Objectif : Écrire dans une langue étrangère un peu chaque jour !

Maître de conférence des étagères

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#21 17 Février 2016 21:03:22

My english teacher always said : 'don't care about your accent or using exactly the good words/grammar, the most important is that people can understand you.' After that, I was less afraid to speak in class (or to write here, even if I'm sure I make a lots of mistake) !

I really don't like to watch movies in french and yes, except for animated movies et some tv show, dubbing sucks! The worst is when the sound and the lips are not synchronized! But sometimes it's not that bad, of course not as good as the original but if you never heard it, it's ok! Like, Scrubs, Le caméléon...(can't remember the name in english!

I haven't speak pr write english, for a long time, I forget a lot, but it's good to practice! ^^)

beckygirly

Collectionneur de pages

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#22 17 Février 2016 23:24:23

@BlackRose: I went to London for a few days. The Book of Mormon is musical created by the creators of South Park: it tells the story of two young mormons who are sent to Ugando for their two years missions. It's very funny, I really had a good time.

About the accent: it depends how strong it is. But French people are more rigid; we are afraid of speaking because of the accent and of the possible mistakes we can make. I have sometimes the impression that we are more incline to judge than English speakers for example. As long as we can be understood, nothing else matters.

It's funny cause we have good voice actors, and even if I prefer watching movies and series in VO usually the work is quite good.
Yes there are exceptions (The Big Bang Theroy is horrible in French, the voices don't match with the original ones, Raj has lost his Indian accent..)but for example, I prefer the French version of South Park. Christophe Lemoine is amazing, I really love his work.

@Cinika: Le caméléon is The pretender in English^^

I really should try to meet some natives, I miss speaking in English. But it's cool to practice here :)

Have a good night!

Dernière modification par beckygirly (05 Mai 2016 20:19:29)

sasa7

Lecteur timide

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#23 06 Avril 2016 15:18:00

Pienso que es una buena idea de hablar una lengua con otras personas

beckygirly

Collectionneur de pages

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#24 05 Mai 2016 20:19:04

Hi everyone! How are you?
It's a long weekend that we have! I think I'm gonna enjoy the sun by going to the sea, reading a book (at least trying to continue it) and watching some series.

Actually, I feel like being on holiday, and I feel like Monday's gonna be very hard at work.
See ya!

Elizewyn

Restaurateur de livres

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#25 05 Mai 2016 21:20:30

beckygirly a écrit

Hi everyone! How are you?
It's a long weekend that we have! I think I'm gonna enjoy the sun by going to the sea, reading a book (at least trying to continue it) and watching some series.

Actually, I feel like being on holiday, and I feel like Monday's gonna be very hard at work.
See ya!

Do you live close to the sea ? Lucky you ! :) I'd love to be able to do that whenever i want.
Tomorrow i might go swimming with a friend, and going to a pyjama party with girlfriends :)

jcv

Lecteur initié

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#26 23 Novembre 2016 15:09:19

Hello everybody...where are you ? Yes It is well to come here to write a few words en English....but it"s difficult to find time between job house and severals activities...For me I use an apps to learn English This apps calls DUOLINGO...it's for beginners like me...It's good for me.....but I have to find an other way to improve my English...I don't know if I buy an easy book in English to learn more vocabularies.

See you later
If somebody comes here........

Jwann

Petit chimiste des mots

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#27 24 Novembre 2016 15:49:39

jcv a écrit

Hello everybody...where are you ? Yes It is well to come here to write a few words en English....but it"s difficult to find time between job house and severals activities...For me I use an apps to learn English This apps calls DUOLINGO...it's for beginners like me...It's good for me.....but I have to find an other way to improve my English...I don't know if I buy an easy book in English to learn more vocabularies.

See you later
If somebody comes here........

I'm here but i'm not really inspired and as you said it is hard to find time in 24 hours ;)
I answer you in English, whereas I originally created this post to write in German or Italian, because I find it quicker and it will maybe help you to improve your English (my level isn't so good either but...)
I also use Duolingo but for Italian. To improve your skills in English, you can use for example the BBC podcasts "6 minutes English" or "6 minutes Vocabulary", or try to read a book you already know in English (I don't recommend reading children books if it's not your kind of reading usually because it is more motivating if you like the story you read but that's my point of view and a lot of people advise it). I think that to improve itself in a language, you have to make it an habit to practice it each and everyday : do a grammar exercice on Monday, watch a tv show in English with or without subtitles on Tuesday, try to translate a song you like (english -> french) on Wenesday, write here on Thursday... Regularity is really important.

Littleodessa

Improvisateur de marque-pages

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#28 25 Novembre 2016 22:48:48

Today in LVA we worked about Pocahontas. I was very surprised to read the real myth of Pocahontas. At first, we learned that Pocahontas, really called Matoaoka, was only 11 when she saved John Smith ( but he said the truth only 17 years later). Theoretically, there were no love story between she and John Smith because of the year's difference. The end is not as happy as the DIsney'end. In fact, Matoaka became colonist's prisonner, and, in order to left her captivity, she must to became Mrs. Rolfes, on April 1614. She died during the journey to her own country. Disney wants to transform this sad myth into a kind of entertainment.

OrcadianSky

Préposé aux marque-pages

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#29 26 Novembre 2016 21:45:13

Hello everyone!

To improve reading skills in a foreign language you can practice with children books. The language is more straightforward but you get the structure with good grammar and consistency.
You can also try to read a book you already know. Harry Potter is a perfect way to practice your English for example. The two first books are quite easy to read. You can note down the words you really struggle with and look them up in a dictionary or wordreference, but don't try to translate everything. See what you get first using the words you know, cognates and the context.
Online news are good as well. Tabloids are terrible in terms of journalism and content, but the language is less difficult because they are targeted at everyone in the country, especially those with a bit less education than those who went to Uni. The Sun, Daily Mail, etc. You can get sentences, expressions etc. Not so bad. But the Gardian or The Independant are definitely better. But they are not Tabloids.
This works for any language I guess, not just English.

If you want to speak, listen, read and write, find a Couchsurfing language exchange group near your town or city (on Couchsurfing website). Quite a lot of travellers love exchanging and chatting in different languages. Look for the Erasmus Student Network if you have a university in your city. Really great to meet people from all around the world.

Use youtube international podcasters you like. They probably have a community on Facebook for example. You can speak with other people in the community.

And as I saw in a previous post in this thread, don't be afraid of making mistakes, they are part of the process and the most important is to communicate, not to be absolutely flawless. It takes dedication and regularity to really improve.

A l'aventure, compagnons!

Dernière modification par Riamh (26 Novembre 2016 21:50:05)

vp-5871

Livraddictien débutant

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#30 30 Décembre 2016 23:43:43

Children's books are not a bad idea but I would suggest choosing books that are a bit more complex. Such as those by Dr. Seuss, a bestseller for many many years. His better known books are How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Green Eggs and Ham and, The Cat in the Hat. And if you want both VO and VF versions, they are available.

As for meetings to practice your english (or other languages) there are often a few in my area on OnVaSortir. I attended a couple of them thinking I could help since I speak fluently but everyone would tell their little story or stories with barely any interest in being corrected... I just didn't see how that could help.

Your best bet, if you have brits (there are quite a few of them in France) in your area is to find a couple to babysit for. Children are amazingly tolerant of bad accents and bad english and they are the best way to learn because most of them will make no bones about correcting you. And, you can always choose how often you do it.

Watching movies is good for comprehension but don't watch with french subtitles. You'll end up reading the subtitles and not paying much attention to the english. Better is to have english subtitles on. Best is to choose a movie you already know so that you have a basic idea of the story and, then, watch it with no subtitles at all. And, watch it again and again.

Also, someone mentioned not worrying about your accent. I totally agree especially if speaking to americans. From what I've been told brits are a bit snob about their language. Americans are very tolerant. Unless you speak, you will not learn to speak.