Ye Olde Pub (The English Pub)

[Baron Baron]

I'll follow that advice, thank you.

I have got a lot of knowledge from playing games actually. I've been playing GTA San Andreas on a roleplay multiplayer server, quite fun actually. I want to join the police force on that server, but you have to use a microphone to join. I'm not sure if I feel comfortable enough to talk to strangers, especially in english, even though I feel pretty comfortable with my english level. Got any advices for that?

I think one of the best things to do is, just as Bear said, to walk around talking to yourself in English.

Since I was a kid, I've had this habit of always doing, it improved my pronunciation A LOT, and, if I overcome a word I don't know, I look it up in the dictionary and repeat the sentence a couple of times.

Also, it's important to decide whether you want to speak with an American, or a British accent, because if you don't you might just end up having a strange combination.

[Thrinduil]

Really cool topic. I've actually looked for a time now for an English forum, so this thread could be really interesting

[Erik den Raude]

I'll follow that advice, thank you.

I have got a lot of knowledge from playing games actually. I've been playing GTA San Andreas on a roleplay multiplayer server, quite fun actually. I want to join the police force on that server, but you have to use a microphone to join. I'm not sure if I feel comfortable enough to talk to strangers, especially in english, even though I feel pretty comfortable with my english level. Got any advices for that?

I think one of the best things to do is, just as Bear said, to walk around talking to yourself in English.

Since I was a kid, I've had this habit of always doing, it improved my pronunciation A LOT, and, if I overcome a word I don't know, I look it up in the dictionary and repeat the sentence a couple of times.

Also, it's important to decide whether you want to speak with an American, or a British accent, because if you don't you might just end up having a strange combination.

 

I've found talking to myself largely ineffective for improving pronounciation.

[Allighiero]

Pronounciation is the key in most cases, what's the use of many words if you speak like Peter Solberg? "But but it isn't only only".

 

Well, if you know a lot of words which you're not that good at pronouncing, it will get you a lot further than knowing a few words that you can pronounce perfectly. And in Solberg's case he's bad at both : ) He wouldn't have said it like that if he knew the correct words. It's also a lot easier to learn the pronounciation than to learn the words, grammar, correct meanings etc.

 

I've found talking to myself largely ineffective for improving pronounciation.

 

It helped me a lot. Whenever I watched british films or TV I used to pick up a few words and practiced them, and by doing that I eventually got a pretty strong english accent. It was of course improved a little at school as well, but I was always a step or three in front of most of the class, so it definitely helped me. Then again different people learn in different ways.

[Bear^]

In my opinion the best thing to do is grow your vocabulary alongside working on the pronounciation. Also since many of the words in the English language is pronounced the same way but have different meanings depending on your what you're saying, per example lie, it's as important to understand the meaning as it is to understand the pronounciation and use of it. As many scholars sais, what's the use of knowledge when you don't know when or where to use it?

 

It's no an exact science how to approach learning of the English language or any other language for that matter, for some it's a simple trial and error, the oldest way of learning known. But I think pronounication is very important to inflict the correct meaning in your sentence.

[Allighiero]

I do get your point, but what I'm trying to say is that you don't need perfect pronounciation to understand the use and the meanings of the words, and you don't necessarily understand the use and the meanings even though you have perfect pronounciation (although that admittedly would be a rare case). I've had lecturers whose pronounciation haven't been perfect, but who still have been able to hold a perfectly good lecture, with the help of a broad vocabulary and understanding of english.. There's a lot of people who can write advanced articles in academic english, but sound like every other norwegian/french/italian etc when speaking.

Endret 14. februar 2009 av Allighiero

[Mountain]

What is your best suggestions to master the English language in both the written and the oral way, Allighiero. Just use the tongue as much as I can?

 

I have one last question, is the word "tongue" an acceptable replacement for the word language when it comes to talking and speaking?

Endret 15. februar 2009 av Narrie

[Allighiero]

What is your best suggestions to master the English language in both the written and the oral way, Allighiero. Just use the tongue as much as I can?

 

I have one last question, is the word "tongue" an acceptable replacement for the word language when it comes to talking and speaking?

 

I can't really recommend anything since I've never systematically tried to learn english myself. I basically just picked it up from a very young age, in the start through computer games, and then from other sources like TV etc, and somehow by the time I moved to England I had a decent english accent. I can imagine however that the more you speak it the better you'll become. As for written english I strongly suggest getting some books in english, it really helps a lot.

 

As for the word tongue, it can replace the word language, but I don't think you'll score any extra points in essays for using that From my experience the teachers seem to like it better if you don't try to make it too complicated, if that's why you're asking.

[Mountain]

Thanks!

[~ David ~]

As for the word tongue, it can replace the word language, but I don't think you'll score any extra points in essays for using that From my experience the teachers seem to like it better if you don't try to make it too complicated, if that's why you're asking.

 

The only instance I can think of where tongue might replace language is in 'mother tongue', i.e. 'morsmål'.

 

Regarding teachers.. I had a moron substitute in high school (who, unfortunately, turned out to be our permanent teacher) who stubbornly held that the word hypocrisy was spelled hypocracy. I said that I listened to a Swedish band calling themselves Hypocrisy, and that I knew for a fact that the correct spelling was hypocrisy.

I also said hypocrisy is not a form of government, like democracy or theocracy, but that didn't help. Instead, he said that since the band were from Sweden they were probably idiots and therefore wrong, and asked an American pothead exchange student in our class what he thought. The pothead answered, (obviously) that hypocracy was the correct spelling.

 

I quit the class that day. (Really, I did).

[Bear^]

Hehe, I think we can say that the teacher had an epic fail, and the pothead as well. Though hypocracy is such a common misspelling that you can even find it in Wiktionary under just that, misspelling.

 

How an American can agree with is something I can't understand but then again, he might have been high on something realy realy strong. Wonder what it was.

[~ David ~]

He failed big time, yes. As for the pothead, I don't think he was stoned at the time, he was just an ignorant fool. If I remember correctly he was later expelled though, for use of drugs in school. Hey, I'm a poet

[Allighiero]

As for the word tongue, it can replace the word language, but I don't think you'll score any extra points in essays for using that From my experience the teachers seem to like it better if you don't try to make it too complicated, if that's why you're asking.

 

The only instance I can think of where tongue might replace language is in 'mother tongue', i.e. 'morsmål'.

 

That's the most common use, but there are other uses to it as well.

 

I don't think he was stoned at the time, he was just american.

 

Fixed

[Slimda]

For more Tongue-information, check out the following link.

[Bear^]

Mother tongue? I would've used native tongue, I think that makes more "sense" even though mother tongue is not wrong

Endret 22. februar 2009 av Bear^

[Vikingspeider]

I've never heard "native tongue" before - mother tongue seems to be the most common term. But there is "native language".

[Bear^]

Well there is, Linky

[Vitharr]

In response to the many people who are finding ways to practice their English, joining an English forum would help a lot with the written aspect of English. As far as pronunciation goes, speaking English with friends (especially if one of them is a native speaker) is great.

 

BUT, the ultimate thing to do, is go on exchange or work in a country where English is the official language.

 

Kind of like I've been in Norway for about a year, my Norwegian has sky rocketed since I first started learning 3 years ago.

Endret 12. april 2009 av Vitharr

[Ljóseind]

Hi there everyone.

Since this thread is for only writing in English, I might as well ask you out there if anybody of you can do as I request below:

 

Would somebody please explain to me, what is the difference between these words?:

While - Whilst

Who - Whom

 

Also I was wondering if it is so that my English teacher in school is worse than me in English. Because in my last English tentamen, he claimed that this sentence is grammatically incorrect:

"One of the texts that I thought were difficult, was the one with ... "

 

He claims that it should be:

"One of the texts that I thought was difficult, was the one with ... "

 

And I am absolutely sure that what he claims is absolutely wrong!

Someone confirm that my sentence was correct, please.

 

Thank you very much.

Endret 12. april 2009 av Norvegisk

[Vitharr]

"While" and "whilst" actually mean the exact same thing. You might hear whilst used in British English occasionally, but it is rarely used in American English.

 

Who is a subject pronoun, whereas whom is an object pronoun. It's a little difficult to understand at first, but you will get the hang of it!

http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/who_whom.html

 

As for the grammatically correct sentence, your teacher is right.

 

"of the textS" is a prepositional phrase, thus it is kind of ignored...

I'm not the best at explaining this, so I'll use another example.

 

None of the chairs is clean - correct

None of the chairs are clean - incorrect.

 

Think about it this way:

Take away "of the chairs" and it becomes "none (not one) are"...which makes no sense, so "is" is proper.

 

Correct English does indeed sound really weird - but that just shows how many people can't speak English properly. Which is really sad, because it means that most native English speakers fail at their own language.

Endret 12. april 2009 av Vitharr