In this thread, we attempt to learn to read, write, and speak English, a language which would be very useful to know. It is widely spoken throughout the world.
Do you speak English? Are you fluent? What resources did you use to learn? Can you give some examples in this thread? Posts some useful links.
Let's help each other out and learn a new language.
>>5
You don't speak ANYTHING unless I say you can. Understand?
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-06 7:07
I'm afraid most non-native English speakers visiting 4chan's text boards are too far into their studies to be interested contributing to a thread like this, hence all the shitposting it attracts.
I'll do a serious post because of the enthusiasm displayed by OP.
Education in my country is good, but as a kid I always felt my comprehension of English was horrible compared to those around me. After console games started becoming more text heavy and required reading to progress, it didn't take too long before I'd "mastered" the language.
I usually don't like to describe myself as fluent because I find things are seriously lacking in the pronunciation department. Not quite sure how to go about fixing that without going abroad and living in an English-speaking country, would anyone happen to have a good web resource for pronunciation training?
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-06 9:28
Do you speak English?
A little, I can write it, but my pronunciation sucks since I learned by reading
Are you fluent?
Just in basic conversations
What resources did you use to learn?
Videogames, most of the good ones are only available in English, plus I love to watch movies with their OV
I should probably take a course at my university to actually learn the rules and all,
>>7
I improved my accent by working as a customer care representative for an American company. I guess I was one of those "indians" Americans get to hate when they call 1-800-DELL or whatever piece of shit company they decided to give money to.
Although you need to live in a poor country to get such a job. Nobody outsources those jobs to Sweden or Japan, they look for poor people who are willing to take shit from spoilt niggers and rednecks, all by the awesome net wage of 400 USD or so.
Needless to say, I improved it considerably, but I still don't sound American or English.
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-12 17:23
>>11
Did you have to lie and say you were Ted in Texas or something? I always wonder when they say that kind of shit if they're telling the truth.
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-12 21:24
>>7
Don't worry about accent-reduction. It's just not worth the months or potential years it might take to eliminate the most prominent features of your speech. It's not even guaranteed you'll be able to adhere to "standard pronunciation" at all.
Obviously there's heavy bias laid around "proper" pronunciation (largely Midwestern dialect for America) but so long as you have a strong understanding of the language itself, its syntax, grammar, etc. (which you definitely seem to), you shouldn't berate yourself over accent.
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-12 21:25
Do you speak English?
Yes, American and, to an extent, British.
Are you fluent?
I'd like to think so.
What resources did you use to learn?
Environment and literature.
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-13 2:43
My first language.
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-13 2:43
Posting to see the post screen.
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-13 2:51
i had onli be study englsh for 20 year it seem prety good?
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-13 15:07
What does "I hope you die" exactly mean?
Does it mean that somebody hopes that somebody else dies **in future**?
>>17
To be more specific, in the near future, or given context, while doing something. Because, y'know, we all die.
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-13 17:46
I have the hypothesis about -ing. <verb>ing is a process. For example, "She's writing a novel" means that she is a process and the function (or purpose) of this process is to write a novel.
>>23
Not much. I can't think of an instance where they can't be used interchangeably.
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-23 10:37
>>22
The reason for this is probably because English uses one verb for "to be". Several other languages make use of more than one to distinguish the difference.
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-23 19:25
>>24
Well, you can't goal a gun, and you can't score an aim.
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-23 20:30
>>23
"goal; intent, design. Aim, end, object all imply something that is the goal of one's efforts. Aim implies that toward which one makes a direct line, refusing to be diverted from it: a nobleness of aim; one's aim in life. End emphasizes the goal as a cause of efforts: the end for which one strives. Object emphasizes the goal as that toward which all efforts are directed: the object of years of study."
>browsing the french internet
>"4chan c'est super, c'est plein de contenu original fascinant."
>"m-mais c'est en anglais"
>go to 4chan
>don't understand shit
>go to 4chan
>understand greentext
>mfw I can only greentext
>mfw teacher asks for english essay and greentextan is not allowed
>mfw I have no face
Name:
Anonymous2013-04-29 18:04
>>29
>mfw the french still think their language is relevant outside "haute couture"
>mfw they refuse to learn proper foreign languages due to outdated nationalism
>mfw when this isn't an imageboard
Name:
Anonymous2013-05-07 19:35
"He's the real deal"
What's it mean?
Name:
Anonymous2013-05-07 22:49
>>31
Real deal, genuine article, real McCoy, etc. all mean that something is authentic, untampered with, or altogether genuine.
When someone says "he's the real deal", they're generally not talking about whether he's authentic and certainly not whether he's "untampered with". They're saying he's a serious player, a skilled person, or truly talented.
For example, a scouter for a high school baseball team might say of a new recruit "This kid is the real deal, we gotta have him on our team." Of course he's a real baseball recruit (everyone they're looking at is), what he's really getting at is that he thinks the kid's good at baseball.
When you're giving a definition on a highly idiomatic phrase like this, you can't just give the literal definition.
Here's a more general reference covering all aspects of the phrase. It would also be beneficial to have some context for where you heard it, but hopefully this is sufficient.
Name:
Anonymous2013-05-08 9:16
>>33
Obviously the connotation varies with the subject (i.e. the difference here between "something" and "someone")
Name:
Anonymous2013-05-08 14:18
>>34
Thanks!
>where you heard it
Skyline (movie) 2010. 04:25
Name:
Anonymous2013-05-09 17:01
"When he saw me coming he took off in the opposite direction."
Is it mean that he starts to go towards to me?
Name:
Anonymous2013-05-09 18:57
>>37
Away from the speaker. He saw the speaker and started going the opposite direction from where the speaker is, to get away from them.
Name:
Anonymous2013-05-10 12:33
"Police have appealed for witnesses to the accident."
I don't understand the last part of this sentence. I mean "to the accident". Why is there "to" instead of "of"? I can understand "the witnesses of the accident", but I don't understand "the witnesses to the accident".
Name:
Anonymous2013-05-10 14:24
>>39
It is possible to be both a witness "to" something ("He was (a) witness to the crime) or a witness "of" something. Both are essentially interchangeable but, personally, "to" owns a larger sense of indirectness. Being a witness "of" a crime potentially implicates you in the crime itself, depending on how you parse it.