Let's speak English!

Princeton a écrit:hai guise! can I join plz? just got sum bad remarks bout mai writing in english here and therr on the board. they say im doing it on purpoz to impress them. like i wan 2 dominaite them. wat. why would i do that! The thing is I dont alwaz realize im doing it b/c english s been like my momtongue 4 as lon as I can rememberr! with french! but i prefer english i think its such a beautiful langague an so much eazser. i dream, thnik, spek, writ, in both langages! yes sir! i like it that way. it helps me a lot in saying exactly wat i wan to say the way i wan 2 say it. i ve started laernin MANDARIN 2!! so excited! its so pretty! i liek it al ready! anywayz sumtaimes the french word is the 1 im looking for, sometimes its the englsh one. sometimes i feel its easier to speak english. but my writing in english is awful as u can see. *cries in corner* did i make any mistak professor sil? im so sorry, ill mak better next tiem. anywayz cya guise! nice to meet u all! carpe deim

Have some Eastern Europe language roots?

If you want a glimpse at the accent I'm much used to:


And a bit more serious talk on this topic:

Silwilhith a écrit:If you want a glimpse at the accent I'm much used to

Hahaha it sounds funny, to say the least. I don't think I've ever heard anything like it. New Zealand looks like such a beautiful country though, I wish I had gone there during my backpacking trip a year ago. It's too bad it's so far away from everything. I heard it's pretty expensive as well, so I probably wouldn't have been able to afford the trip anyway.

Have you guys read Stoner, by John Edward Williams? It's one of my favorite books. The writing is, in my opinion, close to perfection, every word falls in the right place, it's almost like prose poetry. It's probably the best novel I've ever read by an English author! Here are a few quotes I like:

“The love of literature, of language, of the mystery of the mind and heart showing themselves in the minute, strange, and unexpected combinations of letters and words, in the blackest and coldest print—the love which he had hidden as if it were illicit and dangerous, he began to display, tentatively at first, and then boldly, and then proudly.”

“A kind of joy came upon him, as if borne in on a summer breeze. He dimly recalled that he had been thinking of failure--as if it mattered. It seemed to him now that such thoughts were mean, unworthy of what his life had been. Dim presences gathered at the edge of his consciousness; he could not see them, but he knew that they were there, gathering their forces toward a kind of palpability he could not see or hear. He was approaching them, he knew; but there was no need to hurry. He could ignore them if he wished; he had all the time there was.
There was a softness around him, and a languor crept upon his limbs. A sense of his own identity came upon him with a sudden force, and he felt the power of it. He was himself, and he knew what he had been.”

And this is my favorite one:

“In his extreme youth Stoner had thought of love as an absolute state of being to which, if one were lucky, one might find access; in his maturity he had decided it was the heaven of a false religion, toward which one ought to gaze with an amused disbelief, a gently familiar contempt, and an embarrassed nostalgia. Now in his middle age he began to know that it was neither a state of grace nor an illusion; he saw it as a human act of becoming, a condition that was invented and modified moment by moment and day by day, by the will and the intelligence and the heart.”

And here's a list a few other English lit books I love:

• The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
  
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
  
  
• The Perks of being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
  
  
• The Book Thief, Markus Zusak (he's an Australian author!)
  
  
• The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach
  

I used to never finish a book so I stopped buying them.

I like buying books even if I don't read them immediately! I save them for later! I can spend hours at second-hand bookshops, just looking at all the titles and authors and browsing through the books I find interesting, pondering whether I'm going to buy them or not, which I do of course. I have so many books, three bookcases full of books, and I'm going on four, which reminds me of this quote I like about book lovers:

“She herself was a victim of that lust for books which rages in the breast like a demon, and which cannot be stilled save by the frequent and plentiful acquisition of books. This passion is more common, and more powerful, than most people suppose. Book lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there are others who will lie and scheme and steal to get books as wildly and unconscionably as the dope-taker in pursuit of his drug. They may not want the books to read immediately, or at all; they want them to possess, to range on their shelves, to have at command. They want books as a Turk is thought to want concubines — not to be hastily deflowered, but to be kept at their master’s call, and enjoyed more often in thought than in reality.”

― Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost

How to speak to God:
http://foto.krabjiem.lv/bernu-vestules-dievam/12998/

Princeton a écrit:I like buying books even if I don't read them immediately! I save them for later! I can spend hours at second-hand bookshops, just looking at all the titles and authors and browsing through the books I find interesting, pondering whether I'm going to buy them or not, which I do of course. I have so many books, three bookcases full of books, and I'm going on four, which reminds me of this quote I like about book lovers:

“She herself was a victim of that lust for books which rages in the breast like a demon, and which cannot be stilled save by the frequent and plentiful acquisition of books. This passion is more common, and more powerful, than most people suppose. Book lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there are others who will lie and scheme and steal to get books as wildly and unconscionably as the dope-taker in pursuit of his drug. They may not want the books to read immediately, or at all; they want them to possess, to range on their shelves, to have at command. They want books as a Turk is thought to want concubines — not to be hastily deflowered, but to be kept at their master’s call, and enjoyed more often in thought than in reality.”

― Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost

I love books too, but I always read the books I've bought. There are so many bookshops in Paris, yummy, second-hand bookshops are amazing, the books are so cheap that you don't feel guilty spending money. Second-hand books are so cute, with their annotations and highlighted parts.

"Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes…lack."
– Virginia Woolf

Hello everybody

Maritzanka a écrit:Hello everybody

Hi Maritzanka

Hello Morganw How long have you been learning English ?

Maritzanka a écrit:Hello Morganw How long have you been learning English ?

7 years at school, one year in Ireland. You?

6 years at school, including 3 years I really improved by myself my level, and I will soon speak English during a month in Norway !

Maritzanka a écrit:6 years at school, including 3 years I really improved by myself my level, and I will soon speak English during a month in Norway !

Great stuff, why Norway?

I have a penpal there, who will then come in my house during a month

Maritzanka a écrit:I have a penpal there, who will then come in my house during a month

I'm sure you'll have a great time there. I have an Ukrainian penpal too. I really enjoy having friends from all over the world; it opens my mind.

It's the same for me

I have to agree, this idea of creating a post for english speakers is just marvelous. ^^

I've always suffered from the lack of english interlocuters since I arrived in France several years ago.

I've been bathing in the english language since I'm ten as I lived in Canada and english classes were mandatory and at the earliest years possible.

Now back to my homecountry (France), I see that the status of being "bilingual" is actually very subective. I try to define myself as a bilingual speaker, but the more I learn, the more I realize I have plenty to learn and improve. Anyway I hope a little that this post will give me a perfect purpose to practice a little.

Cheers.

Being bilingual is when you are native in both languages thus it's extremely rare but you can be fluent in many languages without being a native speaker.

Hugues a écrit:Being bilingual is when you are native in both languages thus it's extremely rare but you can be fluent in many languages without being a native speaker.

Well, there is a few million people who are "native bilingual" French-Arab in France... I wouldn't call it 'rare', especially in low-class suburbs...
Have you noticed how these people, though having parents speaking Arab at home, are much more fluent in French?
The French is their 'base language'. Learnt from preschool.
The story about "mother tongue" is just bullshit.

I was thinking English-French there is a lot of french speaking english and learnt in a foreign country or at school, I don't think bilingual is more frequent.

Hugues a écrit:I was thinking English-French there is a lot of french speaking english and learnt in a foreign country or at school, I don't think bilingual is more frequent.  

Not in Québec. Montreal for example is full of bilingual English-French people.

Abonné absent a écrit:Not in Québec. Montreal for example is full of bilingual English-French people.

I have lived in Montreal for twenty years and this bilingualism is much more rarer than what we can believe. I experienced that there is actually a gap between francophones and anglophones. Plus the Quebecois have their own patois named "joual" that cannot be classified as french.

Hello people

I've just found about this English thread. Great idea. I'll be around.

Hey everyone! I've studied English at school, then at University.got my Licence d'anglais.but it's loneliness and the impossibility to connect with French people that made me write in English with people all around the world.I became bilingual and find soul sisters/brothers this way.
I escape the hell of my life this way. I hardly spoke French for years, I was writing blogs in English, everything was in English.I also ended up creating a facebook page, where I mostly wrote in English.With time I made peace with my mother tongue, made friends in my country...did not last much though.I still write in English a lot( poetry, songs) it's still a place where I feel home.I don't know, it's a different part of me.
Once I went to a OVS meeting " let's speak English" it was a nightmare for me( social phobia Yay!)but it was very interesting to dare, the thrill of the challenge towards me, facing my damn fear! fear of what? fear of fear? fear of feeling bored? insecure?unable to connect?
oh well. I just went there twice, and the way a man treat me annoyed me and I felt" come on, will I forever let people talk to me this condescendant way just because I am different?screw them! I am fine with me. I made peace with the way I am.
And I am still making peace.

NIN59 a écrit:Once I went to a OVS meeting

I suggest you should try a ZC IRL. I think you'll be less disappointed.
Although sometimes you get good surprises with OVS. But not very often.

Abonné absent a écrit:

NIN59 a écrit:Once I went to a OVS meeting

I suggest you should try a ZC IRL. I think you'll be less disappointed.
Although sometimes you get good surprises with OVS. But not very often.

I'll be thinking about that but not sure it's my thing.
meeting many people at the same time is not for me, we'll see.
That could be a great change to feel " at home" with a crowd of people who can relate.

Hello NIN59
The good things about IRLs as far as could experience (just once) is that they give you a chance to meet one or two people out of a whole series with whom you may really get along well with.
This is what happened to me. I talked a lot with two people whom I had tons of things to exchange with.
It would normally have taken me a decade to meet two people who really resembled me and made me feel great, so I think this makes it worth trying, knowing that, as ever, one should not expect too much of life (this is my motto).

I would be happy to speak english with you because I need to practise, just for fun ! Have you ever go to Shakespeare and company book-shop ?

Liblue a écrit:Have you ever go to Shakespeare and company book-shop ?

Have you ever gone ! Yeah, I've been to that bookshop but I've never actually bought anything there...

It used to be a pure second hand bookstore, but now it mostly sells new books and there isn't so much choice anymore.

Well that's a shame... I went there a year or two ago, expecting it to be more of a second-hand type of bookstore, but most of what I found was too expensive, or at least more than what I'm willing to pay for a book.

oups, sorry
yes, but I think it's a nice place !

Yes it is !
So, is anyone here currently reading some english literature? I've just started To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, which isn't very exciting so far but the quality of the writing keeps me going.

Hi people !

I would be happy to speak English with you NIN59 ,and with the person who wants it too,
because I need to practice, I want to climb levels in my english skill, for fun and personal evolution.

I speak english a little, but I want to progress on this way, and I want to discover more
about the beauty of this language.

Sometimes I read newspapers in english about artistic, economical and political topics.
I would be happy to talk about some topics .
I like english poetry so much, and I like american writers.

I hope to have the possibility to speak with you soon.

I speak and understand English not so badly I think , but I'm not so smart into writing. In fact I have knowledge in many languages because in belgium we have three national official languages: Netherlands, French and German. I'm not too bad with those other languages , particularly the German one.

I read many thinks , books, mag's and of course internet texts in English or in other languages , even Russian or Chinese , but I trick here with the help of Google trad I'm afraid ;-)


so sorry for my really bad English .. I promise to try to do better next time or is it impossible ? ;-)

Let's go – le titre de mon livre d'anglais de classe de seconde.

Are you ready for metrics ? – le seul titre de leçon dont je me souvienne.

Just give me one minute and i'll be there !

I believe I can speak English quite correctly ... anyway
thanks for posting that !

Pieyre a écrit:Let's go – le titre de mon livre d'anglais de classe de seconde.

Are you ready for metrics ? – le seul titre de leçon dont je me souvienne.

Damn, that textbook is sure to get students excited to learn english

Does no one here care about english? Here's some Shakespeare from The Tempest for yall:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

Hello,
This is a very good idea! I don't speak english very well but I understand everything generally. I want to practice to evolve.
I hope we will talk soon. :-)

I hope we will

Thanx for Shakespeare

"Juliet:
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

Romeo:
[Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?

Juliet:
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy:
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? It is nor hand nor foot,
Nor arm nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O be some other name!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
and for thy name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself."

"HEEEEE'S THEEEEEERE, THE PHAAAANTOM OF THEEEEE OP'RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

Hello

Shall we speak english some more in the new year ?

Have it happy !

L'un des rares poèmes en anglais que j'apprécie :


Sudden light

I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before,--
How long ago I may not know:
But just when at that swallow's soar
Your neck turn'd so,
Some veil did fall,--I knew it all of yore.

Has this been thus before?
And shall not thus time's eddying flight
Still with our lives our love restore
In death's despite,
And day and night yield one delight once more?


— Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Hi, I'm new to this place, I confess I haven't read all your posts ^^

I'm a non native speaker, I just enjoy speaking english, it's become my "free time language", since I read more in english than in french...

By the way, that's a beautiful poem, Pieyre !

Cheers !

When I was a teenager, I hated English, mainly for political reasons. I emulated my mother who stubbornely refused to learn the language of the "conquerors".

In the opinion of my father, English was nothing but misprononced French. It is supposed to be so easy (compared to French indeed), than it is totally useless to learn it. You just have to be minimally exposed to the language.
Now, while I can cope with the mandatory task of writing scientific papers in english, I am still lacking a great deal of idiomatic colloquial expressions required for the daily life.

And my accent does not help, though ! I would love to acquire the scottish accent to only have the right to roll the "r" in english.

The kind of literature I like in english is the old-fashioned style used by writer like Lovecraft.

But again, it does not help when I need to talk with people..

Why don't you take courses, It's how I've learnt how to pronounce better, no one will help you fix your accent except someone you pay for or your girl friend

Hello there!

Hugues a écrit:Why don't you take courses, It's how I've learnt how to pronounce better, no one will help you fix your accent except someone you pay for or your girl friend  

I have never taken pronounciation courses but I don't agree with you.
Pronounciation is something you can learn by yourself too sitting on your bed or even cooking. The more you practice, the better pronounciation you will get.

The best you can do is repeat whole sentences but it's quite boring; I however have get used to think out loud trying to have the best pronounciation I can, and when I don't remember how to pronounce or even say a word I just look it up and repeat the sentence I was saying.
Along with listening to the language on a daily basis, this task is I think really important. It helps improve your grammar skills, vocabulary, pronounciation (and later in the learning process your accent) and therefore your confidence.

Well, well, well :