|
 |
frenkeld | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Members profiles |  | |
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 9 of 13 09 January 2006 at 2:11pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Just a couple of things that have occurred to me when reading your post:
Your English seems fine to me, but if you insist on reinforcing your grammar, why don't you read novels instead?
Why don't you chat with your wife? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6944 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 10 of 13 09 January 2006 at 3:00pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I am afraid it is not reinforcing, but very much plugging some glaring holes in my case. The area of greatest concern to me is the use of articles in English. Even after 26 years in the US, I run into many cases when I don't have a good feel for when to use or not use an article, and which of the two to use. This is definitely a lingering legacy from my native Russian, which has no articles. Another area in need of improvement is punctuation, which has become entirely "free-style". There has to be more, but these would be a start. I do agree that a workbook may not be the best way to nail down the articles - it may be better to just read a couple of novels paying close attention to the articles and see if it all snaps into place in my head. Or one can try doing it aurally with a couple of movies. This does illustrate one point though - that even if speaking is the most "chic" part of learning a foreign language, writing well in a foreign language takes a lot of additional practice, because writing is in some ways less "fault-tolerant" than speech. With speech, once you become fluent enough, the natives simply stop noticing your little errors, but not so with writing - this one must really be done right.
I most certainly will - I've already been terrorizing her about the retroflex/nonretroflex and aspirated/unaspirated Hindi consonants, but I still want to follow a textbook, at least for the grammar. You are right, though, in that I should give some thought to whether I could make her a systematic part of my studies, rather than just rely on her for "extracurricular" speaking practice. I have considered trying to learn just by reading schoolbooks from India and talking to my wife, with a textbook used as reference grammar only. I have not really come to a decision yet - right now I am still in the stage of early experimentation. Edited by frenkeld on 09 January 2006 at 3:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 13 09 January 2006 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
|
In case you're interested, I found this course in Hindi on eBay which is only available for the next five days. The seller states that they will only deliver to the UK, but it might be worth contacting them to see if they will ship to the US (it worked for me once in reverse). Otherwise, if you know someone in the UK....
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6944 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 12 of 13 09 January 2006 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
|
Thanks for the tip - I had not heard of Linguagphone until recently and have never checked them out.
I found this Hindi course at the US Linguaphone site. Also, as part of the francophone revenge against my delaying French for Hindi, Assimil offers Le Hindi sans Peine, but nothing with an English base. I will certainly keep the Linguaphone course in mind, should I find the Hindi materials I already have unhelpful. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7104 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 13 of 13 10 January 2006 at 2:46am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I'm not sure that either novels or films will help with the nuances you're looking for. While they will certainly be rich in examples what you could really do with is a comprehensive descriptive English grammar where such shades of meaning and usage are documented and explained for you. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
