Student hanle's corner
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Hi, my name is Han, I'm 31 years old and I'm from Vietnam. I'm a member of the office staff (I'm an office worker) in a company which manufactures golf balls for an export to the the United States.
My work often involves a research, an improvement and a product development in the factory. My boss is half Korean-American. Our team consists of only four members: a Chinese girl, a Vietnamese boy, my boss and me. We often use English in our communication. I've been studying English for more than ten years.
The educational environment in Vietnam is quite traditional. Teachers focus only on grammar and vocabulary. My personality is quite introverted, I often avoided communicating with friends at school. When I went to a university, I had lots of opportunities to interact with English people, however, I was afraid to communicate with foreigners, so I wasted a lot of time. When I graduated a university, I realized the importance of English. My previous job was mainly reading and responding to emails in English and this made me feel lazy to practice my listening and speaking skills. When I moved to a work in a new environment and I had to use English, I felt even more tired and depressed. During meetings I always silently listen to other people's opinions, however, I'm unable to express my own opinions clearly in English, despite understanding other people's words.I used to collect many materials to learn English such as books, newspapers, and magazines. After reading only a few pages I get bored and give up. I subscribed to English training channels on YouTube such as Rachel's English, mmmEnglish, Speak English With Tiffani, apps like Duolingo, Hello Talk, etc. I always feel sleepy when I watch videos in English with theory contents over 10 minutes. I tried to subscribe to channels with entertainment and travel content, however, I pay attention only for 5 to 10 minutes.
Regarding listening skills I often catch only keywords when the sentence is very long. Sometimes I don't understand a speech because people speak quickly. I swallow, link words in sentences. I have a shortage of the vocabulary. When I join meetings I can only understand approximately 50% of what is said, I always think what grammar rules and vocabulary to use because of the habit of translating from Vietnamese into English.
Reading and writing skills. I'm able to read and understand basic texts. One example, it took me one hour just to write an email to respond to the supplier with content ~50-60 words last week. When I read an article with many difficult words I'm very patient to filter out new words, however, I don’t review it in the next day.
If to sum up, all my skills are weak, especially a speaking skill, pronunciation is still incorrect and unclear.
I hope teachers can give me a schedule with an effective learning method. After a few months or years, I can use English at work and in my daily life.
Finally, I want to say thank you all for making a platform like this and helping everyone. -
I made some corrections. Your English is fine, everything is understandable. Your English is quite suitable for chats and short email correspondence. However, you still have to practice much if you want to master academic writing.
I think your problem is mainly psychological because you have difficulty concentrating (At least it's what I got from your post. You have ability to learn English. And you can learn if you want to). Try to find out why you cannot concentrate on learning English. Maybe you are tired at work or it's a noise, people around you, a pain in your back etc. Organize yourself, put your daily things aside, devote your time to studying. 10-15 minutes of English every day is better than 3-4 hours on weekends. Be an active, not passive learner at this time.You use many commas and "then-s" in sentences, it means you have problems with sentence building and you are not sure what sign/word is suitable for your sentence. Try to make small sentences typed correctly and small posts (8-12 sentences).
You can use Context Reverso or any other website.
https://context.reverso.net
You can type there collocations like "but", "such as", "when I had" etc. and it will show you how to build correct sentences with commas, apostrophes, "then-s".
Usually we force students to find mistakes in their sentences by highlighting posts. People memorize better when they do things by themself. Get used to review and proofreading what you type (even after a day, after a week), force yourself, there is no other way in mastering good writing, even great poets correct themself.
Construct sentences in the way you prepare your home for holidays ... wash a floor (add nouns, verbs), decorate your house (add adjectives)... don't hurry.... step back, look around (proofread)... think if others will like your sentence... make a good one then move to another.I want to post 3 things that I usually say to all students:
1.Making mistakes is a natural process of mastering foreign language. You shouldn't worry much about mistakes or take it very personally, it's good to analyse and learn through mistakes.
2. No one can teach you English. You and only you can teach English yourself. Think of a teacher as your assistant and language partner, not your boss. Teachers cannot take tests or speak instead of you, the more time and efforts you invest the better result you get in an output.
Read 2-3 pages from the book and post your opinion.
https://forum.easy-english-study.com/assets/uploads/files/1743506283229-why-you-cannot-be-taught-a-foreign-language.pdf
3.You can master language only by practice, practice, practice. Just write many well worded sentences, listen and speak a lot. Do it regularly and you will be fluent. There are no magic formulas. You just need a supporter and an assistant who will help you in this journey.
Your brain may resist to the exposure of foreign language, in the beginning all words may sound as a noise. It's normal feelings for all learners. Have patience and you get used to it with time.Post in Babbling all English words you understand and you can use in sentences (active vocabulary). You shouldn't post all of them at once, add them every day a little (by editing posts). I want to see how rich is your vocabulary.
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In the preparatory stage we usually teach students how to make good sentences of different complexity. Grammar is not the main priority here. We still recommend to take some grammar tests for students, because knowing grammar helps you to build sentences with confidence (just a little grammar).
So:
A.We can start from the beginning and study grammar.
or
B.You can come to the website and post your messages about the topics you like. I'll mark wrong sentences, you will edit them. Just numerate your sentences. Do short sentences since long sentences are difficult for you (it's good to start from Present Indefinite even).
For example 1.I wake up. 2.I go to work. 3. I come back home...
C.Your suggestion. -
- I tried to read a few pages of the book "Why you can't be taught a foreign language".
- I didn't think this book would be difficult at first.
- However, after reading one page I had to write down lots of unknown worlds and the grammar in sentences was quite new for me.
- Sometimes I didn't know how to analyse a sentence, I didn't understand meaning of sentences.
- The content of the book can be roughly grasped.
- Reading took much time for me because I had to look up new words in a dictionary all the time.
- It took me more than 1 hour for 1 page.
- I've read 2 pages today.
- I hope to read the whole book within 2 weeks
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You can install an addon for a web browser, clicking on an unknown word will show you a translation and you can save unknown words and export them in a list after a while
https://easy-english-study.com/forum/students-lobby-f47/my-english-studying-t84.html
(Scroll down, it's a second post)
Your book must be in .html format if you want to read books with a help of an addon. Search on "how to convert pdf to html" in Google. -
People cannot care for pets
The cost of the living crisis is worsening, leading some UK pet owners to give up their animals to save money.UK’s famous Battersea charity is currently caring for hundreds of dogs and cats, and similar centers around the country say they’re receiving record inquiries for dog and cat returns.
Many owners say the additional cost of food and veterinary care isn’t manageable. One owner came to the charity to return a pregnant cat because he was no longer able to afford to care for the cat and her unborn kittens.
The trend follows a surge in demand for pets during the COVID-19 pandemic. UK households are dealing with a huge crisis in their energy bills, and experts warn a recession will come. Some charities warn it can put millions of people into poverty, and they hope that someone will be able to give the animals permanent homes.
****Vocabulary:
+Veterinary (adj): UK/ˈvet.ər.ɪ.nər.i/ and US /ˈvet.ər.ə.ner.i/: connected with taking care of the health of animals: thú y
+Pandemic (adj): UK /pænˈdem.ɪk/ and US /pænˈdem.ɪk/: an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region đại dịch
+Recession (n): UK /rɪˈseʃ.ən/ and /US/rɪˈseʃ.ən/: a period when the economy of a country is not successful and conditions for business are bad: say thoái Kinh tế- Poverty (n): UK /ˈpɒv.ə.ti/ and US /ˈpɑː.vɚ.t̬i/: the condition of being extremely: cảnh nghèo nàn
- Permanent (adj): UK /ˈpɜː.mə.nənt/ and US /ˈpɝː.mə.nənt/: lasting for a long time or forever: lâu dài
- Many Vietnamese people keep lots of pets in their homes such as dogs, cats, rabbits, monkeys etc.
- There is a few veterinary care facilities in cities and countrysides.
- When animals get illness it's difficult to treat them.
- We have a shortage in care facilities, care equipments and skilled veterinary staff in Vietnam.
- Many people cannot get a veterinary service for their pets.
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[The cost] is [leading] some UK pet owners to give up their animals to save money
The cost [does what now?] leading
https://context.reverso.net/translation/english-german/leading
It's Present Continuous Tense, it describes the current, ongoing movement or activity.
"to give up" is a phrasal verb, all verbs in the infinitive form require "to"be (no longer) able to
able to do something (used as a modal verb)
longer is a comparative adjective -
Please, post your writing in the form like I posted above, numerate your sentences. Usually we ask students to correct their sentences. Answer the questions I asked you in this thread. Also I think you need to take grammar lessons and start your writing from simple sentences.
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- A bus is the most common mode of transportation for Vietnamese.
- Most buses in Vietnam are only three colour buses - blue, green, and yellow.
- A bus colour indicates whether it's public or private.
- Every day students and workers take buses to go to school or work.
- People who do not take a bus ride their bikes.
- A big population and a big number of motorcyclists had leaded to crowds and traffic jams.
- The government imposed a ban on motorcycles on public roads.
- However, it didn't reduce a traffic jam in Vietnam.
- Therefore, the government extended highways and improved widening of roads.
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I'll post grammar lessons here. I needed your confirmation to start them. Also correct your old posts with wrong sentences (press the pen shaped button to Edit). Studying English here implies an active student participation. Others can read you and learn through your diary too.
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There are two language schools.
1.Those who are against grammar. They claim people speak using patterns, you cannot think of grammar rules when you speak quickly. They are right. However, you cannot memorize patterns for everything, you cannot build long sentences, your lexicon is very poor.
For example, there is the online language school Rosetta Stone. They force students to type 20 times I go to a market, She goes to a market, He goes to a market, They go to a market... Then you have to replace a market with a store and type another 20 sentences. It's boring. Also you may not only go to a market but run to a market or even fly by taking a flying car. In 95% you still go to a market.
2.Those who are for grammar. They say you have to learn grammar all the time because it's a skeleton of any language, you can build long sentences when you know grammar. However, grammar in English is very big, mastering grammar may take a whole life and you may forget to concentrate on other language aspects such as vocabulary, speech, practice. If you dive deeper into grammar you can see it's playing with times mostly (someone comes or leaves at n o'clock), it's useless because you don't use many sentences with specific time in real life, you can divide a long sentence on parts and don't care of grammar much and you will be understandable.So, where is the truth? The truth is in the middle. Memorize patterns and study a little grammar.
Use patterns for quick speech when your goal is to tell someone your ideas, for doctor consultations, for emergency calls, for an informal speech.
Use well worded sentences with good grammar for interviews, for lectures, for speeches in front of a big auditorium. You can structure and write down everything when you have long speeches. -
You should try the next tests.
BE, HAVE, DO, DID, WAS...
Tenses
Difficulties of the Passive Form
Active → Passive voice
Many tests on Active, Passive voice and mix
Present Simple
Present Continuous
Present Continuous or Present Simple
Many tests on Present Simple, Present Continuous
Past Simple
Present Perfect
Present Perfect or Past Simple
Present Perfect Continuous
Present Perfect or Present Perfect Continuous
Present Perfect Continuous or Past Perfect Continuous or Future Perfect Continuous
Past Simple or Past Continuous
Past Perfect
The pasts
Many tests on Present Perfect, Present Perfect Continuous, Past Simple
Many tests on Past Simple, Past Continuous, Present Perfect
Future Simple
Future in Present Continuous (Be going to)
Present Continuous (Be going to) or Future Simple
Future Perfect
Future Continuous or Future Perfect
Future Progressive or Future Perfect
Future Tenses
Will and Would: a little further
Future in the past
Many tests on Future Continuous, Future Simple, Future Perfect
Gerund
Gerunds or Infinitives
Infinitive clause
Infinitive in sentences
Infinitive phrase
Many tests on Gerunds, Infinitives 1
Many tests on Gerunds, Infinitives 2
For and its use in English
For, During, While
In/into - On/onto
About/At/For/To
At - In - On
Prepositions of time
Prepositions of location
Prepositions: Finding one's way
Prepositions (for / in / of /on / to)
To or For
To - For
at/of/on/to
Verbs and prepositions 1
Verbs and prepositions 2
Verbs and prepositions 3
Verbs and prepositions 4
Verbs and prepositions 5
Verbs and prepositions 6
Verbs and prepositions 7
Phrasal verbs: GET
Phrasal verbs: GO
Phrasal verbs: PUT
Phrasal verbs: TAKE
Phrasal verbs: TAKE, LOOK, GET
Many tests on Prepositions, Adjectives, Phrasal Verbs
Many tests on Particles, Phrasal Verbs
Adjectives -ing and -ed
Many tests on Adjectives
Adverbial Clauses
Adjectives and adverbs
Many tests on Adverbs
Can/Could/May... Must/Have to...
May, Might, Should
Can, Could and Be able to
Modals in Present tense
Modals in Past tense
Modals in Future tense
Must have or Had to
Many tests on Modal Verbs
Participle Clauses
Many tests on Participle Clauses
COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
A (An) or The
Countable nouns with A/An and Some
The or nothing
Using The or nothing with nouns
Many tests on Articles
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I always had to do a lot of grammar exercises. It was incredibly boring. It was easy for me to forget how to make correct sentences after a few months if I didn't review grammar.
Therefore, I'd like to learn using Method 1 this time, then I can apply my knowledge in my daily communication. When I speak with my colleagues or my boss, I often spend much time considering what I should say. In addition, I also want to focus on grammar to improve my writing skills because I often have to send emails to suppliers in English or send orders to foreign companies. I'll start with 2-3 grammar tests every day.
Thank you for your advice^^. -
Lesson 1: Active->passive
My mark: 100.Lesson 2: Apostrophe (with video).
Apostrophe
My mark: 87.5.
Wrong sentence: He's bought stamps --> He is bought stamps.
Correct: He has bought stamps.Lesson 3: Be in the simple past tense.
Be in the simple past tense
My mark: 91.
Wrong sentence: Was Mike good at school? No, he wasn't hopeless.
Correct: No, he was hopeless. -
Try to figure and analyze why your choose was wrong. I marked the posts with wrong sentences by downvoting. Please, correct them, you have to do it by yourself. I'll remove downvotes when you make right sentences. If you don't work hard, a miracle will not happen and you will not improve. Stay motivated.
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Lesson 4
Contractions and auxiliaries
My mark: 81.5
**Wrong sentence:
2. Your cousin’s optimistic. He’s told you that he’d pass all his exams in June; he’d better study seriously, but he’d rather have fun with his friends.
Correct: would
Explanation: "He'd rather" = He would rather" expresses a wish, something which isn't realised at that moment, which is still unreal.
5. He’d hit me before I’d found the opportunity to punch him too
Correct: had hit me
Explanation: Here is a difficulty that you have to overcome. "Hit" may be either "the infinitive without to", or the preterite, or even the past participle. If we look at the end of the sentence closely, we'll find out that "hit" can here only be a past participle and a part of a past perfect. => "He had hit"
before I’d found = had found the opportunity to punch him too.
"Before I'd found" = "before I had found" => the contraction of "had", a part of the past perfect.Lesson 5:
Do - don't - does - doesn't
My mark: 90
**Wrong sentence:
7. It is a really cheap restaurant, it don't cost much to eat there.
Correct: Doesn't
Explanation: verb form He/She/It +doesLesson 6:
Do/does/did: affirmative, interrogative and negative forms
my mark: 77
**Wrong sentence:
1.Lucy likes chocolate and making chocolate cakes. She wants to make one with her mum.' don't I take six eggs out of the fridge?”
No Lucy, we don't wanna six eggs, but only four.”
Correct: do I take
Explanation:
Lucy wants to make a chocolate cake with her mum and offers to take eggs from the fridge: interrogative form of an "ordinary" (irregular) verb=> "Do I take...?"5.“Well, Lucy, if you didn't ate the chocolate I bought yesterday, we would have enough…'
Correct: didn't eat
Explanation: "Yesterday I bought" implies the use of the negative auxiliary "didn't eat".+“Err … Well Mum! I think we had bought more chocolate, then…”
Correct: Have to buy
Explanation: We have to buy" is the equivalent of the modal auxiliary "must", expressing an obligation. -
1)copy an url
2)type the next form
[ A name of a grammar test ](https:// grammarwebsite)The sentences you edited doesn't sound good yet. Since you get good marks, your problem is mainly in concentration. Try to devote more time to studying, don't hurry, proofread what you posted, use a capital letter for a new sentence. You can copy-paste a wrong sentence and search on it in Google, Context-Reverso or use Google Translate. This forum is not for competitions in quick writing, not for "words on the street". We fight for a perfect English here.
1 - 2025-02-26
2 - 2025-02-25
3 - 2025-02-24
In 2024, the number of babies born in South Korea increased for the first time in nine years. The change is welcome news for a country that is dealing with serious population problems.