Proper respect to the ESLers on the site

[Lillefix]

My question is: how does English sound to your ears? Because even though I can understand German if I'm paying attention, when I'm not it sounds mostly like incomprehensible background noise. The words and so just sound "off". Does this ever go away for a second language?

After years of movies and television I think I can understand the (white) American English used in most television series almost as well as standard Norwegian(and much better than certain dialects).

 

[Winner]

After years of movies and television I think I can understand the (white) American English used in most television series almost as well as standard Norwegian(and much better than certain dialects).

I tend to have problems understanding English when there's a lot of interference (like when the voice is coming through a lot of radio noise). Other than that, I think I understand standard English (British, American) pretty well.

When I speak I sometimes make mistakes that I know are mistakes and I'd never make them in writing, it's as if my brain was doing them out of spite

 

[Lillefix]

Speaking is a whole different thing. I stutter and forget words. It takes a while to get into it.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I studied English for 8 years, but none of those made much of a difference. All alone, those years would have allowed me to somehow communicate and to somehow understand, would have giving me a kind of shaky foundation - not enough to be willing to keep posting on an English board for sure.
But I got to add that I had always been kind of bad with foreign languages, too. I was a bad English student. What changed that was 10 months in America, in American schools and American families. And ever since then, I try to practice my English with this board and a lot of English media.

Actually having a conservation in English is at first challenging to me too, though. I, as others already stated, either need time to get back into it, to have this "click" moment - or booze. When it has made really "click", I tend to even think and dream in English, so then English is the language my consciousness focuses on. It becomes natural and so I also will naturally understand English speaking unless it is especially hard to catch.

 

[Leoreth]

Seven years of English in school for me (fifth to eleventh year). I must say that English in school was one of my lesser liked and worse subjects (although that only meant I had to work to get Bs or As ), which is why I dropped it after the eleventh year (I'd rather have dropped useless subjects like German but the system didn't permit it). My approach to English at that time was very technical, i.e. learning grammar and vocabulary and sticking sentences together along the rules. So not fluent at all.

In my last school years and subsequently on college, I started picking up actual English media (book sequels where I hated to wait for the translation, computer games where the German versions were plain awful), which in the end resulted in playing almost all games in English.

This site was the first where I started to actively communicate in English, and is still where I do it most. And it improved my English a lot, so thanks guys, I guess

The only thing that needs improvement is my accent. Not that I have a German accent, but I sound too much "Oxford English" and that always marks one as foreign, too. I'm currently striving for something vaguely South English but I'm afraid I rather sound like Lena Meyer-Landrut.

My question is: how does English sound to your ears? Because even though I can understand German if I'm paying attention, when I'm not it sounds mostly like incomprehensible background noise. The words and so just sound "off". Does this ever go away for a second language?

Yes. When I was watching English TV shows some years ago I had to actively listen to what people say to understand what was going on. Now I can simultaneously argue with people in OT while watching fast paced dialogue in The West Wing

The only annoying thing is that you always understand the often inane lyrics of pop music when it's playing in the background, which is unusual for a native German speaker that's used to phase out this stuff when it annoys you.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Given the status of English on the internet, especially the abysmal form of it made popular by chat clients and text-messaging on phones, I'm impressed that those who practice their English on line manage to do it properly, without picking up all-too common mistakes in spelling and grammar. Though that may not be too surprising: when I compose sentences in German or Spanish, I tend to limit myself to the rules. I'd like to sound as formal in those languages as I do in English.

 

[madviking]

System.out.println("Java was my first language.");

print(Then I learned Python)

And then English.

 

[Antilogic]

I definitely gained more respect for ESLers, especially those who come to study in the USA, after I was in the same boat over in Switzerland. Plenty of people spoke English, sure, but you always feel like the outsider when conversations are happening all around you in French and German and you only pick up on a couple words. Same experience the few times I went to Arabia, but that's another story.

Any way, I tried only ordering food and conducting basic transactions in German, most people switched to English after the first sentence I got out. I guess the American accent gave me away.

 

[Lone Wolf]

How long have you studied English?

Learned it when I was six.

My question is: how does English sound to your ears? Because even though I can understand German if I'm paying attention, when I'm not it sounds mostly like incomprehensible background noise. The words and so just sound "off".

Spoken English is notoriously difficult to understand. My ability to understand spoken English had recently improved, but sometimes, I find it hard to understand it even when I am paying attention! I envy that language's ability to turn words and sounds into incomprehensible sound soup.

I also have a mild hearing disability, so English speakers usually moving their lips less then Russian speakers doesn't help one bit.

 

[innonimatu]

What does ESL stand for?

My main irritation when using english is the difference between american and british english: I never quite remember which is which when I'm about to use a word that I know is written differently.

 

[Antilogic]

English as a Second Language.

 

[Winner]

What does ESL stand for?

My main irritation when using english is the difference between american and british english: I never quite remember which is which when I'm about to use a word that I know is written differently.

Yeah, avoiding Americanisms is difficult, especially since even the British increasingly use them.

 

[CaptainF]

I'm pretty rotten at spoken English except when I'm drunk

Alcohol is indeed a magical substance. It even makes me speak English with my Czech friends when we consume it

In high school I had a Chilean exchange student friend who by the end of the school year had become quite proficient in English. When he first arrived, however, he was terrible. He later told me that alcohol aided him immensely in his quest to become fluent. His words were something like "Man, first few months I get here, I was hungover like every day!" Crazy guy.

I too am impressed at the written English ability of posters here. I'm currently trying to do the same thing with Spanish, though in the spoken as well as written form.

 

[Tahuti]

Yeah, avoiding Americanisms is difficult, especially since even the British increasingly use them.

What's wrong with Americanisms if even the British are using them? Grammar and spelling rules don't matter if you're understandable enough.

 

[Winner]

What's wrong with Americanisms if even the British are using them? Grammar and spelling rules don't matter if you're understandable enough.

They're barbaric

 

[kochman]

Any way, I tried only ordering food and conducting basic transactions in German, most people switched to English after the first sentence I got out. I guess the American accent gave me away.

I had that experience in Italy UNTIL my Italian got good... that made me happy

 

[kronic]

I'm pretty much fluent in German now after 6 months of living here, and I've been extremely lazy about it. If you've got a few months time and some motivation you could learn a second language easily and at a much better rate than me(3-4 months I'd say). Especially one close to English(ie. any Romance or Germanic language).

But yeah I'm also impressed the ESL's here. You guys all sound like native speakers. Here in Germany(eastern) the kids I know don't speak/write nearly as good english.

I am from Eastern Germany originally. Don't know if it's really better in the Western part. Older people are obviously different.

My question is: how does English sound to your ears? Because even though I can understand German if I'm paying attention, when I'm not it sounds mostly like incomprehensible background noise. The words and so just sound "off". Does this ever go away for a second language?

Yes, it gets a lot better over time. Generally, listening to movies in English helped me a lot. Have German movies play while you're doing other stuff! English is relatively easy for us Germans (except for the pronounciation ). I believe it's more difficult the other way around. I have at least never met someone from an English speaking country who couldn't be identified as EFLer.

I wonder then, of those of you who post so well in English, how many of you are so confident with your spoken English?
When I lived in Germany, it often took new Germans that I met (friends of my ex girlfriend) a couple of beers to loosen up and then they were fine...

It does take some time to accommodate, regardless of the beer. After a long period without talking in English, it takes a while until you can again think in English. My accent though will probably never go away.

How long have you studied English?

Eight years at school. But I don't think it matters much whether you learn it for 5, 8 or 12 years. You need practice in reading, writing, listening and talking.

 

[Pangur Bán]

It should be said that most native english speakers are way too lazy with the language, although obviously to make up for that the upper taxis of linguists will always be out of reach by the foreign speakers.

I know that i used to speak a lot better english, until i lived in England. There the level of the language was poor most of the time. Surely in the university it was ok, but in life outside of it nothing of note was spoken in the circles i had (little) to do with.

The people in England who you are talking about learn to read the version of English you are taught, but the language they speak is different and based on region. It is not lazy or wrong any more than Belarusian is a lazy version of Russian. Normally it is not necessary for them to speak the kind of English you are mentioning, and in any case they would probably feel embarassed to do so since many of them would regard it as pretentious or unmanly or a betrayal of their regional traditions.

 

[civ2]

Mesa notsa speaksa Inglesa. Thisa.

 

[mayor]

I'm pretty confident of my spoken English. I've been watching subtitled films/tv since forever and I have had English classes for 10 years.

I've actually been thinking in English for a long time, which has only increased since I started to visit CFC on a regular basis and there are times I have to name the English because I forgot the Dutch one

I'm pretty rotten at spoken English except when I'm drunk

My English tends to get worse after the first couple of beers, I'll start to stutter, forget words etc. But when I drink some more I'm getting fluent at it