Try to speak english dude!

[Golox]

Hey everybody!
I wandered through computerbase and found this great thread. Regarding to the fact that I've been in Canada for about 7 months now as an exchange student I thought I should also post here.
I highly recommend to everyone who wants to learn or improve the language to make journeys to countries where the language is actually spoken. In this way you get in touch with the people and have to talk to them. You also get access to the culture and it's a fun way to learn the language. But even if you read newspapers in or watch movies in english you will see that your english is going to improve pretty quick.
I guess that's all what I wanted to say.
Many greetings to everyone,

Golox

 

[mat_2]

Yes, I totally agree with you Golox! In 6th form we made a "Sprachreise" to England, Cambridge. And retrospectively I've got to admit, that this helps very much improving your language skills.
I also watch movies ONLY in english with english subtitles, which improves your comprehension skills (sorry for using "skills" two times ).

I really like this thread, and I hope that there are a few boardies, who'd like to join a discussion in english.
So, lookin forward to read from you

Yours sincerely, mat

PS: @ Golox
You're probably quite good in english, it would be nice if you or anybody else who doesn't make mistakes any more could check my posts, and correct me if I'm wrong! Thx

 

[Scheuch]

I also watch movies ONLY in english with english subtitles, which improves your comprehension skills (sorry for using "skills" two times ).

Yeah, watching the South Park Seasons on DVD improves my curse skills

 

[mosquito87]

I'm watching series in English too (e. g. Lost, Heroes).
As some people have already mentioned this improves your comprehension skills.
A side effect is that you don't have to listen to the horrible German voice actors anymore.

Best regards and have a nice Friday.

 

[mat_2]

@ mosquito
You're totally right, regarding the terrible voices of german actors!

@ Everybody
Do you think that it's important, being able to speak at least one foreign language? Why/Why not?
Who's got experience about this topic (job, abroad etc.) and can tell a few stories?

 

[slow1]

german dubbed is good

so do not understand nothing

 

[mosquito87]

Hey Mat.

In these days it's quite necessary to be multilingual.
This has something to do with the globalisation:
In our company I have to communicate with employees from America, Spain, Hungary, Great Britain, India, etc ... and of course we're using English as common language.

If you're going to vacation in a foreign country it could become handy to speak English, too.
But let's not forget that there are still a lot of people who are not able to speak English.

By being able to speak more than one foreign language you could increase your chances to get a good job.
At the moment I'm bilingual only but I think about learning Japanese (and of course I'm trying to improve my English all the time. This is one reason why I read this thread and post my thoughts in English. Further I will go to London in July for a couple of days. I hope this trip helps me to improve my English skill, too (I was already in London with 14 (school exchange) and I liked it).

 

[slow1]

i thought of that, too

how can i live in an english speaking country.

what are my oppurtunities.

has someone advices.

which country do u would recommend

and how are my steps from now(living in germany an writing this) to live in an english speaking country forever.

canada is looking for citizens because of the decreasing population.

My top 5 are

Australia( very hard to become a member of that continent)
Canada(cold and they hate foreigners)
Irland(Howdy...not)
CapeTOWN(to much aggressions)
England(keeps me depressoned)

So honestly what can i do to get there?

 

[Krik]

I was one in Edinburgh (speak 'Edinburough'), Scottland. It's really a nice town. It was already october but I still got a sunburn
The Scotts are nice eople but hard to understand. They don't roll the 'r' instead they spell it hard like the German 'r'. This got me really into trouble.

Visiting the USA isn't a goal of mine. Actually I don't like this country. I like to visit Japan and being overhelmed by the culture shock (and jet lag too ^^). I am planning to move to this exotic country but I'm still not sure to do so. May be i should spend some vacations there.
I also try to learn Japanese but it's not that easy. There are three alphabets. While the first two ones consist each about 50 characters the third one consits of more than 40'000! I have to learn at least 2'000 of the most common characters.
The grammar is really easy, at least easier than German grammar. And it's more logical than English grammar. There is only a small bunch (~10-20) of irregular words.

I stop now 'couse I have to continue working. See you guys (and girls )

 

[slow1]

yes usa is really sh.t!

Thats why i dont mentioned it in my top 5 list.

how do u get to scotland.

which are the best opportunties to get to an english speaking country.

I want to go

 

[Spartaner117]

Im glad to see that there is such a great demand for speaking english.

Maybe we can continue the last topic, english books. Unfortunately I didn't read any English books yet. Are there some english Sci-Fi books you can recommend?

 

[blubberbrause]

The best way to get some recommendations of Books would be to check amazon.com about books you have already read. There you can see what others bought with this book.

 

[mat_2]

@ Spartaner117

• P.D. James "Death of an Expert Witness"
• Ian Rankin "Black and Blue"
• Harry Potter (all of'em)

@ the others
Don't have the time yet to write down my opinion, but I'll be back !

 

[slow1]

what are the main difference between our german attitude and the attitude of the english speaking countries

 

[Krik]

@slow1
English men are usually much more relaxed than Germans. If something doesn't work as expected they'll try it again. Germans usually try to do as perfect as possible - and fail sometimes... - you know what will happen if something goes wrong

I vistited Scottland during a school project week (?). Pupils had the choice between Spain, a kanu tour through a national park and some other activities. I choose Edinburgh as it was the most interessting one.
We were about 60 pupils and three teachers. All of us lived at English families during the week. It was really funny trying to understand people. I never heard men and women repeating sentences this often


'Just want to know: Are there no highways in the UK? Or do they have a much lesser number of lanes than German ones?



@mat_2
Can you recommend some English science fiction books? I'm interessed in this genre.

 

[Golox]

I just started to read “J. R. R. Tolkien - The Hobbit". It's quite easy to understand and compared to "Lord of the Rings" the first few pages are much more interesting because the author starts directly with the plot and describes the characters during the story line, however in Lord of the Rings it was hard for me to get through the first hundred pages because of all the descriptions and few actions.

Another book I really liked to read is “Adams, Douglas - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”. In my opinion the book is a lot better than the actual movie.

@slow1
I can't really understand why you think/assume/know that Canadians have aversions to foreigners. I've been here for about six months now and I never had the feeling that any Canadian had a problem with me being a foreigner.
It’s right that the climate in some parts of Canada can get really raff but especially on the West coast for example in Vancouver or Victoria the temperatures are quite similar to the ones we have in Germany.
If you really want to live in another country I think first of all you should visit this country to get in touch with the people and the culture. Furthermore you need to get some information about the actual labour situation, how it works with the insurance and if you need a special employment permit. All these questions should be clarified before you move to another country.
In fact the requirements to live and work in a specific country depend on where you want to go and I’m sure that the embassy of the respective country can give you more information about that than everyone else here.

Have a nice weekend,
Golox

 

[Nukleareswinterkind]

well, I must admit that I never read any book in english, but I could imagine that books by Ernest Hemingway are also a good access to the english literature. I mean his plain style is characteristical for him. But the content is still sophisticated.

 

[mdave]

Just try to read english books, it´s a nice way to improve your skills.
Ask the sale assistent in an good book-store about english books suitable for your language skills and the preferred genre.

Another way is to switch the language of your DVDs to english. You may add english (!!) subtitles, if you like. Subtitles make understanding more easy if you are not that fluent in listening / understanding.
It´s a great way to get a feeling for the language without talking to real native english speakers.
(of course, the language used in the movie should be proper english, not "gangsta like" or something like that.)

'Just want to know: Are there no highways in the UK? Or do they have a much lesser number of lanes than German ones?

It depends. In urban areas, there are a plenty of highways. On the outskirts or in countrified ares are not that much.

During a bagpacking-tour through scotland, i walked about 12 miles parallel to a highway one day.
This highway had two lanes per direktion and, which was really scary, a lot of zebra crossings for pedestrians. ;-)

I choose Edinburgh as it was the most interessting one.
We were about 60 pupils and three teachers. All of us lived at English families during the week.

If you stayed in Edinburgh (which is, by the way, a quite enjoyable place), you probably lived amongst scottish people.
Calling an proud scotsman to be english might bring you into very very deep trouble ... just remember at your next visit. ;-)

-- information about grammar-faults are welcome ! --

best regards,
David

 

[webbi]

I'm trying to lern English in my leasure time and I'm thankful for this thread, because I can try to write/discuss a little bit in English here ;-) I went to Atlanta, GA for 10 days last summer and was able to have some conversations with Americans, that was a good "test" for my speaking-abilities and I would love to spend more time in this - or another English speaking - country. Maybe that'll come when I start college in a few years...

For all of you who want to learn English by listenning (of course I recommend watching English movies in their original language as most people here recommend, too): By browsing my iTunes Podcasts I found the "English as a second Language Podcast" which is a podcast with good practise examples (like "Business E-Mails and Abreviations", "Describing People's Moods" etc.) and clear explanations of most of the "more complicated" vocabulary they use. Podcast and blog are free to use.

 

[slow1]

@yoda(avatar)

thx for the informations.

i never was in north america(its the only continend besides antartica, which i never had visited)

so i heard about that canada is looking for immigrants because the decreasing population.

you are right at the coasts they are very friendly because they are get used to foreigners like me in canada.

but if u move more to the inside of the country the behaviour changes(my sources are RUMoRS).

but anyway , i have some further question.

is canada in your opinion the most easiest "english" speaking country to move nowadays.

are their parts which speak french only or is english(when not) always the alternative which everyone will understand.

Where are the best temperatures(like germany) or better.

Which coast do u would prefer east or west?

edit.

i had made my way through the embasy of canada(website) but with no sucess.

the informations i had received their where more dull then lightening.

Maybe i have to go in person to the canadian embassy and talk me in.

would u recommend this?

and in which city is the embassy located?


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my urge after soliloquies are over!

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i am back