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The Maple Leaf Rag

Mapleleaf Man

Canada

April 2, 2012

(Yet another log entry that I wrote for renren, the Chinese site.)

In my last log, I suggested that you read a simple story, maybe a children's story, with a dictionary beside you so you could increase or add to your vocabulary. Here is another suggestion and a link to a website. 

Here is a link to the stories: http://www.manythings.org/voa/stories/  They are on the Voice of America site which should be open to you. If it's not, please let me know right away.

The stories are simple but they aren't childish. The second group, those written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, are all about John Carter, the hero in the latest Disney film. Others are mysteries, some might be scary, but all of them are written in basic English. 

We write and speak differently than you do in China. You are all saying, "Duh! Of course you do!" But what I mean is that we arrange our words differently. When I am translating in QQ from English to Chinese, I often hear that "You say things in a funny way". Well, that is our way. Something as simple a s 'I am old' becomes 'Old I am' or something like that. 'Old I am' sounds like Yoda talk to us! Hahahaha. When my daughter Kathleen is joking around she will say things like, 'Cold I am', instead of 'I am cold'. It's very different, and funny, to hear her. 

Besides having easy to read stories, there are MP3s of each story that you can download. This means that you can listen to the story as you read it. Another way to learn, right? Listen to the words and how they are pronounced and listen to the punctuation and the speed of how each sentence is spoken. 

I think this is a good resource for you. Let me know if it helps. Lastly, these stories are quite famous. If you can find a Chinse version of them, you might be able to compare the Chinese writing beside the English to get a better sense of how things are translated. See if this works for you.

Thanks for reading! 

(Warning: This site is the Voice of America. When it talks about the United States it will tell you that everything is perfect there. It's not. Just the same as your government paints a rosy picture of life in China, this site will tell you that the U.S. is the perfect place to live and that their way is the perfect way. It's not, believe me.)

April 2, 2012

(Another log entry from renren, the Chinese site. I hope this helps you a bit.)

From what I hear, students who are learning English have a very tough time learning vocabulary. Vocabulary is simply the words we use and their meaning. I think most students use lists of words to do this, pages and pages of words with their meaning beside them. Is this working for you? Probably not, right? 

Pick up an easy English book, maybe even a children's book. The reason that I suggest a children's book is because they are usually simple, they use easy words and you won't get frustrated. This is only for people who are having a tough time with English, not people who regularly communicate with me in good English. Many other people on renren tell me that they suck at English and some can't communicate at all. This is for them. 

Start reading. See if you can figure out what the book is about, what the words mean and how they are used. As soon as you hit a word that doesn't make sense, that you don't know, or you don't know how it is being used, stop and look it up. Take some time for find out what 'unicorn' means, for instance.

Learning English words this way is sometimes frustrating but, believe me, you will know the words when you are done. As long as you are reading English EVERY DAY, even just a page or a paragraph, you will get better, bit by bit, word by word. 

Once you get the children's books figured out, try a teen or adolescent book. I'm thinking of Twilight or The Hunger Games, something like that. I think it's better to read a book that was written in English first, not a book that was written in Chinese and translated into English. The English that is used will be better, I think. 

OK. If  you can read this, you already know a lot about English. Maybe you could do your friends a favour by sharing this or even translating it. You can help your friends this way, I think. 

05:18 AM Apr 13 2017

liamstepnew
United States

I am ESL speaker so but I managed to graduate with Bachelor's degree in Business Administration in USA. My suggestion is reading only books that are interesting because otherwise no effect will be observed and you won't pick up any new vocabulary. Ask how to buy essay if you’re a foreign student.

March 31, 2012

(This is from a log that I write on renren.com, a Chinese Facebook site.)

A very good friend of mine, a lovely Brazilian girl who I love dearly (she's married, don't worry), used to ask me how to say things properly in English. One of the funny ones I remember was when she asked me how to say 'a piece of paper'. She had been saying 'a shit of paper' because to her, sheet was pronounced shit. She couldn't hear the difference between sheet and shit. She knew it was funny and wrong and we both laughed about it. I helped her many times and we became good friends. 

The point of my status updates this morning was to find out what you guys think about making fun of people from other places, other races, you know? Then I got to thinking about English and Engrish and Chinglish and so on. I want you to know my point of view on this. 

Language is communication. I want to say something and I want you to understand what I mean. Does it matter how I say it? As long as I get my point across, that is communication. If all you want to do is meet and talk to foreigners, your English doesn't have to be perfect. As you know, I live in an area full of people from around the world. On my short street, we have Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Indian, Philippino, Caribbean, Polish, Sri Lankan, Pakistani and maybe some others that I don't know about. Somehow, we all communicate with each other quite well. Not everyone is like me, however. There are older people who are quite racist to newcomers. There are newcomers who don't quite fit into the neighbourhood. Basically, it's good but not perfect. 

My point is that it doesn't matter if your English is perfect. You can communicate in whatever way you feel comfortable. If you use Chinglish to make a point, what difference does it make? Here in North America, no one, not even the big TV stations or newspapers use perfect English all the time. I wish I could show you the mistakes they make. If you want to be a scholar, learn perfect English. If you want to communicate, just do whatever you are doing when you communicate with me. It's all good!

Thanks for reading!

04:00 PM Apr 02 2012

Julie3

Julie3
Russian Federation

u are welcome, Man. Ur blogs help in it for sure, keep on doing that!

05:43 AM Apr 02 2012

Mapleleaf Man
Canada

Thanks Julie. I get frustrated with how English is taught sometimes. It's a business and it takes the fun out of it, I think. A native speaker doesn't get all tied up with grammar and prepositions, etc. We haven't learned that since grade 3 and not one Canadian out of 100 knows what a conjunction is, I don't think. Naming of parts is not learning English. There are simpler ways. I hope I can help some people 'communicate' and feel good about it, without being afraid of embarrassment. Thanks for commenting. 

10:35 PM Apr 01 2012

Julie3

Julie3
Russian Federation

Thanks for a nice blog, giving us (other language speakers) an impulse to speak and communicate in English and don't feel much shy about our mistakes and errors (I've been always wondering what the difference is between these two concepts).

I worked for a company where canadians and americans were working with us and I noticed so many linguistics "mistakes". I mean they talked not in the way we had been taught at the University, with all these prepositions, tenses, grammar rules etc. I understood long ago (as far as I am an interpreter and my goal is to reach communication and understanding among\between people) the main aim is to reach the meaning\sense\idea no matter by what means :)