How to Improve Your English Skills

A Useful English Dictionary to Learn American English

2011-03-31T23:14:00.004-04:00

When people learn English, dictionary is necessary. Many English teachers recommended me to use Webster Dictionary. However, I was sometimes confused when I used it because I learned American English. Actually, the Webster Dictionary is for British English. Therefore, some vocabulary has different meaning form British English.

Therefore, I'd like to recommend a useful dictionary for American English. If you want to study American English, you should use this website(http://www.thefreedictionary.com) instead of Webster Dictionary. The website is very good to learn American English; you can listen to pronunciation of vocabulary you find, and you can also see synonyms and antonyms about vocabulary you find. Moreover, there is a game to learn vocabulary on the website. If you use it, your English will be improved.

It's the 3H's Today

2011-03-20T00:50:00.001-04:00

English has a lot of expressions, so I sometimes feel that "English is Greek to me." :)

Do you know this expression?: it's the 3H's today. When I heard that at first, I didn't understand it at all. Therefore, I would like to let you know it.

3H's means "Hot, Humid, and Hazy." Now, you maybe say "Aha." :) If you listen to this expression later, don't think that it is Gibberish to you as I felt at first. :)

How to use "Marry" correctly

2010-12-05T16:47:00.005-05:00

Many people who learn English tend to be confused when using “Marry.” I was also confused before, but I now know how to use the word. Therefore, I want to explain how to use “Marry” without being wrong.

There are three types to use “Marry”

1. Will you marry me? I will marry you.
When you use “Marry” as a verb, there is no preposition.

2. I am married to him.

3. I got married to him.

However, as #2 and #3, if you use “Marry” with be or get verb, you should say the word with “To”. Many students are likely to use “Be married WITH” or “Get married WITH,” but it is completely wrong. As a result, you should be careful not to use the preposition, WITH.

Now, you know the rule, so don't make a mistake anymore. I hope this is helpful for you.

Put Your John Hancock Here!

2010-07-05T22:53:00.000-04:00

Do you know the meaning “Put your John Hancock here?” John Hancock was president of the Second Continental Congress. He signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. His signature was the largest on the Declaration of Independence.

Today, some people say put your "John Hancock" here, which means put your signature here. Therefore, if you hear someone say put your "John Hancock", you now know what it means. :)

A Very Good Website to Improve Your English Listening Skills: 1010wins.com

2010-06-29T16:34:00.000-04:00

I recommend another website to you to improve your English listening skills: 1010wins.com. When you visit this website and click on “Listen Live” on the right of the main page, you can listen to live news. If you listen to the real time news as long as you can every day, you will improve your listening skills so much. Whenever you are on the Internet, just listen to it and do your tasks at the same time. Wherever you are, you can listen to it if you connect to the Internet. It is very cool.

I have also listened to it doing my other tasks when I use the internet. Actually, when I used the website at first, it was difficult to understand the live news. However, the more time has gone by, the more I have improved my listening skills and understood the news.

You should try it to improve your English listening skills if you want to. However, don't forget to listen to the Internet every day and in this way, you will not loose your skills. If you do that, someday, you will feel that your listening skills are improved.

A Very Good Website to Lean English - Voanews.Org

2010-06-26T11:51:00.000-04:00

The last time, I said to read a newspaper for one hour every day to improve your English. Today, I’d like to recommend a very good website to learn English – voanews.org.

When you go to the website, there is a learning English section on the top. If you click on it, you can listen to articles recoded by announcers. This is very good because you can read and listen to articles at the same time. It is helpful for you to reduce your accent because you can check your accent about what problem you have as comparing to announcers’ pronunciation. It is very cool. I really recommend this website for you. I have also used this website when I read articles. It has helped for me to improve my pronunciation and reading style. I have found my English accent problems since I used the website. Therefore, I have been reducing my accent and improving reading, speaking, and listening skills.

I didn’t know this website before. If I had known it before I started learning English in the U.S, I would have saved my time and money to study English here. Actually, I thought if I came to the U.S.A to learn English and lived for a year, I would have spoken English very well. However, I realized that my expectation was wrong after I came here because I didn’t have enough skills and foundation about listening and speaking skills. Also, I didn’t have practice them when I stayed in my country. Therefore, if you learn the basics of English very well in your country first and then go abroad to learn English, you would improve your English skills very fast while you stay in English-speaking counties. For example, one of my house mates has studied English for a year in the U.S., but she speaks English very well like a native speaker because she had very strong English foundations about speaking and listening skills before she came here. Therefore, she is a good communicator with other people in English, whereas others are not when I compare her to international students who have lived here for the same period. Through her example, you will figure out how important you have strong basics of English before you leave your country to learn English in an English speaking country. Many people think if they go abroad to learn English, they will speak English very well automatically soon. However, it is impossible for them to do that. It depends on a person’s foundation of English.

However, you are not late. If you start to study English with this website right away, after one year, you would be a person who speaks English very well even if you don’t go abroad to learn English. As a result, maybe you wouldn’t need to go abroad to learn English. If I had known it before, I would have been the person who speak English fluently. However, I realized that just a few months ago. Nevertheless, I think that I’m not late to do that. If you get my point, study English with this website. However, don't forget to always read aloud articles. :) If you don't read aloud anything, you won't improve your English.

Read Aloud a Newspaper for One Hour Every Day!

2010-06-24T19:30:00.000-04:00

Do you want to speak English very well? You should read aloud newspapers, magazines, or books you like for one hour every day. However, among those materials, I recommend that you read a daily newspaper every day. I think it is better than other materials because you will see a lot of vocabulary in various fields through the newspaper. Therefore, you will get good vocabulary in every field. Also, you will have a lot of stories you talk with other people. Actually, when you hang out with others, the stories are very good to keep talking with others. Moreover, you don’t need to be looking for vocabulary you don’t know because you already get it through the newspaper. Reading a newspaper for one hour every day is not easy. However, when you keep reading it for one year, you will have great English skills; you will feel that your English skills improve a lot. This way is a very shortcut to get good English skills. When you read it first, don’t worry about you don’t understand whole meaning of articles you read. Just keep reading it without concern about it.

By now, you want to ask me why it is important to read a newspaper every day without understanding the meaning of articles. There are two reasons. First, when you read articles, you will see a lot of sentences. Therefore, you don’t need to study English grammar separately. Furthermore, you will learn a lot of idiomatic expressions. Without your being aware of it, you naturally get sentence structures and meaning of articles. Second, when you read aloud newspaper, you listen to your voice tone and pronunciation. As well, it is the same as practicing speaking; when we speak one word, we should speak a lot of times and then we can speak naturally and fluently. Therefore, when you loudly read the newspaper, your speaking skills will be improved. If you have never spoken something, do you think you can speak it very well? My answer is “No.” It is not easy to speak it.

That’s why I recommend you read the newspaper. Do you agree with me? If you do, start it right away. This way makes you have four excellent English skills, such as speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills- at the same time. I hope you get them soon. Good luck!

How to Improve Your English Pronunciation

2010-06-23T14:21:00.000-04:00

Do you have good English pronunciation? If you do, you are so lucky. Actually, when I came to N.Y. first to learn English, I didn’t think about how important English pronunciation was. Why? I thought my pronunciation was not too bad, so I felt not to need to learn it. In addition, some friends who took a reducing accent class told me “taking English pronunciation class is to waste your money.” They didn’t like it. Most reasons they disliked it were that the class was boring and not useful to improve their pronunciation as much as they expected. Also, there were many students in the classroom, so the teacher who taught the class was difficult to correct every student’s accent.

However, I realized that my pronunciation was too bad one day. One of my friends from Spain didn’t understand my words when I said something. She several times asked me what I said. She suggested that I should take a reducing accent class. Therefore, I figured out that I should take it. However, there were a lot of classmates in the class, so it seemed to be not easy to reduce my accent. Therefore, I considered tutoring about English pronunciation.

Along the way, I found a very famous book of English pronunciation – “American Accent Training by Ann Cook.” The book is very good and will be helpful to improve your pronunciation, so I recommend that you study it. Actually, after I studied the book, my pronunciation improved a lot and I figured out why the book was popular.

Sometimes, we don’t realize how bad our accent is. When I took ESL classes, every student was from other countries; I mean there were no native students in the class. As a result, when we talked together, we understood very well even though we didn’t finish our sentences at all; it was very interesting. There was only one native person, our teacher, in the class. Therefore, when I talked with native speakers outside, they didn’t understand my words because of my accent. Maybe if you studied or are studying English abroad, such as the U.S., United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, you will understand what I say. Because of this, studying precise English pronunciation is very important. For example, if your English pronunciation is very bad, no one understands your words even though you say perfect sentences. However, most international students who learn English are likely to disregard importance of English pronunciation. It is a bad idea.

If you reduce your accent, you should learn English pronunciation with this book. I hope it will help you to have good English pronunciation.

How to Improve Your English Grammar

2010-06-22T23:32:00.000-04:00

I have studied English for two years in N.Y. When I came here, my listening and speaking skills were terrible, though my grammar and reading skills were not bad. Learning another language is not easy. Therefore, I'd like to say how to improve English skills and my experiences through this blog. I hope my information helps you if you are interested in studying English. Also, if you have different information to improve English skills, please, let me know it.

First of all, today, I want to recommend a very good English grammar book - "Understanding and Using English Grammar (Third Edition)" by AZAR. Many ESL teachers use the book when they teach English because there are a lot of examples in the book and explanation of English grammar is more clear and organized than other books. Actually, I didn’t know the book first, but most of my English teachers recommended that I study the book, so I got it and I studied the book. After then, I love it. If you want to improve your English skills, you should study it at least one time. If you study it, you will like it. Also, if you study it again and again, you will have very powerful English skills.

As you see an image of the book above, that is my book. While I studied, I posted on some parts I couldn’t understand very well, in the book, so I could see them later again. There is “Contents” in the book as follows.

Contents

Chapter 1. Overview of Verb Tenses
Chapter 2. Present and Past, Simple and Progressive
Chapter 3. Perfect and Perfect Progressive Tenses
Chapter 4. Future Time
Chapter 5. Adverb Clauses of Time and Review of Verb Tenses
Chapter 6. Subject-Verb Agreement
Chapter 7. Nouns
Chapter 8. Pronouns
Chapter 9. Modals, Part 1
Chapter 10. Modals, Part 2
Chapter 11. The Passive
Chapter 12. Noun Clauses
Chapter 13. Adjective Clauses
Chapter 14. Gerunds and Infinitives, Part 1
Chapter 15. Gerunds and Infinitives, Part 2
Chapter 16. Coordinating Conjunctions
Chapter 17. Adverb Clauses
Chapter 18. Reduction of Adverb Clauses to Modifying Adverbial Phrases
Chapter 19. Connectives that Express Cause and Effect, Contrast and Condition
Chapter 20. Conditional Sentences and Wishes

Appendix Supplementary Grammar
Unit A: Basic Grammar Terminology
Unit B: Questions
Unit C: Contractions
Unit D: Negatives.
Unit E: Prepositions Combinations
Unit F: Connectives to Give Examples and to Continue an Idea
Unit G: Verb Form Review Exercises
Answer Key

This book is very useful to improve your English skills, so I hope you study it if you don’t yet.