Tips for Learning English

There are a number of cases: Some of you can read, but you can't seem to write. When you have to, you just make a number of grammatical mistakes. Some of you are afraid to speak to a foreigner. You suddenly become anglophobic when you see a tall, blond man approach you, despite the fact that he is probably not from England and struggles to speak English as much as you do. Some of you can't understand anything at all when this man talks to you. Those are examples of what I have encountered whilst living in Thailand (and a few other countries). As someone who speaks both Thai and English on a daily basis, I think I'm qualified to write about these problems and offer a few solutions along the way. This is not an academic journal and I will not bother you with linguistic theories. Everything I say is accounted from my own experience.1. Forget the Grammar The main concern amongst Thai people is grammar. Many of you have tried to memorize rules of the English language for years, yet you cannot speak it. I hate to be a bearer of bad news, but what you are doing is ineffective. Young native speakers of English do not have to memorize rules to speak their language. I never memorize any of these rules, either. It takes too much time to formulate a sentence if you worry about grammatical structures. You have to think about the subject, the verb, then the object. Then you have to worry about subject and verb agreement. Then you move on to prepositions and conjunctions. You have to go through all these steps before you can come up with a sentence. It's a waste of time. And your head would probably feel like it's ready to explode.2. Learn from Set Phrases and Substitutions This method of learning is more natural. You begin with a sentence. Then you substitute a new word (or a set phrase) for another word in that sentence. For example, you have the sentence "I love my mother". You can substitute the word "mother" with "father. In the end, you get "I love my father" as another sentence. This example is oversimplified. There are detailed books on this subject available in the market. This is comparable to drilling in the military. You need a lot of repetitions before any structure will be recorded in your brain. The good thing is that you will have these structures encoded. They are readily accessible. And as the human brain is a miracle of nature, you will later find out that your brain links a few structures together and forms a new structure for you.3. Forget Translation If your ultimate goal for learning English is not to become a translator, then forget about translation. Your brain will be overworked if you have to form a sentence in Thai (or whatever your native language is), then convert it into English and then say it.

"But how will I be able to understand anything?" you may ask. Well, this is a bit more difficult. You have to start over again from concrete and tangible things in life. A picture dictionary is a great help in this case. Just look at the picture and learn the word given for it. In real life, you can take a look at something then ask your English speaking friend what it is. The crucial part is to NOT TRANSLATE. It is difficult, but also doable. I know that not all of you are going to have native speaking friends close by. That's why I suggested a picture dictionary. And in case you don't want to invest, Google Image for new words you are learning is also a possibility. After you have a good grasp of concrete and tangible things, you move on to abstract ideas. Look up words in English - English dictionaries. And yes, I really mean several dictionaries. If you are in a hurry, then one is probably enough, but I personally look at two when I'm trying to learn a new word, especially when it's an abstract idea, because different dictionaries have different descriptions. They help you see a better picture.4. Forget What You Have Learned about Pronunciation This section is for those of you who want to improve your pronunciation skills. If yours is good already then this section is not applicable. You will need to forget about the way you have learned to say each word and start over with a native speaker teacher, a non-native teacher whose pronunciation is impeccable, or a good English - English dictionary. Learn your new pronunciation from them. If you cannot afford to invest, then use Google Translate. You can click to hear how words are pronounced right from the Internet. It is important that you listen to what is actually said, not how you think it is said. Often your native language is trying to influence what you hear and this is a barrier that you need to overcome. It takes a lot of practice and it is quite difficult if you don't have a professional to help you. But again, this is also doable even if you are by yourself.