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Ask HN: How to continue learning English after coming to America?

2 points by sammyjiang ↗ HN
Hi, i am Chinese student in San Francisco, though I have learned English for more than ten years in China and relative good score on TOEFL, I still have great difficulty in listening and speak here, I find the way people speak is different from what I learned. People here speak much more quickly, not clearly, and with various accent and phrases I never heard before. I find I still need to learn much more, So I wonder do you know any methods or tools to deal with this problem? Any ways promote continued learning?

5 comments

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itchyjunk
It depends on your goal. To improve your listening skills for conversation, you'll have to engage in conversation and it will improve over time. It is normal to not be able to catch everything. Politely asking people to repeat themselves is perfectly fine.

One trick I use is to repeat what I thought I heard so the speaker can correct me. As opposed to just saying "what?" I would ask, "The cat was rolling weird?" This might get corrected to "The `Cart` was rolling". I find people will emphasis the word you're having trouble with.

I too had a decent TOEFL score(108/120), but I quickly realized that I could think of words in my head but not pronounce it. I still struggle with this and I get corrected all the time. Eg: My "bear" "beer" and "bare" sounds almost the same.

Reading books and articles helps with learning new words and keeping your vocabulary. Colleges generally have "writing centers" for help with formal writing. These people also help you with conversation and are generally happy to talk to you. I've also utilized places like #english on freenode.net sometimes.

Mimicry also helps. If you hear someone talk fluently, you should mentally commit that to memory. Some native speakers aren't good role model to mimic. So you want to actively make sure you're not copying wrong model. Most of this is initial work. Once you get to a thresh hold, you'll have easier time more or less.

WheelsAtLarge
It looks like you have a good grasp of English grammar. It's now time to improve your verbal skills.

It's been shown that the best way to become fluent in a new language is to speak it as much as possible. So, what this means is that , you need to get into conversations with people where you are forced to speak English. Find people to talk to where ever you go. If I were you I would find meet ups on subjects you are interested in and once there start conversations.

Don't be afraid to talk to people because you have trouble communicating with them. The more you do it the better your language skills will get. People can be very helpful so if you don't understand don't be afraid to as for help. I guarantee that within the next year you will have a good handle of the language if you force yourself to use it.

Don't fall into the trap of speaking to only people that speak your language. Ultimately it keeps you from advancing with your dominance of English.

borplk
I'd suggest listening to podcasts and watching video content like movies tv shows and stuff.

Don't think of it as "learning" just find something you are interested in and get in the habit of listening.

Podcasts helped me a lot. I got used to listening to some every week and it was content I was interested in anyway so I wanted to learn to understand what they say.