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Ask HN: What's the best way for a foreigner to improve English to a great level?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the best way for a foreigner to improve English to a great level?

#41

Post by auctiontheory »

gamegoblin wrote: post #23
Pitarou wrote: post #22

As a qualified, practising teacher of English as a foreign language, I guess I should be able to help. For competence, once you've got past the basics of grammar, it's mostly about memory. Create a database of words, phrases, and example sentences, and use some kind of Spaced Repetition System (e.g. Anki ) to keep reviewing them. Fluency is harder. First, what does it mean to be fluent? Last time you were in a shop a…

It's nice to hear this from a professional. I am an English speaker who speaks a couple foreign languages. When I am alone in my car, I talk to myself in foreign languages or have mock conversations. I repeat them over and over again. Then in a real conversation, I mix and match large phrases from my vault of mock conversations rather than translate word for word.

Wow. When the NSA gets around to listening to their smartphone-recorded tapes of you, they're going to be very, very worried.

(Yes, "tape" is a colloquialism - I realize they probably use solid state media.)

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way for a foreigner to improve English to a great level?

#42

Post by gamegoblin »

auctiontheory wrote: post #41
gamegoblin wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nice to hear this from a professional. I am an English speaker who speaks a couple foreign languages. When I am alone in my car, I talk to myself in foreign languages or have mock conversations. I repeat them over and over again. Then in a real conversation, I mix and match large phrases from my vault of mock conversations rather than translate word for word.

Wow. When the NSA gets around to listening to their smartphone-recorded tapes of you, they're going to be very, very worried. (Yes, "tape" is a colloquialism - I realize they probably use solid state media.)

Actually, one of the most common things I repeat to myself is the first chapter of the Quran (it's only a paragraph) just because I think it sounds lovely when lyrically recited in arabic. So their tapes probably sound something like me talking to myself in French, answering myself in Spanish, and then bursting into a minute of Quranic recitation...

Before going full force into computer programming, I was mainly interested in linguistics, and threw myself into learning languages and traveling. So I wouldn't be surprised if my digital communications set off various automated flags, since I chat with friends around the world (Europe, China, Latin America, some in the Arab world, notably Saudi Arabia) on a daily basis in ~4 languages. I hope they take me off their lists when they realize we are just making small talk or discussing English grammar or {{ their language }}'s grammar.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way for a foreigner to improve English to a great level?

#44

Post by rmc »

Pitarou wrote: post #22

As a qualified, practising teacher of English as a foreign language, I guess I should be able to help. For competence, once you've got past the basics of grammar, it's mostly about memory. Create a database of words, phrases, and example sentences, and use some kind of Spaced Repetition System (e.g. Anki ) to keep reviewing them. Fluency is harder. First, what does it mean to be fluent? Last time you were in a shop a…

Try exaggerating the accent when you do it, too. It may sound ridiculous, but to native speakers it will sound better than your normal Italian accent.

Someone gave me great advice once, they said to pronounce French with a French accent. When you think about it, it's obvious why that results in good spoken French.

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