EVENBAO's blog

How to learn English?
By EVENBAO, history, 4 years ago, In English

Hi! Codeforces Community!

I want to ask a question , it is not related to Competitive Programming , but to ask how to learn English well.

I think most of the members of the community are not native English speakers , but many of them can express their ideas and share their opinions of the problems.

So , how to improve my English?

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4 years ago, # |
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Auto comment: topic has been updated by EVENBAO (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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4 years ago, # |
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Read the news in English, watch movies in English, listen to English songs, think in English, write in English, speak in English, and don't worry about your current level. One day you will feel English is natural to you.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    Thank you very much!

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    I wish it always worked. However, it doesn't seem so to me

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      You can additionally buy grammar books (I suggest the blue Murphy) or use online services such as cambly to improve your speaking.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    may I add to your list read English books and change all your devices language to English?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    I'd add: whenever you have the option of reading/watching something in english instead of your own language, do that (at least in the internet). It gets to a point where seeing your native language in some config menu or watching streams in your native language seems pointless and unnatural, mostly because it's usually lower quality (at least in my language).

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4 years ago, # |
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This comment will not solve your problem, but, the way you have described your problem ( in the English Language itself ), I would say that your English is quite good, and I have personally seen a lot of poor written blogs than yours.

So, I would say if you want to learn more than what you've already showcased, sure, that can be done, but I am afraid if people from Codeforces can help you with that.

Update : I will happily accept that I am wrong ! People from Codeforces can teach you English !! Good Luck !

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    but I am afraid if people from Codeforces can help you with that

    I think you meant

    but I am afraid people from Codeforces can't help you with that

    Cause why would you be afraid if people from codeforces can help him improve his english .

    Mistakes in english on a blog asking for improvement in it , but I guess you never said that you were good at it so ....

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      Also, I think instead of this

      poor written blogs

      it should be

      poorly written blogs

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        4 years ago, # ^ |
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        Yes, and these grammatical mistakes of mine, are the only reason I had full belief that people from Codeforces are not the ones to ask about — "How to improve English". There exist people like me ! So...

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          4 years ago, # ^ |
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          People from Codeforces are not the ones to ask about

          Wait what ?? I think your grammar is getting worse with each comment ...

          If people from codeforces successfully point out your mistakes then they are right ones to ask this question ...

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            4 years ago, # ^ |
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            hmm, yes I guess you are right. I hereby take back what I said !

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4 years ago, # |
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watch movies, lots of it.

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4 years ago, # |
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Every new english word that you see, go and search for the meaning...

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4 years ago, # |
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Judging by the framing of your question...you are doing quiet well already

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4 years ago, # |
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Take part in more CF contests

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4 years ago, # |
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Always end the blog with Sorry for my poor English.

Jokes aside, I prefer reading books that are both for fun and for educational purposes.

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4 years ago, # |
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Always try to do everything in English. Stick with English tutorials about something, watch movies or play video games in English (with subtitles). So try to avoid your native language whenever possible. It's also good to use some browser extensions which will improve your writing skills a bit. If you wrote this blog on your own, doing above-mentioned things will improve your English for sure.

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4 years ago, # |
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You can participate in discord chats for CP like AC. It will simultaneously improve your English, confidence in communicating using English and increasae your familiarity with/to community.

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4 years ago, # |
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Most of the advice in the thread are the same as "to become LGM, solve more problems"

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4 years ago, # |
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"So , how to improve my English?". bro my English is bad too! btw i have a question for people who wrote watch movie and ... are you guys really good at English!? because i dont think its good enough!

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    It may not be good enough, but definitely helps improving. Trying to communicate using English is more important IMO.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    Yeah.

    First, english in movies is quite advanced, In pretty much all aspects, from vocabulary to quick and distorted pronunciation

    Second. In a typical blockbuster movie there is not that much text. Most of the time you watch nice sceneries and explosions.

    Third. There is low level of recirculation. A lot of difficult words will be heard only once or twice for the entire movie. Obviously you will forget them immediately. So even if you choose this approach, it makes more sense to watch tv shows where lexicon and grammar repeats more

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      I primarily use English, so my point of view might be a bit skewed. However, I think that for your point of difficult words, if your goal is to be conversationally fluent in English, then those difficult words that appear only a few times aren't that significant to a normal conversation. I think mainly the point of watching movies or consuming other media in English is to have exposure to the language that can help you become familiar with the most common words and language. Watching the news or reading the news is also pretty helpful since that will contain words that are used day-to-day as well.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    Yeah. I have terrible English but, I have a friend which he has PRETTY English and he just watches animes ( he is otaku :) ). And I can say that if you watch a lot of movie, anime or cartoon ( I recommend anime or cartoon in beginning for good pronunciation ) you will have good English (and if you enjoy watching these ) (if I do grammar mistake please say me)

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      "...if you watch a lot of movies, anime or cartoons"

      "if I made any grammar mistakes please tell me"

      Also, instead of "PRETTY", maybe you meant to say "AMAZING" or "pretty good"? The word "pretty" usually describes something physically attractive, or is used as an adverb like "very".

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4 years ago, # |
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This worked for me quite well, You can tweak your speaker and mic settings from windows so you be able hear yourself in the headphones ( you can also install a software for that like voicemeteer ). and for every song I listened I searched for the lyrics and sang with it. hearing my voice in the headphones helped me in identifying my pronunciation mistakes also made speaking english feel like a natural thing ( you have to google the words you don't understand its meaning tho ). also whenever you watch a movie or something turn off the subtitles, try to make your brain understand based on hearing not reading.

Hope it works for you!

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4 years ago, # |
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For learning how to write grammatically correct sentences , try to find a book which has exercises on translating sentences from your mother tongue to English. Solving those questions will improve your writing skills a lot. If you want to make your vocabulary strong, read novels. For speaking and gaining confidence, the best way is to speak as much as you can. For this , you can try teaching algorithms and data structures to native English speakers who are beginners here. P.S — I am not a native English speaker and you may find many grammatical errors in the above phrase.

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4 years ago, # |
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Read English newspapers, news channels, and movies. This will make you comfortable with English.

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4 years ago, # |
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I have been learning English since I was young, but I do not think my English standard is great yet.

I learnt most on language when I receive feedback. This means that someone will need to read my writings. To make people to read your writing, either you help people (maintaining a blog that people actually read, reply to calls for help) or you make an argument (write something to convince someone).

Places I could think of where you can get feedback - sharing your experiences from China on Quora - offering free coding interviews (in English)

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4 years ago, # |
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ignore

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4 years ago, # |
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Recently I encountered an English tutor that visits large companies and teaches English. Mostly spoken "business" English. He advised to watch TED videos, with English subtitles. First, watch the first 5 minutes. Then, re-watch the first 5 minutes, and after every sentence, stop and say what that person said, and try to sound exactly like them.

It's funny, because my parents told me I did the exact same thing when I was 7 years old (but it was in front of cartoons obviously LOL). Now, objectively, I have great English. (I said my parents told me, because I have no memory of that experience xD)

Regarding books — I know lots of people that read 100+ books and speak terrible English. It gives you vocabulary, but you don't practice using it. Also, books do not portray normal people English. If you want to sound like the way J.R.R Tolkien thinks people sounded in middle earth, go a head and read LOTR for practice, but if you want to sound like human beings — watch TV or TED videos, and practice saying the sentences you hear, exactly as you hear them.

(Note: notice that he said to have English subtitles on, so you practice reading as well, improving your grammar and spelling as well!)

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    Sure, for attaining normal conversations just consuming them is sufficient; I wrote about truly fine literacy and more of a standardized English language — with emphasis on concision, precision, and simplicity. Appreciation of a language and its beauty is worthwhile, and though your personal anecdote is considerable, one can hardly imagine a person possessing enough skill to read great books, but not consuming (and producing) day-to-day English and being good at it too. And just to nail it down, it's long been proven that learning of language is all-input. Here's a quote from Washington Post: "The results of studies done over the last few decades by a wide variety of researchers and published in scientific journals support this view: We do not master languages by hard study and memorization, or by producing it. Rather, we acquire language when we understand what people tell us and what we read, when we get “comprehensible input.” As we get comprehensible input through listening and reading, we acquire (or “absorb”) the grammar and vocabulary of the second language."

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4 years ago, # |
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Make an English speaking girlfriend, that's it ;)

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4 years ago, # |
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I would recommend watching some American comedy cartoon with a lot of episodes (e.g. Simpsons) with English subtitles. Every time you encounter an unfamiliar word, hit the pause, look up the translation, and write it down.

Such cartoons contain a lot of dialogues per minute, the language is relatively simple, but also on diverse topics. And it's fun to watch — so you won't get bored.

This is the way I learned English.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    This is a great way. But this way people will use English just by experience/memory without understanding the grammar/rules of the language.

    How would you learn the grammar/rules of the language?

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4 years ago, # |
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give this a shot. :P

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4 years ago, # |
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Step1: Listen to "Rapgod" and "Godzilla" by Eminem.

Step2:???

Step3:Profit

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4 years ago, # |
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If you know the basics and you have good vocabulary the best thing to do for you is watching movies. They are really useful and will increase your english skills a lot. But for start you can watch animations because they are easier to understand and then watch movies.

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4 years ago, # |
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I have watched lots of English web-series/movies in the lockdown period but only my listening skills is improved. How to work on my communication skills?

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4 years ago, # |
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Hmm, I'm non-native too and of course I learned grammar or English words, but I (almost) always try to express my ideas with simple English. With doing this, your English's readability will kept high.

And the best way to improve your English is use English. You can try to join some discussion on here, positively. Have fun!

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