How about YOUR knowledge in English?

[Grübler]

Hmmm so let's see...

English is my only non native-language that I'm capable of (besides Latin ). Although it has been quite some time since I really _used_ it in a conversation or even on a discussion board like this one here. So I hope I don't make too many mistakes at the beginning of renewing my skills. I will get back to my old level, promised

I learned English from 5th grade right through the end of school and also wrote an exam in the Abitur in English. It was one of my performance-courses (to translate it literally ). Unfortunately I had many teachers that were real ... mh ... dorks Suspicious little people, with an English not mightier than that of a 5th-grader But as I read much English literature in this time, and actively took part in the discussions initiated in the courses, I think, I got to a pretty nice level of school-English.

There was no student-exchange with England, so we went sightseeing to London. Great. But not what I hoped for.

About a year ago I traveled to the US for a week, Las Vegas I didn't talk much there either; just one time, when I was asked how old I were ... I had to leave the Casino immediately *grrr*

But yeah... not too much left active knowledge here, although I've got English education for eight years Hope, we have some fun

BTW does anyone wath Saturday Night Life with Will Ferrell et al. ?

[schlafmuetze]

alright, my turn now..

I have always liked foreign languages a lot, not matter if dead or spoken, Latin and English have been my most favourite ones and always will be.

However, in school, I did not feel as if I would learn English as a spoken language as well as I wanted to, so I decided to leave home for at least one year to spend time in a place that only understands English. I became an AU Pair in Connecticut, USA and had to speak English all day long. For some reason I had quite some problems speaking this beautiful language in the beginning of my time abroad. However, finally after about 6 months I realized that I was not just able to talk in English, but also dreamed in English....After about one year I got problems with talking in German on the phone...somehow I mixed up English and German. Besides, I extended my stay, moved to California and had 10 more months of being around English talking people all day long. In the beginning people used to say: You gotta be from Germany.You have this cute accent...oh man...how I did not like that at all! When I left the states, people told me they know I am not American but they could not tell, where I was from.

Now, more than 6 months later, I have trouble finding situations to speak in English. I love to help people in the city, if they can't find their ways. It#s just very cool to just talk in English without thinking about what you are saying and translating it before you are saying it.

I usually watch movies in orinal sound, and talk to my host kids on the phone a lot. However, that is not a lot and I miss speaking in English all day long.can' t wait to go back for a visit so I can be around all these English-speaking people again.

by the way, I love the British accent...can't tell why.


Have a nice evening!

sleepy hat

[WWU2013]

All right, here it goes: Yet another story on how a language deaf person like myself came to learn some of this freightening language called English.

As many of you, my English grades in high school varied between "Ausreichend" (D) and "Mangelhaft" (The weird German concept of getting an E which is not very common in other countries who prefer to fail their students, F, right away).

Finally, when I graduated HS I decided to explore the big wide world and especially the land of the free and ... yes, the home of the brave ... the land of unlimited opportunities for dishwashing personal...

So I worked at summer camp together with counselors from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. The first thing that I realized was that I could not understand them at all because of all of their funny accent. Turned out, they had to repeat a question 3!!! times in order for me to be able to answer them.

Well, since then many moons passed by and my English skills improved vastly. Now I am to a point where I get complimented on my good German, though people reckon that I still have somewhat of an accent. I just hope, returning to Germany after having lived abroad for 7 years, I'll be able to get readjusted.

Having said all this, here are now some of the funniest things I have experienced regarding the English language:

One of my professors once referred to "Bejar" the huge German pharmaceutical company. I had no idea that this was how they pronounced "Bayer" and ony got the hint about an hour later.

Similarly, I had a history class talking about "ZiSar". I came very close to making a fool of myself by asking who this "ZiSar" guy that everybody seemed to know since birth trully was since I had no clue at all. (=> Zesar)

People also talk about "wolkswägen" and "äddidas".
I am sure there were many more examples, but for now this must suffice.
I hope you had a good laugh and maybe from now on people could write a little bit more of their funny or awkward encounters with the ENglish language instead of simply how they finally came to become accepting of a subject that they fought with most in HS.

[Grübler]

Hey, don`t get too demanding right from the start, I'm just getting into it

[Evil]

Well, like most of the other pupils I first got in touch with the English language when I entered the gymnasium. For the first couple of years I wasn't too interested especially when it came to write down the vocabulary (accidentally I rather often lost my exercise books ). I never really appreciated the English lessons at school so I never got grades better than 2 or 3.
At home however I started reading English books, mostly fantasy novels ... it all started when I got my hands on "The Lord of the Rings". After that I read much fantasy stuff (e.g. the Dragonlance and Shannara novels) in English because I wasn't able to wait for the German translation
Apart of that I liked to play the old LucasFilm and SSI-adventures on my Amiga-computer.... most of them in English as well.

During my PhD I had to read lots of scientific papers in English... and then I decided to spent the surgical part of the PJ in Ireland.

Mmhh.... the Irish speak incredibly fast and with a terrible accent (espacially ol' granny from Connemara ) but after 2 months you get used to it... and even worse, you'll take over the accent.
Since then my skills haven't been used so I may need a little boost....