Eman N. Azi-Nagro wrote:Lopez wrote:Мой муж утверждает,что лучше я уж буду говорить с иностранным акцентом,чем звучать как "южный колокольчик ".
Раз уж тут идёт разговор о языке... надеюсь вы используете кавычки преднамеренно, а не путаете
"southern belle" и
"southern bell"
Колхозник wrote:
Такие вот мы тут в "хорошим" языком..
ПС: по первоначальному вопросу - возьмите TIME или Newsweek, откройте какую нибудь статью на 3-4 страницы по честному прочтите до конца.. Если, не заглядывая в словари, поняли абсолютно все, те все слова, обороты, точки, контексты, основную идею статьи... то значит все, улучшаться вам дальше некуда..
Можно прочесть ишо 2-3 статьи в том же номере для более полного удовлетворения в хорошем знании языка..
Пришлось в словаре смотреть
Lopez wrote:Колхозник wrote:
Такие вот мы тут в "хорошим" языком..
ПС: по первоначальному вопросу - возьмите TIME или Newsweek, откройте какую нибудь статью на 3-4 страницы по честному прочтите до конца.. Если, не заглядывая в словари, поняли абсолютно все, те все слова, обороты, точки, контексты, основную идею статьи... то значит все, улучшаться вам дальше некуда..
Можно прочесть ишо 2-3 статьи в том же номере для более полного удовлетворения в хорошем знании языка..
Ну,нет предела совершенству. Понимать статьи еще не значит,что улучшаться не куда. Даже в русском есть куда улучшаться. Мне пару лет назад встретилось слово "ендова "
dima_ca wrote:А сравнение перевода - отличный способ на мой взгляд. Попробуйте Набокова - он несколько своих вещей сам перевёл. Например, рекомендую "Пнин".
A special danger area in Pnin's case was the English language. Except for such not very helpful odds and ends as 'the rest is silence', 'nevermore', 'week-end', 'who's who', and a few ordinary words like' eat', 'street', 'fountain pen', 'gangster', 'Charleston', 'marginal utility', he had had no English at all at the time he left France for the States. Stubbornly he sat down to the task of learning the language of Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Poe, Edison, and thirty-one Presidents. In 1941, at the end of one year of study, he was proficient enough to use glibly terms like 'wishful thinking' and 'okey-dokey'. By 1942 he was able to interrupt his narration with the phrase, 'To make a long story short'. By the time Truman entered his second term, Pnin could handle practically any topic: but otherwise progress seemed to have stopped despite all his efforts, and by 1950 his English was still full of flaws. That autumn he supplemented his Russian courses by delivering a weekly lecture in a so-called symposium ('Wingless Europe: A Survey of Contemporary Continental Culture') directed by Dr Hagen. All our friend's lectures, including sundry ones he gave out of town, were edited by one of the younger members of the German Department. The procedure was somewhat complicated. Professor Pnin laboriously translated his own Russian verbal flow, teeming with idiomatic proverbs, into patchy English. This was revised by young Miller. Then Dr Hagen's secretary, a Miss Eisenbohr, typed it out. Then Pnin deleted the passages he could not understand.
'Information, please,' said Pnin. 'Where stops four o'clock bus to Cremona?'
'Right across the street,' briskly answered the employee without looking up.
'And where possible to leave baggage?'
'That bag? I'll take care of it.'
And with the national informality that always nonplussed Pnin, the young man shoved the bag into a corner of his nook.
'Quittance?' queried Pnin, Englishing the Russian for 'receipt' (kvtantsiya).
'What's that?'
'Number?' tried Pnin.
'You don't need a number,' said the fellow, and resumed his writing.
Then he held his hand at a little distance from the window.
'Is temperature uniform?'
Joan dashed to the radiator.
'Piping hot,' she retorted.
'I am asking — are there currents of air?'
'Oh yes, you will have plenty of air. And here is the bathroom — small, but all yours.'
'No douche?' inquired Pnin, looking up. 'Maybe it is better so. My friend, Professor Chateau of Columbia, once broke his leg in two places. Now I must think. What price are you prepared to demand? I ask it, because I will not give more than a dollar per day — not including, of course, nootrition.
'All right,' said Joan with that pleasant, quick laugh of hers.
Колхозник wrote:должно было быть "некуда" уж тогда... (рассуждения о теории совершенства а опускаю) Этот уровень для меня - ultimate unreachable goal.
если бы я был на этом уровне, то наверное бы сильно хвалился... но скорее всего никогда там не буду.. некогда, морковку, вон, прополоть нада
Кусака wrote:Колхозник wrote:должно было быть "некуда" уж тогда... (рассуждения о теории совершенства а опускаю) Этот уровень для меня - ultimate unreachable goal.
если бы я был на этом уровне, то наверное бы сильно хвалился... но скорее всего никогда там не буду.. некогда, морковку, вон, прополоть нада
Гм, вообще то на мой взгляд статьи в WSJ написаны очень простым языком. Я читаю их совершенно спокойно. А вот The New Yorker уже дает жвачку для ума, очень много незнакомых слов.
TYT wrote:[q.....ctures same and you can try it foreve, but YOU JUST CANNOT.
Or some can do math better, many many examples.
So, stop saying we all can speak good english, no we cannot. Or we all should be able do everything and at the same level.
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:
TC
I see some people here wish to be able to read articles in some magazines...Ability to read is not a high priority for me. We, russians, are very smart people, and we are trained to pick up written things faster. I am doing a research in educational stats field. Recently I have read >120 pdf dissertations from ERIC. Is my language enough? Or yeah..Puedo leer espanol, so I was reading papers in spanish (from la universidad de mexico in chihuaha (spelling?). Well, after reading I did a summary and my recommendations ( we have a "problem" here and it appears no one in the world had solved it yet). I suppose, my writing level is good enough to submit my papers to editor ( it's so good to have an editor!!! 
).
NOOOOOOOOOO. It drives me crazy.Thanks God, my collegues are educated enough not to hurt my feelings, but I see,feel and know that sometimes they do not understand what I say, that my choice of words is awkward, that....aaaahhh, don't let me start...
TYT wrote:Sorry, my English isn't good at all, even though i finished college in USA and started BS program. (+ I don't have russian letters on my keyboard).
I have my own theory about learning English.
For example, I can play on piano very good and I spend almost 8 years to learn it.
But, some of my friends, from the same musical school spend same amount of years to study the music, but never got to the level I have.
The conclusion is, we are all different.
I have a friend in USA who learn english + spainsh in an year and speaks almost as native american. I spend in USA 7 years and now I am in Canada and only now I realise that my english never will be good, I don't have potential for this.
Even though I can repeat song on piano after I heard once, this doesn't help me to remember english words at all. Same like people cannot draw pictures same and you can try it foreve, but YOU JUST CANNOT.
Or some can do math better, many many examples.
So, stop saying we all can speak good english, no we cannot. Or we all should be able do everything and at the same level.
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Thank you for reading. ( It's just my very personal opinion, because I did blame myself for not trying hard until I undrestood that it's just me and I cannot be like you or him or her).So do you.
TC
It's really hard to believe that someone can be that incapable of learning English. You have spent 7 years (!!!) in the English-speaking country, went to college and still you write "a friend who learn"? Come on, that's Essential Grammar, Lesson 1. Anyone who was able to go to college should be able to learn these simple rules as well. My point is - never give up, you really can improve your English, just stop humiliating yourself and give it a try. 
Кусака wrote:TYT wrote:My point is - never give up, you really can improve your English, just stop humiliating yourself and give it a try.
caber wrote:1. First and foremost - learn grammar. Especially the parts with no equivalent in Russian, like Past Perfect Tense etc.
2. Whenever you hear an expression, or a phrase you feel one has to be a native speaker to use - write it down.
(how often you hear a phrase like "this custom has long been thought to have originated in the South" spoken without accent?)
3. Whenever you feel you didn't express yourself well, or got lost for words - remember what you wanted to say, and later on try to figure out how to best say it in English.
4. Anybody wants to continue...?
