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Note: It will take some time for you to be able to speak English fairly well. It requires time, practise and hardwork. It may take upto an year or more than that. Make sure that you actually enjoy the process of learning English, don't make it a stressful experience.
- Make sure that you have the right intentions, motivation is also very important.
- Don't pick up a book on Grammar, I strongly advice against it but do learn Grammar, use Google every now and then, with the knowledge of Grammar you will be able to correct yourself, English is an international language and it is spoken in many different ways so practising English will become difficult without the knowledge of Grammar.
- Do away with the slightest bit of confusion, don't rely upon your instincts, learn Grammar.
- Besides learning grammar you should also have knowledge about languages in general and about the different aspects of the English language in particular, like learning to understand the differences between formal and informal speech, being able to use verbs as Gerunds will help you get some degree of hold on the English language.
- Read your course material and look at sentences to fix your grammar.
- Talk to yourself and other people in English.
(Talking to yourself is very important)
- Listen to native speakers talk about all kinds of different things, it is something that has to be done over a long period of time make sure that you actually enjoy the content, enjoying is in some ways equivalent to concentrating better.
- Don't learn words by picking up random words from the dictionary, you will sound too odd, even if you can somehow remember those words.
- Read and listen to news in English, listen to speeches, interviews and watch good English movies, it is something that has to be done over a long period of time, "slow and steady wins the race". You can check out Khan Academy on Youtube, it is teaches many different courses, it is funded by Bill Gates so you can expect the content to be really great.
- Use etymology, it works best for the kind of words that are more technical, etymology is very useful as it helps you remember things.
No matter how good it is, no set of tips can do you any good unless you take it seriously, consiously or subconsciously you would want to try other ways for eg: you would want to skip grammar, maybe you would want to pick up a book on English grammar despite me telling you to not do so, you may want to watch action movies to learn English, so I have tried to present my case and explain why you should follow my advice, so I recommend that you read through this page.
Keep in mind that English is just a language and you will be able to learn it if you put in some effort and if you do it in the right manner, you don't even have to know that you can do it because you can do it and even you will be surprised with what you are able to achieve.
First of all you need to realise that a language keeps evolving, ie. that the kind of English that was used five hundred years ago is different from the kind of English that is used today and because English is an international language, people speak English in many different ways so if you are to improve your English you should start with the standard form of the English language, because it is the form of language that is most useful and it is what binds all the different varieties of the language, it is not a good idea to start with the kind of English that is used in songs or in action movies. You will get to them too but it will be much easier if you know the standard form, ie. the form of English that is used in books, the best way is to start with your course materials so you don't have to look at other places, if you look into books that you have to read anyway you will be surprised with the hidden rules and laws that dictate the formation of sentences, so it will be quite fun, another good thing about books is that you can carefully analyse each and every sentence, you should read your course material in English as it will keep you from reading things that you will probably never need, you can also read articles from wikipedia on different subjects.
Why should you start with the kind of English that is used in books?
First of all you need to realise that a language keeps evolving, ie. that the kind of English that was used five hundred years ago is different from the kind of English that is used today and because English is an international language, people speak English in many different ways so if you are to improve your English you should start with the standard form of the English language, because it is the form of language that is most useful and it is what binds all the different varieties of the language, it is not a good idea to start with the kind of English that is used in songs or in action movies. You will get to them too but it will be much easier if you know the standard form, ie. the form of English that is used in books, the best way is to start with your course materials so you don't have to look at other places, if you look into books that you have to read anyway you will be surprised with the hidden rules and laws that dictate the formation of sentences, so it will be quite fun, another good thing about books is that you can carefully analyse each and every sentence, you should read your course material in English as it will keep you from reading things that you will probably never need, you can also read articles from wikipedia on different subjects.
What if you speak English badly?
You should learn some grammar and you don't have to pick up a book for that because if you do that you will be overwhelmed with grammar and end up learning very little for the amount of effort you put in or worse you will be demotivated and start thinking about quitting the idea of learning English altogether, so don't pick up a book. What you have to do is to just continue with doing whatever you do and at places where you get to read and write in English you have to look at the sentences and at places where you think that you need to understand the sentence formation or at places where you feel the slightest bit of confusion you should look into Google, and that way you will be able to improve your English, and this is probably the most important line in this article. If you learn from your mistakes and confusions you will learn a lot more because that will give you some context. If you have context you will be able to concentrate better so learning from your mistakes and confusions is the key. I can tell you that my advice will do you good because I have done the same thing for improving my English and because the same principle is applied in learning new languages, the best way to learn a language is by talking to real people.
What you have to do is to correct little mistakes and it is really, fun doing that.
For eg: at vs. in.
A million ways vs a million way.
Different ways vs. Different way.
You may not be able to find certains things on Google easily so you should ask from somebody who can help you, a lot of times people whom you think are really smart will not know certain things and they will not say to you directly that they don't know the answer, they will be very sarcastic and try to hide the fact that they don't know but that is fine just go on and try other means or people.
Why should you learn Grammar?
Disclaimer: Don't pick up a book on English grammar use Google to fix the mistakes you make that is a much superior approach, picking up a book will most likely overwhelm you with all the information a lot of which you may not even need, learn from your mistakes and confusions, you will remember a lot more when you learn from your mistakes.
Grammar is a man-made system to explain the order of words and the formation of sentences, it is also an attempt to standardise a Language. Learning grammar is important as it will let you learn the standard or written form of a language, grammar will let you correct your mistakes. English being an international language is spoken in many different ways. By learning grammar you learn the formal variety of the English language it is important because it is the form of language that is most useful and it is what binds all the different varieties of the language, you will find it much easier to learn the form of English that is used in songs and movies after having learnt written form of the English language.
Many people will tell you to not learn grammar, they would you to learn English by practising a lot but without grammar, practising English will be very difficult and Grammar will let you confidently correct your mistakes.
Don't believe in your instincts you have to learn grammar especially if you are not a native speaker. You can have what you call well developed instincts if it is your mother-tongue because you have seen it being spoken correctly all the time but the same is not true for a language that is not your mothertongue, if you keep relying on your instincts you will never be able to correct a lot of your mistakes, I have seen the same set of mistakes being made by all the people living in a country, as funny as it may sound it is actually true, just by analysing certain mistakes you can guess where a person is from.
-Indians always say, "what you have done?" Instead of "what have you done?"
-Spanish speakers will often confuse between make and do.
-Indonesians often make mistakes with tenses.
My point is, don't trust your instincts and do away with the slightest bit of confusion.
You will be able to help a lot of your friends if you know some grammar and it will give you confidence which will make you more fluent. Bit by bit over a period of some time you will learn a lot and you will be amazed at how much you have learnt.
Disclaimer: Don't pick up a book on English grammar use Google to fix the mistakes you make that is a much superior approach, picking up a book will most likely overwhelm you with all the information a lot of which you may not even need, learn from your mistakes and confusions, you will remember a lot more when you learn from your mistakes.
Grammar is a man-made system to explain the order of words and the formation of sentences, it is also an attempt to standardise a Language. Learning grammar is important as it will let you learn the standard or written form of a language, grammar will let you correct your mistakes. English being an international language is spoken in many different ways. By learning grammar you learn the formal variety of the English language it is important because it is the form of language that is most useful and it is what binds all the different varieties of the language, you will find it much easier to learn the form of English that is used in songs and movies after having learnt written form of the English language.
Many people will tell you to not learn grammar, they would you to learn English by practising a lot but without grammar, practising English will be very difficult and Grammar will let you confidently correct your mistakes.
Don't believe in your instincts you have to learn grammar especially if you are not a native speaker. You can have what you call well developed instincts if it is your mother-tongue because you have seen it being spoken correctly all the time but the same is not true for a language that is not your mothertongue, if you keep relying on your instincts you will never be able to correct a lot of your mistakes, I have seen the same set of mistakes being made by all the people living in a country, as funny as it may sound it is actually true, just by analysing certain mistakes you can guess where a person is from.
-Indians always say, "what you have done?" Instead of "what have you done?"
-Spanish speakers will often confuse between make and do.
-Indonesians often make mistakes with tenses.
My point is, don't trust your instincts and do away with the slightest bit of confusion.
You will be able to help a lot of your friends if you know some grammar and it will give you confidence which will make you more fluent. Bit by bit over a period of some time you will learn a lot and you will be amazed at how much you have learnt.
What if you are unable to speak fluently?
One thing that you must do is to talk to yourself in English, try and describe the surroundings and the situations to yourself, what you may find is that it is often a little more difficult than you think it is, just do it and whenever you find it difficult get some help, but make sure that you actually do it, it is very important, talking to yourself in English will make you feel more confident.
Knowing about Grammar will certainly not make you fluent. Fluency is all about practise and self confidence, feel confident because there is no reason for you to not be confident, all of us get into situations where we make a fool out of ourselves so go on and practise and make mistakes, it is not a problem, correcting the mistakes is the key. The kind of English that is used in daily conversations is different from what you will read in books, not only are the words and feelings expressed different but also is the kind of English that is used while speaking different, you will be using less formal version of the English language, so practising is very important.
Besides talking to yourself you also will have to listen to native speakers talking about all sorts of different things on Youtube, movies can also be very helpful, this is also very important, you have to use immersion as a tool because the kind of feelings expressed in your course material will be very less useful for conversations.
Besides talking to yourself you also will have to listen to native speakers talking about all sorts of different things on Youtube, movies can also be very helpful, this is also very important, you have to use immersion as a tool because the kind of feelings expressed in your course material will be very less useful for conversations.
How to make your English even better?
To be able to speak English in an impressive manner one doesn't have to learn all sorts of words, one doesn't have to pick up random words from the dictionary, not at all, you will probably sound too odd if you do that, just don't do that. I am not trying to be an elitist but every language has a prestige dialect the form of English that is considered impressive is the kind of English that is used by scientists and writers, so if you immerse yourself into books you will learn to speak and write like the writers of those books then you should also look into Google if you have any doubts about the sentences, you should be looking forward to knowing a little bit of grammar from Google.
You don't have to read all sorts of books what you have to do is to read books of subjects that matter to you and those books that have been written by well known authors, if they are British or American you will be much better off if you read books that have been written by people who come from non-English speaking countries their style of writing and their choice of words can sometimes be very irritating. The kind of words they use are just too out of the box and they probably do it on purpose just to sound more intelligent, don't get me wrong I myself am a non-native English speaker.
Besides books you also have a lot of other things you have some really good speeches and interviews, you have News channels and you also have some really nice movies.
Besides books you also have a lot of other things you have some really good speeches and interviews, you have News channels and you also have some really nice movies.
Another really cool idea is to study etymology of words, it is a fascinating way of improving one's vocabulary and it will help you remember those words, it is like magic and I have used it myself and I highly recommend it to all of you. Etymology works well for more technical words, the words that have come from Latin because Latin has suffixes and prefixes and that kind of things, so it will make your English really very impressive. Not only is it very useful but it is also very fascinating. I recommend that you read a little about Etymology.
Written by,
Syed Moris
Thanks a lot for reading and if you liked it you can read other articles on my blog, you may find them helpful and I would request you to share them with other people, kindly share the link, if you found it helpful, I am looking forward to your feedbacks and comments.
Hope you liked the write-up.
ReplyDeleteI agree that one should not pick up a book on English grammar as it creates a lot of confusion.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of things that you will probably never need. And it is difficult to concentrate on things that you cannot really relate to, improving your grammar from daily life mistakes is a much a superior approach.
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