I need everybody's opinion about what makes it's so hard to speak good English?

[三维人生]

Don't worry about mistakes. Focus on your message. Stop apologizing.

Speak often and you'll speak well.

 

[bright smile]

correct your pronunciation. I　find a lot of chinese people here, don't know their pronuncaiton is wrong. you need people who care to point it out for you. it's the only way you can correct it. some people's grammer is already good enough, it's the accent/pronuncation bothers people.

 

[fixer]

my husband always correct my pronunciation and grammer when I try to talk to him in english. it makes me mad all the time,
I think I should thank him for doing that, now.

 

[Obiwan]

i don't think people should pay too much attention to the pronunciation or accent. As long as it is clear and other party can understand you, to me that will be good enough.

As matter of fact, accent is a character of being yourself. So what you may sound like a chinese, and which in fact you are chinese.

One example- Often:

I use to pronunce it as "ofen" now I pronunce it as "OFF TON". But people understand me either way. I guess what I try to say is that people should pay attention how others structure the sentence when they speak, and making sure that you can avoid speaking "broken english". In terms of pronunciation or accent is less critical.

Language is a communication tool, as long as people can understand each other during the conversation that will be good enough.

 

[yokel]

So many aspects for people like us to pay attention in order to speak decent English. Many aspects have been covered or mentioned by some people. One of them which seems to be left out and I would like to touch is the culture aspect.

I had talked to some Chinese online. They can speak grammatically perfect English, but as soon as they opon their mouth, you can tell they are Chinese, and you can see they have difficulty communicating with native English speakers at deeper and broarder levels. I would like to recommend you should also pay some attention to the culture. For example, why native English speakers say what they say? what's behind what they say? Things like that...

English is really a big subject...

 

[babykiss]

How can I find the native people to practise English. Sometimes it is a bad cycle: you can't speak good english so you can't make native people as friend and you can't make native people as friend so you can't speak good english. sigh. Whether there are some good resources including english speaking volunteers shared with ESL people?

 

[yokel]

最初由 babykiss 发布
How can I find the native people to practise English. Sometimes it is a bad cycle: you can't speak good english so you can't make native people as friend and you can't make native people as friend so you can't speak good english. sigh. Whether there are some good resources including english speaking volunteers shared with ESL people?

Unlike many who have recommeded to find a native tongue to practise your English, I personally would not recommend that for many reasons. What I recommend would be that you shift your emphasis to relying on yourself. Because I think improving English which includes so many areas is a life time project, and there's no shortcut or quick fix. especially for people like us not in English major. Here are some of things on top of my head that I recommend you keep doing:

- improve your pronounciation/accent
- increase your vocabulary, and refresh the ones you already have, but not frequently used
- pay attention 'on your toes' to idioms and idiomatic expressions
- pay attention to the western value system
- pay attention to the western mentality
- pay attention to the western etiquette

While at it, "the native people" means aboriginal people, it should be "native speakers" or "mother tongue". Also "bad cycle" should be "vicious circle", but "catch 22" would be more accurate here. Hope that helps.

 

[Clo]

1) pronounciation
2) confidence

 

[babykiss]

最初由 yokel 发布

Unlike many who have recommeded to find a native tongue to practise your English, I personally would not recommend that for many reasons. What I recommend would be that you shift your emphasis to relying on yourself. Because I think improving English which includes so many areas is a life time project, and there's no shortcut or quick fix. especially for people like us not in English major. Here are some of things on top of my head that I recommend you keep doing:

- improve your pronounciation/accent
- increase your vocabulary, and refress the ones you already have, but not frequently used
- pay attention 'on your toes' to idioms and idiomatic expressions
- pay attention to the western value system
- pay attention to the western mentality
- pay attention to the western etiquette

While at it, "the native people" means aboriginal people, it should be "native speakers" or "mother tongue". Also "bad cycle" should be "vicious circle", but "catch 22" would be more accurate here. Hope that helps.

Thank you for your advices. May I know what is your specific ways to improve English? I know "pay attention to" those things, but how?

 

[yokel]

最初由 babykiss 发布
Thank you for your advices. May I know what is your specific ways to improve English? I know "pay attention to" those things, but how?

What a smart question...

Your original question was like asking direction on a street, and I drew a detailed map and gave it to you. Now you come back asking me to take you there...

Just kidding... It's just a bit time-consuming for me to elaborate on all the points. How about you tell me which point you are most interested, and I will try to explain it. And I'll try other ones later on if I have time.

 

[市丸]

honestly, oral is all about the flow. once you are there, you are just there. I really don't think oral is any harder than commentary or essay writing. Of course oral commentaries could be slightly more challenging, but overall, oral is no harder than writing.

 

[dragon's heir]

don't be afraid of making mistakes. to increase your vocabulary, read a few novels in your spare time.

 

[haoren1]

It takes time to master a new language. Practice makes perfect.

 

[Canadian guy]

Big Tip is to practise. Another, is find a Canadian roommate.

The worst thing you can do is to come to Canada or any english speaking country and not try to make friends with the engish speaking country citizens. It would be like me visiting a town in china where there is little english spoken, and refusing to try to practise chinese, it just doesn't make sense.

I have met people here for several years and there english oral is not very good, because they never practise. Also, I have had several people be here for years and then proceed to tell me I am there first canadian friend.

Wow... its all I can say. If you don't want to practise, then its ok. But if you wish to improve your oral english, then you must look for every opportunity to practise.

If you limit yourself to talking to other people who are learning english, you may not get the chance to have your mistakes fixed. There are people out there with patience who love to help speak better english. You just have to be open to criticisms and have a good sense of humour. Sometimes we have to laugh, or atleast I do, when my friends say something that sounds so bad its funny, but then they will learn the proper way.

So good luck everyone.