How I learned English

English as a Second Language What do you want to talk about?
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Torsten suggested that I post how I taught myself English over the years especially stating the methods I employed.

It all started at school, of course. After learning the basics of grammar and vocabulary I noticed that I still couldn’t understand very much of what was being said on American TV or radio or in song lyrics. So in order to increase my vocabulary I bought some good dictionaries and books I was really interested in -Michael Crichton’s “Andromeda Strain” among them- and started to translate them word by word, sentence by sentence. Any word I didn’t know I looked up in my dictionary and then wrote it down. This may appear tedious to most but it helped me a great deal.

I continued to watch TV in order to get an ear for colloquial and “official” American English and tried to recognize words hitherto unknown to me, in order to look them up. Trying to figure out the meaning of song-lyrics of pop songs currently in the charts also helped.

For learning slang I used so-called “pulp fiction” books, because they don’t use very complex language, rather a subset of English, consisting of everyday-speech used by the average native speaker - and are chockful of slang terms. This -ahem- literature consists mostly of horror, fantasy or romance.

Later on I became a shortwave-listener, discovering the international broadcasts of the BBC and others, which of course opened up a whole host of new possibilities to learn English.

With the advent of the World Wide Web in the 1990s, I welcomed this new way to get in contact with people from English-speaking countries in an easy fashion. Before the Web I had been part of the so-called BBS (bulletin board system) scene, frequenting a group called “Interuser” on the FIDO network.

In the course of years I extended my studies to British English, learning that common English is full of “blokes”, “mates” and other colorful people :wink: Australians and New Zealanders also have their linguistic specialties and I think their English has a nice ring to it. Scottish, too. (Watch the extras of any of the “Lord of the Rings” DVDs and you’ll be able to savor all these flavors of English in one place).

Nowadays I read comics, “serious books”, technical papers, news…really all sorts of communication one could think of. I also write in English a lot, participating in mailing lists and forums, mostly in my line of work. Knowing English has enormously helped me in my career in IT. Not having to think about what the words in an FAQ mean but being able to concentrate on the problem at hand is clearly an advantage.

Regular exposure to original material in all its written and verbal forms is the key to really learning a language I think. The methods used to ensure that exposure may vary for each individual. These were mine and I hope I could provide at least a couple of ideas helpful to others.

One last recommendation for all fellow students of English: Use the Firefox browser and you will be able to enjoy numerous language-oriented add-ons (extras) that will let you look up words in various dictionaries, do instant translations of web pages and so forth. It’s never been easier to learn words you don’t know. If you have problems or questions about Firefox or its add-ons, feel free to send me a PM.

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It’s interesting that you mention that. A friend of mine from the Middle East got a job here in the US in a doctor’s office where most of the patients spoke a very heavy African-American dialect. She was startled, aggravated and frustrated, because she had a terrible time understanding the people, and they generally wouldn’t speak clearly when she asked them to. One day some patient finished a pulp novel written specifically for African-American women while she was in the waiting room. She handed it over the desk and told my friend she could pass it on to some other patient. The doctor (my friend’s boss) told my friend it was trash and just to throw it away. Instead she read the book. It really was awful filth, but the dialogue was mostly written in dialect, and within a week my friend understood everything the patients said to her.

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Hi Jamie! You know what’s also interesting? I noticed that you’re hailing from the Motor City…One of the pulp novels that introduced me to African-American slang was called “The Detroit Connection” lol It featured characters that appeared to be lifted from the cast of “Shaft” and “Soul Train” at the same time.

Seasonal Greetings
Ralf

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Yes, Detroit keeps its reputation as the crime capital of America even in years when other cities are much more dangerous. I get chills hearing about some things that happen in LA and New York, but I calmly drive through “bad” neighborhoods of Detroit every day, and nobody bothers me.

I laughed when I saw the movie “8 Mile”, because the director obviously looked very hard to find the ugliest possible locations. Sometimes it looked funny to a native. At one point, the guys are in their car shooting a paintball at something, and within a second or two they’ve been transported two or three miles away. That’s what they need to do if they want absolutely everything in the movie to be ugly.

Another thing outsiders don’t know is that now Detroit is more or less a ring of suburbs around a largely evacuated city. There are now prairie animals living in parts of the city of Detroit. Many of the suburbs, however, are VERY affluent, and Oakland County is the second or third richest county in the US.

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Thanks Torsten because you advice Lucien to do this,and Thanks Lucien to write this… :smiley:
I used to work more on my English but lately I’ve been so bussy that I had’nt had enough time to practice or read or write or look up for new words on the dictionary,all the things you’ve done in order to learn this language shows your love for it,and are also an excellent piece of advice for all the students of English like me,that think we have’nt learned enough…
:idea: It would be great if all of us could add another piece of advice to learn or develope our knowledge,the more we share,the better opportunities to learn we will have.
Merry Christmas for all of you
Cristina.

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Hi Cristina! Glad to hear that you liked my posting and consider it useful. Thanks for your kind words.
Merry X-Mas
Ralf