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Non-Reader learning English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4524 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 12 17 December 2013 at 8:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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A good friend of mine, who happens to be a Thai woman living in Australia with her Australian husband, has
informed me that she's trying to improve her English. Her husband enrolled her in some online English classes, but it turns out the teacher is really mean. I told her she should consider self study, and use Skype to speak with native english speakers. She liked that idea, but needs some advice about how to study. I opened my big mouth to help her, but I know next to nothing about learning to speak English. To complicate things further, she learned her limited English by listening to people talk and repeating. She never studied it in school. She can read Thai, but not english. What I'm hoping for here is a study plan that she could follow. Hopefully included in that would be a quick/easy way for her to become a reader. Thanks! Edited by Wulfgar on 20 December 2013 at 7:15pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4524 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes Speaks: English* | Message 2 of 12 19 December 2013 at 9:06am | IP Logged | ||
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Anybody here learn English?
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| vermillon Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4531 days ago 602 posts - 1042 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, German | Message 3 of 12 19 December 2013 at 11:16am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't have anything to help, but a question that might help further the topic: can she read Thai at least? If she's entirely foreign to the practice of reading, that might prove more difficult, I suppose.
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| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5581 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 4 of 12 19 December 2013 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is unclear from your post whether she can or cannot read at all, but you mention school so I guess you mean she can read Thai but cannot read English alphabet.
You're selling yourself short here saying you know next to nothing about learning English. Judging from your profile you know Russian for example, so you know what it's like to study a new alphabet! I'm sure you can use the same methods to learning English alphabet and so on. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4524 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 12 20 December 2013 at 7:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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She can read Thai (fixed the op). I've never learned English myself. I could make something up, but I'm hoping there
are others who can draw from their experience. Edited by Wulfgar on 20 December 2013 at 7:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5581 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 6 of 12 20 December 2013 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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It doesn't matter that you didn't learn English. You know what it's like to learn a language. Many things about learning languages aren't that specific really. From your languages list I can see that you are an experienced learner, you should have more faith in your advice.
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| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4524 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 12 21 December 2013 at 3:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks pesahson. But I know nothing about English learning resources. And because I've learned several languages,
I know that each one is unique and needs a unique strategy. Generalities can be made, but I want to hear about someone else's experiences before developing a plan for my friend. Over the years I have helped several people here. Surely one or two of the thousands of English learners on this board can offer some advice beyond "do it yourself"? How about a list of free resources for beginning English learners? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5151 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 8 of 12 22 December 2013 at 3:54pm | IP Logged | ||
I am sorry that I cannot be more helpful, I don't speak Thai, what makes giving useful advice a little bit difficult. But nevertheless: book2 also offers the combination Thai - English. For someone who knows at least some basic words of English the 100 lessons can work very well, imo. They can be used audio only, a free 2day membership is available, so that one can download all the 100 html pages with original and translation, which will be useful once one can read. From school I remember that we had a little pre-course, just for learning about the English alphabet and its typical sound correlations. (Some things are "random", of course, but most things are not). Such a booklet with sound would certainly be a good idea for a Thai speaker, too, maybe wikipedia in Thai has something similar to offer? And maybe there is a good chance that looking for the Thai equivalent of "Learning English" gives a lot of results in Thai on youtube. (It can be rather time consuming to find g o o d resources, there, but on the other hand a lot of videos are made by ordinary people and can make the first steps more interesting and less frightening.) Finding better material will be much easier once your friend has successfully made her first steps, maybe she can get there with book2 and some additional materials. I wish her good luck! (If I find other resources for Thai speakers I will add them here. Asking Glossika or Leosmith may be another good idea.) Edit: Australia Network has some "Bites" which seem to be interesting: English Bites 8 English Bites 7 I had found these bites some time ago and really liked them. They mix real life with, not too much, but hopefully enough, explanation. Australia Network offers quite a lot, maybe you want to take a closer look: Australia Network on yt Another series I liked is titled "English Conversation - Learn English Speaking - English Course (English Subtitle)" which you can find here, e.g.: yt channel (Not all the videos there belong to the series.) Edited by lingoleng on 23 December 2013 at 10:54pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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