For me or to me
Hello friends!
Benka from Serbia has asked me how to learn English, how to improve our skills. First of all, thank you for your comment. Oh, Benka…. How many times I have asked the same question… Since I have been using the BBC LE website from June 2006, I have got a lot of advice from teachers and they have suggested great methods. I think everybody should find their own way. To tell the truth, I am not the most suitable person to answer this question but let me share my way of learning English with you. Maybe you can use this way, too.
As I mentioned yesterday, unfortunately I have not taken any English classes but I come into contact with English every day. How? Firstly, I use the BBC LE website. Secondly, I read a lot in English. Thirdly, my daughter has motivated me to keep improving my language skills by spending time writing letters. (This was her method, too.) I think I am quite talkative and I like sharing ideas with people, talking about different things and telling them about my life and the life in Slovakia. Therefore I have found some pen pals from all over the word and started writing to them.
I want to share with you how I have been reading the letters that I receive from people whose English is their native language. I usually read their e-mails three times at least. Firstly, I read it very fast because I am so curious to know the news about them. Secondly I read it slowly, looking up the new words in a dictionary. Then I read it even slower, sentence by sentence, taking time to notice prepositions, articles, modal verbs and tenses. Finally, I can enjoy their stories to the full.
In Hungarian we have only three tenses: the simple present, the simple past and the simple future. We do not use the continuous, the perfect and the perfect continuous forms of tenses so sometimes it is quite difficult to understand which one to use in English. Furthermore, the modal verbs (could, should, would etc.) are nightmares for me. (or modal verbs are a nightmare to me?) See, I also have a big problem with for me OR to me. I do not feel any difference between for me and to me. So, you can see that I also have problems with English and sometimes I am so disappointed. But, it is so nice to turn on my computer and find e-mails from my pen friends. It is always pleasure to read them.
Maybe, I have a little advantage against you? My daughter. I can ask her any questions concerning English at any time (except when she is revising for exams) and she is always ready to answer them. Thanks Csilla!!!
Finally, we need a good English- English dictionary.
What I miss is speaking. I do not have any chance to talk to someone in English. Sometimes I make phone calls with pen friends but I know it is not enough. I can honestly admit that I talk to myself in English when I am alone at home. But how good to know that I am not alone in doing that, right Ana Paula? ;-)
Yes Benka, my name is the pet form of Spanish Ana, made from Ana plus Juanita, meaning: favour, grace.
Dear Ana Paula! Thank you for your book suggestions. I also like the bookshops. There is a very relaxed atmosphere there.
See you soon! With best wishes,
Anita
Comments
Hi,Anita What a great tip for improving English! I totally agree with you that you need to make a point of reading,writing,speaking and listening in English as much as you can.If you allow me to give one of my ideas of improving English it will be a being an impersonator of English people.sometimes I feel funny and silly whenever I impersonate my English friends'accent, guesture, intonations and so on but it really works for me. I think you have got a heart of gold as you took time to share your brilliant idears with us. It's great to see you again.hyoshilxx
Hi Anita, this is my fourth atempt to greet you and others my beloved learners and teachers as well. You all have been very generous to me in your past posts. I do not know if this will pass on to you for I am working on a very old apliance which was replaced here in my work insead of my damaged one. My past undisplayed greetings went on Paul (what a brilliant photo) as well as to Adriana Amy Rachel Lewis. I am very pleased to see you all here. Satya I remember for ever the smile which your comment on me brought on my face. Adriana, Naheed you are witing fascinating stuff. Anita you was my first blogger student who I started to read and who inspired me to learn. Later on I saw our comment were published together. My warmest greetings, beloved friends!
Hi Anita! I agree that the best way for learning English is to read a lots. Four months ago, I didn't know almost any word in English. Since I started to learn a lots (books, internet, etc) and listen some news in English, I think I can speak a little now. have a nice day.
Anita, your blog entry today was very interesting, I found many similarities with you with my own learning processes, not only in English studies but learning in general. One has to be diligent, one has to understand, one has to memorize and as you said one has to enjoy the learning. My compliments to you on your good entry. I am greeting you in a great haste…
Hello, Anita! It is hard to believe that you are self-taught in English! And yes, you are right about your advantage over me when it comes to asking explanations from your daughter. I don't have anyone so close to me who can help me with my incorrect English. But, I can boldly say that I've learnt all the grammar on my own. I admit I had a teacher, but he wouldn't be of any help to me if I hadn't done all the exercises from the grammar book all by myself and the book had the answers( it still has them because I keep that book close at hand). When I first attempted to write something like a letter in English, that piece of writing had no grammar rules applied to it. I thought I was able to write well because I understood English, but I was wrong. Now I think I can speak English because I have learnt all the grammar rules but something is telling me that I'm wrong again. My native language also doesn't have any perfect tenses, so it isn't easy to grasp them at all. When I am searching the BBC Learning English site, or any other web page on the Internet ,as a matter of fact, I'm always afraid that I'm spending too much time on the Internet and that I would receive a huge bill for that pleasure, so, guilt-ridden I will end this comment right now but I will unquestionably read you again tomorrow
Dear friends, Anita,Adriana,Leila, Silvia,Ana Paula,Naheed,Marianna,Antonio,Lidia,Benka, Pery,Satya,Habooba,James Zhih-Cheng Wu,Silval Kishor,Bruno,Miloslav,Ernesto,Filippo,Mercè, Ibrahima and others, thank you for your very interesting letters,so exciting to hear from you lot. It's a special day in Russia today,Students' Day,and I want to congratulate all of you,who are eager to go on learning,who like being a student.Don't stop!
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