Let's start the development!!

[Fall_apart]

Hello everybody,
I'm a student from the former capital city of germany: Bonn. I'm 22 years old and misspend many years, respectively hours in school regarding the subject English, instead of using them carefully and efficiently to develop a good basis concerning this global language. The consequence was a miserable-in my point of view, perhaps a little bit exaggerated - English-knowlegdement afterwards(It wasn't really smart, being aware of the fact, that it will/could be of great importance in my career in future).
During the further period of time whilst studying at the University, I tried to improve my english at least with two approaches: Reading Internet articles and watching Movies, Series and sometimes Tv-news with the peak/acme(correct term here?) in my efforts in doing a english(B2+)-course at the uni last semester.
I succesfully completed this course(1,7) with two important conclusions/hypotheses:

1. english-courses are way to overrated: The time-consumption/learneffect-ratio tends to infinity .

2. the final test offered me, what I suspected before: My "Reading and Understand"-Skills are solid, BUT writing skills are as bad as sh*t.(12/20 points in the writing section(the task was to write an approximately 200 words essay))

My speaking-skills are even more a problem, but because I'm pretty sure that the writing and speaking-skills correlate, I thought about the following idea as a good one concerning a good possibility to improve this part in the next time:

I will choose some articles, written in the german language and just translate them. That is barely the most innovative idea of this century, but I think this is in my case a good idea, because this has the positive effects:

-I don't have to waste time to create own texts(not that this is a bad idea at general, I just don't think that the additional time, which would be necessarily will be worthwhile eventually. I think, it would be just at a certain extent)
-yeah, the main point: I have to translate and thus I think I will primarly automatise phrases that I already know and even more important learn new phrases, or even better idioms and accompanied with that a lot of different vocabulary-everytime I will be searching for a word, I will get/read tons of possibilities and will try to differ them in usage-!!
-At least there will remain even the "creative" part, because one have the liberty to paraphrase sentences or meanings in any way, he/she wants just subject to the point that the main meaning should remain the same.


Well, sadly I didn'nt found this superb board before, but now I hope you can support me on my way in becoming the president of america(...oh wait, one step after another^^).

Greetings,
FA

P.s. Sorry for the long Introduction-actually, it even isn't a proper intro=)- but I just liked to write a little bit.
In future I will try to restrict my texts to at maximum 200/300 words.

[Delfino]

Hello everybody,
I'm a student from Bonn, the former capital city of Germany.
I'm 22 years old and misspend many years, respectively hours in school regarding the subject English instead of using them carefully and efficiently to develop a good basis concerning this global language.
In my point of view the consequence was a miserable knowlegde of English.
Although this is perhaps a little bit exaggerated.
But I know it wasn't really smart especially because I was aware of the fact that it would/could be of great importance in my future career.

During the following period of time, while studying at the University, I tried to improve my English using at least with two approaches:
reading Internet articles and watching movies, series and sometimes the news on tv.
The peak of my efforts was attending in doing an English course (B2+) at the university last semester.
I succesfully completed this course with a grade of 1,7 and conclude my experience with these two important hypotheses:

1. English courses are very overrated. It would take an infinite amout of time spend in class to learn what is actually needed to pass.

2. The results of my final tests confirmed my expectations. My reading and listening skills are solid, but my writing skills are really bad (12/20 points).
In the writing section our task was to write an essay with approximately 200 words.

My speaking skills are an even more a bigger problem. but because I'm pretty sure that the writing and speaking skills correlate.
(Speaking and writing are skills that require you to actively use English by creating your own sentences.)
I think, the following idea bears a high probability possibility to improve my result in this part in the next test time:

I will choose some articles, written in the German language and just translate them.
I know this is not the most innovative idea of this century, but I think that this is in my case it is a good idea, because this has these positive effects:

- I don't have to waste time to create own texts
(not that this is a bad idea at in general, I just don't think that the additional time, which would be necessary would will be worthwhile eventually.
I think, it would be just at but only to a certain extent)
- yeah, the main point:
I have to translate and thus thereby I think I will primarly automatise the use of phrases that I already know and learn new phrases or even better idioms and accompaniedwiththat supplemented by a lot of different vocabulary which is even more important.
Everytime I will be searching for a word, I will read several possible translations tons ofpossibilities and I will try to use differ them in different ways usage-!!
- At least There will even remain even the a "creative" part, because one I'll have the liberty to paraphrase sentences or meanings in any way,
he/she wants just subject to the point that the main so that the meaning should remains the same.

Well, sadly I didn'nt found this superb board before, but now I hope you can support me on my way to become in becoming the president of America
(...oh wait, one step after another ^^).
The current American constitution doesn't allow anyone who hasn't been born in the USA to become president, but you can become a gouverneur like Arnold S.

Greetings,
FA

P.S. Sorry for the long introduction. Actually, it even isn't even a proper introduction. but I just liked to write a little bit.
In the future I will try to restrict my texts to a maximum of 200 - 300 words.

Welcome to the forum!
Keep an eye on the use of capital letters and the use of "-".
You might want to read more texts written by professionals and maybe try to imitate their style to improve yours.
Remember there is a difference between formal and informal expressions. In written English one uses more formal expressions -
especially in this forum which focusses on the proper use of the English language.

[Fall_apart]

1.-->: English courses are very overrated. It would take an infinite amout of time spend in class to learn what is actually needed to pass.

2. -->I think, the following idea bears a high probability possibility to improve my result in this part in the next test time:

Thank you for your detailed correction. At first I want to comment two of your suggestions, respectively adjustments:

1.I did not meant it in that way. The main reason, why I attended this course was to improve my English. The grade was not so important, because it was not really necessarily for my Bachelor Degree. Hence, I did not talked about the time that one needed to spend in the course to pass the test, actually the test was quite easy and thereby it was easy to pass it too, though one student managed it to fail. To put it simple: What I meant was rather that you barely learn anything, although you spend 3-5 hours a week there, because I think it was not efficient at all.

2. As one can conlude there will not be a further test in the near future. Therefore I actually wanted to refer to the near future in this sentence and not to the next test.

You might want to read more texts written by professionals and maybe try to imitate their style to improve yours.
Remember there is a difference between formal and informal expressions. In written English one uses more formal expressions -

especially in this forum which focusses on the proper use of the English language.

Thank you for your advice.
As long as I have the time, I read occasionally articles in the Newspapers: The Guardian, The New York Times or The Economist(.com). Do you mean that by "professionals". And to imitate their style, you mean to pay attention on special expressions, words they use and try to use them in my texts?

It is very helpful that you mentioned the use of formal and informal expressions, because I was not familiar with these terms before. I will change that and do my best to develop a proper use of this language. The difficulty concerning the appropriate use of formal or informal expressions seems to be a necessarily good feel for the language. But this is the main problem non-native speakers have.

P.S. I was just joking about becoming the president of America. I had already known, that one have to be born in the USA.

[Delfino]

1.-->: English courses are very overrated. It would take an infinite amout of time spend in class to learn what is actually needed to pass.

2. -->I think, the following idea bears a high probability possibility to improve my result in this part in the next test time:

Thank you for your detailed correction. At first I want to comment on two of your suggestions, respectively adjustments:

1.) I did not mean it in that way. The main reason, why I attended this course was to improve my English.
The grade was not so important, because it was not really necessarily for my bachelor degree.
Hence, I did not talked about the time that one needed to spend in the course to pass the test.
Actually the test was quite easy and therefore it was easy to pass it. Although one student did fail.
To put it simply: What I meant was rather that you learn barely anything, although you've spend 3-5 hours a week there.
because I think, the couse was not efficient at all. The efficency may also depend on your level of English before you started the course.
Although most Germans had English lessons in school, they usually don't feel confident enough to watch movies, series or news in English.

2. As one can easily conlude there will not be a further test in the near future. Life can be even more challenging than a test. ^^
Therefore, I actually wanted to refer to the near future in this sentence and not to the next test.

You might want to read more texts written by professionals and maybe try to imitate their style to improve yours.
Remember: There is a difference between formal and informal expressions. In written English one uses more formal expressions -
especially in this forum which focusses on the proper use of the English language.

Thank you for your advice.
As long as I have the time, I read occasionally articles in these newspapers: The Guardian, The New York Times or The Economist(.com).
What do you mean by "professionals" and "to imitate their style"?
Do you mean to pay attention on special expressions, words they use and try to use them in my texts? Yes. Keep an eye on how they use words.

It is very helpful that you mentioned the use of formal and informal expressions, because I was not familiar with these terms before.
(vergleichbar mit den Unterschieden von Umgangssprache gegenüber Standardsprache oder Schriftsprache im deutschen Sprachraum)
I will change that and do my best to develop my skills to use this language properly.
The difficulty concerning with the appropriate use of formal or informal expressions seems to be the necessary good knowledge of the language.
But This is the main problem of non-native speakers have.
I know, but you can become more capable. Trust me - I speak from personal experience.
After some time you can even think and dream in English.

P.S. I was just joking about becoming the president of America. I had already known, that one has to be born in the USA.