Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > The Academy > Tilted Life


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 09-26-2009, 12:44 PM   #1 (permalink)
Tilted
 
Raghnar -ITA-'s Avatar
 
Location: Milan - Italy
[Help] Improving Language

I think writing (and speaking) as correct as possible also foreign languages is important for improving personal lifestyle.
As I wrote in my presentation thread I'm Italian and I'm trying to lear English and I felt that writing in a forum is a good and entertaining way to do it. Learning without worrying.

dlish told me that here is a good place for asking help.

If you have any tips on how I can learn better and faster (and torture less your readings) you're welcome!

PS: As wrote in my sign, if you are in the mood feel free to correct my grammar, spelling and whatever...
__________________
English N00b - Please help if you have time and correct my errors
Raghnar -ITA- is offline  
Old 09-26-2009, 12:55 PM   #2 (permalink)
We work alone
 
LoganSnake's Avatar
 
Location: Cake Town
The way I learned English was by simply being surrounded by it. You will never speak perfectly if you just study from a book.

Your English isn't bad at all. In fact, it's really good. My suggestion is to try to surround yourself with as much audible English language as possible. TV and school helped me the most. Watch movies and shows with subtitles. Pick up on how people structure sentences in everyday speech. I oftentimes learned entire phrases and not just words.

Basically, the more you will hear it, the faster you will learn.
__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques
LoganSnake is offline  
Old 09-26-2009, 01:12 PM   #3 (permalink)
Tilted
 
Raghnar -ITA-'s Avatar
 
Location: Milan - Italy
In these days I'm watching very much at TV series in English languages thanks to Satellite TV. I don't have subtitles (or, at least, I have it but are crappy) but I'm pretty confortable and understand almost all. I don't have very much problems of comprehension, I've been sorrounded by English a lot during this years (evenif I'm in Italy, advanced Physics books are written only in English. Conferences and articles also are done in English), but when this summer came the time to write the Master degree thesis (my tutor want me to do it in English) I was not confortable at all and I understood that my grammar has a lot of improving margins (and my tutor turn me down a lot for this) and was very very difficoult to make an also good reading thesis.

I thank you for your praise, but I'm not feeling very confident about my english grammar.

I also thank you for your suggestions and I'll try to follow the advice the best I can! ^_^
__________________
English N00b - Please help if you have time and correct my errors
Raghnar -ITA- is offline  
Old 09-26-2009, 04:30 PM   #4 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Location: My head.
Another thing that you can do is see if you can get some of your favourite book titles in English version. Also, while reading, try and decipher the meaning of words and their use before looking them up if you don't understand what they mean.
Xerxys is offline  
Old 09-26-2009, 05:53 PM   #5 (permalink)
Tilted Cat Head
 
Cynthetiq's Avatar
 
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
As a traveler to many countries I buy children's movies like Lilo & Stitch in the local languages. It helps me hear the language and pronunciations. I learn simple phrases and concepts since children's movies aren't very difficult language.

Your grammar is good, a little more work it seems on some parts, which I cannot explain since I'm not a grammarian. We have a few of those here.
__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.
Cynthetiq is offline  
Old 09-26-2009, 06:12 PM   #6 (permalink)
Psycho
 
Ayashe's Avatar
 
One of my coworkers came to the US from Poland. She didn't know any English when she came, it was not offered at her school. She learned much of her English by watching Sesame Street.
__________________
I am only a little spoon in a huge world of soup.
Ayashe is offline  
Old 09-26-2009, 07:37 PM   #7 (permalink)
I have eaten the slaw
 
inBOIL's Avatar
 
Here are some groups near Milan that can help you practice English. Find a Meetup Group Near You! - English as a Second Language Meetups - Milano
__________________
And you believe Bush and the liberals and divorced parents and gays and blacks and the Christian right and fossil fuels and Xbox are all to blame, meanwhile you yourselves create an ad where your kid hits you in the head with a baseball and you don't understand the message that the problem is you.
inBOIL is offline  
Old 09-26-2009, 08:00 PM   #8 (permalink)
loving the curves
 
kramus's Avatar
 
Location: my Lady's manor
A quick google for audio books in English . . .

Improve Your English with Audio Books - this site seems to give you a sample of the book, and supply a transcript of the sample. You choose to purchase the entire book after checking out the samples.

LibriVox - this site has volunteers who are interested in providing free audio books that are in the public domain (that is, books that are no longer protected by copyright, books that are royalty free). Pick a download, and go from there.

English Literature by William Joseph Long - Free mp3 Audio Book Download - not too sure if there is any catch here but I liked what I saw in a brief read of the first page of the website.

Storynory: Free Audio Stories for Kids - childrens stories that come with the written story.

Good luck Raghnar, and welcome to TFP
__________________
And now to disengage the clutch of the forebrain ...
I'm going with this - if you like artwork visit http://markfineart.ca
kramus is offline  
Old 09-27-2009, 12:24 AM   #9 (permalink)
Tilted
 
Raghnar -ITA-'s Avatar
 
Location: Milan - Italy
Thank you for your advices, I didn't know there are such think as group of english wannabe speakers!
I'll try the childrens movies for reharsing pronunciation and phrases (anyway I understand not only child movies: I watched TV series like The Big Bang Theory or other normals movies), it is a good advice for improving my French, that is much more basic, perhaps...

In these days I'm talking with a Californian Girl that came to Milan to work with us, her accent anyway is very strict and I don't understand her so much.
__________________
English N00b - Please help if you have time and correct my errors
Raghnar -ITA- is offline  
 

Tags
improving, language


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 12:22 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360