Der Englisch "Üben" - Thread

My English teacher speaks with an astonishing British accent. Everything he says is spoken with care for details and sense for pronounciation. It's great to listen to it, but it also spoils my ears. When I heard another teacher at my school speak English I noticed how much I had adapted to "Royal English".
Some of my classmates have developed strong accents themselves because they spent some time in New Zealand or Ireland and they don't hesitate to use it at school. Others mix English with French and talk as if they had hot potatoes in their mouths. :rolleyes:
I think it is not very difficult to understand different accents or dialects in English if they're spoken slowly enough.
 
Now where's the people who wanted the practice?
This was supposed to be a practicing thread, not a chatting thread for those, who already are fluent in English :D

Keep it coming!
Ask questions, now you know, there are people who can answer them!
Don't be shy, we all started somewhere, and I for myself would have been glad for such an opportunity.
 
kind of good idea... i really want to improve my english. where did you learn to speak english? only in school? i just want to say that english in school isnt that good. only practising and learning senseless things like what effects drugs have... :rolleyes: i would like to say that i've learned to speak english by watching english movies or playing english games. this is much better than sitting in school and get bored...
 
@Khabarakh1186: I had (and have) a very good teacher. We usualyy don't work with the english book, but write texts: the teacher gives us a theme (for example past forms) and we have to write a text (not important about what), that includes past-forms. It's very exciting to work like this ...
I was motivated (also because of SW) to read english books. And that's the place where I really learned English. If you want to learn English, read a book! ;)
 
sure, reading books can be useful too. but in english games that arent lokalized but have german subtitles you will learn english quite good too.

our english teacher is so boring it just makes me sick even thinking about it. all the pupils look every 5th minute on their watch to see how long the lesson goes... our teacher even doesnt notice that she makes us bored. we actually said to her that the lessons aren't nice, because we dont learn things we could use in real life... but nothing happened yet
 
School gives you a pretty good foundation on which you can build up your skill.
I had as I said before the weirdest teachers in English, but it gave me enogh knowledge to build on it. I could read books and understand terms I didn't know by context analysis.
I had a much harder time watching movies in original, because of the sometimes heavy accents, and the fact, that they don't speak slowlier just for learners like me. However the skill came almost all by itself. :)
I think everyone can make it. Even those, who have bad marks at school, because they have heard all the same crap and just couldn't reproduce what the teachers expected.
 
Is there any other topic you would like to talk about? School or watching films in English doesn't take us very far.
Who has already visited an English speaking country?
 
I've got a big problem: when do I need to write to and when too? The same problem is when I write of and off..
 
Original geschrieben von Syal
I've got a big problem: when do I need to write to and when too? The same problem is when I write of and off..
Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

I don't know the grammatic rule for this case, but I'll give you an example:
"I like Star Wars, too." (Ich mag Star Wars auch)
"Your lightsaber is too short." (Dein Lichtschwert ist zu kurz)
"Wedge loves to fly." (Wedge liebt es zu fliegen)

"Have you got any of the new comics?" (Hast du welche von den neuen Comics)
"Switch the light off." (Mach das Licht aus)
"Han jumped off the roof." (Han sprang runter vom Dach)

I hope this helps you a bit.
 
Quite simple:

Too can mean "also" like someone is doing/thinking the same. Then it appears at the end of a sentence.

"Will you be going there, too? "
"I want some candy, too!"

We use too also, when something is exaggerated, like saying "too much" or "too small" or "too big" etc.

to you use in all other cases. In timeforms: "When are you going to clean your room?"
When using verbs: " I like to sing"
"to be or not to be"
When referring to someone or something: "I was talking to my cat"

in short: pretty much every other occasion, when you ask yourself "too or to?"

Off you use when something is not On anymore.
"She jumped off her bike"
"I switch all the lights off when I leave my home"

And of is the rest. It can mean "from" like it is used in titles "Joan of Arc" or ... actually I can't think of anything else than the "from"like use...

Hope this helped.

Edit: I mean:
I hope, I was able to help. :D
 
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@ Dyesce: Well done! Although I like English and make few mistakes, I've never cared much about grammar. It's not necessary to know why it must be "too" and not "to" to use it in the right way. But I can't explain it to others.
 
Just a short question:

how do you practice english? simply learning word for word? watching films in english? playing games in english? even talk english sometimes?

i cant learn word for word because that would drive me insane (okay, im allready insane, but that's not because of english :D ). i like to play english games or watching a film sometime in english...

so how do you learn?
 
Thank you Falynn :)

Well I started with the English I learned at school as a basis. Then I discovered, that reading an english book is not as hard as everyone thinks, because there is a story, so you can just get the meaning of all these strange words you don't know yet from the context. You just have to ignore your ignorance :p the rest is easy. You will find that you DO understand what is said.

At that point the learning with vocabulary and grammar and the schoolstuff is ended, and you just learn as you keep learning German. Or do you know all german words? I don't. But it comes to you. Someone uses a new word, you get the meaning or you ask. Just the same with English.

I found it harder to understand spoken English in Movies. There I started with watching Movies I already knew in Synchro. So I knew what they said and could comprehend more. Now I hardly have problems understanding someone, even with hard accents or many mistakes.

You stop being taught (by whoever: teacher or maybe yourself) and just learn. Being taught is work, learning is inevitable in life. You learn every day all the time... It doesn't hurt anymore *g*

I must admit I have a slight advantage. Even the being taught comes easy to me with languages. That's why I can still recollect the grammar lessons. But as long as you get along you don't need to know WHY, just HOW. And not even that most of the time. :)

And as Falynn already has stated, talking about school and learning and all that stuff won't push us along.

So, how was your last holiday and where did you go? I'd like to talk about holidays right now, because I loathe going to work tomorrow...
 
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Holidays is a difficult topic for me. Because I haven't been on holiday since 1997. In that summer my family and me went to Berlin for five days, lived there in a small flat in Hennigsdorf and had a good time, but I can't remember any details. We went to an Italian restaurant every evening and they had a delicious drink there (I don't know what it was called).

Different topic... Where would I like to go on holiday?

There are many cities in Germany I'd like to visit. Some because I have friends there, some because I've been there once and didn't see everything I wanted and some other that seem interesting to me. But most of all I'd love to return to the island Föhr. Six years ago (just a few weeks after the Berlin-holiday) I lived there for four weeks and it was like paradise! Seawater, sand, shells, wind and uncountable hours of playing outside with other children. I was twelve then and it was the time when I fell in love for the first time successfully. Daniel was my age and he confessed his love the night before we left...
childhood-summer-dreams
 
time to take this thread out of its lonelyness ;)

Yesterday I read my first english book till the end - I'm very proud of me. It was only YJK, so not very difficult, but better to start easy. I think my english is not the best, but I'm on my way to make it better.
I don't know if there was this question any time - did you ever read an english book till the end?
 
Well, in fact there is only one english book, I haven't read till the end. It's "About a boy". We're reading it in school, but i just have to say that it's the most boring book i've ever seen. I haven't seen the film too, because i dislike Hugh Grant but after the first chapters of the book (since 8 Weeks I'm on page 76) I think that the film can't be good.

At the moment, I'm also reading "Forrest Gump" in english. I think it's one of the best books I've ever read in english. It's very informal, and doesn't refer to the film in all points, but it's a lot of fun. One of the best Reclam-books. *g*

Books I've also read in englisch? Of course Harry Potter (All five books), The Lord of the Rings, The Wave, Dead end for murder, Romeo an Juliet, and I think a lot more... I just forgot them!
 
Oh... I have read all StarWars Books in English, by which I mean all of them. I read comics in English, I've read several other books in English, e.g. the Robot Series by Asimov or all the Dune Books. Actually I only read books in German which have not been written in English, like Neverending Story or Books written in Frech for example. I have several French comics which I read in German because if there has to be a translation it can be in my native language.
 
There are plenty of books, I've read in English. My last one was "Stupid White Men" and the next one will be "Dude, where is my country?"
And - however - there are plenty of physics-books on my shelf. Do you prefer English or American English?

mtfbwy,
Yado
 
My last book which I read in english was Harry Potter the Order the Phoenix. But I find the book very boring. My next book will be Return ot the King from Lord of the Rings.

I must say, that my english will be better and better when I read much in english.
 
My english teacher always spoke a very formal britisch english, and I've taken the attitude from them.
In my opinion BE sounds very elegant, no matter if it's written or spoken.

As a matter of fact, it's kind of funny when we are in form, and the whole form speaks of (just an example) a "garage" with a very short first "a" and then it's me extremely stressing the "a". I just like it! Of course that's just pronounciation, but it's the same with the word.

What I completely dislike is the way is the "x" is uses for a "chris", e.g. in Christmas.

But refering to books... well it's not the language that judges if I prefer reading a book. The language has to fit to the topic and to the time. I mean, I really love Shakespeare, but it would be horrible for me reading one of his dramas in a very informal american english. Same is with a story that takes place in the modern amercia. Nobody would expect a book like that, beeing written in old english, or formal british english. But all in all, I prefer reading these old english novels and books, maybe just because I like these storys...
 
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