improving english language

[epilot]

Pretty good, epilot.

Oh I have to say this is hard to be understood due to "lead". Lead has lot of meanings and this sentence can be understood from its previous sentence while it has no previous sentence here.But I think "lead" means "directing".
An Americanism... get the lead out means to hurry (lose the heavy weight holding one back).

The only meaning I know for dove is kind of bird but you used it as a verb too?
dove is past tense of dive, as in swimming



Oh it is not so easy to understand that the next "row" means paddle.
First row is a loud disagreement



I think sow means: Seed & disperse.
First sow is a female pig

Hi AllVol,

Past tense of dive?
Past tense of dive is dived, I never heard that dove is past tense of dive.

And can you let me know the meaning of this sentence?
"To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow"

 

[epilot]

I agree with AllVol, pretty good Epilot! Isn't English fun? You already write better than some who have English as a first language. Be careful with where and were, though. Also watch out for to too and two, and there, their and they're.

I'm from Canada, and yes English is my first language. We had to study French in school, and I wish I had kept up with it, rather than letting it slide for so many years.

I have been trying to learn Korean, but tend to 'give up' often. It is not at all like English, where the rules are loose, and pronunciations are many. In English, if you pronounce close, most will be able to understand you, or at least figure out what you are trying to say. In Korean, if you even get one word in the sentence wrong, most will not understand what you are trying to say. The culture is different, too, so I have been laughed at many times, for making even a very small mistake.

Korean uses an alphabet called Hangul, which was invented by King Sejong, just a couple of hundred years ago. It was easy to learn to read and write, and makes more phonetic sense than English. The hardest part has been listening. I still don't hear the subtlties well. The word order is different, too, with the verb at the end of the sentence. Also Korean uses honorifics, which make it very difficult.

It depends very much, on the age and social status of the people who are speaking, how they should speak to each other. If you use the wrong endings you can insult an older person, although Koreans are quite forgiving of foreigners who try to learn. Oh, and I didn't mention, that although I can read Hangul, it uses some Chinese Characters, and I only know a few of these, so at times I can't read everything.

Chinese has the same word order as English, and is easier for an English speaker to learn, but it has tones, which are tough to get. I think the Chinese Characters are one of the most beautiful written languages, but they must be learned by memory.

Japanese has a similar word order to Korean, and they use four different alphapbets. It is very hard to read Japanese.

It seems to me that the languages from South East Asia are a lot more musical and soft than the languages from the north, which tend to have a harsh sound. The cultures also seem much more open.

I learned more about Thai language and culture in a week, than I did about Korean culture in the first six months I was here. Although Thai uses tones, it has no tenses, and seems easier to listen to. Vietnamese is somewhat similar to Thai, in that it uses tones. Thai has it's own alphabet, which seems somewhat similar to Arabic, but it is written from right to left. I think Arabic is written left to right, as English is, isn't it?

I met a young boy from Mexico, here, who's father was a pilot. This young lad could speak Spanish, English, Korean and Arabic. He wrote my name in Arabic, and I thought it looked very nice.

You are so right about the language being a door to the culture. The culture also has ties to the geographic area, and it is all so interesting. When I first came here, I used chopsticks to eat rice. (Koreans also use stainless steel chopsticks, which are so much harder to use than Japanese or Chinese!) I found out, one day at lunch, that in Korea, unless you are in a Japanese or Chinese restaurant, this practice is rude. One should use a spoon to eat rice.

Another very interesting thing is Konglish. This is English, written in Hangul. Becuase there is only 'rieut' which is halfway between 'r' and 'l,' and no sound for 'f' or 'v' so they use a letter with a sound similar to 'p.' Words like pork and fork are indistinguishable. I tell Koreans they shouldn't try to say the word 'Venus' until they learn how to pronounce 'v.' (It would sound penus!)

Hope I haven't babbled on too much.

Hi BeeBop,

Yes English is fun really, it is fun seeing a college graduated says "gogal" when sees google web page or says "shut dowen"
rather than shut down too, while he studies English from 7th class beside university.. unfortunately I have seen these kind of people in my country.
However I like English language,I like it more than any other language, Why? Well I have thought about it and the reason is "Science", I tried and learnt Arabic but unfortunately Arabic countries are not so advanced in Science, and perhaps many of them are alive only with oil money, and this is not good at all, but my main aim of learing Arabic was to understand "Quran" sentences.English is the best choice to be learned for studying science I think.

If you want to live in Korea you need to know korean. And yes in Asian countries most of people use honorific words to respect each other specially at adults and aged people, for example in my country I use from plural words when talk with my uncles or aunts...

Arabic is written and read right to left, it has 28 of letters, most of letters stick to each other to make a word, most of words have a specific meaning rather than English, suppose about "spring" word it has more than 6 different meaning but in Arabic when you say "الربیع" called "al rabie"(it is not so easy writting it with English letters because there is not any English equivalent for letter "ع"(the last letter of "الربیع" )the word "الربیع" refers to one thing and not more, it referes to season between winter and summer, it is a noun and nothing more than a noun. I will write your name in Arabic and will appreciate you and other friends that are helping me to learn English.

I have heard there are persons that are able to speake more than 10 languages, it is hard for me to belive a person is able to talk 4 different languages so How I can think about a 10 language speaker!?Did not you ask from that lad how he could to learn that languages(I think the key is living at those countries..)

Oh eating rice with a chopstick, I think they are used for spaghetti, it will takes one day to eat all rices in the dish lol.

Ok enough for now, the time is 2:50 AM and I should go to sleep.
bye for now.

 

[BeeBop]

Thanks, Epilot,

That looks really cool!

I really must agree, that there is a relationship between language and task. I think of German, and the relationship to manufacturing. The way they string 53 nouns together to make one word, seems to lend itself to the task. Perhaps the spread of English has as much to do with the 'loose' definitions, and slipping signifiers, as it does to colonial expansion.

I also must agree with you, that when people rely on what works, they have no need to push on. Creativity comes from a lack, rather than an excess. What is it they say, "necessity is the mother of invention."

Yes, the more Korean I learn, the better life gets here. Asians do have much more connection to their ancestry than Westerners, and for a large part seem much more polite, however there are drawbacks to Confucian Culture. The older person always receives respect from a younger person, but so often the older people are quite abusive. Also the idea that respect should only be given those in the small circle, leads to a lack of respect for others, and their property. I have watched a child totally abuse a revolving door in an expensive hotel, much to the dismay of a hotel worker. The woman who was in charge of the child said, and did nothing, to prevent the child playing with the equipment. (If it doesn't belong to me, then I can break it.)

I think living in a country which uses the language you wish to learn helps a lot. I also think that the younger you are, the better chance you have of learning. Ten languages is amazing, but I also think it gets easier each time. It seems the same with programming languages, the more you learn, the easier it gets.

Actually, rice is pretty easy to eat with chopsticks, especially the Japanese rice, which tends to be stickier than others. I have a ticket booked for the end of August, and many boxes of my stuff have already been sent to Canada; after I sent them (of course!) I started thinking that it is a mistake to leave here now. A couple more years, and I think my language skills would be so much better. I did have a short conversation the other day, but I still don't listen very well, and the man I was talking to had to repeat several times. I'm going to miss this very much!

Talk to you later.
Robert

 

[epilot]

Thanks, Epilot,

That looks really cool!

I really must agree, that there is a relationship between language and task. I think of German, and the relationship to manufacturing. The way they string 53 nouns together to make one word, seems to lend itself to the task. Perhaps the spread of English has as much to do with the 'loose' definitions, and slipping signifiers, as it does to colonial expansion.

I also must agree with you, that when people rely on what works, they have no need to push on. Creativity comes from a lack, rather than an excess. What is it they say, "necessity is the mother of invention."

Yes, the more Korean I learn, the better life gets here. Asians do have much more connection to their ancestry than Westerners, and for a large part seem much more polite, however there are drawbacks to Confucian Culture. The older person always receives respect from a younger person, but so often the older people are quite abusive. Also the idea that respect should only be given those in the small circle, leads to a lack of respect for others, and their property. I have watched a child totally abuse a revolving door in an expensive hotel, much to the dismay of a hotel worker. The woman who was in charge of the child said, and did nothing, to prevent the child playing with the equipment. (If it doesn't belong to me, then I can break it.)

I think living in a country which uses the language you wish to learn helps a lot. I also think that the younger you are, the better chance you have of learning. Ten languages is amazing, but I also think it gets easier each time. It seems the same with programming languages, the more you learn, the easier it gets.

Actually, rice is pretty easy to eat with chopsticks, especially the Japanese rice, which tends to be stickier than others. I have a ticket booked for the end of August, and many boxes of my stuff have already been sent to Canada; after I sent them (of course!) I started thinking that it is a mistake to leave here now. A couple more years, and I think my language skills would be so much better. I did have a short conversation the other day, but I still don't listen very well, and the man I was talking to had to repeat several times. I'm going to miss this very much!

Talk to you later.
Robert

Hello Robert,

How are you?

Thanks like always for your inputs,

Well, don't you think I have kind of grammer mistakes in my sentences?If so please help me to know that mistakes(I think I have those mistakes).


O I like philosophy, perhaps necessity is the mother of motion!

Perhaps most of older persons that misuse are uneducated ,I myself have seen few uneducated persons that don't respect to others and the reson is clear, that are not able to understand the needs of a social life, in other words that can not be logical... when I was a kid one day I hit to an uneducated guy and said "excuse me", he said me what I can do with your pardon, he could not understand that somethings are happen undeliberate.

Education is so important for every society, perhaps education is the mother of kind of communication.

If you have lot of money and no job then spend your money with traveling to other countries, do you want to return to your country only because of "language" peroblems?!
the language is a puzzle solve it!

 

[JRoque]

Great thread.

Epilot, you are doing great! I understand your difficulties in composing some English sentences. As I sometimes still do, you are probably thinking the sentence in Arabic and then translating it to English. I can tell because if I translate the sentences as you write them to Spanish (my native language), they come out nearly perfect. That will go away if you practice conversational English. Things will flow much easier then.

When I moved to USA many years ago, I went through some rough periods trying to get by. For example, at the office we would discuss the big change in culture and climate I had gone through. They usually followed that with "are you excited?". Well, in Spanish "excited" translates to "aroused". So I'm thinking, gee, you better try harder and at least buy me a beer...

Things go a lot easier when I learned the suffix "ing". This is magical. You can "ing" anything to make it a verb. For example, when you pour water onto a plant you are watering it. If you walk, you are walking. If you eat, you are eating. And even odd ones like book and booking, floor and flooring, roof and roofing, clock and clocking. You get the idea.

One comment on your last post, I believe you're using "education" to refer to people's manners. In Spanish we also say that someone is "educated" - literally translated - when they have good manners.

Regards,
JR

 

[BeeBop]

Hello again,
I'm quite busy at the moment, thank you.
Epilot, sorry, I didn't give much feedback on that last response, but I'll correct your grammar this time, as I think it is helping you quite a bit. Like I have said before, I can already see some progress.

Thanks like always for your inputs,

O.K., first let me give you this: GUSP, which is an acronym for Grammar, Usage, Spelling, and Punctuation. The first point with this sentence covers usage.
We think of input as a singular quantity, when it is used as 'feedback.' Yes, it is true that a microcontroller, or amplifier, etc. can have multiple inputs, however, when used as above you should use it as a singular: input.
Now, a point about punctuation: commas and periods help the reader navigate and pace themselves. They increase clarity. You can make the above sentence easier to read like this:
"Thanks, like always, for your input." The part between the commas can be taken out, try it. (Thanks for your input.) Some people call the period a 'full stop,' and the comma a 'half stop.' I usually recommend learners to take a one breath break at a comma, and a two breath break at a period. Try it out loud, you will see what I mean. I'll make a couple of points later, with respect to punctuation.

Well, don't you think I have kind of grammer mistakes in my sentences?If so please help me to know that mistakes(I think I have those mistakes).

First, this is the way I would say it, and the reasoning follows.
Well, don't you think I have some (kinds of) grammar mistakes in my sentences? If so, please help me know which mistakes.

If you want to, you can leave in kinds of, but I don't think that helps with the meaning here, so I would just leave it out. I have included it in brackets, so you will understand where in the sentence you could place it, if you wished to.

I have changed 'that' to 'which,' but you could also use those. The reason 'that' does not work here, is because it refers to a singular quantity, where 'those' refers to multiples.

O I like philosophy, perhaps necessity is the mother of motion!

This one is pretty good, but did you mean 'Oh,' rather than 'O?'

Perhaps most of older persons that misuse are uneducated ,I myself have seen few uneducated persons that don't respect to others and the reson is clear, that are not able to understand the needs of a social life, in other words that can not be logical... when I was a kid one day I hit to an uneducated guy and said "excuse me", he said me what I can do with your pardon, he could not understand that somethings are happen undeliberate.

O.K., first, this is a 'run-on' sentence. You need to break it up a bit, perhaps like this:
Perhaps most of the older people who abuse, are uneducated. I, myself, have seen a few uneducated people, who don't respect the needs of others. The reason is clear; they are not able to understand the needs of others in society. In other words, they lack logic. When I was a kid, one day I bumped into an uneducated guy, and said "excuse me." He said to me "what can I do with your pardon." He could not understand that some things which happen, are not deliberate.

Child is correct, but kid is common so I left it in. The first 'that,' refers to a person, so I changed it to 'who' because 'that' refers to a non living thing. I took out 'a social life,' because you haven't really used it in the correct context, here. (My guess is that it is a term you have learned, and wanted to use, so tried to use it here. Am I right? The term really means 'what one does outside of work, ie: with one's friends and acquaintances.) The semi-colon - ; - can be used to break a compound sentence up into two parts. You should be able to use either part on its own. This adds some variety to your writing style. It is always more interesting if you vary the sentence length. For example, if you have a long sentence, follow it with one or two short sentences, and then another long one.

Education is so important for every society, perhaps education is the mother of kind of communication.

Just take out kind of, and you have a very good construction here! Also, a very true one. I don't think there is really hatred, only fear, and fear can be conquered with education!

If you have lot of money and no job then spend your money with traveling to other countries, do you want to return to your country only because of "language" peroblems?!
the language is a puzzle solve it!

Also pretty good, in terms of correctness, with the exception of 'with traveling,' where you should use 'by traveling.' This sentence seems like a very good opportunity to try out the semi-colon, and I want you to take a 'crack' at it. (In other words, you should try to re-make the sentence with semi-colons, and I'll give more feedback when you finish.)

Now I'll try and respond, at least to the last one.
My reasons for leaving are complex, and have to do with a relationship which has changed since my ticket was bought. Canada would not have been my choice; I already know it fairly well, and it is not nearly as interesting to me, as many other countries, at the moment. I have met some Vietnamese people, and would really love spending some time in their country. China is also interesting, as is Indonesia. I totally fell in love with Thailand when I was there, and really would like to spend more time. Boy, my list is already long, and I could keep adding to it. The Middle East is also tempting. I met a lady from Morocco in the airport in Taipei, and we hit it off, but since have lost touch. Her country sounds fascinating. Traveling, however, conflicts with my other interests.

The reason I joined this board, has to do with my life-long love of electronics. Perhaps a laptop with one development board would satisfy me for a while. I have thought about buying one, but they are so much cheaper in Canada or the US, so I will wait on that one. Some parts are really cheap here, and expensive in North America. I already sent a lot to Canada, as I planned to spend some time there. I doubt, though, my stay will be longer than a couple of months. (The last time I visited Canada in the winter, I nearly died! It is amazing how quickly one becomes unaccustomed to dramatic climates!)

I so enjoy interacting with you; perhaps one day I will visit your country, or you mine.

Regards,
Robert

 

[BeeBop]

JR, you must have posted while I was banging away at the keyboard. You have given some excellent advice, and I must say, you write like a native speaker! How long have you lived in the 'states? Your anecdote is wonderful!

Regards,
Robert

 

[JRoque]

Why thank you Robert. It's been 13 years since I moved to Boston and then to Miami. As Epilot was saying: necessity is the mother of invention. After a couple of months of nothing but pizza and coke, I figured I needed to learn the language. So I gather my strengths, put on a brave face and learnt how to say: calzone. Hey, at least it wasn't pizza.

Seriously, I'm sure you can relate your own culture shock experiences. It's rather traumatic for many and it gives you new appreciation for what some immigrants go through.

I remember this show on TV with an actor playing a Russian immigrant. He told his story on how he loved to live in USA but didn't understand some of the things that were going on. Like when he wanted to purchase a new couch for his livingroom. The salesperson said that they stood behind everything they sold for 3 years. So the guy's like "I don't want someone standing behind my couch for 3 years"....

Epilot, I got much out of watching programs on TV. Unfortunally for me, the first few years were watching MTV (Music Television) so for a while, I, like, spoke, like.... you know.. like, this, and, stuff. But good programming like one produced in Canada called "How it's made" would be an excellent choice to pickup language skills. Not sure if that's available in your part of the world, though. The Science Channel, in general, is a great choice if that's an option to you.

Regards,
JR

 

[epilot]

Great thread.

Epilot, you are doing great! I understand your difficulties in composing some English sentences. As I sometimes still do, you are probably thinking the sentence in Arabic and then translating it to English. I can tell because if I translate the sentences as you write them to Spanish (my native language), they come out nearly perfect. That will go away if you practice conversational English. Things will flow much easier then.

When I moved to USA many years ago, I went through some rough periods trying to get by. For example, at the office we would discuss the big change in culture and climate I had gone through. They usually followed that with "are you excited?". Well, in Spanish "excited" translates to "aroused". So I'm thinking, gee, you better try harder and at least buy me a beer...

Things go a lot easier when I learned the suffix "ing". This is magical. You can "ing" anything to make it a verb. For example, when you pour water onto a plant you are watering it. If you walk, you are walking. If you eat, you are eating. And even odd ones like book and booking, floor and flooring, roof and roofing, clock and clocking. You get the idea.

One comment on your last post, I believe you're using "education" to refer to people's manners. In Spanish we also say that someone is "educated" - literally translated - when they have good manners.

Regards,
JR

Hi JRoque.

Thanks for your input.

No, Arabic and English language are very different, specially in grammer.

Do you know, why you thought I am thinking the sentences in another language? suppose,you want to talk somebody, but you are not able to arrange your sentence. You try to say everything which can help you to say your meaning, Me too.

As I said before, I never went to any western country, so it is not so easy understanding some of sentences or phrases. So, can you have more explanation about this sentence:
"They usually followed that with "are you excited?". Well, in Spanish "excited" translates to "aroused". So I'm thinking, gee, you better try harder and at least buy me a beer... "

Yes, "ing" is magical, specially for making nouns and adjectives, thanks for reminding.

About "education" and "educated people", I wanted to say that knowledge and going to school are very important. Most of actions and reactions of humans are so related to education,(you can change any bad manner with a good education!).

A question: I would like to know, How could you improve your English languge, in the US?
Any classroom there?

Best regards.

 

[epilot]

Hi Robert,

I must confess that your above post contains a few hard parts.

.
We think of input as a singular quantity, when it is used as 'feedback.' Yes, it is true that a microcontroller, or amplifier, etc. can have multiple inputs, however, when used as above you should use it as a singular: input.

Then if I say "Thanks for your input", can you understand which I am thankfulness for all your posts?!


This one is pretty good, but did you mean 'Oh,' rather than 'O?'
Yes, I meant "Oh"

.
O.K., first, this is a 'run-on' sentence. You need to break it up a bit, perhaps like this:
Perhaps most of the older people who abuse, are uneducated. I, myself, have seen a few uneducated people, who don't respect the needs of others. The reason is clear; they are not able to understand the needs of others in society. In other words, they lack logic. When I was a kid, one day I bumped into an uneducated guy, and said "excuse me." He said to me "what can I do with your pardon." He could not understand that some things which happen, are not deliberate.

I, myself, think that 'dot' cuts off 2 sentence.I am confused, you used it at above for sentences that are relative to each other, am I wrong.(you will say
".Am I wrong" rather than ",am I wrong" for example)

I have to say that I am confused with punctuations here.

.
I took out 'a social life,' because you haven't really used it in the correct context, here. (My guess is that it is a term you have learned, and wanted to use, so tried to use it here. Am I right?
The term really means 'what one does outside of work, ie: with one's friends and acquaintances.)

I am confused again.I am not able to understand these:
"what one does outside of work, ie: with one's friends and acquaintances".
Can you let me know the real problem with my sentence.
Anyway, I meant,"an uneducated guy is not able to understand,when he lives with other people(social life) there might be some of default because humans are not perfect, and perhaps they make mistakes, but when you live in a social group; then you should understand those mistakes are natural(I wish you were me and wanted to write this paragraph. long explanation in English is hard for me at the moment)

.
This sentence seems like a very good opportunity to try out the semi-colon, and I want you to take a 'crack' at it. (In other words, you should try to re-make the sentence with semi-colons, and I'll give more feedback when you finish.)

I am a beginner in punctuation; but I'll try it:
""If you have lot of money; and no job; then spend your money by traveling to other countries. Do you want to return to your country; only because of "language" peroblems?!.
the language is a puzzle; solve it!""

.
Now I'll try and respond, at least to the last one.
My reasons for leaving are complex, and have to do with a relationship which has changed since my ticket was bought.

What this means: "and have to do with a relationship which has changed since my ticket was bought"

.
Canada would not have been my choice; I already know it fairly well, and it is not nearly as interesting to me, as many other countries, at the moment. I have met some Vietnamese people, and would really love spending some time in their country. China is also interesting, as is Indonesia. I totally fell in love with Thailand when I was there, and really would like to spend more time. Boy, my list is already long, and I could keep adding to it. The Middle East is also tempting. I met a lady from Morocco in the airport in Taipei, and we hit it off, but since have lost touch. Her country sounds fascinating. Traveling, however, conflicts with my other interests.

Oh, so you are a tourist. Very well, Middle east is a good choice but wait for a cooler season, summer is not a good season in Middle east, but autumn is nice and the weather is very cooler than now.

.
I so enjoy interacting with you; perhaps one day I will visit your country, or you mine.

Regards,
Robert

Thanks, me too. well; do you know which country I am living in?
Some days ago 4 of our relatives came back from Canada for a small trip.
They wanted me to go there or go to the US; where my uncle lives, and study there, I am eager to go there; but there are some of reasons that make me to stay here.
There is really A LOT of culture difference between Middle east countries and Western countries

Anyway; my country can be your next choice, I would like to see you; and learn more and more from your valuable knowlage, just wish,and get a ticket to here. People here are very kind specially about western guys.

Ok, I know that I have a lot of problem with Punctuation, but the time is 5:50AM and I was awake at night, so I am not able to read my writing again

Kind regards.

 

[JRoque]

Hello Epilot.

My reference in the sentence above is meant to be humorous. I was saying that when I moved to the US and heard people ask me if I was 'excited' about the move, I got confused a little. In English, 'excited' refers to a state of exhilaration or happiness. In Spanish, however, that word has a completely different connotation.

A question: I would like to know, How could you improve your English language, in the US?
Any classroom there?

Absolutely. You can indeed study English here. I lived in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts while attending school and working. There are over 23 major colleges and universities there and all have excellent "English as second language" programs. Many students come here without knowing much English at all. They take an intensive 6 month language course and then start studying their majors which are taught in English.

However, in my case, it was the need to learn that forced me into improving my communications skills. Other than watching TV and interacting with others, you'll quickly find friends that are bilingual and can help you with those difficult words or the perennial "how do you say this" question. I'm still learning, of course, but the initial learning curve was steep and challenging. When you move here, you bring your identity, culture, expressions and even regionalisms with you and try to use these to communicate. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't work so well.

The US is a big melting pot and most people here accept our differences. Yes, it is difficult at first but you learn how to maneuver around obstacles. This does not mean you lose your culture or what identifies you as a person. Instead, there's a common thread between everyone here so we can function as a society but our differences are kept alive and celebrated as well. For example, on three consecutive weekends not long ago, we attended weddings where we were all barefoot on a beach for one, broke glass cups on the floor on another and sang and threw rice on the third. Many of the friends attending were on all three weddings so this is not uncommon to see. Ok so it's not perfect, but it's really close : - )

التحيات
JR

PS: I trust Google language tools that it says "regards" above, does it?

 

[epilot]

Hello Epilot.

My reference in the sentence above is meant to be humorous. I was saying that when I moved to the US and heard people ask me if I was 'excited' about the move, I got confused a little. In English, 'excited' refers to a state of exhilaration or happiness. In Spanish, however, that word has a completely different connotation.



Absolutely. You can indeed study English here. I lived in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts while attending school and working. There are over 23 major colleges and universities there and all have excellent "English as second language" programs. Many students come here without knowing much English at all. They take an intensive 6 month language course and then start studying their majors which are taught in English.

However, in my case, it was the need to learn that forced me into improving my communications skills. Other than watching TV and interacting with others, you'll quickly find friends that are bilingual and can help you with those difficult words or the perennial "how do you say this" question. I'm still learning, of course, but the initial learning curve was steep and challenging. When you move here, you bring your identity, culture, expressions and even regionalisms with you and try to use these to communicate. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't work so well.

The US is a big melting pot and most people here accept our differences. Yes, it is difficult at first but you learn how to maneuver around obstacles. This does not mean you lose your culture or what identifies you as a person. Instead, there's a common thread between everyone here so we can function as a society but our differences are kept alive and celebrated as well. For example, on three consecutive weekends not long ago, we attended weddings where we were all barefoot on a beach for one, broke glass cups on the floor on another and sang and threw rice on the third. Many of the friends attending were on all three weddings so this is not uncommon to see. Ok so it's not perfect, but it's really close : - )

التحيات
JR

PS: I trust Google language tools that it says "regards" above, does it?

Hello JRoque,

Some days ago, I found a movie in English language,(before it; I downloaded few scientific clips from BBC and..), I have to say; it is hard understanding the words due to quickly speaking, VERY quickly speaking. I don't have the problem with those clips,
but I must say the movie speaking was horrible, the format was "MPEG4" too, and so no quality; no resolution.

Did you have any acquaintance about English language; before traveling to America?

Well, as I said before; Arabic is not my first and native language. yes; you wrote it just right, well done.

Saludos.

postdata: yo confiar mi diccionario también

 

[JRoque]

Hello Epilot,

Yes, those fast talkers are very difficult to understand. They speak very fast in the Northeast corner of US where I lived. On top of that, they have a unique accent that makes it that much more interesting. I still have a bit of that accent as I learned many new words there. For example, they say "paaak the caaaah" which is Bostonian (Boston, MA) for "park the car". At the office, I would meet people on the hallway and they would say: "hawaya" which is Bostonian for "how are you?". For a while I thought they were calling me Hawaiian so I followed with "wrong island, I'm Cuban".

Did you have any acquaintance about English language; before traveling to America?

I believe you want to say "acquaintance with" in the sentence above.

Yes, I lived in NY for one year when I was 8 years old. That helped quite a bit. I also had a few English classes at school but those were useless. My main source of English was definitely the TV. There was not much on TV back in the 1980s so I had to watch whatever they were showing. One of those shows was "The Price Is Right" so I thought it was correct to greet people by yelling "Come on down!! You won a new refrigerator!". That didn't work very well for some reason.

Arabic is not my first and native language

Oops, I missed that. I'll go back later and read your posting about that.

Regards/Saludos,
JR

 

[BeeBop]

JR, you have a wonderful sense of humor!

Epilot, I don't have much time right now, so I will explain, bit, by bit. I hope this is O.K. for you.

Then if I say "Thanks for your input", can you understand which I am thankfulness for all your posts?!

Yes, of course. This is the convention in English, and all speakers will understand what you mean.

I, myself, think that 'dot' cuts off 2 sentence.I am confused, you used it at above for sentences that are relative to each other, am I wrong.(you will say
".Am I wrong" rather than ",am I wrong" for example)

The proper term is a 'period.' The period always goes at the end of the sentence. Quotation marks("") however, are a special case, and the punctuation should be inside of them. Here, I'll give you an example:
The man said "he wasn't joking." You should also put one space after the period. A sentence should contain one complete thought. I hope this clears it up, but it may take time to gain a complete understanding.

I am confused again.I am not able to understand these:
"what one does outside of work, ie: with one's friends and acquaintances".
Can you let me know the real problem with my sentence.

What one does outside of work means when a person is not working. Your social life is what you do after work. The ie means for example. I think it really should be written i.e., but I'm not sure about this. The problem was that your sentence tried to say too much at once. It is a lot easier to break it up into smaller sentences. I understood (and for the most part agreed with what you said,) however, you asked me to correct your sentences, so I did.

Sorry, I have to get back to work, but will try and answer the rest later.

Oh, before I go, what country are you in?
Regards,
Robert

 

[BeeBop]

Epilot,
Please don't get discouraged, or upset. When I read

(I wish you were me and wanted to write this paragraph. long explanation in English is hard for me at the moment)

I wondered if you felt I was judging you on a personal level, or somehow making you feel uneasy. I am trying to help you improve, as you requested.

Well, don't you think I have kind of grammer mistakes in my sentences?If so please help me to know that mistakes(I think I have those mistakes).

In fact I think you are doing very well, and I don't mind giving you as much help as I can. Now, that paragraph you wrote, is quite complex, and IS difficult. It is not that I don't understand what you mean; I do understand, and agree with it. What I was trying to do was help you write it in a much better way.

I think the assignment I gave you was a bit too difficult at this time, and you over-used the semi colon.

I am a beginner in punctuation; but I'll try it:
""If you have lot of money; and no job; then spend your money by traveling to other countries. Do you want to return to your country; only because of "language" peroblems?!.
the language is a puzzle; solve it!""

Each segment should be able to stand on its own as a sentence, just one semi colon would do it:
"If you have lot of money, and no job, then spend your money by traveling to other countries; do you want to return to your country only because of "language" problems? The language is a puzzle, solve it!"
But, I won't give you such hard assignments in the future, until you are ready. For now, I will point out where you can make your punctuation stronger.

What this means: "and have to do with a relationship which has changed since my ticket was bought"

Ah, my reasons are related to a relationship I had with a woman, who wanted to go and live and study in Canada. We bought tickets, and I told my employer I was leaving, a few months ago. The relationship between that woman and I, has changed since then. We are only friends now, so I will help her find a place in Canada, and help her get settled, then I think I will travel.

Oh, so you are a tourist. Very well, Middle east is a good choice but wait for a cooler season, summer is not a good season in Middle east, but autumn is nice and the weather is very cooler than now.

This is a good sentence, but take out very, or change it to much. (...the weather is cooler than now. or the weather is much cooler than now.)
Yes, but I think I want to be a traveler, rather than a tourist. I say this because in a movie I once watched, called "Under Sheltering Skies," the main character points out the difference: Tourists know how long they are staying, and when they will return. Travelers do not.

Ok, I know that I have a lot of problem with Punctuation, but the time is 5:50AM and I was awake at night, so I am not able to read my writing again

Yes, for sure. You hit the nail on the head! (You got it right.) It is 100x harder when you are tired!

Be well, talk to you soon.
Robert

 

[BeeBop]

even in Canada...

Well, last week, I wished some Koreans who owned a corner store a Happy New Year. (A bit late, perhaps, but it is almost Lunar New Year, and that's the important one.) I didn't have to repeat myself, as the line is quite distinctive, but I have had to repeat myself on many occasions, when trying to speak Korean here. There are areas in Vancouver, where many Koreans live. Sometimes I'll just chastise strangers for speaking Korean, and being 'bad students.' It's all in good fun, and they usually laugh, once they know what I've said.
They are always shocked to hear a 'whitey' speaking their language.
The first day back, in the airport, I asked some young people who were speaking Korean, in Korean, "now who is the foreigner? yea, right!" They laughed, and told me they were now Canadians.
I miss Korea, and find I'm quite disillusioned with my own country.

 

[epilot]

Well, last week, I wished some Koreans who owned a corner store a Happy New Year. (A bit late, perhaps, but it is almost Lunar New Year, and that's the important one.) I didn't have to repeat myself, as the line is quite distinctive, but I have had to repeat myself on many occasions, when trying to speak Korean here. There are areas in Vancouver, where many Koreans live. Sometimes I'll just chastise strangers for speaking Korean, and being 'bad students.' It's all in good fun, and they usually laugh, once they know what I've said.
They are always shocked to hear a 'whitey' speaking their language.
The first day back, in the airport, I asked some young people who were speaking Korean, in Korean, "now who is the foreigner? yea, right!" They laughed, and told me they were now Canadians.
I miss Korea, and find I'm quite disillusioned with my own country.

Wow, thanks Robert to restart this thread again, I need to learn more and more yet. I can remember my English teacher at high school who said us
" the whole English language is made of 500 or 600 words, so if you learn meaning of just those 500 or 600 words then you can read English books or even talk in English without any problem". Now after learning the meaning of more than 1000 words; reading and writing the threads and papers via Internet I see myself as a beginner! even I am not sure that I am able to speak with an English guy.

Well I hope to be a Canadian soon too, I am sure your aids make me a Canadian sooner than I think

 

[phalanx]

Wow, thanks Robert to restart this thread again, I need to learn more and more yet. I can remember my English teacher at high school who said us
" the whole English language is made of 500 or 600 words, so if you learn meaning of just those 500 or 600 words then you can read English books or even talk in English without any problem". Now after learning the meaning of more than 1000 words; reading and writing the threads and papers via Internet I see myself as a beginner! even I am not sure that I am able to speak with an English guy.

I'm also glad to see this thread revived as I enjoyed reading it when it was active. As a native English speaker I do not appreciate the complexity of the language until I see someone struggling to master it.

I chuckled when I read that your teacher said you only need to know 500-600 words to survive. There are thousands of base words which can be combined with numerous prefixes (like un, ex, in, etc.), suffixes (like ing, ed, ish, etc.), and voice inflection to form hundreds of thousands of combinations. Granted we don't regularly use a large portion of them but it helps to be able to understand them.

As far as your English is concerned, I don't think you would have much trouble communicating in person with a native English speaker as you seem to grasp the general concepts and common vocabulary. The beauty of English is there are so many ways to communicate the same idea that a reasonably educated person should be able to extract what you are trying to communicate from what you actually said.

Just keep in mind that I have been surrounded by English for all 26 years of my life and every now and then I still have to look up the meaning of words that I hear in every day conversation.

 

[Roff]

BeeBop, perhaps you can explain your references to Korean, Chinese, etc. You refer to these languages, but I have seen no context. If you had given us some idea of your background, the "let me feel your balls" comment might have been a little less baffling.

 

[BeeBop]

First of all, yes, English has the largest vocabulary of any language; I learned the size was 275,000 words, when I studied English, but there seems to be some disagreement. I googled, and took this:

"The statistics of English are astonishing. Of all the world's languages (which now number some 2,700), it is arguably the richest in vocabulary. The compendious Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words; and a further half-million technical and scientific terms remain uncatalogued. According to traditional estimates, neighboring German has a vocabulary of about 185,000 and French fewer than 100,000,

from this https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/JohnnyLing.shtml page.

Epilot, while your teacher may have told you a lie, it was a 'white lie.' A white lie is one which doesn't hurt people. In fact, if you knew how much vocabulary, you may have given up, instead of working as hard as you did. I think you are doing well; I can see some improvement in the time you have been posting here.

Bill, you have a good attitude toward language. I think the more intelligent people will look up the words, even simple ones, rather than just guess at the meaning. When I did grad school, I spent a lot of time looking up words which I thought I knew the meaning of, but the context they were used in (Post Modern Discourse) left me baffled. (Never more has the phrase 'if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with ********' been so relevant!

Ron, I spent five years living in Korea, teaching English. It was some of the best time of my life. Learning to read and write Hangul (Korean Alphabet) was easy. The hard parts are the vocabulary, listening, and pronunciation. I didn't really realize how developed my Korean skills were, until I returned to this side of the large pond. I can only read about four or five Chinese Characters. While Hangul is based on phonics (the letters try to emulate the shape of the lips while speaking) and is fairly 'scientific,' Chinese characters are like pict-o-grams, and one must remember them by rote. Speaking Chinese would be a lot easier for an English Speaker, than Korean or Japanese, as Chinese has the same syntax as English. Korean and Japanese put the verb at the end. The Asian languages also have honorifics, which English does not.

At first I wanted to live in Japan, having studied Karate for several years,but I think Korea was even better for me. Island people have a particular character, as do peninsula people. A similar character type can be found in Korea and Italy: they tend to be very intense and emotional. Island people, have this 'reserved' attitude, which I have never been able to deal very well with. (Most professors in my University!)

I find people and their cultures interesting, and generally like people, however, I am having a very hard time with Canadians, and how they act. I find people here quite rude. That may be the 'reverse culture shock' thing at work. This brings me to another point.

Epilot, if you do come to Canada, you will have to work very hard to keep your status. Many people leave their home countries as doctors, nurses, etc. and end up working in a corner store. It is not at all fair. The woman I mentioned in my last post used to teach high school in Korea. Now she works in a corner store.

I am also having a hard time with the price of electronic components in Canada. Seems like so many A-hole outfits blister pack a couple of resistors, and sell them for a dollar a resistor. The worst is cat5 cable, which is generally a dollar a foot, instead of the 5 to 10 cent I was paying, and batteries, which are more than ten times the price here. The book stores in Korea had tons of English books on embedded. Here, I haven't found a single one on the shelves. Also, the electronics markets in Korea were huge; the two which I frequented in Seoul were at least a couple of square kilometers in size. Here, the best I found was two stores close together on Main Street. One is run by a Chinese guy, and I like shopping there. There is a Future Active store, but it sucks. They had a couple of PICs (16F628s and 16F84a) and the price was around fifteen dollars each. Thank God we have the internet!