Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?
11–20 of 99 posts
Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?
#12look for games like https://research.google.com/semantris
Play online games with teamspeak
Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?
#13Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?
#14Browse https://www.urbandictionary.com/ look for games like https://research.google.com/semantris Play online games with teamspeak
Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?
#15In my experience, the only way to really get a feel for that is to have conversations with native speakers. I had some native (Canadian, British) speaking colleagues in the past, at a time when I falsely believed that my English was near perfect, and it was amazing how much I noticed that I still had to learn.
Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?
#16For me the question is - for a global or a widespread language like that of English, is there any characteristic which can be defined as 'native'. English speaker from Scotland would sound very 'non-native' in Australia and vice versa.
I would imagine for a languages like Mandarin or Russian which is spoken in a particular geographical region with homogeneous population can have that characteristic - "Spoken like a true native". But for languages like English not so, same could be true for languages like Spanish and Hindi (3rd most widely spoken - contained in a geographical region but spoken among very diverse and non-homogenous population).
Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?
#17Study "The Elements of Style" ( https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk-... ), a classic on better writing. It will teach you about how to really write for the reader and not for yourself.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Sense-Style-Thinking-Persons-Writing-...
Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?
#18Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?
#19Speaking from personal experience, I think all this will do is change your speech patterns and modulate your accent ever so slightly.
You likely read/write English better than a native English speaker already. Some of the language/grammar I've encountered from my English colleagues in both formal and informal written communication is absolutely terrible, and I attribute that to them "learning" English by way of speaking and "incorrect" colloquial usage before perfunctorily running through their English lessons at school.
Re: Ask HN: I’m already fluent in English. How can I improve further?
#20Browse https://www.urbandictionary.com/ look for games like https://research.google.com/semantris Play online games with teamspeak
Would not recommend casually browsing the former to get better at English. Looking up new terms that you encountered on social media, maybe.