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Learning English. I’ll need your help. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Fio Newbie Brazil Joined 6083 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, French | Message 1 of 10 29 November 2007 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello, I am brazilian, a brazilian portuguese native speaker and this year, in February, I decided to start studying american english by myself. Due to laziness and incorrect approaches, I only wasted my time in the first 2 months of study. So, in May, seeing the horrible results that I had achieved, I did a complete overhaul of my study methods and since then I have been having success in english learning. However, I have been focusing too much on reading and writing skills, as result of that I can read and understand with relative ease a newspaper or even juvenile literature (Harry Potter, Stephen King, etc...). I would say that I understand 29 out of 30 words.
Now I think that is time to improve my listening skills (I get nearly 60% of what is being spoken in a movie), my accent, which is bad, my writting skills (I know that my english even when it is correct, it does not sound good, and I am not capable of writting about complex subjects) and to a lesser extend, my reading skills. (I do want to read english literature in... english). To do so, In the next 4 months (in the first three, I'll have plenty of free time) I will push harder my studies, because I want to be capable of speaking with a proper accent, writing better and make it more similar to a text of a native writer and listening properly and without missing more than 3% out of words that a listen. I know that it is difficult task, but I will try. Six months ago I knew nothing in english and despite my own disbelief I have made a good progress. Now, in this new stage of my studies I will use this journal to report my progress and I will post some stuff and I expect that the people interested in help me correct the mistakes (including the mistakes in this text). My plan will be:
- To read at least twelve pieces of news in some newspapers that use more complex language, every day. - To write at least 2 small texts about random subjects every week. - Soon I will record myself reading some text at least once a week. So, when I start to post this stuff, I would really like to be corrected. I don't mind being corrected nor I will get angry, I'm interested in correcting my mistakes. I would write a text to start this journal, but as I know that this text has errors, it'll be my first entry in my journal and I would be happy if you correct me. Thanks, Bruno Edited by Fio on 01 December 2007 at 8:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mumusik Newbie Korea, South Joined 6096 days ago 38 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean | Message 2 of 10 29 November 2007 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | ||
that is amazing for six months! seeing as you asked, here are a few things (i realize the spelling errors might be typos): overhaul in -> overhaul of sucess -> success focus in -> focus on easiness -> ease writting -> writing in a lesser extend -> to a lesser extent withouts -> without done a good progress -> made good progress newspapers that uses -> newspapers that use mind to be corrected -> mind being corrected interested in correct -> interested in correcting more than 3% of words that a listen -> (i'm not sure exactly what you mean) i'm also not 100% sure what the last paragraph means. Edited by mumusik on 29 November 2007 at 5:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LilleOSC Senior Member United States lille.theoffside.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6481 days ago 545 posts - 546 votes  4 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 3 of 10 29 November 2007 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sounds like a good plan. Your written English looks very good. You didn't make too many mistakes.
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| ryuukohito Bilingual Diglot Groupie Malaysia Joined 6026 days ago 89 posts - 98 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Malay* Studies: French, Japanese | Message 4 of 10 01 December 2007 at 5:55am | IP Logged | ||
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Dear fio,
I admire your efforts. I may not be a native speaker of the English language, but I think myself to be fairly fluent in English (at least, enough) such that I will try my best to help you wherever and whenever I can. Edited by ryuukohito on 01 December 2007 at 5:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fio Newbie Brazil Joined 6083 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, French | Message 5 of 10 01 December 2007 at 8:18am | IP Logged | ||
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I found this news interesting and different. I will try to make a abstract out of it. Note that I picked this news up randomly. I just made a abstract out of it. It does not mean that it reflects or not my personal opinions. Feel free to correct me, thanks.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1130/p01s04-woaf.html Some countries in Africa are considering banning plastic bags. Acording to The United Nations, in Africa, only 10% of rubbish is discarded to the dumps. With the increase of population that big african cities have been getting along with this poor rubbish discard system, a lot of problems have been popping up latelly. But there is a major culprit in this problem, according to african public authorities and environmentalists the plastic bags have made the situation insuportable. The plastic bags block the sewers making the situation in certain areas unsuitable to live and even kill livestock by choking them. As the problem is so widespread, some countries have decided that the only solution would be banning plastic bags for good. But it is not the case of Nigeria that relies too much in plactic bags because the most part of the dinking water available in the country is provided in plastic bags. So to make the situation a little better, the government of Nigeria has decreted a "Sanitation Day", which happens in the last Saturday of each month and the people is obligated by cops with bigs sticks to clean up their neighborhoods. -------------- Really thanks mumusik. I did the corrections that you pointed out and I'll try to clarify some sentences that because of my bad writing you didn't get the meaning. more than 3% of words that a listen -> More than 3% out of words that I listen. "I would write a text to start this journal, but as I know that this text has errors, it'll be my first entry in my journal and I would be happy if you correct me." I would write a text out of a piece of news to start this journal, but as I know that this very text has errors, it'll be my first entry in my journal and I would be happy if you correct me. Does it have a meaning now ? ---- And thanks LilleOSC and ryuukohito, your help will be appreciated. By the way, I decided to speed up my english studies because I do want to learn japanese, but I think that it is better to perfect my english first. So ryuukohito you'll have to help me soon in my japanese studies too. :-) Edited by Fio on 01 December 2007 at 8:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| owshawng Senior Member United States Joined 6676 days ago 202 posts - 217 votes Speaks: English* | Message 6 of 10 01 December 2007 at 8:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Have you tried watching US sitcoms? The characters tend to speak slower then in dramas/action shows.
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| ryuukohito Bilingual Diglot Groupie Malaysia Joined 6026 days ago 89 posts - 98 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Malay* Studies: French, Japanese | Message 7 of 10 01 December 2007 at 10:06am | IP Logged | ||
Fio, if you use the article 'a' before a noun that begins with a vowel ('a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'), the 'a' would almost always be changed to 'an'. I will provide you some examples: An apple, an egg, an imp, an oak tree, an umbrella. There are exceptions, of course. So the correction to the sentence above (with redundant phrases removed and the sentence rearranged) would read : "I found this news to be interesting and (rather) different. I will try to make an abstract out of it. Do note that I selected the article at random; neither does it reflect my personal opinion in any way too." --- (I apologize, but I am in a bit of a hurry right now, but I promise I will get around to correcting the rest of your entry later.) Edited by ryuukohito on 01 December 2007 at 10:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ryuukohito Bilingual Diglot Groupie Malaysia Joined 6026 days ago 89 posts - 98 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Malay* Studies: French, Japanese | Message 8 of 10 02 December 2007 at 9:35am | IP Logged | ||
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Firstly, I apologize for hurriedly correcting your post as I am in the midst of work. Anyway, I have again removed redundant phrases and suggested phrases that sound more 'natural' to English.
Secondly, I urge you, Fio, please, pay attention to spelling. It is alright for me to encounter and correct grammatical errors, because I understand that you are in the midst of learning English, but it can be very frustrating to come across spelling errors (such as 'latelly' and 'insuportable') that could have easily been corrected beforehand by your person. Always check with a dictionary (or even Google) if you aren't sure as to how a word is spelt. -------------- According to (studies by?) the UN, only 10 percent of total waste produced by African countries are disposed of properly. Also, many other problems have cropped up lately, arguably in tandem with the increase in population. The major culprit, as deemed by African public authorities and environmentalists, are plastic bags. These plastic bags block waste-disposal mechanisms such as sewage systems. This has made certain areas uninhabitable, and even livestock have died as a result. As the problem is so widespread, some countries have decided that the only solution would be to ban plastic bags for good. But it is not that Nigeria relies too much on plastic bags; rather, it is that most drinks in the country are provided in plastic bags. So as to make the situation a little better, the government of Nigeria has declared a "Sanitation Day" that will take place on the final Saturday of every month; and on that day people would be supervised by the police to clean up their neighborhoods. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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