard the story before. As Iâd said many time before, learning English is much harder for Asians than Europeans for the simple fact that Asian langauges are not made up of alphabets, except Vietnamese. For Asian born Chinese, the movement of their tongue and jaw has been trained into the muscles from speaking their native dialects. Itâs difficult to re-train them to move in the ways English speaking demands them of moving which in turn causes pronunciation problems for them.

So for a young immigrant who never learned the basics of English, it would seem extremely impossile to learn this language, as least for a period about 2 years. I was 17 when I arrived Calif. But not until 2 years later that I really seriously spent a lot of time studying. The way I learned English is not what you would call academic. In fact, I donât have a college degree because I had to work right away to survive. I couldnât go to regular high school for I wonât understand anyway. My existence for next 5 years was working in the Chinese restaurant at night and went to ESL classes during the day. After I felt confident with my English, I enrolled into a technical college to take the next step, not knowing if I could make it through. I can confortablly now tell you, if you had enough will in you, you can conquer almost anyting. Through my experience, I found out if you are humble to learn people will teach you. Through the years, Iâve kept up with this attitude of practicing what Iâd learned and refining it.

Iâd also like to shar ewith you that television, up till today, has been my best learning tool. It helped me build my speech patterns and word usage by listening and visuals. I am still trying to keep improving my written skills by emulating others writing style. Thatâs why I want to do what little I can to help others because I know how confusing, depressing and frustrating it can be to become fluent in English. To answer your question about proficiency, I would say this, I feel condifident about my English and my ability to express my thoughts clearly. Whether my English is better than native American is not really imporatant to me. Hope my story didn't bore you to tears!

Re: Anybody knows any good novels for learning English?

The EnglishLearner — Fri, 11 Jun 2004 22:31:21 GMT

Thanks for your advise miriam.
My question was maybe too broad to answer(is it correct English?).
I am trying to read as much as possible as a way of improving my
English. Hemingway is popular for English learners for his simple
writing style and great story. Do you know any writer whose literature
is simple to read compare to other novels, but still has high quality
of literature? I can read some more complicated and sophiscated stylish
writings and I had read some but it takes too much time and hard to finish.

Thanks,

TheEnglishLearner