I really wanna speak an english as good as possible, but I don't have many opportunities for practicing. When reading sentences and even long texts out loud I generally get it right easily, but when I'm having a conversation in english I'm as bad as it gets: I stutter a lot, I pronounce most words incorrectly, I actually forget more than half of the english vocabulary and grammar I know (saying thigs like "all the time I used to went there" instead of "I used to go there all the time"! Come on! Could it be any worse?! ). Do you guys think having conversations with myself would help? I mean, pretending I'm having a convo about a given subject and try to say as much as I can correctly without using a script? Or should I try and repeat every sentence of a movie? Do you have any other suggestions/tips? I'd REALLY appreciate it!
Hi Coffeescent, welcome to the UK forum. Your written English is excellent. Everybody makes the odd error when speaking, so I really wouldn't worry too much about it. You're clearly able to hold a conversation. A few tips for improving: Read books in English. If you find it difficult you could begin with books aimed at children, but it seems your understanding is fine. Reading will get you more used to sentence structure and fix it more firmly in your mind. Watch lots of films in English. Yes, repeat what they say! Children learning a language walk around babbling sentences at random all the time. It's a great way to learn. Try thinking more in English. This is difficult but can be done with practice and persistence. It doesn't have to be a lot or gramatically perfect. Counting out money or deciding what to eat for dinner will help. Listen to music with well written lyrics and try to learn more songs. Be careful not to copy any of the hideous grammar errors in some music though. You could also listen to English radio or watch English TV. Practise whenever you get the opportunity. If you get the chance to speak with someone in English, just try your best and enjoy it. I hope this helps a little. It doesn't matter if you don't aways get it right at all. As I'm sure you know a lot of people usually don't even speak their first language properly. I'm always messing up. :cheers2:
Coffeescent, welcome to the forum! I can't really say I have anything to add beyond what Fingermouse said. That was all pretty good advice!
Good advice,Fingermouse. I will add ,get a good english dictionary and learn and use several words a day. When I lived in Calif,I used to ask my Portuguese friends to speak Portuguese. My favorite language to hear spoken.
Thanks Fingermouse! You gave me great advices! I'm able to read any kind of English literature, I just don't do it that often because for obvious reasons I find a wider variety of books translated to Portuguese. I will, now. All the movies I watch either have no subtitles at all or have English subtitles. I'll now start repeating the sentences cuz that might be a good way to emulate a real conversation. Thinking in English is the hardest part, cuz I don't even notice the language I'm thinking in. You know, I just...think lol I'll now try and form English sentences in my head and imagine debates in English. I spend plenty of time on (or is it "in"?) public transportation, so I might as well just give it some practical use. Self-consciousness plays a huge role here, too, cuz the more I worry about making errors the more prone I am to making them. I'll speak Portuguese to you as much as you want if you teach me to speak a fluent english
Also ,you might want to go into the writers forum here on (in?)Hippie forums. Some interesting styles of expression.
