How To Get My English Skills Improved

matei

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Things are simple:
My English is pretty decent, but I need something more. I need to learn how to speak like a native English person, as this would definitely skyrocket my career in IM
For the moment, I have reasons to believe that I have a low CTR due to the fact that visitors arriving on my tech sites are looking for a more professionally written content.

And yes, I can't affort to hire a top notch writer.
The thing is that I really want to learn English, but not just the simple language, as I want to learn more American English.
So please, if you can recommend me something, I would be more than grateful.
 
You need to read more American English books. A lot more.
 
you should watch movies, read many stuff.

find somebody you can talk in english if possible
 
Listening to music and reading books aren't bad suggestions, and watching movies or television shows set in contemporary America might even be a good suggestion.

But if your main goal is to write better tech content, find several successful tech blogs written by a native speaker and read them religiously. You might even copy them down by hand (or keyboard, but copy them word for word... not by copy and paste) so you get an idea of what it actually feels like to write that way.

Also, one little side note about needing to sound like and American to sell to Americans...

... If you write clearly and interestingly, your readers probably won't care if you are from Indiana or from India. A non-American touch can even be a little exotic (that's a good thing), as long as your reader can understand you and isn't bored.
 
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more to USA, american english could either be canadian or US.
 
If you want to improve your English I suggest Hollywood movies or hanging out and meeting people at tourist spots in your locale. The most common American English accent used in media i.e. news, movies, radio, is the West Coast (California) accent, it is sort of the 'neutral' speak. Maybe a vacation to Los Angeles is in order for you.
 
Thank you guys:)
I must admit that I have few grammar problems, but I am currently working on correcting them:)
 
writing will help you. participate in online discussions which will help your language skills.
 
yea, one great way to do it is via watching TV and reading. I would say...watch a TV series for a few hours straight and do that for 2/3 days. You will feel the improvement :)
 
Your English seems really good, actually, much better than many others I know! :P

If you want to improve more at this point, as others have said, watch TV to learn how to speak/write naturally and persuasively. Reading books will help with your grammar, but don't read older books as the grammar in those is generally different from general article writing English.
 
Reading good articles from excellent writers help a lot. So, keep reading and keep practicing your writing skills. Your brain will eventually accustomed to it and writing will become flawless.

As others recommended, watch movies which have more conversation than action. Not necessarily drama, but movies like telling a true story or perhaps documentaries. There are lots of documentaries in National Geographic and Discovery Channel. Watch them often.
 
I agree with those above. Some of the best places to improve your language skills are books, movies and music.

Try to find some of the more current books and movies to read, so that you can pick up on common dialogue from this decade, and avoid talking like somebody from the 80s or 90s.

The other great place is to find someone, either online or in person with whom you can talk in English. If they know your native language, even better. Many graduate students who go abroad to teach English are brought in almost solely to hold conversations with their students.

Remember that immersion is the key. If you think that this will make a huge impact in your success, immerse yourself in it. Wake up and read English. Listen to American radio, watch American TV. Read American blogs. You'll get there.
 
I would honestly say that you should hop on some voice chat sites. Chat with random Americans and try and pick up the lingo. Certainly read american novels, blogs and watch movies. But I think chat rooms and voice chat sites would be your best site.
 
As far as I can tell, your English is no worse than the majority of posters on forums I frequent. In fact, I'd say it's better than most. However, there are always things you can do to give yourself greater facility with the language. My top five tips would be:

[FONT=&quot]1) [/FONT]Watch the news in English. It shouldn't be too tricky to find streams of news broadcasts from American networks. In terms of quality English, these are hard to beat (apart from Fox News). ABC is pretty good. The good thing is, this will give you a good framework and should be easier to follow than a storyline-based show - after all, you know the news in your native language.
[FONT=&quot]2) [/FONT]Read a lot of blogs on your chosen subject. This is the vocabulary you are aiming for. It may not be about talking like a Yale graduate. Depending on your niche that may even be a little bit off-putting to readers.
[FONT=&quot]3) [/FONT]Read books - ideally non-fiction ones, because you can pick up horrible grammatical habits and bad slang from fiction. You don't want to learn American English by reading Twilight, for example. Actually, you don't want to read Twilight period, but that's just because it's awful.
[FONT=&quot]4) [/FONT]I'm not sure where you live and I don't want to offend you by guessing and getting it wrong, but English native speakers get everywhere. They might be American, Australian, British or Irish, or any number of other nationalities, but for one reason or another, there is usually someone you can practise speaking with.
[FONT=&quot]5) [/FONT]Chat online; but again, not every online conversation will expose you to good written US English. Reading how some people type English may well make you want to cry. If you have Skype, MSN or any similar chat client, look for people who will chat with you to help you out. Improving in any language is about picking up the right habits. You'll make mistakes, but that's how anyone learns any language. Trust me.

Anyway, hope this helps.
 
Move to US for a few years or at least travel a lot. I know I will:P Once I finish school and business is on autopilot.
 
Yeah, great comments that people posted above. I would suggest trying to immerse yourself in the language. YouTube and reading English content would probably be best. You need to understand the grammar side of things which is where the reading will come into play, but also pronunciations that you can learn from YouTube.

Find some people that post content, in both written and video, and then spend at least an hour a day immersing yourself. More hours, will definitely help.

Try and think in the language. When I learn a new language, that's one of my key indicators that I'm close to fluency.
 
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