Guest, what I think is that english is very dificult language, because there is something behind the words and as I know it's not so simple to guess what is behind the words. For example if someone said to me 'you speak well', I can guess that he can guess that I'm not from there, so I seek behind the words and I found that I didn't said words in the right way or made a mistake somewhere. For example if someone said to me we enjoyed your company should I try to think that they are pissed of my company, I have no idea. Foe example those get well gards which people send to hospital to friends. Why they just don't go and visit them in the hospital instead of writing get well post card. I'm confused. And those thank you cards after the birthday party , why should people thank for the present twice, first when they did recieve the present, second they should write thank you card. It's a cultural thing.
Some dificulties ...
If your main problem is about spelling, then I'd say...
I think you might need some sort of good texts to work with, most preferably with audios. By audios I mean you are to find those with more or less the same accent you want to imitate, if you want to. As I see it, there are mainly _just_ American or British English, because most other varieties would be 1) either very similar to either, or being heavily influenced by it and 2) they are too obscure that you won't have to worry until you stay in those small countries. In that sense, I think I won't be learning New Zealand English or Irish English when I see the chance of hearing them is even slimmer than any average European language I'd learn later.
I think you've already decided. Then you can just listen and read thoroughly, until you become very familiar with every single word of all those texts. I've just tried it with a few basic lesson texts and it works fine. I know English spelling is a mess, even 100 times worse than French, but I'm pretty much used to memorizing individual word forms owing to linguistic background, so...
but yeah, I'd also say, even with perfectly phonetic pinyin (otherwise Chinese should scrapped once and for all, I bet!), Hanzi is still slightly more difficult than English words. If I were you, I would now start listening-reading, and mark every word if I'm not quite sure; and checking the IPA of any English word is quite easy with your PC and some software and web sites.
If I were to learn all over again:
for words like through, I'd underline thr and u only, indicating that o and gh are silent, and mark u with a macron (maybe I can only do it by hand, not using word processors). I'd use a trema/umlaut for diphthong, such as ï for nice. If I already know that a particular letter corresponds to a phoneme perfectly and is not of course silent, I don't mark it too, like n in nice. For short vowels, I mark it with a dot.
The Chinese often ignore voiced phonemes dz (in George) and z (in wise), then I'd mark the voiced thing directly above the letter by a dot or writing dz and z.
but still, the most important thing is to remember the countless correspondences, so I'd listen more than I write all these diacritics.
I think you might need some sort of good texts to work with, most preferably with audios. By audios I mean you are to find those with more or less the same accent you want to imitate, if you want to. As I see it, there are mainly _just_ American or British English, because most other varieties would be 1) either very similar to either, or being heavily influenced by it and 2) they are too obscure that you won't have to worry until you stay in those small countries. In that sense, I think I won't be learning New Zealand English or Irish English when I see the chance of hearing them is even slimmer than any average European language I'd learn later.
I think you've already decided. Then you can just listen and read thoroughly, until you become very familiar with every single word of all those texts. I've just tried it with a few basic lesson texts and it works fine. I know English spelling is a mess, even 100 times worse than French, but I'm pretty much used to memorizing individual word forms owing to linguistic background, so...
but yeah, I'd also say, even with perfectly phonetic pinyin (otherwise Chinese should scrapped once and for all, I bet!), Hanzi is still slightly more difficult than English words. If I were you, I would now start listening-reading, and mark every word if I'm not quite sure; and checking the IPA of any English word is quite easy with your PC and some software and web sites.
If I were to learn all over again:
for words like through, I'd underline thr and u only, indicating that o and gh are silent, and mark u with a macron (maybe I can only do it by hand, not using word processors). I'd use a trema/umlaut for diphthong, such as ï for nice. If I already know that a particular letter corresponds to a phoneme perfectly and is not of course silent, I don't mark it too, like n in nice. For short vowels, I mark it with a dot.
The Chinese often ignore voiced phonemes dz (in George) and z (in wise), then I'd mark the voiced thing directly above the letter by a dot or writing dz and z.
but still, the most important thing is to remember the countless correspondences, so I'd listen more than I write all these diacritics.
I'm not a parrot to listen something more then once. I used to learn english in the same way - listening one tape more than 10 times. If I made mistakes, it's obvious, because I do not concentrate about language, finally it's not like native. But I understand people and they do understand me. I listen movies with subtitles , because that's more easy. Finally I do not want to struggle to learn more than I do know, because I do not need more than I know. I can read my Bible in English and I can understand some of the things there. That's good enough for me.
Listen Guest usually people learn much more than they need. And after few months they just do not keep anything in their momories. I keep my momories for the words which I do know. It's all about chit - chat conversation and nothing else. LOL
In society of individualism we don't need more to talk to. See few days ago during the evining I was walking on the street and believe me there is not even a person, there was not even a living soul. Because everyone was staying at home and watching TV. Here people live for theirsleves much more than you can imagine.
My native language is... is that so important for you to know? Regard that I'm a citizen of the world.
My native country is an old one. It exist since 681. We were living under the turkish yolk for 500 years. Then we were living 45 years under the communism. In 2007 we joined EU.
Wow, more than a clue. I wish you all the best LB.
May the world be your oyster.
May the world be your oyster.
<<In 2007 we joined EU. >>
So you'll be living under the EU yoke for the next 500 years? :)
So you'll be living under the EU yoke for the next 500 years? :)