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What efforts have you made to improve your English?

Guys,

Let us share what efforts we have made to improve our English.

I read English novels. However, except for some very simple story books, it is just not easy to finish, especially since we are very tired after a whole day's work.

Purchased English MP3s such as VOA English. Just listen to the MP3s. It is easier than novels.

Purchased satellite TV with English channels. Watch English TV almost everyday. It is the easiest approach.

However, regarding oral English, my practice is not enough..

Improve your English...

See the movie you loved most and watch it over and over again with the subtitle on it. Then you will see your English improve in no time....

More speaking!.

listen and imitate the pronouciation in the tapes,
you will find you can speak more frequently, and your pronouciation will be more accurate.

go to the English corner and practice more.

take oral English lessons with my kid.

watch and listen to CCTV 9 every evening from now on.
it's espcial good for me.
I intend to stick to it for at least half year..

如果是为了聊天、一般书信等普通沟通，像你所说足够了；
如果是为了书写正式的书面文章，建议在语法上下点工夫。其实，高中英语的语法足够了，四六级不过词汇量罢了。.

I've been studying English at Wall Street School since last March..

回复 6#viviancao 的帖子

how do you feel?
It's really expensive..

[quote]原帖由 [i]渺渺眯眯[/i] 于 2010-5-14 14:12 发表 [url=http://ww123.net/baby/redirect.php?goto=findpost&pid=7009859&ptid=4715443][img]http://ww123.net/baby/images/common/back.gif[/img][/url]
how do you feel?
It's really expensive. [/quote]
Yes,it's expensive,but it's worthy.
Studying there made me dare to speak English with Native English speaker..

回复 8#viviancao 的帖子

how much and how long is for the total studying period?.

[quote]原帖由 [i]渺渺眯眯[/i] 于 2010-5-14 14:31 发表 [url=http://ww123.net/baby/redirect.php?goto=findpost&pid=7010075&ptid=4715443][img]http://ww123.net/baby/images/common/back.gif[/img][/url]
how much and how long is for the total studying period? [/quote]
My lesson is Rmb28k,and 18 months..

回复 10#viviancao 的帖子

nearly finished?

Do you feel that you can communicate with native speaker fluently about most things now?
or just dare to speak or carry some simple conversations?.

I think when you can think in English, then your English would be passing the bottom neck.
That is why we come to this Englishcornor, to freely discuss EVERY SUBJECT.
However, the subject in this cornor is really quite limited, I notice..

i have to speak and write in english every single minute cos english is the first language in my working place..

[quote]原帖由 [i]渺渺眯眯[/i] 于 2010-5-14 16:13 发表 [url=http://ww123.net/baby/redirect.php?goto=findpost&pid=7011006&ptid=4715443][img]http://ww123.net/baby/images/common/back.gif[/img][/url]
nearly finished?

Do you feel that you can communicate with native speaker fluently about most things now?
or just dare to speak or carry some simple conversations? [/quote]
Because I have no more chance to talk to the native English speaker,I'm not able to be fluent in communicating with Native speaker..

回复 14#viviancao 的帖子

so, an English speaking enviroment in daily life is still needed for fluently speaking in English?
I can carry some simple conversations with foreigners, but still a long way to go.

I've been to the English corner in Hongkou park with my son, but I find speaking wiht Chinese is totally different from speaking with foreigners..

[quote]原帖由 [i]渺渺眯眯[/i] 于 2010-5-16 19:52 发表 [url=http://ww123.net/baby/redirect.php?goto=findpost&pid=7017949&ptid=4715443][img]http://ww123.net/baby/images/common/back.gif[/img][/url]
so, an English speaking enviroment in daily life is still needed for fluently speaking in English?
I can carry some simple conversations with foreigners, but still a long way to go.

I've been to t ... [/quote]
I think so..

When we talk to native Chinese speakers in English, the vocabulary involved is very limited.
Sporadic talking with foreigners may not help much eitehr, because the subject will not be discussed in depth, and usually we do not have enough time to think thoroughly before expressing, so it is unlikely to practice some sophisticated thoughts or words..

[quote]原帖由 [i]euphy[/i] 于 2010-5-17 13:54 发表 [url=http://ww123.net/baby/redirect.php?goto=findpost&pid=7022290&ptid=4715443][img]http://ww123.net/baby/images/common/back.gif[/img][/url]
When we talk to native Chinese speakers in English, the vocabulary involved is very limited.
Sporadic talking with foreigners may not help much eitehr, because the subject will not be discussed in d ... [/quote]
I totally agree.
For me, the vocabulary has been the main hurdle to communicating with foreigners in english fluently..

To read varies of stuff is a good way to improve English, this is my value experience in the past. I think it's also easy to enlarge your vacabulary. But now due to parenting issues, I didn't have a chance to touch English reading for quite a few years.

[[i] 本帖最后由 corrinemama 于 2010-7-15 09:52 编辑 [/i]].

Sigh! what I do is to make up my mind every time. and pardon myself every day and make up my mind next day...

But do nothing about improving my English.

So I think the most important thing is to make an environment to learn and speak English for the lazy person, just like me.[tt10]  

and then

insist on it..

回复 8#viviancao 的帖子

It doesn't really matter which English learning center you attend. It depends entirely on you. It is not EF has helped you to improve your English. The person who can claim credit for your improvement is actually yourself. Because you have spent more time learning a language. EF is like a gym, some people go to gym 3 times a week, rain or shine, and some others only go to the gym once a month, so you can imagine the huge differences in the final results.

[tt47].

回复 20#GarfieldMa 的帖子

Hehe, everyone is lazy, until pushed or motivated. A good teacher is the right person who draws a beautiful cake for you, letting you know:

1. with good english skills, you will have access to higher postion in career and enjoy higher salary;
2. You will be able to make friends with foreigners, read interesting books, travel to different countries, therefore make your life more interesting;
3. Your kids will have better english skills compared to other kids, and have a different mind-set than other kid.
4. You may be able to curse back one day you meet a very bad foreigner who pissed you off.
5. Another language is also another life-style and value different from our own..

bI do agree with u, [tt42]

But I still can not insist on it, so I think maybe the last way for the lazy person to improve English is to improve your cost to give up, eg, take part in an expensive class or invite a teacher? or sth else? If you give up half way, the sunk cost will make u heartache[tt25] ,maybe it is useful?

And I found the culture is as important as the practise, if you can not understand the culture and background, no matter how good your English is, you can not be invovled in the conversation. this is my shortcoming, I am not interested in that, so I dislke to go to the Expo very much, I don't know what is deserved to have a look.[tt33].

If the subject is  about the kids, xixi, I will be very very interested in that and really enjoy talking about them. I like nothing except for that, in fact, I wanna practise my poor Englsih , and wake up my sleepy English, the aim is to keep up with my kid, haha, I found I  could not say even a word to his foreigner teacher, It is hard to open my mouth now, and I found it is so long time not to speak English.so the lazy and bad students come here..

[quote]原帖由 [i]小米靓靓[/i] 于 2010-7-26 03:37 发表 [url=http://ww123.net/baby/redirect.php?goto=findpost&pid=7341912&ptid=4715443][img]http://ww123.net/baby/images/common/back.gif[/img][/url]
It doesn't really matter which English learning center you attend. It depends entirely on you. It is not EF has helped you to improve your English. The person who can claim credit for your improvement ... [/quote]
Before I joined the Wall Street,I also studied english. The results without english center was obviously worse than studying at center..

回复 25#viviancao 的帖子

because  you never pushed yourself as hard as you are now... and if you really want to improve your english, then take a leave from your work, and go to america, australia or england, stay there for a year, i bet your english will have a giant leap forward. and you actually spend less than go to ef. and btw, the secret in learning english is the ENGLISH SPEAKING ENVIRONMENT.

good luck to you.

[quote]原帖由 [i]小米靓靓[/i] 于 2010-7-28 11:05 发表 [url=http://ww123.net/baby/redirect.php?goto=findpost&pid=7352495&ptid=4715443][img]http://ww123.net/baby/images/common/back.gif[/img][/url]
because  you never pushed yourself as hard as you are now... and if you really want to improve your english, then take a leave from your work, and go to america, australia or england, stay there for a ... [/quote]
Honestly,I haven't had any plan to travel abroad yet. My company leader let me study english at center,and my company paid the expenses..

回复 27#viviancao 的帖子

wow, your employer is so generous...........
If you are forced to do an english presentation to a bid audience soon, you will have to make good preparations..........