The bar, open all the day and all the night ! :D

 

  • odakawoi

    Baby lecteur

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    #31 11 Février 2011 23:05:24

    I'm not really sure that reading many books in English is the best way to improve his skills. In generally, one can understand the sentences only thanks to the words we already knew... so, we just avoid the others and can't really scoop up the entire sense. And if you want to understand precisely these sentences (each word), you need to switch between your book and a dictionnary all the time : so boring.

    As Miss Spooky said, nothing can replace the English lessons except a native speaker.

  • FrenchDawn

    Doctelecteur

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    #32 12 Février 2011 10:50:43

    Well, I guess it's different for each person... From my own I know it's really helpful for me to read English books, but maybe it's because I've a good memory. I don't avoid the words I don't know. It's quite the contrary: I write these words on a notebook and I add their translations. The method is very useful for me because writing helps me to memorize these new words. And it's not boring because I use the site "wordreference.com" to find the meanings of these words. It's easy & fast. :)  But I'm lucky because I've an excellent photographic memory. I just need to copy a word to learn it. :-)



    (sorry for the mistakes, I've a big migraine & it's always fateful for my poor English!!)

  • Lelf

    A moitié noyé sous sa PAL

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    #33 12 Février 2011 12:43:04

    I don't write down the words I don't understand. I don't avoid them either. Well, some of them I avoid, but most of the time I try to guess the meaning with the context. And if the word is really important for my comprehension of the sentence, I'll check immediately on wordreference.com.
    Only by reading I get used to some words and the way they're used. The more I read, the more words and other elements become familiar to me. I don't read in english to learn english, I read in english like I read in french : only to read. But I can't help learning a few things each time. Even in french I often learn words :P

  • Miss Spooky Muffin

    Mange-mots

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    #34 14 Février 2011 10:05:40

    Reminds me of someone (Frankie?) saying she never remembers what "unfathomable" means. I don't think I could be able to tell you what it means in French (well, now I do because everybody was talking about it, but that's not the point) but I understand when I read it within a sentence. I don't think understanding a language is only about being able to translate everything in your mother-tongue, it's just a question of understanding the context and being able to explain it.

  • Lelf

    A moitié noyé sous sa PAL

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    #35 14 Février 2011 10:42:01

    Yes, that's right !

    Does it happen to you to find english words instead of french ones when you speak ? I often prefer an english word to describe something. It pops in my head and I cannot find the french word (or I find it and it's not accurate for what I mean).

  • Pikachu

    Les doigts collés au papier

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    #36 14 Février 2011 11:29:13

    Hm... I like this topic! So I take a seat ^^

    You seem to speak about reading books in English.
    For a very long time, I haven't read a book. My addiction to books beagan as soon as I read 'Twilight' in English. I wasn't fluent, but both the story and the words were realy easy to understand. Sometimes, I couldn't figure out the meaning of some unknown words, but as FrenchDawn did, I wrote those words and checked on wordreferece.com. By this way, I improved my vocabulary (because I like to read the whole page and learn some expressions) ^^

    To get use to American accent, I also watched American series such as ALIAS, House MD (very usefull when you're ill), HIMYM, TVD... At the beginning I was totally lost, but now, I switch off the subtitles!

    Well... My written conversational English is still very poor, but I try to improve it ^^ (and for the first time, I tried to write the beginning my review of Silver Borne (Mery Thompson #5) in English :P)

  • FrenchDawn

    Doctelecteur

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    #37 14 Février 2011 11:34:53

    Miss Spooky Muffin a écrit

    I don't think understanding a language is only about being able to translate everything in your mother-tongue, it's just a question of understanding the context and being able to explain it.


    I totally agree! That's why translation is a difficult exercise!

  • FrenchDawn

    Doctelecteur

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    #38 14 Février 2011 11:38:56

    Pikachu a écrit

    To get use to American accent, I also watched American series such as ALIAS, House MD (very usefull when you're ill), HIMYM, TVD... At the beginning I was totally lost, but now, I switch off the subtitles!


    I do the same thing! But I watch too many American series...so I perfectly understand American accent , but it's more difficult with "English" (from UK) accent. And my vocabulary is very "American". lol

  • Miss Spooky Muffin

    Mange-mots

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    #39 14 Février 2011 14:58:35

    Lelf a écrit

    Does it happen to you to find english words instead of french ones when you speak ? I often prefer an english word to describe something. It pops in my head and I cannot find the french word (or I find it and it's not accurate for what I mean).


    You ask me? I barely speak proper French anymore :P
    Most adjectives in both languages don't have the proper sub-meanings that I like to imply when I use them, so I can't never say everything properly in one or another. And let's not talk about expressions... Sometimes I translate the words of English expressions in French and it's just horrifying. And I don't know if it's because we're not English natives or what, but everything seems so much more vulgar in French. Or maybe I swear too much in English. Hum...

    Yesterday in my BF's book (Good Omens), there was a pun with "fagots", used to qualify queers but originally meaning the pieces of wood, and the the pun was about burning them. "Fagots" were left as it is in French with a note at the bottom: "the translator gives-up translating this pun, fagot means homosexual in English". I found it quite funny, considering I would probably have shot myself if I had to translate this kind of book =)

  • JuNa62

    Puits de lecture

    Hors ligne

    #40 14 Février 2011 19:41:33

    Lelf a écrit

    Does it happen to you to find english words instead of french ones when you speak ? I often prefer an english word to describe something. It pops in my head and I cannot find the french word (or I find it and it's not accurate for what I mean).


    Often! But with english and spanish words because I learn both langages at university. It's awful when it's happen, specially when I discuss with persons who don't speak these langages. Sometimes, when I'm in course of spanish for instance, I search a word and the only one who comes in mind is an english one, this is horrible too, because after, I'm liked blocked on "English mode" (or at the contrary "Spanish mode") and it's impossible to avoid thinking in the right langage.

    Don't tell me I'm weird, I already know that :P