Everything you need to know about english
Last updated：February 18th 2022, 20:23
in case you want to learn a third language: pdf
This page will contains all the information related to improving english, check the toc (table of contents) for details
How to improve English
The first of all, you will need to know what is the most effective way to learn English, you don’t want to spend time studying on a method that’s less effective
What is explicitly learning and implicitly learning:
Take a look on the article in this webpage : [EngFluent.com]
Listening
General
Public material for listening:
| Source | Accent |
|---|---|
| [Rich roll] | Male American |
| [A.J Hoge] | Male American |
| [Morbid True Crime Podcast] | Female American |
| [Criminal Podcast] | Female English |
Speaking
General
Okay, so, at some point you will appear this question on your head “How can i speak like a native speaker”
this is a direct answer: you can, and it’s not easy.You need to find out every single word that you mispronounce, and correct it.You dont need to go to anywhere else to find any other answer. Believe me i spent dozen of times for it already.
This is a resource for vietnamese people specifically: [Kenny N]
aside of those videos on the list, there are plenty of other pronunciation video on his channel too
Master language in 30 days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bue05mPPoFw
Some website that help pronounce
| Feature | Source |
|---|---|
| Interactive IPA Chart | [Link] |
| Word to ipa | [Link] |
| Hear how a word is said by Native | [Link] |
Best method (i think) to improve speaking skill: [Shadowing]
Some free material for english shadowing
| Name | Source |
|---|---|
| Ted | [Ted] |
| A.J Hoge | [A.J.Hoge’s Podcast] |
Some website to speak english with others
| Name | Source |
|---|---|
| Free4talk | [Free4Talk] |
| Name | Source |
|---|---|
| 150+ English Conversation Topics | [Link] |
| Intermediate topics | [Link] |
| Advanced topics | [Link] |
| Good topics, with a great ebooks a long | [Link] |
Make english comfortable while speaking just like your native tongue
Accent
| Name | Details | E.g |
|---|---|---|
| Source: | [7 tips for american accent] | |
| T -> D | T’s between 2 vowels | water -> wader |
| T is removed | T comes after N | internet ->innernet Winter Painting Twenty Plenty Gigantic Toronto Internet International |
| Glottal T | Mountain-> Mount-n Forgotten Written Eaten Gotten Kitten Rotten Bitten Button Manhattan Important |
|
| Silent T/D | Christmas-> Chrismas Old man->Ol man Accept->Accep Buffet->buffe |
|
| Assimilation (it’s not connected words) | Sounds blend together | Don’t you -> Doncha Won’t you-> wontcha Meet you->meetcha |
| Intrusion | One word is intruding upon the other | she answer-> sheanswer, do it-> doit |
| Elision | A sound completely disappears | Next door->Nexdoor, Most common -> Moscommon |
| R at the end is Strong | [Src] | Car |
Despite of those tricks, many others thing are also play an important role
- Innotation (stressed syllable)
- Placement
Something i found on internet
- https://www.reddit.com/r/JudgeMyAccent/comments/2x9woo/my_best_advice_for_those_who_want_to_perfect/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/JudgeMyAccent/comments/gwos6d/american_accent_resonance_placement/
- https://www.youtube.com/user/rebeccalinquist/videos
The accent is not about pronunciation but resonance, breath control and voice
Placement: still very shallow
Jaw control:
Important Not every words in english have the same length, (innotation)
Need more air:
[American Accent Training for Vietnamese Speakers]
Reading
Writing
Website to find example question with a phrase
Useful website/software
| Link |
|---|
| [Glosbe: Find word’s meanin’ w/example] |
| [Ludwig: Find word’s meanin’ w/example] |
| [TR-Ex: Find word’s meanin’ w/example] |
Vocabs
Remember the way you learned these 2 words: extravagance, advent
you saw it once before, then you encounter a situation wwhere you need to use it, then it becomes your active vocab
this blew my mind. Lễ trung thu, khi nghe đến thì nghĩ ngay đến cái dịp lễ này, nhưng ko ai để ý thật ra nó là giữa - mùa thu (mid autumn) => suy ra đc cách chúng ra học từ vựng
the method is working like a charm now
-
basically the technique is that DON’T TRANSLATE, yeah, dont translate the word that you try to learn into any other language, especially your mother one.
- a pragmatic example: when i was once go pass a dude with squinted eyes, i easily recalled the word squinted eyes very fast, which mean it was in my active vocab list, by using this vocab learning technique
-
this is something related to the term “active/passive vocabulary”,so when it come to your first language, you wont ever have an idea of “learning vocab”, it would be more like, know a new vocab, not learn it.Then you should apply this mental thinking in your second one, or third or any after.
-
actually in native language, there are many word that i use in daily day, but when i look close into its meaning, i cant decribe it, dang that’s somehow crazy about language, not only in foreign one
- e.g: kiên cường
-
How babies
learnacquire their first language- Yes as the header said, we need to acquire languages like a baby does.Not like in the school, we learn about grammar.Yuck, we dont need to learn it, grammar is something that you will get without even know a single reception
-
How to remember new vocab
- When you see a new word, you can try to translate it into ur mother language, but at the time you know what it is, empty your head and imagine the object of the word
For example, the word “cup”, you dont think about what it’s mean in ur mother term, but imagine a cup in ur head, and whenever you hear “cup”, you imagine the cup
- When you see a new word, you can try to translate it into ur mother language, but at the time you know what it is, empty your head and imagine the object of the word
-
contemplate about your first language, like “Hoành tráng” you can’t explain what does that word mean.Like, you can explain it this way," A man who wears sprinkled suit,or a house with tons of decoration can be called hoành tráng"
you understand, you can feel it, know how is it used in context
I got this feeling in english several times, like the word “refill”,i know what it is but dont know what is it in Vietnamese, but still be able to describe it -
EVERY SINGLE word, vocab in english must be understand by you deeply inside of your mind,
without translating it into other language -
Từ “đề cương” trong tiếng việt 99% người hiểu sai nghĩa, chỉ hiểu 1 phần nhỏ nghĩa mà ta được expose to, từ đó nhận ra đc bản chất của từ vựng
Some notes from myself
- The reason why you should know a little of grammar, but not all of it. So remember when you was still in university, for example, the theory of Động lực học vật rắn, all these definition: Khối tâm, vị trí khối tâm and those formula [Link]
It’s very troublesome, when you look at it and don’t understand what it is, you feel frustrating.Yeah that’s the issue of being an adult. Toddler, they don’t experience that feeling, when they learn their first language. But it does appear, when they grow a bit older, like grade 1, and start learning their second language.
Cool facts
- Tiếng Thái và Lào tương tự như Việt và Mường