Help me! I don't know English:(

India
March 2, 2007 10:10am CST
It's all upon you to judge whether I know English or not, please do it. But my actual problem is that all I know is written English and my communication in it is not so bad. But about vocal parts, I can easily talk in english but can't grasp the foreign accents( I mean apart from Indian one). They say that to learn to speak in an accent, you must watch movies in that accent. I do love to watch english movies but can enjoy only half of it for the difficulty of hearing... Really funny is that advice--- hear so that you can speak! Note: If you find the topic rubbish, please message me, I'd appreciate your suggestions:)
4 responses
2 Mar 07
dont worry ...the topics not rubbish...!! u can post anything here remember??! im from india too...but migrated to the UK...! i knw indian english and european english is waaaay different!! but it was fine for me...as i had studied in a private convent school...where english was given the primary spot and we were punished if we spoke hindi...lol!! so my english is rather excellent !!hehe but yes it is true that u can get the grasp of the accents by listening to it!! watch the movies..they really do help!! ^_^
1 person likes this
• India
2 Mar 07
I studied in a private, convent school too but maybe too late to build a habit of speaking in english. Also... thoughthey threatened to punish us if we talked in hindi, but never did it. Don't know why. Thanks for that encouragement. I hope someday I'll be wondering on how easily I'm enjoying the movie in it full!!
@SplitZip (1488)
• Portugal
2 Mar 07
Different languages have different sounds and how those sounds are made varies greatly. You need to practice speech, so your mouth and tongue will get used to making the motions required to speak english. So speak english often and try to pronnounce the words correctly. Some suggestions: - Talk to yourself in english, like a crazy person - Find a friend to practice english - Join an english conversation school - Buy english learning software that features speech recognition and a good microphone (because you'll have to speak clearly so the program will recognize the word patterns, you will improve your spoken english and possibly even feel your mouth and jaw hurt... but you will improve. No pain, no game ;) Best of luck.
1 person likes this
• India
2 Mar 07
Thanks:) for the suggestions. Ooooo... I feel embarassed while speaking to myself...! Yes, I tried speech recognition tool and it couldn't catch a single word I spoke :$ But that was far ago... I'll try again. Thanks again:)
@firefury (55)
• Philippines
4 Apr 07
the best way to learn a language is to go to a place where it is spoken. if it is not possible to do that, your next option indeed is to watch movies with that specific language. when you do, you have to start to mimic the way they speak. get a dictionary. soon you'll realize that you're getting the hang of it. it's also a good tip to learn the idiomatic expressions so you know how to read between the lines and get the nuances of the language. your written english is actually good basing on what you have posted here. that's a start. i share your passion for learning languages. i am from the philippines and we have a lot of regional dialects. i love to travel and i have learned a couple of them. i've also studied spanish, italian, and a little french. it's nice to be able to understand people when they speak or write something to you. you feel like a global person. hehehe...
@segomi (43)
• United States
9 Oct 07
I completely understand where you are coming from. I have studied Spanish since I was in grammar school. I practiced it much more often when I went to Spain and Mexico, but I still have problems with accents. I live just 15 miles away from the border with Mexico and I hear so many slang words that don't make sense to me. I guess I really need to not only practice listening to the accent but to learn specific slang for different areas of the world where the language is spoken. This I think may help you as well. There are so many vocabulary words in a language alone. But to know the different words that are used for different things in other countries is very helpful.