An ultra-long introduction

[LNGLK]

Learn English with her???Is it possible to be able to write it extremely well' date=' but not be able to speak it?[/quote'] Writing is much more difficult (I think)

[Brenda]

Is it possible to be able to write it extremely well' date=' but not be able to speak it?[/quote']No, it isn't. I have been teaching English for 18 years now so I must have dealt with thousands of students of different ages and different abilities but I've never met anyone proficient at writing but hopeless at speaking. And I mean language skills and not psychological factors like shyness or nervousness... Personally, I can't imagine myself being able to speak only my mother tongue. I think foreign languages do enrich your personality and open up new worlds and new opportunities for you - even if you don't travel extensively. I find it exhilarating when I can actually understand most of the nuances in MV dialogues and I can enjoy all those puns. Obviously, one can rely on subtitles only but they are never 100% accurate. And one thing that I would never do is watch MV dubbed! I hate dubbing and I hate this horrific Polish TV practice - a guy reading all the dialogues in Polish over the foreign original. That's why I hardly ever watch TV although I think that "full" dubbing is even worse. I'm kind of glad that I didn't watch MV regularly on TV ages ago because then I would have had to struggle with this guy reading aloud in Polish! I like my mother tongue on the telly but only in Polish films! :)I can imagine why most (?) Americans and Brits - well, I don't want to offend anyone but I hope you know what I mean - don't find learning foreign languages particularly exciting as English is such a powerful communication tool. I can speak - better or worse - a couple of other languages myself but then I usually switch into English anyway as it seems more practical. Still, I enjoy other languages, too, at least for the sake of their melody and lexical wealth.

[Brenda]

Writing is much more difficult (I think)

Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to say (but I didn't want to make my long post even longer.)

[Christine]

I think it´s much more difficult to speak because you need to know exactly in YOUR language what you want to say, and you have to translate it immediately while thinking about it.If you write in another language, you can have a break for searching for the right word, phrase, or something like that.

[cheetah]

I think it´s much more difficult to speak because you need to know exactly in YOUR language what you want to say' date=' and you have to translate it immediately while thinking about it.If you write in another language, you can have a break for searching for the right word, phrase, or something like that.[/quote'] Oh yes, I agree! So I guess I'm not the only one here who finds it easier to write that to speak. Of course I don't mean writing literature, but just having a conversation in a written form, like we do here. When I actually SPEAK English (which is rather rare), I often feel like an old and slow computer that says "please, wait" all the time. (And no preview or spell check too... so if I say "she" instead of "he" or "there" instead of "here", it's unchangeable. )

[Brenda]

I think it´s much more difficult to speak because you need to know exactly in YOUR language what you want to say' date=' and you have to translate it immediately while thinking about it.If you write in another language, you can have a break for searching for the right word, phrase, or something like that.[/quote']I don't want to turn this topic which was meant to introduce myself to you all into a language methodology one but trust me, pals , most problems with speaking in another language occur when you think in your mother tongue first and then try to translate it. It's a very bad idea, believe me! True, learning to think in the second language takes some time and is difficult at first but there's no other way - my students know it, :pAnd I'm not a native English speaker myself, I went along this "road less taken", too - I mean, I had huge problems with overcoming shyness when it came to speaking any language (including my mother tongue ) but it was worth trying, it was worth making mistakes which are a natural part of the learning process. Writing is much more difficult - to top it all, when writing, many people struggle with something that is invisible when speaking, namely spelling. But that's a different, non-Miami Vice story.

[cheetah]

Yes, I've heard this too... I mean - about thinking in a foreign languge. As for myself, I surely have learned to understand a foreign language without trying to "translate" (watching movies in original, including MV, is a great help ). But as for the speaking process... I just can't really say for sure what language I think in. Maybe both simultaneously, LOL.

[Brenda]

As for myself' date=' I surely have learned to understand a foreign language without trying to "translate" (watching movies in original, including MV, is a great help ).[/quote']Yes, it is! MV offers a real wealth of language learning stuff! Sometimes while re-watching a particular episode I focus on Sonny's or Rico's retorts and other witty remarks so that I could share them with my teenagers I mean idioms, not insults, of course!

[Sonny68]

Learn English with her???You already KNOW English! Your writing it (And quite well too!).Is it possible to be able to write it extremely well' date=' but not be able to speak it?[/quote']Thank you Coop, that's very nice!But I would like to write more if I find the right words or the right grammar.... I try to read everything here and mostly I understand but to write or speak??? That's a problem!! I often watch MV in English, or Nash Bridges and other films with Don Johnson - and I hope I learn something on this way! But when you say you understand what I'm writing - so I'm very happy!

[COOPER&BURNETT]

Thank you Coop' date=' that's very nice!But I would like to write more if I find the right words or the right grammar.... I try to read everything here and mostly I understand but to write or speak??? That's a problem!! I often watch MV in English, or Nash Bridges and other films with Don Johnson - and I hope I learn something on this way! But when you say you understand what I'm writing - so I'm very happy! [/quote']Actually, yours, and the other ladies here write English VERY, VERY WELL! It's actually extremely well written. The owner, boss, and CEO of where I work can speak 7 languages!!!! How is this possible for the human mind to do this? 7 languages???I don't recall all of them, but it includes English, German, Italian, Polish, (Chinese or Japanese...or both, don't recall) Spanish. To me, that is amazing, as he can do it extremely well.

[Marilyn]

"my only vice" is that I sometimes inadvertently use MV quotations at work. I once criticized one of my cheating students by saying "That was major uncool, lady" before noticing that I used a line from "Prodigal Son"!

Hi brenda. Haven't been around for a couple of days so I didn't have the chance to welcome you before. So: WELCOME!!! I had to laugh about your words written above. I also have my "Vice moments". A colleague of mine thought I saw a little pale and asked me TWO times if I was feeling OK. I felt great so I found it very annoying he kept asking. I really wanted to stand up and give him a 'official I'm o.k. report' LOLI'm glad you found us and look forward to your reactions. And for your personal situation: keep your pecker up!

[cheetah]

As for the "vice moments"... a few days ago I was asked something, and felt the urge to answer "beats the hell out of me" (in English), before I could remember a similar expression in Russian. Or maybe it's more of a "Nash Bridges" moment, cause I'm watching it right now, and Nash likes to use this expression. I guess that's the first sign that I watch too many movies in English.

[Brenda]

As for the "vice moments"... a few days ago I was asked something' date=' and felt the urge to answer "beats the hell out of me" (in English), before I could remember a similar expression in Russian. Or maybe it's more of a "Nash Bridges" moment, cause I'm watching it right now, and Nash likes to use this expression. I guess that's the first sign that I watch too many movies in English. [/quote']There are never too many, cheetah, especially when it comes to MV or NB :DNow when I think of it, I feel kind of relieved that they hardly ever used any swear words in MV because sometimes a quotation from the series comes to my mind (and is uttered ) before I think of the situation I'm in! It might be risky for my career to accidentally use, let's say, some "Dirty Harry" quotes at work. However, for the last three years I taught a boy (he graduated in June) who was a Clint Eastwood fan and some of our dialogues might have seriously threatened my future . It didn't happen very often, just when others were still sweating over their assigned task and the guy was bored; he would say: "And do you remember this elevator scene, Miss, when Harry said (****)"

[cheetah]

Very funny! The things you said made me remember my school and university times, when I couldn't find some words from English films in any Enlgish-Russian dictionary. But when my dad bought me an English-English explanatory dictionary, I found many of those words with the note "taboo" preceding them. After that I was glad that I hadn't asked my English teacher (a rather conservative old lady) what the word "bull****" meant after hearing it in a movie.

[Brenda]

Very funny! The things you said made me remember my school and university times' date=' when I couldn't find some words from English films in any Enlgish-Russian dictionary. But when my dad bought me an English-English explanatory dictionary, I found many of those words with the note "taboo" preceding them. After that I was glad that I hadn't asked my English teacher (a rather conservative old lady) what the word "bull****" meant after hearing it in a movie. [/quote']My first English-Polish dictionary contained words like "communism" but you couldn't find "computer" there! This wasn't a problem, though, but I remember that hearing words like "gonna", "wanna" and "ain't" in songs I had to guess hard what they meant. Conservative old ladies still teach English, I'm afraid. A colleague of mine is one of them. A couple of years ago I couldn't remember what the English word for "pisuar", a toilet used by men, was - one of my students asked me about it, possibly wanting to make me feel embarrassed. (impossible!). During the break I asked my colleagues for some linguistic help; one of them laughed that he used this kind of toilet every day but couldn't remember the word, and this 55-year-old lady replied with a mixture of disgust and dignity: "I don't use such words". Fortunately, when I was climbing the stairs when returning to my funny class, I suddenly remembered that the word was "urinal".

[2morgen]

Hoi Brenda,A late welcome from me.:blumen:I'll hope you like it here!A great place to forget every day life for a while.

[vice-girl]

we never had any languages in school,other than english.not even french i wish we had,thats why i learn spanish and arabic on my own,maybe french as i need it work

[Brenda]

we never had any languages in school' date='other than english.not even french i wish we had,thats why i learn spanish and arabic on my own,maybe french as i need it work[/quote']When I was a student, we had two foreign languages in school but nobody really cared if we managed to learn them well or not. As a result, as far as I know only three people from my class are fluent in English - very typical of my generation. Nowadays it's different and languages are a priority. Still, I strongly believe that if someone is not interested, s/he won't learn to communicate well. On the other hand, nowadays, if you are motivated, you can get a good command of a foreign language even if you aren't taught it at school. I'm sure you'll be successful although learning Arabic sounds a real challenge!I'm going back to school tomorrow morning. I'm so old but I'm still in senior high school a.k.a sixth form college, a.k.a "liceum". Sigh.

[Brenda]

Hoi Brenda' date='A late welcome from me.:blumen:I'll hope you like it here!A great place to forget every day life for a while.[/quote']Hoi 2morgen, wel bedankt for your welcome, it's a great place indeed and I already like it here. I like your posts a lot, there are so many of them! A real heleboel!

[Matt5]

welcome to a great site about a great show.

[Pandina]

Ciao Brenda!!!I haven't been around lately so I didn't have the chance to tell you: WELCOME to this beautiful community!

[vice-girl]

When I was a student' date=' we had two foreign languages in school but nobody really cared if we managed to learn them well or not. As a result, as far as I know only three people from my class are fluent in English - very typical of my generation. Nowadays it's different and languages are a priority. Still, I strongly believe that if someone is not interested, s/he won't learn to communicate well. On the other hand, nowadays, if you are motivated, you can get a good command of a foreign language even if you aren't taught it at school. I'm sure you'll be successful although learning Arabic sounds a real challenge!I'm going back to school tomorrow morning. I'm so old but I'm still in senior high school a.k.a sixth form college, a.k.a "liceum". Sigh.[/quote'] thank you brenda.i have a good teacher in arabic ,