OSDev.org

English is not my natural language . I need to do some extra processing to convert my thoughts into English . I found my myself guilty of using the wrong tenses , incorrect prepositions ...etc .. I also have made lots of spelling mistakes ... Although i can correct most them at a second reading ... This is may not be an option all the time . How should i try to improve .. I do read a lot ... I have my table cluttered with books ... I dont even have breathing space ...

Regards

Sandeep Mathew

Well... you could take an English Course...

order some english self-learning materials such as audio-books.

My advice would be to write a lot in english. Maybe that could help you to start thinking in english a little bit better. Also if you have someone close to you that knows english that can look over your writing that would help a lot.

Read English, listen English, write English.

At school, my English was mediocre. But I read RPG manuals, fantasy and sci-fi novels in English, listened to BFBS (British Forces radio station), wrote stories and - later - on the internet. That's about the only way to achieve the skill of thinking in foreign language - exposition. You might want to consider spending your holidays in some English-speaking country, too.

Important is that you pay attention to details. Ask people to correct you, not letting minor mistakes slip. And pay attention when you use language!

For example, your post here. It's horrible to read - not because of bad English, but because you did not pay much attention, and got sloppy with the punctuation. That did cost you much more readability than any spelling mistake you might have made, and it did cost you an opportunity to practice proper punctuation.

Solar pretty much nailed everything. Look everything over at least once, if not twice. Read a big book in english, like Lord of the Rings. Watch english TV (with subtitles if you want, or better, with english subtitles)

All I can add is that it takes time. The bilingual school I attended took 6(!) years to have me pass my IB Certificate English.

like Lord of the Rings

Holy crap! You really want them to hit the ground running, don't you! That book is filled with archaic language specifically designed to frighten the crap out of any foreign reader - many people for whom English is their first language have trouble reading it!

(I didn't. But I'm not many people )

JamesM wrote:

like Lord of the Rings

Holy crap! You really want them to hit the ground running, don't you! That book is filled with archaic language specifically designed to frighten the crap out of any foreign reader - many people for whom English is their first language have trouble reading it!

(I didn't. But I'm not many people )

I actually read this book a long time ago, before i even graduated from school (that is, i dont know what to call it (public school?) but i was 17).

So what i am trying to say is, that the book aren't as complicated as it looks.

Zacariaz wrote:So what i am trying to say is, that the book aren't as complicated as it looks.

Yes - but if you wanted to learn another language, there are probably better ways to go about it than buying something like LOTR in that language and reading it

Cheers,
Adam

@Sandeep: Your English is pretty good - to say the truth, better than mine. I have trouble recognizing British accent and I speak very weird if it comes to English. Don't have the right accent
Also I was listening to AC/DC some years ago and I heard them screaming "Heil! Heil! Heil!" at the beginning of some song (i guess it was TNT) and when I googled for lyrics, they were saying "oy! oy! oy!".

Regards
inflater

JamesM wrote:

like Lord of the Rings

Holy crap! You really want them to hit the ground running, don't you! That book is filled with archaic language specifically designed to frighten the crap out of any foreign reader - many people for whom English is their first language have trouble reading it!

(I didn't. But I'm not many people )

My reasoning behind it was that
1) The story is well-known. It has translations everywhere, and there's the movies (most likely including translations as well). Knowing what is supposed to happen helps with understanding the book
2) Its originally written in English. There's nothing lost in translation.
3) The OP already knows the language to some extent. (He got here somehow in the first place)
4) LOTR has a very good story, a bit subjective remark but I did find it fun to read (And many others did), its not of the kind which you read because you have to.
5) If you really want to learn something, you have to push yourself. Hence it needs to be at least a bit of a challenge.

Hence, I think LOTR has both the quality and an appropriate level.
You could also try something along the lines of Harry Potter if you want something less challenging, but the humouristic subtleties that make it fun may be missed if your English isn't up to speed enough.

School gave me a lot of books that I had to read in English. Most of them were boring to the point of being annoying. Especially when you get that oral test and you have to drag on for 20 minutes on an excerpt of 15 lines and you have to know all the details by hard. Hence I don't try to have you read a book that's uninteresting in the first place.

Hi all,
Thanks everyone for your suggestions . I will indeed try to improve . I think the main idea is to read more non - technical books than technical ones. I have read Harry Porter . I do not like it . I will try to read Lord of the Rings . I am a big fan of Agatha Christie . The biggest book i have completed reading in terms of size is Charles Petzold 's - Programming Windows . I do read a lot . I can read at a pretty fast pace . My accent is also horrible , I am just a pig headed moron . I can't afford a holiday in a foreign country because i do not have a fixed income . Most of the extra income i get is through the coding contests conducted by some universities . I win most of them and this is my only source of extra income . But i did get offer letters from 2 companies . But then i will have to work at least 10 hrs a day . There wont be any chance or time for a vacation .

Regards
Sandeep Mathew

SandeepMathew wrote:Hi all,
Thanks everyone for your suggestions . I will indeed try to improve . I think the main idea is to read more non - technical books than technical ones. I have read Harry Porter . I do not like it . I will try to read Lord of the Rings . I am a big fan of Agatha Christie . The biggest book i have completed reading in terms of size is Charles Petzold 's - Programming Windows . I do read a lot . I can read at a pretty fast pace . My accent is also horrible , I am just a pig headed moron . I can't afford a holiday in a foreign country because i do not have a fixed income . Most of the extra income i get is through the coding contests conducted by some universities . I win most of them and this is my only source of extra income . But i did get offer letters from 2 companies . But then i will have to work at least 10 hrs a day . There wont be any chance or time for a vacation .

Regards
Sandeep Mathew

10 hrs a day?! Wow.

* JamesM sticks to his 8hour day, thank you very much!

Also, it's normal to put a space *after* a full stop, but *not* before one, for example:

This is a normal sentence. It contains commas, and semicolons; a semicolon means "the following is a description of the former".

NOT

This is a normal sentence . It contains commas , and semicolons ; a semicolon means "the following is a description of the former" .

SandeepMathew wrote:English is not my natural language . I need to do some extra processing to convert my thoughts into English .

I think this is the method that beginners use to understand foreign language. I have the same problem when I started to learn english in the fifth year at school. Three years later I started to think in English, without wasting time for translating my throughts from Bulgarian to English and vice versa. I probably make a lot of mistakes while write in English, for example in this forum, but I can understand enough good any English document in internet. Actually for me it is more difficult to translate a document, than just reading it. How to make reading with understanding without translating? I recommend you to learn words. Take a notebook and write down at least twenty times every new word, at the same time try to imagine what the word represent.

JamesM wrote:a semicolon means "the following is a description of the former".

Isn't a semicolon more generally used to connect two related sentence fragments? (Therefore not restricting it to a description.)