How to Learn Real English
Textbook English is grammatically correct and proper. However, if you want to learn conversational English, it is important to spend as much time as you can surrounding yourself with it. Listen to the television, radio, and other people's conversations as much as possible. You will learn how to use figures of speech, idioms, and jargon over time by constantly listening to conversational English.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Read common, everyday materials such as the local newspaper. Read blogs and forums on the Internet. Although the spelling and grammar in these types of written media are not always the best, they can give you clues to how English is used by native speakers when they are trying to convey information quickly and informally.
-
2
Listen to the deejays on your local radio station in the morning. You will learn words and phrases that are used by English speakers on a regular basis. You can also listen to news reports such as those on National Public Radio. Watch English movies and television, and record your favorite TV shows if you can. You can rewind and replay parts of a program that you did not quite understand, or pause and repeat a new word or phrase you heard.
-
-
3
Join a language exchange such as My Language Exchange. You will chat online with someone who is a native English speaker and who wants to learn your native language. Your conversational skills will improve dramatically by talking to your conversation partner on a regular basis. Ask your partner about any new words and phrases you hear. He will be able to explain when and where to appropriately use them. Also, exchange emails with your language partner, and ask him to correct your writing by focusing on how you use figures of speech, idioms, and sentence structure.
-
4
Practice speaking English in your English language classroom and outside the classroom as much as you can. Focus on using a new idiom at least once each day, or use a new vocabulary word in at least one sentence at work each day.
Record yourself speaking English. Listen to what you sounded like a few weeks ago compared to now. You will notice improvement in the flow of your spoken English.
-
1
References
Resources
- Photo Credit the meeting, view from above image by Oleg Mitiukhin from Fotolia.com
