How well do you understand English? Melde Dich an, um diesen Inhalt zu abonnieren 0

[NagaZui 14]

Well, most of our PU-material is written in the English language, there is growing number of German translations, yet this number is still very small. It is still the case, that you must a certain level of mastery of the English language, in order to understand most of the basic texts you find within the community.

If you had English at school, and i'm sure you head, you will probably at least have the skills to understand the basic meaning of a text. But English stays a foreign language, und the important point is: Can you internalize the English stuff as well as through the reading of German texts?

If you read a German text, the information will probably float into your subconscious. But the same effect doesn't work with foreign texts, as your subconscious is not trained to understand them, too. ( I suppose this is the case, correct me if I am wrong).

Well, actually i am quite good at English, having a GK at the Oberstufe, i am able to unterstand most texts and i sometimes i spontaniously talk in English with my best friend, because we both like it. ( I like using foreign languages :D ). I even feel I am speak more fluent in English than in German, although my vocabulary may have some gaps und my grammer is imperfect. - But i still think about how to become more familiar with English.

How can train my subconcious to become more familiar with the English language, so that i internalize the English stuff more naturally. I think it would boost my theoretical understanding of the world (and i will have to do so for my studium, btw). - So, Any Ideas? (In English, please :D )

PS: If this appears like Chinese to you, and have absolutely no idea what i this post is actually all about, you are probably not qualified to answer me :P

[neonomicus 0]

First of all you have to consider how you learned german in the first place. That was neither by reading books nor by going to school. You just practiced it. So, basically, all you need to do to improve your english-skills is to read and write in english, but even more important, to speak in english with native speakers or at least listen to english stuff. And I'm not talking about music.

Read novells, news, watch english television.

Just _do_ english!

http://www.bbc.co.uk is a fairly good place to practice your english.

Good luck man :)

Englisch ist schon lustig, jaaa :)

[Kebap 60]

I practised it a lot by watching English TV shows and/or reading English books.

Another site that may help you is this wonderful dictionary: http://dict.leo.org

edit: fixed link

[Wunderlampe 7]

I actually have been in England for one year now, I went to school there, and it really as it was meant to be improved my skills. Basicly, not just school life, also my freetime in which I mostly went to London with mates and spent time shopping together were very important to form a solid grounding to talk like a natvie. Of course i still have an accent but its just slightly influencing, and anyway you wouldn't notice.

I'd just watch DVDs in english, and every DVD in english as well, so that really shouldn't be the problem. Furthermore it's quite helpful to read books or just texts you find, but you should pay attention to the texts not being very colloquial.

[Jimbo 101]

Or, if you are a universtity student, you may visit parties of some foreighn student organizations. That is one of the things I am doing to keep myself in shape.