Ask HN: time-efficient ways to improve English for non-natives?

Hi,

few weeks ago one of the partners of one of europe's largest VCs told me that he couldn't concentrate at my pitch because i sounded to much like http://vimeo.com/7595897

This kinda kept sticky in my mind. ;)

As i am moving now with my company[1] to London i would like to use this opportunity to improve my english, my accent and my grammar/spelling.

As a typical non-native i have regular problems with spelling e.g. with similar sounding words. I do have this problem especially in hectic faces.

Additionally I have trouble with incorrectly translated german expressions. Some of them are really below all pigs.

How would you suggest to level up english in a time efficient way?

Are there online services/startups you would suggest? Do you have other experiences here? (e.g. writing blog articles?) How did you improve you (once mediocre) english?

ps: i left by intention more than 4 mistakes in this post just to prove my point.

[1]: My Company - http://www.Garmz.com - Feedback Thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1788016

I haven't used it myself but Lang-8 sounds useful:

http://lang-8.com/

Example:

http://lang-8.com/184023/journals/661147/English-Class-No3

PS: I just checked an entry written in Portuguese (my native language) and there were lots of incorrect corrections, so beware.

thanks a lot for your feedback

i am not worried of spoken language

we use english in my company as default language

You'll stumble upon so many biz partners in London that will surprise you with much worse accents. Big cities demand funny accents - so we Austrians are safe… Just pay attention to the tones and stresses in conversations with Brits & try hard to notice the differences. Changing from American English to British feels a bit ridiculous if you're not used to it (overpronunciation?).

edit: btw: http://www.dict.cc shows translations of whole spoken phrases, it's hard to find something there, but in general the database of http://www.phrases.org.uk/ is ok. Probably you'll find something on http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ but I think the level is too low.

> and spoken language is not the problem.

Well, the bit about sounding too 'German' in the pitch indicates it is. So that will help.

> its about mistakes in writing. spelling and grammar

Are you doing that on purpose, or simply not trying at all?

* The first word in a sentence, and proper nouns (names, mostly) are capitalized in English.

* its -> "It is" or "It's"

* "writing, spelling, and grammar." with at least one comma (the second is optional) and a full-stop (period) at the end of the sentence.

That stuff doesn't seem all that difficult to me: I know that German has some of those same rules, like starting a sentence with a capital letter.