How did you learn English?

[Brooker]

This is, of course, for our non-native English speaking memebers. I'm always impressed with how well so many non-native speakers can speak, read, and write English. Even some very young people are quite good. I studied Spanish for four years, and I suck at it.

Is this because your country has a strong educational system? How old were you when you first studied English? Did you study on your own? Did you travel to places where you needed to speak English? Is/was studying English required of you? Can you speak/write other languages just as well, or just English? Why do you speak English so well!?

 

[Jean-Francois]

It all started with INFATUATION!

Once upon a time I studied English everyday because I wanted to write a letter to Boy George and the Culture Club. And it was also very critical for me to understand all the hateful stuffs those Duran Duran fans had said in the English pop music magazine "Smash Hits."

How to learn a second language?
I think motivation is crucial in learning anything. Of course, the opportunities to implement are just as important.

 

[Sinspawne]

First of all, we learn it in school from an early age all the way to graduation. And english is very similar to my own language in many ways. I also play games with english in them, read english books, watch movies and everything I do on my PC is in english. And my stepfather is an american... Even my thoughts are in english.(I'm not kidding) I find it easier to express myself in english than in norwegian.. which is kind of strange when i think about it...

I moved from Sweeden to Norway and it took me a few weeks to speak and write norwegian. very similar languages though, so it's not a big achievement or anything.. But I've always picked up languages quickly, as long as I'm surrounded by it every day.


I also look up every single english word on the net that i don't recognize

 

[RockLee]

TONS of Tv...I could speak english before I even went to highschool :? ...it just came instinctively you know...I can't explain it ☝

 

[Brooker]

Interesting. I can't imagine being able to think and speak easily in another language. It's like having a magical power. I can speak a little Japanese, but I usually have to think about what I'm going to say before hand.

@Jean-Francois....
Is your native language French? Are you from Quebec?

@Shinspawne.....
Why do you find it easier to express yourself in English? Is it because English is more expressive for some things or is it just because you're so used to using it?

@ALL....
How much was English speaking entertainment a factor in you wanting to learn or having experience hearing English?

 

[Jean-Francois]

My first language is Chinese. French is my third language but I am not good at it.

 

[Sinspawne]

@Shinspawne.....
Why do you find it easier to express yourself in English? Is it because English is more expressive for some things or is it just because you're so used to using it?

Yes, it is more expressive and I'm more used to writing english. my own language or the dialalect anyway, is very ugly in my opinion. Norwegian doesen't have the same flow as english.
My vocabulary is much larger in english than in norwegian or swedish.
And about my thoughts being in english. It can get really frustrating when trying to find a word for something in my own language, but just give up and say it in english instead

And i can't speak swedish out of the blue, it happens automatically when i talk to someone from Sweden

 

[RockLee]

Well...it's not that I WANTED to learn it per sﾃｩ....but I just happend to speak english at some time... ☝ As I told before...I can't explain it..but a lot of words in dutch are similar to german/french/english...so that maybe is a factor ?

 

[Brooker]

What language do you usually speak on a day to day basis? If it's easier to think of English words than the words of your country's language it seems that English has become your "first language". Do/can many people in your country speak English well?

 

[Sinspawne]

I speak norwegian every day, so it is my 1st language. I don't speak english well enough, so that's something i need to work on..

Yes, most people here speak english very well. The accent is quite distinguished though..

 

[RockLee]

Erm..almost every programming language is in english...I read/talk/see english everyday...I only bother to talk dutch to ppl I know...so I guess it became my first language. The world these days consist of english thus also in My country everybody knows at least a bit english...


ps.I wanted to post a similar thread about how english is a global communication tool ;-) but you beat me to it !!

 

[Brooker]

It's always seemed very strange to me that my native language is spoken so widely around the globe. When I was younger and before I did any traveling, I thought that everyone only spoke their native language and little else. A little naive I know, but hey, I was young. As I ventured out into the world I was surprised, and oddly enough a little disappointed, to find English everywhere. But I could never fully grasp why/how people were able to speak it so well.

When I went to Thailand I was a little blown away to see Thai people and Chinese people communicating with eachother in English. That may not seem strange in the modern world, but imagine how you'd feel if you went to Japan and saw I Japanese guy speaking to a Mexican guy in Norwegian (!) or something. It would probably seem a little strange to you. That's how I felt.

As a native English speaker I guess it's good that English is so common because it helps when I travel, but it's also bad because it's kind of a dis-incentive to learn another language. While I was in Japan I really had to make an effort to learn Japanese. Many Japanese people would actually become quite annoyed if I insisted on speaking Japanese with them because they wanted to practice their English. If I had been a non-English speaker I might have had more chances to speak Japanese. I'm not complaining, I just think it's a little weird.

 

[Sinspawne]

please correct me if I'm wrong)

Schools in countries like Japan don't put too much effort into teaching about speaking english, I think that is more important than spelling every word perfectly. And if they start teaching it at an early age, when they are more receptible to new things, It would help a lot. English is as RockLee just said "A global communication tool" after all.


(I don't know how well japanese 20 year olds speak english so i may be totally out in the sticks here)

 

[Brooker]

That is true that they focus more on reading and writing. But still, especially in big cities, many Japanese people can speak English at least a little or maybe even quite well.

I remember Japanese people would be quite embarassed and apologize if they couldn't speak English well as if speaking English was some sort of requirement for being an intelligent person. And my thought was, "Of course you don't speak English well, you're Japanese, not a native speaker." I guess I still haven't realized the extent of English as the "global communication tool". I think it will always seem a little strange to me.

Many of you here who are from "non-English speaking countries" write (and probably speak) English very naturally.

 

[Sinspawne]

Thats good because I'm planning on going to Japan soon, and I haven't learned even a single phrase to save my arse I know the basics of the basics and half the hiragana, but thats as far as it goes...

It's got to be just as hard for a native japanese speaker to learn english as it is for me to learn japanese, so I would be the one to apologize for not speaking japanese if I were in Japan. English is easy for us to learn since the grammar is basically the same as ours

 

[Brooker]

The strange thing is that Japanese people never expect YOU to know any Japanese (and they actually seem to get a little freaked out when you speak Japanese to them), but they think that you expect THEM to be able to speak English.

It's actually pretty easy getting by in Japan speaking English, especially in the bigger cities. But, of course, any Japanese you know will be helpful.

 

[Dream Time]

my English was very bad when I was in Hong Kong,I remember that I've always failed English exams and I would only watch Chinese TV,listen to Chinese songs and read Chinese comics,I came here when I was about 10, I fell in love with basketball soon after I came here and the Vancouver Grizzlies team just started, so I was learning English by watching NBA games on TV, listening to English songs and speaking English with non-Cantonese people in the ESL, it was fun in the ESL,we've had Chinese, Mexican, Phillipino, Korean and students from other countries, as a result I could speak some sentences fluently after a month or two
although my writing skill is still poor because I've never tried to work on it

my thoughts are in English,I also find it easier to express myself in English better than Chinese,, for example, when I write lyrics I've almost always been writing them in English, although Chinese is a very expressive and beautiful language,it is just easier for me to write in English
and I speak lots of English to my Chinese friends especially if they were born in Canada or US or have been living here for a long time

 

[Sinspawne]

I don't know very much about the Chinese or Japanese writing system, but from what i've seen. It seems like both languages has sacrificed practicality for beuty.

English is a very practical and straight-forward language governed by easy to use and remember rules and such.

I've just started with japanese grammar and it looks like a lot of things are "that's just how it is." I mean, It's so many factors involved in choosing words that mean 7 different things depending on where in the sentence you put them or add a small dot somewhere.
It's a little off topic I know but, Are there similar grammatical rules in japanese as in english?

 

[Dream Time]

in my opinion, learning Chinese is so much harder than learning English
I don't know why though

 

[Legato]

in my opinion, learning Chinese is so much harder than learning English
I don't know why though

True in my opinion, English is so wide spread because it's easy to learn, and also because the dominant countries for the past two centuries were anglo-saxon. I heard that Chinese is even harder than french so it must be reall hard
As far as I'm concerned my mother is American so I was exposed to English at an early age but when I started to speak English in school the teacher asked my mother to stop speaking to me in english and only in French so until I was about around 15 I never really spoke English but I had a big advantage because I could understand everything and write a little. Of course now I've been in the US for one year and I consider my self a bilingual although I still make mistakes ( in French as well) but to speak on the behalf of the French, they suck at languages. I'm exagerating but very few French speak well a second language because they are so proud of theirs but now they don't even know their own language well. Anyway if you go to France don't expect the same attitude you would get in Japan or in Norway (I went there and never had a problem speaking) in France most people won't answer you unless you speak French or they will try with their awful accent.

 

[Brooker]

I've heard that English is one of the MOST DIFFICULT languages to learn. In English there is an exception to every rule.

Chinese seems like it would be much more difficult to learn than Japanese because the pronunciation is so difficult in Chinese. The intonation in Chinese can change the meaning. Japanese is not so difficult to pronounce for English speakers because most (not all) sounds in Japanese can be found in English.

 

[TwistedMac]

My grandfather is English.. so I was in England alot to meet the family... and we have alot of English at school... never really needed that though =P aced the stoopid tests without ever opening the books XD... but they really were stupid.. can't really rate anything by those standards imo =/

great grandfather was a luitenant in "bridge over the river kwai" by the way ^^
*boasts*

 

[Lina Inverse]

I started learning English in school, but since the English teacher I had for 4 years couldn't stand me at all right from the start for whatever funny reason, there was a lot of hate, fear and loathing, so I didn't learn too much there...
I only really started to learn English by using it frequently everyday in newsgroups, forums etc.

 

[Elizabeth]

I've just started with japanese grammar and it looks like a lot of things are "that's just how it is." I mean, It's so many factors involved in choosing words that mean 7 different things depending on where in the sentence you put them or add a small dot somewhere.
It's a little off topic I know but, Are there similar grammatical rules in japanese as in english?

何事もはっきりとルールがあり、はっきり言う英語と比べると確かに日本語は臨機応変に変わったりして外国人にとってはあいまいでわかりにくいかも知れませんね。 (There are clear rules, it's just that compared to straightforward English, Japanese is more flexible, easily altered and, for foreigners, perhaps vague or difficult to understand).
Basic Japanese grammar is quite a bit simpler than English I think, with many fewer verb tenses having very little irregularity, no pluralization, much less use of pronouns and a more general vocabulary for everyday life.

でも物の言い方にルールはない方が多いと思います。 On the other hand, for a lot of things there are no (logical) rules. And a lot more ways things can be said...

 

[misa.j]

I've heard that English is one of the MOST DIFFICULT languages to learn. In English there is an exception to every rule.

Chinese seems like it would be much more difficult to learn than Japanese because the pronunciation is so difficult in Chinese. The intonation in Chinese can change the meaning. Japanese is not so difficult to pronounce for English speakers because most (not all) sounds in Japanese can be found in English.

I agree with everything you wrote above.

It is really hard for a Japanese non-English speaker to have a good pronouciation. You have to have good ears and be able to use your tongue properly, which sometimes is impossible.

English classes at school in Japan(at least when I was in school) don't enphasize in pronounciation or listening skill, they make students to translate sentences into Japanese which doesn't help for learning English at all.
And the vocabulary in English is so rich that I find a word or phrases never heard before almost everyday.

I took an excellent ESL program for 16 months where the teachers kept telling students to speak only English while they were at the program, and I speak only English now except when I speak with my family and friends in Japan.