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Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?

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Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?

#71

Post by cloudier »

kohtatsu wrote: post #67
dsign wrote: post #66

Everything that is worth knowing was written in English or has been translated to it. Well, not quite, but it's a good rule of thumb. So, immerse yourself in books written in English. Get audiobooks if you can. If you go far enough, you will be exposed to new concepts and ideas in English first, before they percolate to your native language. After a time, you will find yourself struggling to put into your mother tong…

>Everything that is with knowing was written in English or has been translated to it. Noam Chomsky must have believed this too; when he was prince of linguistics he considered trying to save or document dying languages a waste of time and unfashionable. It effectively resulted in a language genocide. It's hubris to think English will contain all of the answers. There was a really engaging interview with Wade Davis on…

Having a diversity of languages not only helps preserve culture and human knowledge, but also gives linguistics more examples to test hypotheses against. Is this language feature a universal feature of all languages, or did it just spread from one language to another?

Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?

#73

Post by Valgrim »

Jugurtha wrote: post #69
DoreenMichele wrote: post #34

My mother told me that watching TV in English made a big impact on her English fluency. Knowing which preposition to use is sometimes challenging. Prepositions are one of the hardest things to translate. Sometimes, translating it one way gives it a different meaning than you intended and other times it really doesn't but wouldn't be the "common" usage. To give an example, my sister was going on about people translati…

"Vol de mort" can also mean "Theft of death", as "vol" is both "flight" and "theft" in French. Now you have another problem.

Rowling has a strong french heritage and a degree in french literature. As a native french speaker, I can assure you that this is a deliberate play on both meanings: "Flight from death" because he is the one who escapes death, and "Theft of death" because this is the way he kills his enemies (The Avada Kedavra spells capture the soul of the dead into the wand)

Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?

#74

Post by Jugurtha »

Valgrim wrote: post #73
Jugurtha wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Vol de mort" can also mean "Theft of death", as "vol" is both "flight" and "theft" in French. Now you have another problem.

Rowling has a strong french heritage and a degree in french literature. As a native french speaker, I can assure you that this is a deliberate play on both meanings: "Flight from death" because he is the one who escapes death, and "Theft of death" because this is the way he kills his enemies (The Avada Kedavra spells capture the soul of the dead into the wand)

I'm unfamiliar with her work, but as a native speaker myself I figured the word play was an opportunity too good to miss, albeit obvious.

Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?

#75

Post by omosubi »

TeacherRoss wrote: post #50

Hi Mantanrubin, I am an English teacher to foreign students and have a few at your level of fluency. With these students I usually do custom classes using content from literature, poetry and current affairs, mainly to get them using advanced vocabulary and grammar, and then applying it to their own lives so that they can discuss topics in detail in a variety of ways. Making sure to know when to use colourful language…

What are some ways you get people to use more complex structures and phrasing? I'm a native English speaker learning Spanish and I struggle to get beyond small talk when talking to native Spanish speakers

Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?

#76

Post by jgwil2 »

OJFord wrote: post #45
rgoulter wrote: post #9

If you'll tolerate nitpicking (EDIT: I don't consider any of this worth pointing out other than nitpicking): Rather than "would sometimes" as "will sometimes". I'd rephrase "current thought" to "thoughts" or "train of thought". I'd rephrase "I’m also aware of my grammar not being perfect." as "I'm also aware that my grammar is not perfect." "but that currently [is] not an option" (presumably a typo).

These are all the things I would have picked out - except I would just drop 'would', not replace with it 'will'. (The verb then becoming 'do', later in the sentence.) I'd also add that in changing any of those I could easily be proof-reading a native speaker's writing. With the exception of: > if you spot out anything unless it's an AmE idiom or something, to me that's the only think that marks you out as non-native.…

AmE speaker here. I have never heard anyone use "spot out" as a verb, but on the other hand, prepositions seem to pretty frequently attach themselves to new verbs or drop from common phrases. It still bugs me a little to hear colleagues talking about "building out" a new feature instead of simply building it, for example.

Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?

#77

Post by DoreenMichele »

Jugurtha wrote: post #69
DoreenMichele wrote: post #34

My mother told me that watching TV in English made a big impact on her English fluency. Knowing which preposition to use is sometimes challenging. Prepositions are one of the hardest things to translate. Sometimes, translating it one way gives it a different meaning than you intended and other times it really doesn't but wouldn't be the "common" usage. To give an example, my sister was going on about people translati…

"Vol de mort" can also mean "Theft of death", as "vol" is both "flight" and "theft" in French. Now you have another problem.

Thank you for this. My college French classes were long ago and far away and my knowledge of French is quite limited.

Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?

#78

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

I think humor is one of those language areas that is hard to achieve in a foreign language. It seems to me that if you can do that well then you've reached a good milestone.

English idioms are hard, even for native speakers, so you might want to get a book on those.

I knew of someone that kept his English sharp by reading whole newspapers every day. You might want to do the same thing by going to one of the big English newspaper sites. The opinion/review area is usually where you will find writers using the more common form of the language.

Additionally, to that, I would start a blog or some other writing form that will force you to practice what you've learned on a regular basis. You need to go back and review what you've written and see where you've made mistakes. You might need some help with that.

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?

#79

Post by Maultasche »

JPLeRouzic wrote: post #54
eythian wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You likely read/write English better than a native English speaker already. Kinda by definition this can't be correct. English is defined by what the native speakers speak. It might be that sometimes how they say things doesn't match up to how you were taught was correct, but it is likely to be correct for their dialect.

>> English is defined by what the native speakers speak. What about regional accents? For a non native speaker of English, understanding English as spoken in Scotland is a challenge. And I heard people born in UK complaining they had sometimes difficulties with American English (for example with real life/social things). This without speaking of people from India who speak an English which is slightly different from…

After I learned German for a few years, I lived in a region of Germany where many people spoke in a dialect. At the time I thought I had a pretty good handle on what was dialect and what wasn't. A good amount of dialect made it into my speech anyway, since that's how the locals spoke.

Later I discovered to my surprise that a few of the words I had placed in the "standard German" category were actually from the regional dialect.

I actually think it was more helpful to my language abilities to have learned two different German dialects (one of which was standard German). It also helped me to understand how languages change and what it must have been like several centuries ago when there wasn't a standardized German and people had to struggle to understand someone from far away area that in theory spoke the same language.

Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?

#80

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

roadbeats wrote: post #37
tirant wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't prioritize so much sounding as a native speaker unless you fear discrimination that may affect your career or personal life. Under my point of view I view keeping your accent as part of your identity and something that makes you unique.

I used to appreciate to hear this actually. However, now I'm a father who needs to teach his son speaking, and I feel that I'm not good enough.

Nothing to worry about there - he'll pick it up from his peers. You'd do better to be sure he learns your first language as well.
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