A letter to everybody in the forum!

[ion Joe]

Dear teachers and friends,

I have been in Birmingham for over a month, but finding my English hasn't been improved any more - especially my spoken English. I feel very depressed! I've made use of every opportunity I met, talked with people who spoke English, listened to other people's talking (as I was involved in the talk ). I thought I would say nice English if I practised more with native speakers. But the fact is absolutely opposite! My lecturer's English is not British English, and I don't know whether I can say it's English or not. At first I couldn't understand what he said, even a single word! So discouraged I was during that period! And now, I can follow him, but at the same time I find myself is saying a similar accent as his! I think it's terrible if one day I can't understand anybody's word but the lecturer's.:shock:
I hope someone can give me some advice or tell me your experience on learning English. Never mind your limited vocabulary or your grammar problem, just say something to share and enjoy our learning!:-D

Regards,
Joe

 

[Dark Angle]

Hi Joe,

well, I've faced same as your problem, when I started studying at college because I'm an arabian girl and the English is our studying langauge.
I still remember what I've done to improve my english skills, but before that let me just tell you what was the main point that helped me to improve my english, as I said befor the main langauge of our studying is English and most our teachers from UK, USA and others. As a student I used to stay with them in their classes ( I mean my teachers) for more than 6 hours a day, and we are not allowed to speak Arabic with the students during their classes and that helped me a lot to improve my english.

another point, I used to read English stories and practice listening by watching English movies. Umm, also in English Classes we had done some activities to help us to improve our skills in English.


Frankly, till now I noticed that I didn't improve my langauge in English as I want or what I supposed to be. anyway, I think i'm talking too much, I hope you can understand what i've written, LOL I know that there are too many mistakes :shock:


Dark Angle

 

[ion Joe]

Hi Joe,

well, I've faced same as your problem, when I started studying at college because I'm an arabian girl and the English is our studying langauge.
I still remember what I've done to improve my english skills, but before that let me just tell you what was the main point that helped me to improve my english, as I said befor the main langauge of our studying is English and most our teachers from UK, USA and others. As a student I used to stay with them in their classes ( I mean my teachers) for more than 6 hours a day, and we are not allowed to speak Arabic with the students during their classes and that helped me a lot to improve my english.

another point, I used to read English stories and practice listening by watching English movies. Umm, also in English Classes we had done some activities to help us to improve our skills in English.


Frankly, till now I noticed that I didn't improve my langauge in English as I want or what I supposed to be. anyway, I think i'm talking too much, I hope you can understand what i've written, LOL I know that there are too many mistakes :shock:


Dark Angle

:-D Welcome, Dark Angle!! And thank you very much for your good advice, I think I will try it.
Of course I can understand what you wrote, and it's very clear in points. Your English is absolutely much better than mine. :up: Hope you can enjoy your English learning here!
P.S. Do your teachers speak standard BE or AE?

Joe

 

[blacknomi]

Hi, Joe,

How's your life 101 in London?

I get used to American accent, which means BE sounds weird to my ear. I have tremendous problem listening to a British teacher. I remember my first time in a British teacher's class, wow! I was totally not there!:-D I was like :shock: and my confidence hid under the rug.

"Get back, Ms. Confidence!" I told myself.

I went to his class again and it was easier than the first one. If I don't understand his accent, I'll ask him to say again slowly. He has loud voice that sometimes scared my soul away. And I didn't get used to his brand of humor either. He jokes a lot, o well...just that no-body laughs. HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAH.( Isn't it a good joke!?) I'm sorry for him but he's a nice teacher, despite moody sometimes. I don't have good suggestion but this is how I learn to distinguish BE accent, listening to BBC and mimicking the way they are talking.


For academic courses, I recommend you spend a couple of hours everyday staying at the library, read books and ask your lecturer questions as many as possible. Maybe you are not familiar with the subject, so sleeping at a library is a must. ( I mean staying metaphorically.)


For ordinary conversation, topics are very important. Try to get involved in British culture, participate extracurricular activities and hang out with Red5 or tdol! They are good teachers and friends.


I hope this helps you a little. I'm glad you are alive and talk to ya later.


Best Regards,
Blacknomi

 

[ion Joe]

Hi, Joe,

How's your life 101 in London?

I get used to American accent, which means BE sounds weird to my ear. I have tremendous problem listening to a British teacher. I remember my first time in a British teacher's class, wow! I was totally not there!:-D I was like :shock: and my confidence hid under the rug.

"Get back, Ms. Confidence!" I told myself.

I went to his class again and it was easier than the first one. If I don't understand his accent, I'll ask him to say again slowly. He has loud voice that sometimes scared my soul away. And I didn't get used to his brand of humor either. He jokes a lot, o well...just that no-body laughs. HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAH.( Isn't it a good joke!?) I'm sorry for him but he's a nice teacher, despite moody sometimes. I don't have good suggestion but this is how I learn to distinguish BE accent, listening to BBC and mimic the way they are talking.


For academic courses, I recommend you spend a couple of hours everyday staying at the library, read books and ask your lecturer questions as many as possible. Maybe you are not familiar with the subject, so sleeping at a library is a must. ( I mean staying metaphorically.)


For ordinary conversation, topics are very important. Try to get involved in British culture, participate extracurricular activities and hang out with Red5 or tdol! They are good teachers and friends.


I hope this helps you a little. I'm glad you are alive and talk to ya later.


Best Regards,
Blacknomi

:lol: hahahaha!!!interesting!

Hi, Blacknomi!

Thank you so much for the vivid letter! Haven't seen you for a long time! You're still so humorous!:-D

Your British teacher is a little like my lecturer who always says some jokes on lectures and enjoys the jokes himself. We just look at him and :-?:?: . By the way, is your teacher British?

Yeah, I've asked him as many questions as I can. (sometimes I don't have any questions, this means I don't understand what he said thoroughly.) I think it's a good idea to read some books in the library. Has Red5 retired? I haven't seen him for a long long time. Tdol and Red5 are very nice, teachers here have helped me a lot!(including you;-) )

Hope to talk to you and thank you again!!

Best wishes,

Joe

 

[blacknomi]

Has Red5 retired?

He was repairing the tire and could be a tad tired now.

 

[Dark Angle]

Hi Joe,
I'm glad that you can understand what I've wrote :-D
but I didn't understand what do you mean by

P.S. Do your teachers speak standard BE or AE?

Can you explain it for me



Dark Angle

 

[Red5]

BE = British English
AE = American English (also 'AmE')

;-)

 

[ion Joe]

He was repairing the tire and could be a tad tired now.

Really?:lol: I saw him winking to Dark Angle upstairs.;-)

 

[ion Joe]

Hi Joe,
I'm glad that you can understand what I've wrote :-D
but I didn't understand what do you mean by

Can you explain it for me



Dark Angle

Sorry, Dark Angle! I didn't make it clear. And I'm also very happy that you can understand my writing.(In fact, my English is very strange!)

 

[Dark Angle]

Red5
Thank you

ion Joe
Don't worry, and your writing is very clear, now I can understand the diffrences between BE and AE :-D

Let's return back to your question, my teachers speak both BE and AE.
at first time it was difficult to me to understand British teachers, but now it's ok with me and I don't have any problem to understand them, lol but I still like American English. ;-)


Dark Angle

 

[ion Joe]

I agree with you! The difference between accent of BE and AE is a little like the difference between British people and American people. I think AmE is easier to understand as we have more chance to listen to AE from media and movies. Now I'm in a BE speaking environment, BE sounds beautiful to me but harder to say. And I listen to BBC almost everyday. When I heard an accent of AE yesterday, I feel it a little strange to me because I haven't heard it for a long time! :-D

Have you met such embarrassing situation that you forgot a word and did't know how to replace it with another word to express your idea clearly when you talked with a native speaker?

Joe

 

[blacknomi]

Have you met such embarrassing situation that you forgot a word and did't know how to replace it with another word to express your idea clearly when you talked with a native speaker?

Joe

I wouldn't call it an embarrassing moment. lol.

If I forget how to express a word, I will draw if I can. Or I'll just use Chinese first and then try to squeeze my brain trying to explain. Sometimes I hate them because they don't speak Chinese! lol


Well...I hate myself more because I have small amount of vocab.
I tried to memorize big words but only to find out I forget them all the next morning! :lol:

Life is SO easy, see?!




Regards,
Blacknomi

 

[ion Joe]

I wouldn't call it an embarrassing moment. lol.

If I forget how to express a word, I will draw if I can. Or I'll just use Chinese first and then try to squeeze my brain trying to explain. Sometimes I hate them because they don't speak Chinese! lol


Well...I hate myself more because I have small amount of vocab.
I tried to memorize big words but only to find out I forget them all the next morning! :lol:

Life is SO easy, see?!




Regards,
Blacknomi

:lol: Yes! Life can be very easy if we take it easy. But in fact, we always not. Where are you now, Blacknomi? In China? Or in another country? You're an optimistic girl. From your letter I can feel your happiness and after reading it, I become happy too! :-D You know, I'm very pessimistic.:-( Haha!! Now I've got a Scottish neighbour. I can meet him everyday in the kitchen. So I eat less and less but talk more and more during my meals. But still I have only two topics to talk with him - food and weather!

Regards,
Joe

 

[Dark Angle]

Have you met such embarrassing situation that you forgot a word and did't know how to replace it with another word to express your idea clearly when you talked with a native speaker?

Umm, well I always met such embarrassing situation especially when I've speaking exams. I still remember one day in a speaking exam a teacher asked me to talk about what we do when we have a national day, I know the answer in my mind, but I used my hands to express the idea and the teacher looked at me like that :shock: .. lol so she changed the question and asked me for another thing, because I've to talk not to use my hands lol. :-D


by the way. I just remember now my English teacher always advice us to listen for BBC, but when I listened to BBC I didn't understand what they are talking about. Moreover, it seems to me I didn't learn English in my life :shock:

Well, I'm going to listen to BBC again, I think that will help me to learn English more and more. Also it will help me when I've listening exams.


Dark Angle

 

[blacknomi]

Umm, well I always met such embarrassing situation especially when I've speaking exams. I still remember one day in a speaking exam a teacher asked me to talk about what we do when we have a national day, I know the answer in my mind, but I used my hands to express the idea and the teacher looked at me like that :shock: .. lol so she changed the question and asked me for another thing, because I've to talk not to use my hands lol. :-D

Good job.
We must be good companions if we had the chance to travel somewhere. Your hands and my feet will work together to get our message crossed! :lol:

by the way. I just remember now my English teacher always advice us to listen for BBC, but when I listened to BBC I didn't understand what they are talking about. Moreover, it seems to me I didn't learn English in my life :shock:

I do recommend BBC/Radio/Comedy and Quizzes. I know how frustrated you will be if you hear tons of canned laughter! I listened to it all the time. To be frank, I don't listen to it; I just turn it on and do my stuff in front of my PC. I do catch some of British humor. Did I say you are hilarious?

Well, I'm going to listen to BBC again, I think that will help me to learn English more and more. Also it will help me when I've listening exams.

Good luck! What program do you usually listen to? I hate news.

 

[blacknomi]

Really?:lol: I saw him winking to Dark Angle upstairs.;-)

There's little oxygen downstairs, so he has to. ;-)

 

[ion Joe]

Umm, well I always met such embarrassing situation especially when I've speaking exams. I still remember one day in a speaking exam a teacher asked me to talk about what we do when we have a national day, I know the answer in my mind, but I used my hands to express the idea and the teacher looked at me like that :shock: .. lol so she changed the question and asked me for another thing, because I've to talk not to use my hands lol. :-D


by the way. I just remember now my English teacher always advice us to listen for BBC, but when I listened to BBC I didn't understand what they are talking about. Moreover, it seems to me I didn't learn English in my life :shock:

Well, I'm going to listen to BBC again, I think that will help me to learn English more and more. Also it will help me when I've listening exams.


Dark Angle

Hi,
I think we are absolutely opposite. When I made presentations, I always stood still and my two hands just trembling and sweating as I was 'reciting' my presentation. My teacher told me to keep relaxed and use my hands and eyes when I presented. I know that it's very important for a presenter to make some body language and eye contact. The next time, I remembered all the things, waving my hands, using my eyes:roll: , but what I wanted to say.

Joe

 

[ion Joe]

There's little oxygen downstairs, so he has to. ;-)

OK. I'll plant some trees downstairs.;-)

 

[blacknomi]

Also plant a sun.