Watching movies in english is surely a good option, it's even better if you use english subtitles to them. Make friends with native english speaker and hang out on ts in evenings like I used to do. My english still sucks though.

Pretty much yes, movies. Although tv series might be better as they have more conversations and are not as time-consuming.

http://www.esreality.com/post/2368097/suggest...-to-watch/

http://www.tvsubtitles.net/

well your written English is very harosh!

yes, I am surprised myself :/ moreover let me say that I am russian :D

rofl

Read a lot, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Wired, a lot of long and very well written articles on some fascinating subjects. It's free and not only you will improve your english vocabulary and grammar but also really expand your general knowledge.

It's good to know your goals too, from what you have written you seem pretty fluent but of course if you are actually looking for some kind of career involving writing in English it might be worth improving, but other than that is there really a point ? I completely understand what you're saying about speaking though, I think it's the main struggle of most people learning a language since it actually requires a native speaker with whom you can speak quite often.

It's free and not only you will improve your english vocabulary and grammar but also really expand your general knowledge.

It's good to know your goals too, from what you have written you seem pretty fluent

What did you read? He said he's not fluent but has good grammar.

considering this thread is rather well written, i wouldnt say he is not fluent...

maybe hes just shy, and afraid of speaking? i had similar problems till i was told my english is fine

And you thought "outcluded" was a real word. Maybe check what "fluent" actually means?

Maybe no, and fuck you?

His post is smooth, so stating hes not using english fluently would be a sign of utter stupidity. I dont belive he is mentally disabled[sadly cant say the same about you], so hes surely able to speak as good as he writes.

Its the sole reason why i wouldnt seek the source of his problems in lack of language skills.

Nzr0: Maybe check what "fluent" actually means?
hitsu: Maybe no, and fuck you?

ahah thx for the good laugh :) but seriously you'd better listen to Nzr0.

i know the word, but dividing writting and speaking is just pure bullcrap... its a complex skill...


lets say you got lots of stamina... you can run 10km easly... does it mean you wont be able to cover same or even greater distance on a bike?

Writing and speaking a language is not the same.

running and riding a bike isnt the same aswell... but if you got stamina[languane knowledge] you will be doing fine @ both

When you write something you have all the time in the world to think and maybe review how and what you want to say.
Speaking is different because if you want to express yourself in a decent manner and smoothly you have no time to refine so you are forced to organize your speech without actually "think" about it properly (i'm not english, so maybe i didn't explain it well, sorry).
This is very true for foreign languages, but also for your native one.

If you lack this ability, due to various reasons, you are not fluent.

Edit: read again Nzr0's posts please

if he needs to review his post, then his grammar is not good, which would totally change mine opinion...


and yeah, speaking its exactly the same as writing, you just use your pen instead of mouth... and any problem with it is a mental stuff, as long as you can write fine.

I just love how the person who uses phrases such as "mine opinion" and "a mental stuff" thinks he is qualified to judge how fluent others are.

as a superior being im qualified to judge everything. you on the other hand should stick to your cavemen.

I took me about an hour to write the topic.

this quote proves me wrong sadly, hes not fluent at all. his english isnt even decent

Neither is yours. Check what superior means.

depends how you use it.

a noun would mean supervisor or boss. however one of meanings as adjective would be "better"

well i don't know you, but i use to review what i write to check if there are errors or if i it's clear what i mean to say.
I'm sure everybody who wants to write in a decent way does it.
When you speak you can't do it.

i don't even know why i'm arguing with you, it's useless lol

i rarely did check my paperworks.

i belive any kind of improvisation will be always better than getting ready for a conversation, or paper work.

this may be the reason why i write/speak without much effort, even if i make mistakes.

I feel ashamed for you :/

This :)

Seriously... look it up.

You can read and write a language perfectly while being completely unable to understand it when people speak or to speak yourself in that language. Knowledge of the former usually helps to learn the latter but even then it depends on the language. Why isn't the "oo" in "blood" pronounced the same way as in "cool"? Unless you're some kind of etymological maniac and you happen to know the languages on which English is based, you'll have to learn how words are pronounce by listening (and probably simultaneously reading in order to know what the heck he's saying).

I agree to some degree.

Yes, you have to learn how to pronounce. No, you wont be able to write, if you're not able to speak. Lets not forget hes got other problems, like messing with the sentence construction or not knowing the world he would like to use.


ps. which part of canada are you from?

Oh you can learn English's grammar alright without speaking a single word of it. Actually, that might help you since people often disregard some rules orally.

I also forgot about one thing on my last post : it's not only about knowing how something is supposed to be pronounced : it's also about doing it yourself. Some sounds will be hard to reproduce if they are not used in the languages you already know.

I am from the province of Québec. The city where I come from is about 95% French, I think.

Are you suggesting he wrote this with dictionary in his hand?:>

If he's got the grammar and a decent wordbank, he should be able to speak, even if he would not pronounce properly. And tbh i dont belive its a big thing.

Now, from what he described its not his only problem. Hes having problem with sentence making when speaking, making all of his knowledge useless.


know the feel bro... "th" is just impossible for a Pole... I usually spit on my conversation partner when i have to say thursday

Well theoretically, if you never learn what sounds are associated to what syllables, even the most basic ones, you won't be able to say anything. I'll concede that in practice, many languages have a shared heritage which make it possible to say stuff in another language approximately. If you gave me a Portuguese text, I would be able to read it and it would probably sound close to what it should even though I have no idea what it means. However, I wouldn't be able to do that with kanjis. Of course, that surely doesn't apply to belka_ but I'm just saying that you can't apply that logic universally.

So yeah, he surely has some knowledge about the pronunciation in of English words. He may even have had basic classes about that. But let me tell you that : it does not make him fluent. Actually, what are we arguing about? I think we went on a tangent and I'm not sure what's going on anymore.

Oh and yeah, "th" is the big problem with Frenchies too. In France they all say "z" and in Québec it's "t".

yeah, totally offtopic :D

was a nice talk, have a pleasent day

it's easy to write somewhat correct post (which still has some grammar mistakes that I'm sure he'd like to stop making), but it's more difficult to express yourself fluently in real time during conversation. it has nothing to do with being shy, but with the familiarity with language and your confidence about it.

you dont see a link between conficence and timidity?

confidence about your language and not neccessarily about yourself and what you have to say. two different things. you can be confident like a pitbull and speak like a dumbass or shy as hell and present yourself well english-wise.

timidity about your language and not neccessarily about yourself and what you have to say. two different things.

I see that you should probably watch some top gear as well.

not into cars 2 much


however, i watch doctor who

About the first line you're quoting, it was just a suggestion to cover his 3 latest points (lack of words, mistakes while writing and sentence construction). By reading the sites I suggested I'm sure he would improve a lot in these areas, a sentence is just some vocabulary and some grammar after all.

And I said he seemed fluent because maybe he is underevaluating himself which can be damaging when you are trying to improve, we can of course discuss semantics about what fluent actually means but judging by this post he managed to get his point across with no major mistakes so in my opinion that's what you could call fluent (at least when it comes to written english).

It does come down to semantics and wikipedia has this to say: "Fluency is a speech language pathology term that means the smoothness or flow with which sounds, syllables, words and phrases are joined together when speaking quickly".

But you see if you go to the freedictionary you have these definitions :
- Fluent "Able to express oneself readily and effortlessly"
- Fluency "the quality of being fluent, esp facility in speech or writing"
So while your definition makes it seem that being fluent would merely be the abilty to speak a language like a native speaker, other definitions seem less specific.

But anyway all I was saying is that reading some well written articles will eventually help your fluency, whatever your definition of the word actually is.

high 5, same point

I am at unease accepting that definition. I've never heard of someone writing fluent English. Regardless I agree reading well written articles will help but I feel that listening and talking would help more purely from a work-over-time point of view.

You can also get some audiobooks or stand up comedy albums to listen to while traveling and such.

Start skyping/teamspeak/ventrilo with people.

that's almost the same as going out! Oo

Whenever you troll on esr or flame on a server always make sure that you write correctly. Double check if you have any doubts.

Or maek potat languege.

Go to university, and befriend Erasmus students. They are nice people and you can practice talking English with them.

Go live for a year in a place where people only speak English.

(Or practice with English people on teamspeak/mumble/ventrilo, that's what I do instead)

watch top gear

btw: I'm being serious. i was speaking more or less fluent english in highschool (i have succesfully passed FCE and CAE exams), but watching top gear without subtitles (although eng subs are helpful if you are not familiar with thick british accents) pushed me right ahead. you won't get everything the first time, but the show is fucking hysterical imho which makes it easily rewatchable for repetition. and you'll have a good time. oh yeah and try to talk as much as you can. english is like quake you have to polish the skills in a very efficient way to get better:]

watch movies, and talk a lot, L O L


ps. i've noticed back in my ET times that native speakers dont actually care about grammar when they are talking!

Talk like William Shatner more

Dat Shatner Face

more like Sean Connery.. 'yesh, moneh peneh!'

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lan...gkhl?hl=en


immersion, immersion, immersion (c) langual1ty

pokemon

II you wrote this on your own without help from google translate or other people you don't really need a lot of help.

You are already perfectly understandable, the small errors will correct themselves over time. It's impossible for someone to ever score 100 % on any language imo, let alone a non-native one.

https://www.coursera.org/course/composition

do what ins did, start casting (speaking!)

I can you give you my own example. I received a very very decent English education at school, mostly due to my secondary school which was bilingual, I had classes like Maths, Geography and Biology taught partially in English and double the hours of English classes. Problem was that my class was quite crowded and there was never enough time to practise speaking properly and hence the emphasis was on listening, grammar and vocabulary (shitloads, looking back I literally cannot believe what kind of fucked up words we were asked to learn by heart but surprisingly it was quite appealing at the time).

Then I applied to study in Glasgow, luckily got accepted and am a happy second year Maths student. Even though my English is in general very good, it took me months to get used to using it on a daily basis and I still occasionally lack fluency, mostly because I aim to express my thoughts as accurately as possible, as I really despise of all this shit talking in English (e.g. using 'like' every third word). And the most haunting thing is my distinctive accent that I was aiming to get rid of asap. It turns out to be impossible though :( I'd love to have an accent like this one day, but it ain't likely:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q41zzyIY20

So my advice is to SPEAK SPEAK SPEAK, as often as it is only possible, because once you're old enough, there's almost nothing you can do about your accent unless you're linguistically talented, sadly I'm not.

The most important thing when trying to perfect an accent is to put emphasis on the most commonly used words, while that might seem obvious it definetly is the best way to perfect an accent also read books, articles whatever out loud.
I think your problem is that the scottish accent is so much different from any other accent, and the nature of the accent kinda "forces" you to speak in your native accent (can't really explain it), especially if you're a slav.

know what you mean, I don't even try to sound Scottish just because this accent so distinctive and unique that trying to mimic it might sound silly or even irritating and disrespectful. At first I even felt uneasy about saying 'shite' rather 'shit' but I like how 'shite' sounds too much not to use it :))

I gave up on my accent years ago. partially, because I had experience with native speakers and it isn't THAT BAD, but mostly because I'm a lazy fuck.

why improve english when ur native language is FULL HAROSH?

soon everything will be russian potat anywei!

Have a conversation with Jamerio and you're good to go. :)

Thanks for the replies written so far :)

I took me about an hour to write the topic. I find writing the easiest part in English as I re-check every sentence and I have time to correct them if I find a mistake. Plus, I had to google a 2-3 words, as I wasn't sure how to write them.

As for speaking, I am quite fluent on easy topics, but sometimes I find it hard to tell a story for example of what happened 2 weeks ago.

And I noticed that I can express my thoughts fluently, but I need to focus really well and think in my head how my sentence should sound and correct myself If I feel, that I am wrong.

And I noticed that I can express my thoughts fluently, but I need to focus really well and think in my head how my sentence should sound and correct myself If I feel, that I am wrong.

this is normal!
the only thing you can do is practice, practice, practice :)

that's what Fatality sad

i did it on purpose ;)

Your writing is better than mine was 2 or 3 years ago, though my issue was spelling and using short-hand "text speak"... and I'm English :)

wikipedia

play militia

ok I want plusses

- Study english, grammar and such. Won't take more than a couple of hours. Classes are not needed to learn english.

- Read and pronounce different words. A good way to do this is reading stuff that's above esr (lol), like technical matters on things of your interest since that's a whole different level. Once you are comfortable with the latter (2000elo) you will have np with the former (1200elo). Won't take more than a couple of days, so it's a weekend of quake playing time so far and you'll be way above jamerio level of written english.

- Watch top gear. It's awesome, no matter if related to your issue or not. Shows and movies in general in which people speak lots. Won't take more than 5 days with one movie or show a day.

- Up until now the idea was getting comfortable with words and situations you weren't comfortable with before. With that said:

- Practice, practice, practice. Focus your time on this one. The way to do this is speaking in english as most as you can and in different situations, not writing on esr. Go abroad if you can, especially living in an english speaking country: a month in the US is more useful than a year of english lessons. Lets say you give 3 weeks to this aspect, so it's a month so far.

- Finally, study for and take some english tests. By following the above advices you should ace toefl and the other usual ones up until CAE in 2 months (1 for the advices 1 for the tests' intricacies. Could use one more for speaking or improving your weak side though, like writing essays) as someone mentioned before. English itself and basic tests are not hard.

- edit: once you are there what you have to do is practicing it verbally from time to time. Grammar, words and all that will never be lost but pronunciation will, like the basics of riding a bike or motorbike are never forgotten but have to regain balance and feeling.
And when you are done with all that, tests taken and all, try a new language. Speaking a third one makes quite a difference, even if not mastered completely.

+ for applying elo to language

Read english wikipedia pages about things that you like, watch movies, and everytime you come across a word or an expression that you don't know, google or googletranslate it. Do the same thing when you are unsure about spelling/grammar.

Contact Bulat and ask him to be your English mentor.

.

watch movies, and talk a lot, L O L

thats exactly what most ppl say :-)

but dont worry, i understand. small ppl are not able to overcome their hate :-)

:)))))))

watch all the simpsons, friends and futurama series ###

read vedic's and jamerio's comments

Sei Italiano? Posso parlare in italiano a te, e poi tu poui parlare inglese a me? Bisogno practica di piu, non ho parlato con un vero italiano in cinque anni.

The best way to learn would be to go live in an English country, with a good basis you would be fluent in a year. I had zero experience in italian, and 6 months later I able to have conversations (I was not fluent though) Now I am struggling a bit, but I reckon I will get it back pretty fast.

You even spelled pronunication correctly. I am blown away.

- watch movies
- play a game called 'activity' where you have to circumscribe words
- get into casting, or just cast your own demos and put them on youtube
- but for it to be really good you need to speak with foreign ppl or at least with others who are more proficient. that's the only way how you can progress properly.
- study abroad (i recommend uk :P)
- read up on comma rules because your text would benefit from it :)

I have a romanian friend who speaks fluent English purely from watching films and listening to rap. Needless to say, he has an american accent.