Ask HN: How to learn English as a second language effectively | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to learn English as a second language effectively

2 pointsnagyf6 comments

Recently I moved to Canada from a non-English speaking country, I work as a software engineer.

I feel very uncomfortable about my English, especially about the speaking part. I think I cannot express myself well enough on meetings, and I fear it will affect my career in the long term. Often I have good ideas, I just can’t translate them to English to make a point, convince others or reason about something. When I get an unexpected question, I often start looking for words and sound like an idiot, stopping in the middle of a sentence for seconds to find a word.

It doesn’t really help that I don’t have the opportunity to practice speaking because apart from the usual daily standup meetings and 1-2 other meetings in a week (especially in this WFH situation) we don’t have much verbal interaction with my coworkers.

What’s the most effective way to improve my English? I don’t want to write novels, or read middle English texts, I would like to improve my speaking dramatically in the shortest time possible.

Though usually, it is something that improves over a long period of time, there is one shortcut you can try. But it is quite tedious.

What you need are recorded conversations. You can find these on youtube or podcasts. The best ones would be where there are many short questions and answers; as opposed to long monologues.

You should listen to the conversation and then replay it and pause after each question. And here you should answer and try to reproduce the message of the original answer in your own words. And maybe write down your answer. Then play the actual answer and compare the words and sentence structure you used to those used by the speaker. You will to notice certain words and patterns. And the more conversations you do this with, the more you will internalise the word usage.

The above method is derived from how Benjamin Franklin improved his writing by reading something and then writing it in his own words to compare the words and structure he used to that of the author.

The working behind the method is that to learn something, you need practice. And you need feedback on your practice.

Reading books and novels that have a dialogue format will also be useful here.

This is interesting, I will definitely try it, thanks!

You have to start thinking in English, planning in English, talking to yourself in English. Your inner narrative has to be in English.

Other than that tv shows and tv news and reading helps with the vocabulary and pronunciation.

Read books in English, you can srart with ones you have already read or ones for kids. Also listen to English radio, so you can get familiar with local accents.

My brother learned English very well by playing World of War raft with English speaking people. Consider that?

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