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English: What to do next? | ||
Tags: Advanced Level | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5008 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 17 of 25 05 February 2014 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You should also go for radio I like BBC A point of view.
Many tell you to drop the subtitles I agree but you could also drop the pictures - it helps a lot focusing on listening when you don't see the action. I like when an actor is telling the story in addition to talking to the other caracters. For examples in Dexter or in The Shawshank redemption. Don't hesitate to listen to the same thing again and again. With free software like VLC you can easily play with speed - slowing or fasting the pace. You are worrying about missing a joke but people often miss a joke in their native language. Listening to another language will help your English too - so if you have some interest for chinese don't hesitate - it will not hurt your English. Even if you don't go far in chinese for now - the little you do in chinese now will help you in the future Once I tried to transcript an episode of a tv serie in our native french - well there was a word I never got. It was a very basic conversation with a word I know but there was in fact 2 possible words and even with a ton of loops on the passage I never figure out which of the 2 possible words was used. This to say that you don't need to understand all the words. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6900 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 18 of 25 05 February 2014 at 8:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Short answer: Read and listen more.
A slightly longer answer: Read and listen to material you're already (somewhat) familiar with, books you've read in French, podcasts for which there is transcript, movies with subtitles (Yes! Good subtitles are just as helpful as good translations). Bilingual texts, interlinear texts, subtitles etc. haven't stopped Iversen, Professor Arguelles et al. from being highly proficient. And, if I may quote myself:
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| Melya68 Diglot Senior Member France Joined 4282 days ago 109 posts - 126 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 19 of 25 06 February 2014 at 1:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, I don't really know what I'll do next.
I didn't particularly enjoy watching the beginning of season 3 (or was it season 4?) of Case Closed. They've changed the music to make it sound more pseudo-Japanese. I loved the old music and know the lyrics by heart. Fine, I can skip the music and just watch the episodes, but they've gotten worse too. Season 1 of Case Closed comprised of murder cases that were relatively easy to understand and that made sense. Now, I feel like I'm watching CSI/The Mentalist/NCIS all over again. I actually re-watched the beginning of the show because I liked the first episodes so much. Why did they have to make the cases more complicated? I ended up spending some time watching YouTube videos. Most of them were pretty disappointing, but it figures since it's YouTube. The highlight of my day was watching French TV (Undercover Boss). I was so relaxed after a single episode that I came to the conclusion that there's something really, really wrong with the way I study English right now. I don't think I enjoy TV shows anymore. I feel like I've watched all the good ones already. A few months ago, I almost finished listening to the first book of the Hunger Games series. The last chapters were too mawkish for my liking so I ditched the book. I routinely stop reading books midway or right before the end because I don't like the way the story evolves. Anyway, I might just stick to reading non-fiction for now. I'll look up the words I don't understand while I'm reading, and I'll probably study vocabulary textbooks too. I'd rather study a textbook than waste time watching something I don't really enjoy. I've made a lot of flashcards and read a lot of vocabulary textbooks to get to this point. I might also work on my grammar when I get the chance, though my best bet would probably be to use lang-8. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| DaisyMaisy Senior Member United States Joined 5371 days ago 115 posts - 178 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish Studies: Swedish, Finnish | Message 20 of 25 12 February 2014 at 6:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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Seinfeld is fun :) I watch the reruns every evening! We sometimes talk about how we don't understand British humor, so I guess the reverse is true as well.
What about The Office? There is a British and an American version. Whatever you do, it should be at least somewhat enjoyable. It sounds like you are a bit stuck and frustrated. But you should be proud of your accomplishments! You write English very well. Maybe just listen to a short program daily and focus on just listening and watching. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4073 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 21 of 25 12 February 2014 at 9:42am | IP Logged | |||||
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Vocabulary: According to a paper on this I read, the average native speaker entering
college has around 18,000 words. Watch shows without subtitles. If you cannot understand something, rewind, and rewatch a few times. If you still cannot figure out what the actor said, switch on the subtitles ONLY for that piece of dialogue, and then switch it off again. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4698 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 22 of 25 12 February 2014 at 10:27am | IP Logged | |||||
Talk to people. Language is spoken with humans. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Melya68 Diglot Senior Member France Joined 4282 days ago 109 posts - 126 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 23 of 25 12 February 2014 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
You're right, DaisyMaisy! I gave several shows a chance last evening and was disappointed, but I'll try Seinfeld. Thank you for the compliments and encouragements as well. I might make a proper language-learning blog soon. I like writing in English, because it allows me to practice grammar and vocabulary, and I could also use some new words I've been trying to learn. I'm currently looking for new non-fiction books to read. I've found a few already. I will not stop using subtitles, because that's not my idea of fun. There are some shows which I don't watch with subtitles anymore, but that's either because I've watched them lots with subtitles before, or because I don't really care about the show.
Hm, you don't know me, do you? I used to have many "friends" on Skype but I deleted Skype because I think it's a waste of time. If you think I'm cold hearted, think again. The typical conversation goes like this: Hi, what's up? Not much, how about you? Same. Been doing anything fun? Well, I [walked my dog/washed my hair/had a *super* day at school/ found a cure for cancer [maybe not...] What about you? Pretty much the same. Please chime in if you think any of this is useful. Don't even get me started on "language exchanges". Most people just don't correct my English if they understand me. You can't expect regular people (non-paid teachers/friends) to teach you new words or to correct your grammar. If you're a complete beginner, then introducing yourself and reading your friend's messages is good practice. They can also tell you about popular shows in their country, and they can teach you cultural tidbits. However, if your friend is teaching you slang or a regional word, if you're a beginner, you won't be able to tell the difference. That's how I learned inappropriate words that I used for a long time until someone told me that I should use a more polite/generic alternative. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4698 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 24 of 25 12 February 2014 at 2:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I never said to use Skype. You can speak it with humans in person, that is way better. Go
to conversation clubs at your local university, find meetup groups, etc. There's a method for everyone ;) Making mistakes is how you learn languages, you will not believe the amount of times I have butchered French to the point of absolute horror. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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