I have come to a stage where there's no improvement in my English. I mean, there's no breakthrough. It has frustated me for years. There are too many problems:
--- I still cannot use preposition correctly. For example: Is it "on a website" or "at a website?"
--- the use of "the", a, or an. For example: in the real life or in real life?
--- improving vocabulary
--- when watching an English movie, I still have to read the subtitle.
--- there are too many verb and preposition combinations, not to mention about the word "get". It has too many variations.
--- I still have to construct English sentence first, before speaking in English.
I really want to improve my English. But, how do I start? Vocabulary first? I want to speak English naturally, how?
Maybe I have too many problems so that nobody knows how to solve them.
To improve your vocabulary, you can: try to match what you are reading in the subtitles with what you hear.
For your usage of "the" the expression is "in real life" and it is invariably always "in real life" however, this does not really address your knowledge of the usage of "the". For "on" vs "at" for websites, my usage is "on a website" is the general usage, however, you can do things at websites as well.
That is a start on solving some of your problems, I am sure someone else will come along and help you ore.
yer probs are mere regrets and frustrations. try migrating from one place to another. as the old saying goes, it's a free world.
Thank you Jonas CSG. Any helps are welcome. Especially from other English learners. Maybe you have the same experience with me.
I have read some tips on this site that we need to read a lot. I don't know whether I have read a lot or not. Everyday I access the Internet, because Internet connection is provided for free by company I work for. I should be lucky employee, because not all of employees in other companies that have a full time free Internet access. What I want to say is that everyday I can read English material. But, still, I have to pause for a while when I have to speak English. I still use the basic English words. Maybe I don't read that much as expected.
Still expecting from other experts....
A couple of days ago I read something on the internet how to become a good reader. For being a good reader, you have to read a book per month. That means you have to read almost 12 books a year. Other than that, you must read newspapers as they are written in plain and simple language. They are to the point and follow no nonsensical approach in telling the story to their readers.
As far as improving your spoken skill is concerned, you have to speak to yourself when you are alone at home. Like pick up a random topic and organize your thoughts beforehand and start speaking on it suppose like you are a native speaker. Reading out loud is also a useful activity to get words out of your system. The recent strategy I have adopted is that I try to attend an international exhibition where people come from different countries in order to show what they have to offer. Such exhibitions are held in every country. Look for ads in the newspapers. Some representatives of foreign universities come in such exhibitions and inform students about their universities. You can attend them and can improve your speaking skills in the real world with native speakers or good speakers of English. Yesterday I attended such an exhibition and I hung around for an hour there and I felt like I was in the English speaking surrounding. I used to enquire information in English. I used to listen that information in English. The whole, total, surrounding was in the English language. I'd say it'd be good for your motivation as well to attend such exhibitions.
I applaud you on your effort and desire to learn English!
I'm a native speaker, so I don't have the experience of having to learn English like you, but I'm learning two other languages (one is Chinese which is very different from English), and I can say that what helps me a lot is practicing with native speakers. I don't know if you have access to any, but it helps a bunch. If not, you can try talking to yourself about things, but you have to be careful not to practice mistakes.
Another suggestion is to get English children's books, or "picture books" with basic grammar. It sounds like your native language is far from English, so these books will help drill basic things like prepositions and definite/indefinite articles (a, an, the).
That said, your written English is quite good. There are a few errors (for example "Everyday I access the Internet, because Internet connection is provided for free by company I work for." should be "Everyday I access the Internet, because AN Internet connection is provided for free by THE company I work for.) but I'm sure you can work those out with practice.
Hello, thanks for your input.
Boy, could you give me the address of the site you mentioned? I have tried to read one book only, an Agatha Christie's novel. It took me several months to finish it. :-). So, it is not possible to read one book in one month. But it is fine, maybe it is about "time management". I have to be more discipline about time. Maybe I could have finished it in one month, if I read it 20 pages a day.
Gabe, thanks for your correction. I really appreciate it. That's something that I must fix, using articles more accurately. It should be an "easy" thing. But actually, it is not an easy thing for me.
Thanks. Your comments are still expected.
I found the following article at www.bcc.co.uk:
"Ferdinand has had a difficult couple of weeks, landing a driving ban and then allegedly getting into trouble at a Swedish nightclub and a hotel in Hertfordshire."
This is still about articles. In the above sentence, can we use "at the Swedish nightclub"? Because, 'Swedish', in this example, is the additional information for the word 'nightclub'.
I am still waiting for your comment about the use of "a" and "the" in my previous post. I will repeat here:
-------------
I found the following article at www.bcc.co.uk:
"Ferdinand has had a difficult couple of weeks, landing a driving ban and then allegedly getting into trouble at a Swedish nightclub and a hotel in Hertfordshire."
This is still about articles. In the above sentence, can we use "at the Swedish nightclub"? Because, 'Swedish', in this example, is the additional information for the word 'nightclub'.
-------------
NEW BOY!
FIRST OF ALL STOP DESPAIRING LIKE A BIRD WITH WET FEATHERS AND START BEING A LITTLE BIT MORE DYNAMIC. IN OTHER WORDS GET UP OFF YOUR LAZY BUTT AND ACTIVATE YOUR BRAIN CELLS IF YOU'VE GOT ANY LEFT SMOKING ALL THAT CANNABIS OR WHATEVE IT IS U DO!
LEARN AS MUCH VOCABULARY AS U CAN AND READ ARTICLES IN ENGLISH SO U CAN CONSOLIDATE THE VOCAB U'VE LEARNT! MORE IMPORTANTLY SKIP VOCAB FOR A WHILE AND LEARN HOW THE LANGUAGE FITS TOGETHER I.E. GRAMMAR
LOVE AND LIGHT SWEETHEARTXXXX
A good way of checking when it is appropriate to use 'the' or not is to ask the question "Which one ?" If 'the' is present, then we (the reader) should know which one, either because it has been mentioned, or because it is obvious, common knowledge (in a vaguely logical way.)
So it is possible to use 'the Swedish nightclub' in the sentence given, but then the reader should know which one you are talking about. Has this Swedish nightclun already been mentioned ? Is there only one Swedish nightclub in town ? If so, we can use 'the.'
Now a little tip. You need to start noticing, and dealing with the gap between your own personal 'theory of English' and the standard form you want to learn. You could do this by translating a short text into your language, waiting a day or so and then trying to translate it back into English. You'll probably find that it isn't the same when you compare. This is a good way to work on accuracy, with things like prepositions, without a teacher and without wasting time on areas of language that you have no problems with. You could also try listening to a text and reproducing it, and then checking with a transcript later.
Good luck !
I had exactly the same problem. It made me annoyed but finally I solved it. How? It's easy. I came to a conclusion that I will never speak fluently unless I go and live in an English -speaking country.
What makes people speak fluently? Of course it's due to the fact they practice every day. That's why native speakers don't forget their own language. But they practice at least 12-16 hours a day without knowing it.
Otherwise it's hardly possible to be fluent and there are few people who are. But do I need to be fluent? What is the purpose of a language? One of them is to communicate. And I can do it even if I put "a" instead of "the" or don't understand a film without subtitles.
If I have to go and live in England, USA etc. with all my current knowledge I'll be fluent within months . And now all I must do is to keep my English level by watching TV, reading and speaking whenever possible but 30 minutes/1 hour a day is enough.
Good luck!
PS: the advice "talk to youself when you are alone at home" is good at the intermediate level. If you do it all the time you are shortly fed up. It's artificial and only for hard and determined people. Ordinary people give up after a month.
Thanks about tips on accuracy. It is something that I have never done before. I will try to do that today. I need to be more accurate when writing and speaking.
I have also have the same feeling with you KSa. Sometimes I feel that I should have gone to a English-speaking country like the USA or England, or Canada. But, it takes a lot of money, while at the same time I often see some people in my country that they can speak English very well without ever going to English-speaking countries. But, usually their education background is from English Literature Faculty.
Sometimes I feel that this is a challenge. Especially when I read that the owner of this site is not from English-speaking country and he can speak English well. So, I still think that it is possible to learn English and becoming a good enough speaker without having to go to an English-speaking country.
So, while I am maitaining my level of English now by doing the same thing as KSa has done, by reading or watching English movie, I am trying also to upping my English level.