Annabelle says 'Hello'

[Annabellewisteria]

Hello, evrybody!

My name is Annabelle and I am a high school student from Honhkong. To me,I think the most difficult subject is English because it is not my mother language.Secondly, my speaking and writing skills are poor that make me really nerous.In order to have a big improvement,I am trying to speak and write in English more frequently and I hope there is someone can give advice to me.

In fact,English is really really important in Hongkong.If you failed in English,there is almost no ways for you to enter the local universities.That is why I am so worried about my English result.Apart from the importance of English,I am interested in English when I was a little girl!:D I want to communicate with other people in English fluently because in this way,I can travel the world without having so many problems of communication.

Lastly,my grammer is also a big problem since I have not enough vocabularies and sentence patterns. Therefore,I hope you can suggest some ideas for me to improve my English.

Thanks for reading!:)

[kölscheklüngel]

Hello Annabellewisteria,

I think your English is very good, or good enough to understand an other person and make an exchange with an other person. I take every chance to practice English in a Club close to Cologne and in this forum. I suppose that the grammar is not so important and difficult in English. I know a lot of English guys who can't speak the right grammar. My opionion is, you need a big treasure of vocabulary and than you could make sentences and the opponent understand what you say. The language English hasn't big rules, you could say it on many ways that is very difficult for me and you must speak English in the whole world. I need a lot of advice to improve my mistakes.

But is the English from the people in Hongkong so good? I have a friend he is from Asia and I speak English with him, but I don't understand him or it is very heavy to listen to him. In Cologne we have a lot of students from Asia.

Best regards, kölscheklüngel

[Annabellewisteria]

Hi kölscheklüngel,

I do not think that all Honkongers are good at English. But the students in Hongkong are required to learn English and they have to take the exams.If they cannot get a pass in English, there is hard for them to get a job. We do not only have to learn how to speak in English, but also have to study a lot about English grammar. It is really a difficult work!

Best wishes,
Annabelle

[Delfino]

Hello, everybody!

My name is Annabelle and I am a high school student from Honhkong.
I think English is the most difficult subject for me because it is not my mother language.
Secondly, my speaking and writing skills are poor that make me really nervous.
In order to have a big improvement, I am trying to speak and write in English more frequently
and I hope there is someone who can give me (some) advice.

In fact, English is really really important in Hongkong.
If you failed in English, there is almost no way for you to get into any of the local universities.
That is why I am so worried about my result in English.
Apart from the importance of English, I have been (really) interested in English since I was a little girl!:D
I want to communicate with other people in English fluently because in this way,
So I can travel around the world having less communication problems.
So I will have less communication problems when I'm travelling around the world.


Finally, my bad grammar is also a big problem when combined with my limited vocabulary and sentence patterns.
Therefore, I hope you can suggest (to) me some ideas for improving my English.

Thanks for reading!:)

Hello Annabellewisteria,

I think your English is very good, or at least good enough to be understood by another person.
This should enable you to communicate with another person.
I take every chance to practice my English in a club close to Cologne and in this forum.
I suppose that grammar is not so important and difficult in English. Really?
I know a lot of English guys who cannot use proper grammar when talking.
It's my opionion that you need a big vocabulary to create sentences which your opponent can easily understand and thereby know what you meant.
The language English doesn't have big rules. Think again!
You can say something in many different ways which makes it very difficult for me.
You need to speak English to communicate with the people in nearly every part of the world.
I need a lot of advice to improve my English and correct my mistakes.

Do all people in Hongkong speak English as good as you do?
I have a friend.
He is from Asia and I speak English with him, but often I don't understand him or it is very hard to understand him.
In Cologne we have a lot of students from Asia.

Best regards,
kölscheklüngel

@kölscheklüngel
There is a huge difference between being understood and speaking English well enough to pass an exam.

Hi kölscheklüngel,

I do not think that all Honkongers are good at English.
But the students in Hongkong are required to learn English and they have to take the exams.
If they cannot get a pass in English, it will be hard for them to get a job there.
We do not only have to learn how to speak in English, but we also have to study a lot about English grammar.
It is really difficult and hard work!

Best wishes,
Annabelle

[kölscheklüngel]

@Delfino,

okay it is not correct, that the grammar in English is easy but I suppose that the normal German member in this forum wants to improve his English, because he needs English for his job or in vacation. So for a good conversation you shall use the vocabulary and a part of grammar. 90 per cent are present, present perfect, simple past and will future. I would be happy when I could use the right grammar in a conversation and would be happy when I have your treasure of words. It is not my goal and I suppose it isn't important for a lot of people to learn Futur 2, activ or passiv. It happened in a conversation, or not. So, when I listen to my Boss or another employee in my company they can speak on an easy way but they use many words and they try to be perfect in grammar, but they only try, it isn't good. When you must learn the whole part of grammar than you must spend a lot of time or make abroad. The rules in English are "last week", yesterday, yet and ago .
How to learn a language and which part is important to learn. Every person want to get results and I suppose when you study grammar the results will be negativ, because you spend a lot of time and practising grammar is very exhausting when you practising vocabulary and listen to a conversation or reading books is encouraging.

Kind regards, kölscheklüngel

[kölscheklüngel]

Ist das so besser?

okay it is not correct, that the grammar in English is easy but I suppose that the normal German member in this forum wants to improve his English, because he needs English for his job or on vacation. So for a good conversation you shall use the vocabulary and a part of the grammar. 90 per cent are present, present perfect, simple past and future. I would be happy when I could use the right grammar in a conversation and would be happy when I have your treasure of words. It is not my goal and I suppose it isn't important for a lot of people to learn Futur 2, activ or passiv. It happened in a conversation, or not. So, when I listen to my Boss or another employee in my company they speak a simple English they use many words and they try to be perfect in grammar, but they only try, they are not good. If you want to speak perfect English than you must spend a lot of time or go abroad. The rules in English are "last week", yesterday, yet and ago.
How to learn a language is important. Every person want to get results and I suppose when you study grammar the results will be negativ, because you spend a lot of time and practising grammar is very exhausting when you are practising vocabulary and listen to a conversation or reading books is encouraging.

Bye kölscheklüngel

[Schlumpi79]

@Delfino: Why do you have quoted the whole messages from Annabelle & Kölscheklüngel?

L. G. Schlumpi

[Keswick]

Because he corrected their mistakes - see bold print.

[kölscheklüngel]

Was ist denn "bold print" und was heißt "quoted"?

Gruss kölscheklüngel

[Duckduck]

Hi Schlumpi,
wir sind ja immer und immer und immer am Korrigieren, das grenzt ja fast schon an Besessenheit!
Ich kann nun auch schon wieder nicht an Deiner Anfrage vorbeigucken, ohne sofort den Rotstift zu zücken und Dir einen kleinen Stupser zu geben:

Why do you have quoted the whole messages from Annabelle & Kölscheklüngel?

Alles, was da rot ist, müssen wir eben mal untersuchen, OK?!

"Why" ist völlig OK, es leitet eine Frage ein. Diese Frage könnte in diesem Fall in zwei Zeitformen gestellt werden, nämlich entweder Present Perfect oder Past Tense. Warum? nun, Du fragst Delfino zu etwas, was in der Vergangenheit passiert ist (das Zitieren von Nachrichten). Wenn Du nun einen Bezug zur Gegenwart (im Sinne von: ich habe das jetzt hier vor mir liegen und frage mich, wieso Du so und so zitiert hast, Delfino?) herstellen willst, musst Du die Frage im Present Perfect stellen. So, wie bilden wir das gleich nochmal? Richtig mit "have/has" und 3. Stammform.
ABER: mit "have/has" hast Du in dieser Zeitform bereits ein Hilfsverb im Satz, brauchst also für die Frage und Verneinung kein "do" als "auswärtiges" Hilfsverb zu bemühen. Die Frage ist demnach:

"Why have you quoted...?"

Wolltest Du hingegen einfach nur fragen, warum er das so und so zitiert hat gestern abend oder wann, würdest Du einfach das Past Tense verwenden. Diese Zeit wird gebildet mit der 2. Stammform, das wäre hier "quoted". Allerdings brauchst Du hier für eine Frage das Hilfsverb "do", weil "quote" ein Vollverb ist und Du immer ein Hilfsverb für Frage und Verneinung brauchst (die Ausnahme lasse ich hier mal wieder beiseite). Weil der Satz im Past Tense stehen soll, verwendest Du das "do" in seiner Past Tense Form "did", das Vollverb steht dann in seiner Grundform (Infinitiv), also:

"Why did you quote...?"

So, und zum Abschluss noch die Sache mit "from". Dieses Wort heißt zwar "von", aber nur in seiner örtlichen Bedeutung, also die Richtung betreffend, z.B. "I come from Berlin."
Während wir im Deutschen den Genitiv (das ist der 2. Fall, wir erfragen ihn mit dem Wort "wessen" und er drückt Besitz aus) oft mit "von" umschreiben: "Wessen Haus ist das?" "Das ist das Haus von meinem Mann.", verwenden wir im Englischen bei Personen eine andere Form, nämlich das " 's ". "Whose house it it?" It is my husband's house."

Wessen Nachrichten sind es? Es sind die Nachrichten von Annabelle & kölscheklüngel.
Whose messages are these? These are Annabelle's and kölscheklüngel's messages.

Nun noch ein kleiner stilistischer Hinweis, in diesem Fall hätte ich nicht "whole" sondern "complete" verwendet.

Und bumms, da hast Du's! Aber es ist ganz lieb gemeint und hoffentlich wieder ein kleiner Baustein für Dein Sprachgebäude.

Liebe Grüße
Duckduck

[Duckduck]

Was ist denn "bold print" und was heißt "quoted"?

Gruss kölscheklüngel

Huhu,
Fettdruck und "zitiert".

Delfino hat's nicht so mit Farben, er markiert seine Verbesserungen mit fetten Buchstaben. Naja, und Schlumpi wusste wohl nicht so recht was damit anzufangen.

Grüße nach Köln!

Duckduck

[Delfino]

Sorry guys, I'm not as confident and qualified as Keswick, Duckduck and George
who can make the distinction between a mistake and an improved expression.
I am merely pointing out my changes in bold letters and my comments.