View Full Version : I want to improve my English skills


EnglishStudent
May 08, 2006, 05:31 PM
I want to improve my English skills

I have been studying English for a while but there are many things that I don´t undestand.

I would like to practice my English in order to improve my skills, can you help me?

Thanks in advance

Tomisimo
May 08, 2006, 11:08 PM
Hi, English student, and welcome to the forums. :) If you want to improve your English skills, I think you've come to a pretty good place. If you have any questions or uncertainties, just ask and I'll try my best to answer (or someone else here will). If you want to practice right here, we can start a conversation. For instance, what is your next-favorite hobby after studying English?

EnglishStudent
May 09, 2006, 09:12 AM
Hi Tomisimo

Thanks for your kind offer; I take it.

My first question: For instance is like by the way?

One of my favorite hobbies is reading. Now I´m reading "My Lyfe" the autobiography by Bill Clynton, in English. It´s a 600-pages book, and it´s really good. Also I´ve read in English: The Alchemist, The Power of Positive Thinking, and The Seven Habits of the High Efective People.

I really like to improve my English, specially my listening and speaking, in that order. I can read in English pretty well.

Thanks.

Tomisimo
May 09, 2006, 10:04 AM
For instance is like by the way?For instance is basically a synonym for "For example"


One of my favorite hobbies is reading
I like reading too. I'm into newspapers, magazines, novels, biographies, history- you name it, I'll read it. (almost :) )


"My Lyfe" ... by Bill Clynton
Ya like that "y" don't you? => "my life" "Bill Clinton"


It´s a 600-pages book
It's a 600-page book.


Seven Habits of the High Efective People
Seven habits of highly effective people.


I really like to improve my English, specially my listening and speaking, in that order. I can read in English pretty well.Yes, it's a pretty well-known fact that reading is usually the easiest, then listening and lastly, speaking is the hardest. But if you keep on trying and practicing, you'll keep improving. Do you have someone there near where you live that you can practice speaking with?

EnglishStudent
May 09, 2006, 04:49 PM
Thanks for the comments and corrections.

No, I have nobody here for practicing my English. Recently, I´m trying in the messenger chat rooms with voice (Cultures and community); sometimes turned out well.

I´m looking for somebody to talk with, in order to improve my listening and speaking. Could you recommend me something to do?

I confess, sometimes I want to quit, because after all these years I can´t understand all I hear in English. There are some TV programs I can understand better than others. For instance (the word you teached me) I can understand Larry King Live, CNN news and NPR (almost everything); but I can´t understand ER, friends, desperate wives, that kind of TV programs. My friends tell me it´s a procces and I suppose they are right, but sometimes it´s hard.

Thanks for reading me.

Neophyte
May 10, 2006, 11:23 AM
tal vez yo puedo ayudarte tambien y tu tambien me ayudas. necesito ayuda en espanol. Gracias

johnny007
May 10, 2006, 11:29 AM
I confess, sometimes I want to quit, because after all these years I can´t understand all I hear in English. There are some TV programs I can understand better than others. For instance (the word you teached me) I can understand Larry King Live, CNN news and NPR (almost everything); but I can´t understand ER, friends, desperate wives, that kind of TV programs. My friends tell me it´s a procces and I suppose they are right, but sometimes it´s hard.
Don't quite man. I know it can be hard, and I'm having my own problems with learning spanish, but if you hang in there I think it gets easier, at least that's what they tell me. Good luck man.

EnglishStudent
May 10, 2006, 04:40 PM
Neophyte

Con mucho gusto te ayudo a mejorar tu español. Quizá podríamos hablar (messenger), es decir, no sólo escribir.

Si me mandas un mensaje, nos ponemos de acuerdo, saludos.

E mail: stdnt_english@yahoo.com

vswezie
May 10, 2006, 08:30 PM
English_Student:

Don't be discouraged by the fact that you have trouble understanding shows like Friends, Desperate Housewives, etc. They use a lot of slang and humor that is very "American". Slang and humor are two things that are very difficult to transfer from one culture to another. It's not just a question of language skills! Instead of being discouraged, take pride that you can understand programs (like those on NPR and CNN) that use complicated sentence structures and advanced vocabulary!

shruti
May 11, 2006, 03:15 PM
Wow. I'd just like to say you speak English really well. I know native English speakers worse than you, so don't be discouraged - honestly. I'm a third-year Spanish student and I recently visited Spain - and understanding people talk is hard. TV? Forget it.

Anyway, if you'd like to converse, I'd be happy to.

Tomisimo
May 11, 2006, 07:19 PM
Wow. I'd just like to say you speak English really well. I know native English speakers worse than you, so don't be discouraged - honestly. I'm a third-year Spanish student and I recently visited Spain - and understanding people talk is hard. TV? Forget it.

Anyway, if you'd like to converse, I'd be happy to.
What part of Spain were you in? I've never visited, but I'd like to some day. :)

shruti
May 12, 2006, 04:57 PM
I was only there for ten days, which was sad; we started in Madrid (with which I'm pretty much in love) and went farther south from there.

MortgageBroker
June 01, 2006, 09:08 AM
Shruti,

Necessito practicar me Espanol. Escribe a me en Engles y responde en Espanol.

Vale?

Eric
June 01, 2006, 09:49 AM
Shruti,

Necessito practicar me Espanol. Escribe a me en Engles y responde en Espanol.

Vale?


Necesito practicar el Español. Me escribe en ingles y les reponderé en Español.

MortgageBroker
June 01, 2006, 10:19 AM
Yo comprendo, "el Espanol", gracias!

Porque no Ingles pero ingles, cuando usa Espanol, no espanol?
Porque "les repondere"? Not "I will respond"? Is that "I will respond to them"?

EnglishStudent
June 02, 2006, 09:11 AM
En inglés, los idiomas se deben de escribir con mayúsculas, ejemplo: I speak English; She speaks French; He speaks Japanese. Esto es para diferenciarlo del adjetivo, ejemplo: He is a japanese citizen; She is a French musician.

En español no, en ambos casos se escribe con minúsculas, ejemplo: Yo soy español; Ella es japonesa; Él es chino.

Espero haber sido claro.

Eric
June 02, 2006, 09:20 AM
I was not aware of that. Thank you. I'm used to proper nouns being capitalized. ;D

matches
June 05, 2006, 09:41 PM
Hey English Student,

One of the best ways you can learn to speak English, is find a type of music that you enjoy thats done in English and start singing along with the words. Don't be concerned with the meaning of what you're saying at the first, just get the inflection and annunciation down first, then go after the meaning. You say that you do alot of reading , thats good; but whatever you read, read it out loud get used to hearing yourself speak whatever language you desire to learn. As far as getting discouraged, there is nothing wrong with that, it's when you quit because of the discouragement that you cheat yourself. As one respondent has already said, you already are better at English than some native speakers.


Until...

Tomisimo
June 05, 2006, 11:28 PM
I was not aware of that. Thank you. I'm used to proper nouns being capitalized. ;D
Yep, there's just different rules in Spanish ;D

Chorbdaddy
June 09, 2006, 11:45 PM
Hey English Student,

One of the best ways you can learn to speak English, is find a type of music that you enjoy thats done in English and start singing along with the words. Don't be concerned with the meaning of what you're saying at the first, just get the inflection and annunciation down first, then go after the meaning. You say that you do alot of reading , thats good; but whatever you read, read it out loud get used to hearing yourself speak whatever language you desire to learn. As far as getting discouraged, there is nothing wrong with that, it's when you quit because of the discouragement that you cheat yourself. As one respondent has already said, you already are better at English than some native speakers.


Until...
In case English Student is trying to translate and understand, I believe this word should be enunciation.

bubba
March 21, 2007, 08:57 AM
English Student,

Even though your typing was not perfect it was perfectly understandable. If you speak as good as you type your message will get through. Wait until you try listening to a native southern english speaker, we barely understand each other.

the term "basically" is not the same as "for example". They aren't interchangeable and if you did, it would make the sentence incorrect.

redbeard
August 02, 2007, 10:06 AM
En inglés, los idiomas se deben de escribir con mayúsculas, ejemplo: I speak English; She speaks French; He speaks Japanese. Esto es para diferenciarlo del adjetivo, ejemplo: He is a japanese citizen; She is a French musician.
Esto no es correcto. En inglés los adjetivos de idiomas y nacionalidades se escriben con mayúsculas sin excepción:
I am French.
I speak French.
My French teacher is not very good.
M. Sarkozy is the French president.
French is related to Spanish.

Jaqui
August 21, 2007, 12:38 PM
Y en espanol los nombres de idiomas siempre se escriben in minusculas cuando son adjectivos o sustantivos.

el es japones
me gusta la comida japonesa.

bleitzow
October 29, 2007, 11:34 AM
I would be happy to speak with you in English as well. I am teaching myself Spanish at home so maybe we could help each other.

I saw your e-mail address. If you say it's okay, I will e-mail you.

Thanks,

Brenda
San Diego, CA

Tomisimo
October 29, 2007, 04:28 PM
I would be happy to speak with you in English as well. I am teaching myself Spanish at home so maybe we could help each other.

I saw your e-mail address. If you say it's okay, I will e-mail you.

Thanks,

Brenda
San Diego, CA

You might go ahead and try emailing him if you want. I'm not sure what he's up to these days. He hasn't been on the forums for awhile, so it might be awhile before he sees this post.

bleitzow
October 31, 2007, 04:53 PM
Thanks, I need to remember to look at the date when I'm reading past postings. They're new to me, but not to everyone else. he he

I also just discovered that there can be multiple pages to a thread. Oops.

:rolleyes:

Tomisimo
November 01, 2007, 12:24 PM
He he, no problem.

If a thread's old, I don't see a problem with responding to it, as long as it's still relevant.

sina
November 14, 2007, 11:16 PM
Y en espanol los nombres de idiomas siempre se escriben in minusculas cuando son adjectivos o sustantivos.

el es japones
me gusta la comida japonesa.
What other things besides nombres de idiomas are not capitalized?

soyricogringo
April 08, 2008, 12:12 AM
Hola,,,me da gusto que platicar contigo. He estado estudando Espano para tres anos. Pero tengo que aprender mas. me mandas una mansaje si tu quieres comunicarnos. Bueno,,te cuidas...David

Rusty
April 08, 2008, 08:20 AM
Hola rico gringo,

Bienvendido a los foros. Aquí todos podemos aprender algo y nos gusta platicar. Come back often!

Si no es molestia, me gustaría corregir lo que escribiste.

Me da gusto platicar contigo. Hace tres años que estudio el español, pero tengo que aprender más. Mándame un mensaje si quieres comunicarte conmigo. Bueno, cuídate.

Ten un buen día.

Rusty

P.D. It would be a little better to address 'us' instead of 'you (informally)' in your post. (Use 'ustedes' instead of 'tu'.)

Tomisimo
April 08, 2008, 11:54 AM
En mi opinión:

Me da gusto platicar contigo. Hace tres años que estudio el español, pero tengo que aprender más. Mándame un mensaje si quieres comunicarte conmigo. Bueno, cuídate.

También para mí, está bien decir "Me mandas un mensaje si quieres ....."
:)

Rusty
April 08, 2008, 02:13 PM
Gracias, David, por hacer las correcciones que se me faltó.

Por algunas partes de Centroamerica se dice "me mandas" como si fuera imperativo, pero no lo es. A lo mejor, se habla del futuro y se entiende que se trata de mandato. ¿No? Me gustaría saber si entiendo bien eso y si se usa igual en otras partes del mundo.

Iris
April 08, 2008, 02:20 PM
I would say mándame, but not me mandas in that context.

Tomisimo
April 08, 2008, 02:32 PM
Por algunas partes de centroamerica se dice "me mandas" como si fuera imperativo, pero no lo es. A lo mejor, se habla del futuro y se entiende que se trata de mandato. ¿No? Me gustaría saber si entiendo bien eso y si se usa igual en otras partes del mundo.

I would say mándame, but not me mandas in that context.

Estoy de acuerdo que mándame es la forma correcta, pero en México-- sospecho que en partes the Centroamérica también-- se usa comúnmente el presente del indicativo en frases que podrían usar el modo imperativo.

"Tengo x que te hace falta".
"Me lo mandas, eh"

Eso de "me lo mandas" puede decirse como una orden, como una pregunta, o como el futuro. Depende de la intonación. Sería más o menos igual decir:

Mándamelo.
¿Me lo puedes mandar?
¿Me lo vas a mandar?

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