GIANTS Software - Forum

How do all of you from non English countries learn English so well? Here in the states we all try learning your languages and have no luck.

I think it partly has to do with the type of education system, but I could be wrong, because American schools teach differently than other countries, and also 'Murica likes to be different too (as a fellow American I can attest to that last bit)

Being a fellow american myself I can say our school systems is a big joke.
Most from others countries know a bit of english just because of how much English branded products, movies, games and tv shows there is.

They teach English at a young age un Europe. Most of the buisnesses in Europe require English as a must. People from the Nordic countries speak and understand alot of English

eric21 wrote:They teach English at a young age in Europe.

Yes indeed, when I was in school they started us on English when I was about 14 I think. But I'm pretty sure they start at a younger age these days. Furthermore, kids brains are very receptable (?) to other languages when they're very young and they find English everywhere these days; movies, TV, songs and off course it's all over the internet. So they pick it up very easily.

They start to learn English very young not sure how long but very young this way its much easier to learn, in the uk they do bits in primary but mostly its in high school when your 11 plus witch is to late

They don't offer any language courses in school here in the U.S untill high school(grades 9-12) even then they are optional, my school only offered French and Spanish which I wasn't interested in. I'm learning Dutch and German in my own time currently, and its not easy.

I got offered French or Spanish when I was in school (11 years old UK) I refused both.
Wanted to learn German, I got as far as "Im weg für einen Rauch" and gave up.... I'm not much of a people person.

People that try to learn English or any language from a young age always pick it up quicker then their elder's.
Respect to the older people that learn the language, It comes so natural to me but I hear it's quite hard to learn.

Gnasher3i6 wrote:I got offered French or Spanish when I was in school (11 years old UK) I refused both.
Wanted to learn German, I got as far as "Im weg für einen Rauch" and gave up.... I'm not much of a people person.

People that try to learn English or any language from a young age always pick it up quicker then their elder's.
Respect to the older people that learn the language, It comes so natural to me but I hear it's quite hard to learn.

From what I've heard people say English is very difficult to learn. I can't comment on that but I do wish I started learning German and dutch at younger age, I only started to learn because I go to Europe alot. The forums is helping me learn german, speaking it I find is not bad but reading/writing it has proven to be difficult for me.

Good luck with that Delta, There are a lot of German's on the forums as you know, There will be loads of people willing to help you I bet.
I wish I had the patience to learn it myself, but I'm in a "Stuff that, Can't be bothered zone" at the moment.
Wish I stuck with it when I had the chance.

Delta wrote:I'm learning Dutch and German in my own time currently, and its not easy.

Good luck with the Dutch. I live in Belgium and Dutch is my native tongue, but I know it's one of the most difficult languages to learn for a foreigner.

Veel succes met je studies

A high proportion of workers at my job are currently indian, and they learn english at a young age. I feel guilty not being able to speak a different language but it's not a prerequisite for young kids to learn. Except in high school with is part of their core structure of study, but at that age many find it uninteresting.

OnlyMe wrote:

Delta wrote:I'm learning Dutch and German in my own time currently, and its not easy.

Good luck with the Dutch. I live in Belgium and Dutch is my native tongue, but I know it's one of the most difficult languages to learn for a foreigner.

Veel succes met je studies

Dank u wel, yea its definitely not easy but I don't expect to learn it overnight, I'll be in Belgium this year for TomorrowLand and the Netherlands for Defqon 1 and Qlimax so just knowing the basics and how to pronounce everything properly will help alot.

I started learning English in school in the 4th class (10 years old) and was so lucky to have a native speaker as teacher. So altogether I learned English for nine years in school. Nowadays my kids started in the first class with her first foreign language (English). As stated above it is more easy to start learning foreign languages as a child.

Regards
Der_Tod

Here in germany depending on which part of germany you're in kids learn english either in first grade or latest in fourth grade as "Der_Tod" said.

There's a problem with this though, and that is that most english teachers are german. Especially those that teach first to fourth grade mostly can't really speak english themselfes because they never learned to be a english teacher. But even in later grades its not a given that the english teacher actually speaks fluent english. So most of the learning is based on reading texts, writing texts and learning grammar.
Kinda boring and sadly the most important part to learning a language is to use it..
There are exceptions though where teachers really speak english, i once had one that had the rule that during english class you are only allowed to speak english and so did she. Sadly she wasn't our teacher for long otherwise i might have actually gotten good at english.

I have to add though that i'm out of school since a few years and things change, so i don't know how it is by now. But for me, i learned some basics in school, but nothing more. Sure it helped to learn english later, but i mostly learned through the internet, simply by watching english youtube and later english movies and series. By now i always watch the english version of a movie if there is, altough german dubbed movies are actually dubbed very well compared to other languages but the original is just better, you can't translate jokes and emotions as literaly as they sometimes try.

Then at some point i decided that my english is good enough to actually communicate, so i started watching english twitch streams and participated in chat. At first it took me a while for each sentence to finish and i had to use google translator almost every sentence because i was missing some word, but it got better quickly. I'm still kinda slow typing an english text as compared to when i type a german text, but i almost never have to use a translator unless i need some special word, but most things if i don't know the literal word to translate there is some kind of alternative to it i already know.


One important thing in my opinion is to always think in the language you write or speak in. If you are thinking in german while typing an english text you just don't get anywhere because you're basically thinking what you want to say and then translate that literaly to english and maybe if you're good put that in a somewhat correct grammar but still.. Its slow and not really genuine. I think thats no difference for other languages, if you can, try to think in the language you are trying to communicate in.
Also you can learn to think in that language by talking to yourself, either loudly or just in your mind. I often did entire conversations with myself in english. Its called a shower-conversation (which i often did, literally, in the shower).


And to you english native speakers that want to learn another language i would suggest to just learn some basic vocabulary for a start, don't mind too much about grammar and sentence structure and all that, just get a few words you understand, and then start to expose yourself to that language. The best way of course would be to go to the country that speaks that language, but watching videos and movies is a good way too. Then, with the words you understand you can widen your vocabulary often just by context. (Like if somebody in a video talks about his trailer and says "Anhänger" a few times thats probably the word for trailer.. )
As a baby everybody learns his native language just by exposing himself to it, so why shouldn't it work later on in life the same way.. Our brain is wired to learn things by context and relation to other things we already know.



Whooops, quite a long text this was..

greetings,
modelleicher

p.s. i never really know how to properly sign a forum post or pm in english.. Most english people don't seem to sign their posts at all.. And at school we only learned formal letter writing and stuff like that.