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How to improve my English? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Conquistador Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6905 days ago 5 posts - 7 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 1 of 12 26 June 2009 at 10:20pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Hello everyone,
I haven't been here for a while, so pardon me if I'm posting in a wrong room. Basically, my problem is that, even though I've been learning English for quite a while now (14 years, I'm 21), it's stagnating at the same level. I've been studying in the UK for 4 years; I've just finished my second year in a university. I'm doing History, and in theory, it's a degree that promotes excellent command of English. I'm afraid that since I've moved to an English-speaking country when I wasn't a kid, my English is never going to be near-bilingual. I feel like it has reached some kind of a saturation point and from now on, it won't improve much. Or maybe getting to a new level in a language is the result of accumulated knowledge, and for now my English is on a plateau level. Either way, I'm looking for things I could do to improve it. I guess part of the problem is that I tend to hang out with my Russian-speaking friends most of the time. I speak English with my boyfriend, but he isn't a native speaker, so I don't really pick up new expressions from him. Trying to become friends with people, so that I could improve my English, doesn't seem right to me.. I have to read a lot in English for my degree, and I try to read classics in my spare time. I was wondering if any of you are experiencing the same problem, not necessarily in English, and could share your insights. Thanks and sorry for such a long post! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes  Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 2 of 12 26 June 2009 at 11:39pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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1) Up the bar a bit: More culture (attend plays etc), watch "high level news" (Panorama on the BBC, Financial news, Consumers' Question time and the like. History and Discovery Channels. You know what I mean.
2) Force yourself to read books which you wouldn't necessarily have picked up normally; anything that is a bit high-brow, or by a well known author with a reputation for an elegant style of writing (i.e. NOT your average best-seller from Tesco...) 3) Listen to serious radio programmes or podcasts, for example on BBC Radio 4 or Radio 2 or a podcast about some specialist subject that interests you. 4) Socialise outside of your group of Russian speaking friends. It's possible if you make an effort to make it happen. Sign up for a course or the like and make some British female friends.. I known it's not easy to find people you "connect" with , but make the effort anyway! 5) Accept that you cannot get rid of your accent fully and that it takes MANY years to build up the vocabulary of a native speaker including expressions, proverbs etc... ------------- Personally I got bored with trying to improve my English and quit many years ago. I feel my English is adequate for my personal and professional needs and that's enough! At some point you've got to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labour! "Russianbear" on this forum speaks top notch English, he took a vocabulary test once and got a great score, probably quite a bit higher than the average native speaker. I'm sure you can acheive the same results if you persist. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| reasonableman Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5655 days ago 33 posts - 35 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish | Message 3 of 12 27 June 2009 at 10:11am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I obviously don't know what your specific problems are but one thing that might be quite fun, and should help, is watching old cartoons. Many references people make are from childhood and cartoons from this time are often referenced. Also try quickly browsing some nursery rhymes and childrens stories (they are really easy to read!).
Also comedy is a good source of references. If there is a joke that you don't get it is probably due to some blind spot you have. So researching that might help (probably wont make the joke funny though!). Finally if it's pronounciation then practicing 'tongue twisters' is a common technique used by English speakers... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Russianbear Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6775 days ago 358 posts - 422 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, Ukrainian Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 12 29 June 2009 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Thanks for the kind words, cordelia0507. However, I wouldn't refer to my English as "top notch". It is ok, but I think my active skills (speaking and writing) lag behind the passive skills and all too often I can sound unnatural or stilted, etc. Also, I finished high school and university in the US, so perhaps my (relatively) good vocabulary is not that big of an accomplishment. Conquistador, I think you are quite advanced already, and once you get to the advanced fluency stage, it may indeed seem like it is harder to make progress. If you know 3000 words in a language and learn a thousand more, it will be a great improvement because the amount of words you started with was relatively modest. But if you know, say, 15000 words, then, even if you do learn another thousand of new words, it won't be that noticeable - because it would be a much smaller share of your overall vocabulary - and also because those words would tend to be rather uncommon, so it won't feel like you are making as much progress as you'd made before. Also, you didn't exactly made it clear what gives you the most problems. Is it speaking or writing or something else that you are worried about? Basically, if you work on your weaknesses, it will pay off sooner or later, even if it won't feel like you are improving as fast as you did before. Edited by Russianbear on 29 June 2009 at 6:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| nobita Diglot Newbie Vietnam Joined 5851 days ago 20 posts - 23 votes Speaks: Vietnamese*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Mandarin, Thai | Message 5 of 12 30 June 2009 at 4:41am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I am also frustrated with the feeling that I would never be able to reach a level of fluency. Since I have little chance of making acquaintances with some natives, professionally or socially, the problem seems worse.
I then tried to build up my passive skills, with the hope that some % of inputs could turn into active outputs. And here Russianbear's point comes: I feel very little advancement. During several months, the average times I had to lookup a word while reading a CNN news article is still 3-4. I would be very happy to read one without looking anywhere, but it's still far to come I guess. Anyway, I'm still learning. Any helps appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| gabrielsilk Newbie Canada Joined 5626 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 6 of 12 30 June 2009 at 12:09pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Keep in mind that even native speakers do not have a mastery over the full lexicon of their language. I am well-read, I have a good education, I grew up speaking exclusively English, and yet I still have to look up words when reading The Economist. If you only have to look up 3-4 words per CNN article, and English is your L2, then you have come quite far and I congratulate you.
In order to improve at this point, you are going to have to force yourself out of your comfort zone. Leave those newspaper articles at home on your desk, or in your laptop or whatever, and go out into the real world. Try doing one or more of the following: 1. Join a book club, where you'll be forced to a) read difficult material and b) form your thoughts into concise, well-formed English phrases in order to communicate your ideas with the reading group. 2. Join a theatre group -- a friend of mine who travelled to Berlin mastered German in this way, just by signing up and being forced to memorize and act out lines. According to him, the vocabulary and rapidity of speech he learned there has never left him. 3. Make some friends who speak English. If there are none in your physical environment, then think about using a webcam to communicate with people over the internet. Sites like livemocha.com and italko are fantastic resources. I'm on livemocha.com most days under the username 'Gabriel' -- I would be more than happy to chat with you, and I'm sure there are many others. Cheers, Gabriel Silk Edited by gabrielsilk on 30 June 2009 at 12:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Conquistador Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6905 days ago 5 posts - 7 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 7 of 12 30 June 2009 at 4:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Thanks for the advice, everyone! :)
At this point, I'm more worried about my writing skills. When I compare my essays with those of my British classmates, mine seem much poorer - not necessarily in the vocabulary, but syntax and phraseology, I guess. Their essays flow beautifully, while mine are cumbersome and artificial. Obviously, they are British and it is unwise to compare myself to them, but it gives a point of reference. Since I'm going to write a dissertation next year, I thought maybe there's a book that could guide me. Maybe I demand too much from myself because I study history in a pretty good university, but excellent command of English seems to be paramount to this subject. As Nobita, I feel very frustrated about the fact that my English is at the same level it was 2 years ago - plus, I study in the UK! Also, in Russian, I almost physically enjoy reading and talking to interesting people, whereas in English, my perception is somewhat muffled. I don't have to translate back and forth in my head, but still Russian seems to be a much more vivid, "juicy" language. I was wondering in general, if it is at all possible to obtain bilinguality, to truly think in a foreign language. Cordelia, thanks, these are really good tips. I guess I really have to make an effort to make British friends and for once, go to a more "cultural" event :) Accent is not a big issue for me, as long as people can understand me. Reasonableman, that's a way I haven't thought of! Can you please recommend any British films/sitcoms that were helpful to you? Russianbear, you're right about the problem of vocabulary at this stage. Unless you read specialised literature, you are unlikely to encounter a lot of unfamiliar words. You had studied in the USA - could you please tell me if you read any helpful books on essay-writing? I'm not so worried about my communicative skills, I believe that these problems can be solved by meeting more English speakers and speaking less in your native language. Nobita, I understand your frustration.. I think one thing you can do is to join British council or a debating/book club etc. If you have Internet access at home, as Gabrielsilk said, it could be helpful to talk to English speakers with Skype/ICQ. Maybe you could find someone to help with their Vietnamese in return. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Russianbear Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6775 days ago 358 posts - 422 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, Ukrainian Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 12 30 June 2009 at 6:04pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Since you seem to be quite advanced already, I assume you can think in English already, and by "truly thinking in a language" you mean whether it is possible to think in a VERY fluent/native way - let's say - the way a well-educated speaker would talk. Well, you have to start somewhere - and if you can just switch your thoughts from Russian into English at will - even if your English would still be quite basic- that's not a bad start. You can note the things about other people's speech or writing that impress you and kinda steal them and make them your own. Just pick some idioms or words and use them whenever you can.
Btw, sitcoms helped me quite a bit. I only watched the American ones: Frasier (which is my favorite; the writing is good, and the title character is often eloquent and he uses fancy words), Friends (this one has a more basic level of the language, but it was still very helpful with cultural references and idioms and puns, etc), Sex and the City (more informal slang, etc).
I majored at something that didn't require writing a lot of essays, so I can't really suggest much. One book I used for my English classes was The Bedford Handbook, you may want to check it out; however, it might be a little too basic for you. I think a good dictionary of idioms could help with the phraseology (I use The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer, but maybe you can find something that suits your needs better). Also, I wouldn't dismiss communicative skills. I think the different skills fuel each other - and if you achieve greater fluidity in one, it helps with the others. So, if you are able to communicate with people more fluently, it will help your writing, and vice versa. I wouldn't dismiss accent as something that is completely irrelevant to the fluidity of your writing. If you keep hearing your Russian accent when you speak, I imagine the feeling that your writing is inherently inferior to that of native speakers may be hard to overcome - simply because it is a psychological trick your mind will play on you, as you will keep questioning yourself whether it is even possible for your writing to be THAT much better than your speaking. Anyways, these are my two cents on this matter. Edited by Russianbear on 30 June 2009 at 6:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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