Speaking a language in 3 months?

START ENGLISH. Watch, listen, speak. Tips and tricks about English.

(www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro)

This post is not necessarily English related but about the ability of quickly acquiring a new language.

As I mentioned before, in my professional life I always get asked questions like these: “How soon will I be able to speak English?”, “When can I sustain a fluent conversation?”


I have found an interesting article here about the blog of a multilingual bloke who claims he can speak a new language in three months, provided he spends this time in that particular country.


I guess he is right, but spending the time and trying to socialize and to use the language as much as one can are the necessary conditions. I might add a new condition: not having a language of communication can improve the process. Using the new language in all real-life situations and associating concepts and situations with the new vocabulary would be very helpful in the long run.

That is why I appeal to my students not to use another language of communication in class (except for English, of course).


Nevertheless, I cannot compare the two situations; if somebody lives or works in a foreign country for 3 months, he is in constant contact with the language. But if one studies a language 3 or 4 hours a week (+ the additional time spent for homework), his contact with the language is obviously limited.


The questions which remains is: “What happens after you leave that country?” or “How much can you preserve from the knowledge acquired if you stop using that language?


Speak English for 300 lei a month!


Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
Tel: 0722.841.053
E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro.

 

Improve your English (5)

Every day in class I hear many mistakes. I correct them on the spot, but I sometimes hear them again and again..

This article is dedicated to some of my most diligent and dearest students for whom especially I write this piece.

As I mentioned in my articles about my conversation courses, I always encourage my students to try and express their ideas using their own words, for the beginning. They usually manage with difficulty at first and consequently better, as time passes.

While speaking to one another, my students use some phrases in a wrong way due to some false similarities with the Romanian language.

It is not correct to say:  “You have right”, but “You are right”. This happens due to the fact that we say in Romanian: “(Tu) ai dreptate”.

Also it is not correct to say: “I am agree with you”, but ”I agree with you”. This is the result of the way we express this sentence in Romanian: “ (Eu) sunt de acord cu tine”.

Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
Tel: 0722.841.053
E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro.

Invata engleza/About the tenses (3)

I have mentioned in my article here that students understand the affirmative form of the tenses in general, but they are at pains ( it is very difficult for them ) when they try to use the interrogative form. The tense focus of this article will be the present tense simple, in order to enlarge upon the topics introduced in my previous articles.

Students find it difficult to use an auxiliary verb in questions because we do not use auxiliaries in questions in our language or in the French language. But when they do use an auxiliary, some mistakes are likely to appear.

They sometimes say: “Do he speaks English?” or “Does he speaks English?”. The correct question is “Does he speak English?“, because we make the concord between the subject and the first verb in a sentence. Also we do not make the concord twice as in “Does he speaks English?”. Once is enough. Again, the correct sentence is: " Does he speak English?"

I will develop this topic in my classes especially in conversation, as “practice makes perfect”.

Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
Tel: 0722.841.053
E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro.

 

Invata engleza/Improve your English (10)

I have not yet written anything about nouns, even though they are one of the most used categories of words in English. As compared with the Romanian language, the French language or other Latin languages, the plural of nouns in English is easy to use as there are some rules to follow. There are also some exceptions to the rules, but nothing to worry, though.  

When discussing about nouns, one has to consider the countable and the uncountable nouns. There are not such categories in Romanian, so be careful when you use them in sentences or in conversation.

One of the most frequent mistakes concerns the use of the uncountable word bread. Because we can count bread in Romanian (o pâine-două pâini), or in French (un pain-deux pains), most beginner students apply this rule in English, too.

If you need to buy bread always say: ”Can I have a loaf of bread, please?“ or ”Can I have two loaves of bread?”

Never say: ”Can I have a bread, please?” the same as we say in Romanian: ”Aș dori o pâine, vă rog”.

Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
Tel: 0722.841.053
E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro.

 

Speaking a language in 3 months?

This post is not necessarily English related but about the ability of quickly acquiring a new language.

As I mentioned before, in my professional life I always get asked questions like these:  “How soon will I be able to speak English?”, “When can I sustain a fluent conversation?”.

I have found an interesting article here about the blog of a multilingual bloke who claims he can speak a new language in three months, provided he spends this time in that particular country.

I guess he is right, but spending the time and trying to socialize and to use the language as much as one can are the necessary conditions. I might add a new condition: not having a language of communication can improve the process. Using the new language in all real-life situations and associating concepts and situations with the new vocabulary would be very helpful in the long run.

That is why I appeal to my students not to use another language of communication in class (except for English, of course). It is not helpful at all.

Even thought, I cannot compare the two situations; if somebody lives or works in a foreign country for 3 months, he is in constant contact with the language. But if one studies a language 3 or 4 hours a week (+ the additional time spent for homework), his contact with the language is obviously limited.

The questions which remains is: “What happens after you leave that country?” or “How much can you preserve from the knowledge acquired if you stop using that language?”


Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
Tel: 0722.841.053
E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro.

About the use of tenses (5)

In my previous article here I have introduced some aspects about the use of the Present Perfect Tense.

This is a very common tense, both in dialogues and in written English, so do not be afraid to use it as much as you can. On the on the other hand, remember that this tense has a present connotation. So if you slightly suspect that the time frame of your sentence may be the present, you should use the Present Perfect Tense and not the Past Tense.

The trickiest issue about the Present Perfect Tense is that because we assimilate this tense with a past tense in Romanian, we tend to use the past instead of the present perfect. Do remember, use a past tense in English because you have a reason, meaning usually a time adverb, not because you have a past tense in Romanian.
  

Instead of saying:’’ This world was made for us.”, it is better to say:’’ This world has been made for us.”

The sentence was taken from a text, whose time frame is not the past, so it is not advisable to use a past tense. Also because we do not have in the sentence an adverb of time showing that the action took place in the past, we should not use a past tense.

• Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I  www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
• Tel: 0722.841.053
• E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro

About the use of tenses (4)

I have written some articles about tenses, one of which you can find here.

I do not think that too many articles about the tenses “will kill us” because I do not believe in “enough is enough”, so I will resume today with the tips about the tenses, with a view to the Past Tense simple.

First and foremost, questions are a source of mistakes as students use also the verb of the sentence in the Past tense, which is not necessary because the auxiliary (did) is already in the Past tense. The idea is not to use the Past tense twice in the same sentence.

So do not say: “Did you went to work yesterday?”

Always say:” Did you go to work yesterday?”

Another issue refers to expressing habits in the past, for which we can use the Past Tense simple or the phrase “use to”.

So do not say: “I used to go to the beach last Saturday.”

Always say: “I went to the beach last Saturday.”, if you want to express an action that happened in the past.

Always say: “I used to work as a nurse.”, if you want to express a past habit.

• Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I  www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
• Tel: 0722.841.053
• E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro

Learn English/Sustaining a conversation

While doing conversation tasks with my beginner students, I have experienced some awkward moments when the person supposed to speak pauses abruptly and a deafening silence falls down.
I think everybody has experienced this and many times my students have told me: “I cannot find my words.”

Typically for beginners, the difficulty is that their words in a speech usually come in their native languages. For my Romanian students this is a disaster because the way we, Romanians, speak is almost all the time in contradiction with the English word order.
Another thing that compelled me to write this piece is that students find themselves very often in the situation in which they have to express opinions and answer to questions and I am not there to help them.

A few tips: in case of a conversation with a native speaker, always listen carefully to what he says. If he asks you a question, follow the tense he uses and respond with a sentence in which you use the same tense. Use very simple sentences. Do not imagine a complicated sentence in Romanian and then try to translate it in English. It is time consuming and while doing so you may end up talking to yourself.

More tips will be found in a future article.
I will start a conversation module for the beginner-elementary level students at the end of March.

• Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I  www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
• Tel: 0722.841.053
• E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro

Learn English/ About the use of tenses (3)

In some of my articles here, here, and here I have developed some aspects concerning the use of tenses based also on the difficulties that, from time to time, my students experience.
The Present Perfect Simple is perceived by Romanian students as a difficult tense mainly because we do not have a tense in Romanian with such a description. Also it is difficult to use it in English mainly because its translation in Romanian is similar with the translation of the Past Tense Simple.
A few tips: whenever you need to express a sentence, think at the right tense to use in context. Keep in mind that the Present Perfect Tense is a present tense, so use it in a present meaning. If in a sentence there are adverbs of time indicating a moment in the past, you certainly use the Past Tense and not the Present Perfect tense, which is, I repeat, a present tense.
Do not say: “I have visited Japan two years ago”. In this sentence the clue is “ago”, which tells you that you need the Past Tense and not the Present Perfect.

So say: “I have visited Japan” or “I visited Japan two years ago”.
I can prolong analyzing this tense for a long, long time, but I can see the first lights of dawn, so on Friday I will post the promised article about the Cambridge FCE.

• Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I  www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
• Tel: 0722.841.053
• E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro

Learn English/ About adjectives (1)

Lately I have taught the adjectives in the English language with a view to the degrees of comparison and I couldn’t help noticing some of my students’ difficulties.
The thing that you have to keep in mind is to follow the rules for the comparative and superlative degrees. As I keep repeating myself during classes, the study of English is all about the rules. Use them and remember them and you will improve your use of the language.

I have noticed one of my students’ common mistakes when they say: “This dress is much beautiful than that one”. The correct sentence is: “This dress is much more beautiful than that one”. The source of this mistake is that students do not really differentiate much from more, which is appropriately used for the comparative, while much is optional.
Another thing you should remember is to always use much with the comparative degree.
So always say: “much more beautiful” and “much nicer”.
Next time I will have an article about the IELTS examination.

• Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I  www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
• Tel: 0722.841.053
• E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro

Learn English/ The English sentence

The pattern of the English sentence is, as I mentioned in previous articles, simple. We have to use a subject, a verb at a certain tense and other words, if necessary. The tenses are to be acquired and understood in time and in practice but there still remains a problem, the presence of a subject in the English sentence, which is, unlike in the Romanian sentence, mandatory.

A few tips: when writing or speaking use a subject in your sentences. After you write a text, check if all the verbs (used at a certain tense) have a subject. A sentence without a subject is not correct or complete. Pay attention especially to sentences which do not have a subject in the Romanian language. I have noticed mistakes in sentences like these: “There is a car in the street” or “There are some cars in the street”. Students sometimes forget to use a subject in these sentences because there isn’t one in the Romanian sentences. In Romanian we say: “Este o mașină pe stradă”  and  “Sunt niște mașini pe stradă”, so no subject! Also when you use “there’’ as the subject of a sentence do not forget that it is all the time the subject of the verb “to be”.

More about the same topic you can find here.

• Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I  www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
• Tel: 0722.841.053
• E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro

 

Invata engleza/ About the use of tenses (2)

As my readers have noticed, my articles are based not upon any manuals or textbooks but on actual teaching, on interacting with my students and analyzing their difficulties and mostly the mistakes they make while using the language.

During some of my beginner and elementary classes, I have noticed an interesting mistake. This mistake involves the use of the present tense simple and the present tense continuous. Instead of using one of these tenses, the students prefer a combination of the two and the outcome is: “I speaking”.

A few tips: when you use a specific tense, try to follow its rule and use it in context, meaning find a reason why to use this tense and not another one. So you either use the present simple or the present continuous, in this situation.

The correct sentence is: “I am speaking”, because I understand that the action happens at the moment of speaking. Another article about the present tense simple you can find here.

More interesting tips about the tenses  will be in the articles to come.

Pentru mai multe informatii va rugam sa ne accesati paginile web: www.StartEnglish.ro.
www.Engleza-de-Afaceri.ro

 

Learn English/ Improve your English (6)

In many cases my students misuse some phrases, or better say, they use the wrong verbs in some phrases. Also these mistakes derive from the association students make with the same phrases in the Romanian language.

So do not say : “ I take a shower / I make a shower’’ or “I take breakfast /dinner /lunch”.  

Always say: “ I have a shower” and “I have breakfast/ lunch / dinner”.

These kinds of mistakes are made due to the fact that the similar phrases in Romanian are:”(Eu) fac duș “, “(Eu) iau micul dejun”.

It is difficult and not advisable to learn these phrases by heart, but using them in conversation helps a lot. That is why I based my courses on conversing. Using the new  vocabulary in dialogues is the first step towards at least remembering it. One has to use and master a language in conversation and not necessarily while doing some grammar tasks.

Pentru mai multe informatii va rugam sa ne accesati paginile web: 
www.StartEnglish.ro.
www.Engleza-de-Afaceri.ro

Learn English/ Improve your English (5)

Every day in class I hear many mistakes. I correct them on the spot, but I sometimes hear them again and again..

This article is dedicated to some of my most diligent and dearest students for whom especially I write this piece.

As I mentioned in my articles about my conversation courses, I always encourage my students to try and express their ideas using their own words, for the beginning. They usually manage with difficulty at first and consequently better, as time passes.

While speaking to one another, my students use some phrases in a wrong way due to some false similarities with the Romanian language.

It is not correct to say:  “You have right”, but “You are right”. This happens due to the fact that we say in Romanian: “(Tu) ai dreptate”.

Also it is not correct to say: “I am agree with you”, but ”I agree with you”. This is the result of the way we express this sentence in Romanian: “ (Eu) sunt de acord cu tine”.

Pentru mai multe informatii va rugam sa ne accesati paginile web: 
www.StartEnglish.ro.
www.Engleza-de-Afaceri.ro

Learn English/ About the use of tenses

As I mentioned in my articles about the tenses in the English language, Romanian students make mistakes when they use the tenses in English. Why? Because they try to apply the patterns of our language in English or they try to understand a sentence word for word.

One of the most common mistakes is made when using the past tense simple. Due to the fact that in Romanian we usually use “perfect compus” as a past form, students tend to associate the Romanian tense with the English one. Let us have the verb “to finish” in Romanian in the perfect compus tense:

Eu am terminat/ tu ai terminat/ el, ea a terminat/ noi am terminat/ voi ati terminat/ ei au terminat/.

As you can obviously see, in Romanian this is a compound tense and because the tense has two particles (technically speaking the auxiliary verb “a avea” and the past participle of the verb). That is why students sometimes wrongly use two words in the past tense simple.

So do not say: ” I was finished”  but “I finished”.

I have to admit that I frequently hear this mistake. Moreover, now and then  even advanced students make it due to the unhappy association with our language.

As a conclusion, when you have to express an action that happened in the past, apply the rule for the past tense in English and your sentence will be correct. 

Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
Tel: 0722.841.053
E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro.

 

Learn English/ About the tenses (3)

I have mentioned in my article here that students understand the affirmative form of the tenses in general, but they are at pains ( it is very difficult for them ) when they try to use the interrogative form. The tense focus of this article will be the present tense simple, in order to enlarge upon the topics introduced in my previous articles.

Students find it difficult to use an auxiliary verb in questions because we do not use auxiliaries in questions in our language or in the French language. But when they do use an auxiliary, some mistakes are likely to appear.

They sometimes say: “Do he speaks English?” or “Does he speaks English?”. The correct question is “Does he speak English?“, because we make the concord between the subject and the first verb in a sentence. Also we do not make the concord twice as in “Does he speaks English?”. Once is enough. Again, the correct sentence is: " Does he speak English?"

I will develop this topic in my classes especially in conversation, as “practice makes perfect”.

Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
Tel: 0722.841.053
E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro.

 

About the tenses (2)

This article will be dedicated to the use of tenses, with a view to the Present Tense Simple.

This tense, as I explained in a previous article here, is not difficult in English because it has a rule to apply. So the affirmative form is clear and easy to understand.

Students usually enter dangerous territory when they have to use the interrogative form or the questions. From our Romanian perspective, the problem is about the use of the auxiliary verbs in questions, which is a general rule in English. Why is that a problem for Romanian natives, French and other Romance languages speakers? Mainly because in these languages we do not use an auxiliary in questions. In the Romanian language we use inversion or intonation to ask a question. In the French language the situation is similar. What is more, we can use a phrase at the beginning of the question (est-ce que..). So we do not use an auxiliary to ask questions, that is why the general trend is not to use it in English.

We say: “Do you speak French?” but in Romanian we say: “Vorbiți/ Știți franceză?” or “Tu știi franceză? “, while in French we have: “Parlez-vous Francais?”.  We cannot associate the auxiliary “to do” with a word in Romanian or French, or we cannot translate it, which is the source of mistakes.

• Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I  www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
• Tel: 0722.841.053
• E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro

Improve your English (3)

If you have attended some courses on a regular basis, progress is easy to attain and now  your level is pre-intermediate.

Courses for the pre-intermediate level are focused no longer on grammar but on the use of English, mainly conversing on various topics, developing all kinds of subjects and of course, small talk.

Everything that you experience can become a pretext for conversing. Also it is a good idea to change an ordinary situation into an intricate one, your benefits being the choice of words, meaning acquiring new  vocabulary.

The tasks for the reading activity become longer and more complex. After reading the text silently, refrain from looking the new  words up in the dictionary, but try to guess their meanings in context. Or you would better try to find a synonym or a synonymous phrase. After you grasp the whole idea about the text, try to give the summary of the text or to summarize it into only one sentence.

The tasks for the listening activity are also longer and complex. While listening, do not pay attention to the words that you do not understand, but to key words in the text that can help you understand the text as a whole and not word for word. Which is advisable to do especially when conversing with native speakers.

• Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I  www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
• Tel: 0722.841.053
• E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro

About the tenses (1)

Many of my students complain (usually during the first classes or modules) about the difficulty of tenses in the English language. Being most of them native Romanians, they do not know  what they are talking about. What I am trying to say is that Romanian language has such difficult tenses and English such easy ones. In order to demonstrate this I ask my Romanian students to use the verb "a muri"(to die) in the present in Romanian with all the subject pronouns, and to do the same with the verb ''to die" in English:

Eu mor / tu mori/ el,ea moare/ noi murim/ voi muriti/ei mor

I die/ you die/ he, she dies/ we die/you die/they die.

The only difference you see in English is the suffix s in the third person singular. What about the Romanian verb? Not even the base form of the verb remains the same and the suffixes are irregular.

It is just an example. But that is why Romanians at first have difficulties in understanding the tenses in English. The tense patterns in the two languages are different (we can associate Romanian tenses with French ones but not with the English).

When you use the tenses in English, stick to the rules that apply to each tense and use them in context and not because having a tense in Romanian, you have to use the same tense in English. This is one of the most frequent mistakes that students make when using tenses, mistakes soon to be discussed in future articles.

Pentru mai multe informatii va rugam sa ne accesati pagina web:  www.StartEnglish.ro.

Improve your English (2)

In my previous article on the same topic I have given advice for students at the beginner level. Now  I am addressing students at the elementary level. The levels of knowledge are in this order: Beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate (advanced).

If your level is elementary it means that you can manage with the use of tenses and you have become familiar with some vocabulary that can cover some areas of the language.

A few  tips:

Try to make some Small Talk. As I mentioned in a previous article, during all my classes I have Small Talk. If you do not know, this is basically conversing on some very simple and common topics. The topics may be simple but the activity is not.  It is difficult to fluently speak in another language about a lot of stuff, usually unimportant or to answer the question: “What have you been doing lately?” or “How are things?”. When I have this activity with my students, I tell them to imagine themselves chatting with their best friends in English, of course. More on this respect we will have in class, or you can sign up for a conversation course.

• Web: www.cursinengleza.ro I  www.engleza-de-afaceri.ro
• Tel: 0722.841.053
• E-mail: contact@engleza-de-afaceri.ro