What kind of study is important to improve English?

[Kumi]

Hi,

I'm a new user, and I'm really glad to be here. This is my first post in this forum!! I was surfing the Internet, and I came across this link. (I was lucky!)

I have been learning English for a long time, but still now I often make terrible mistakes (sometimes, very embarrassing) and get confused how to use my English properly.

I really would like to improve my English, but I have difficulties how to study efficiently by myself. I attend English conversation classes a couple of times per week. My teacher (He is a native English speaker) suggests me to read a lot in English, and I have been reading books a lot recently.
I completely agree with him, and I know I should try hard.

Besides, do you have any good suggestions to improve English ability? Any good way to study that you can highly recommend?

My mother tongue is Japanese, and it's very different from other languages as you might know. Actually, it's very difficult for us Japanese to master English!!

Especially to improve my writing ability, and to reduce my silly grammatical mistakes, what kind of study will be efficient?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Kumi

[Torsten]

Dear Kumi,

Many thanks for your positive feeback - it is very good to have people like you online.

You are asking how you can improve your English. Well, how about you tell us how you have managed to reach such a good command of the English language? You would not be able to speak Japanese half as well as you speak English.

I think Asian people are very industrious and maybe sometimes it helps to take things a little bit easier. Learning a language should be fun. When you read a book select the topic you like most.

Take as much English in as you can. Let your subconscious mind do the work for you: Make it a habit to switch on CNN or any other English language TV channel that provides information rather than entertainment and have it run in the background while you get ready for the day. You shouldn't make an effort to understand every single word - don't pay too much attention. Your subconscious will take in everything and store it somewhere in your brain.

Then, when you are on your way to school or work a new phrase will pop into your head and you might wonder it comes from. You don't have to know the meaning of that word or phrase. You probably won't know how the spelling. Ask your teacher:

'Hey Frank, there is such a word like 'sophisticated''?(of course you can only say it but not spell it but then you don't have to because you TALK to your teacher. Your teacher will of course know what you mean or they will at least be able to suggest other words that sound similar so you can pick the appropriate one.
Now your teacher can explain what this new ords means and they can spell it for you.

This is how you learned Japanese when you were little, isn't it?
(Well, maybe you don't 'spell' in Japanese the way you do with a letter based language but the principle is the same - first pronounce, then spell and explain.)
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[Bob]

Hello Kumi,
I suppose you are the second person posting this forum from Japan. I'm very glad to have you here because I'm from Japan too. Although you've said you are learning English for a long time, I have to say that I am learning it more than 29 years.
Regarding learning English, I do myself the followings. I hope this gives you a clue.

1. Visit this forum whenever I have time and write something I want to write without fearing of making errors.
2. Having a habit to listen to news in English everyday even if I understand them a little.
3. Taking a course at EnglishTown by paying my money.

Also, you may want to take a look at the site 'eigode.net' where many useful links for Japanese exist.

Learn English together!

[Kumi]

Hello Torsten,

Thank you for your reply.
Many, many thanks for your suggestions, too.

As you mentioned in your post, I think Asian people tend to take things too serious sometimes. Not all the time, but at times. I admit that I was like that before.

Learning another language is a lot of fun, for we can learn not only the language but also the concept hehind it. Before I wasn't really enjoying "studying English", because I felt like "I have to." But recently, I have been enjoying studying English a lot. It's getting more and more fun for me, and that feeling encourages me to learn more.

It must be fantastic if I can express my own feelings and opinions on any matters in English. I really would like to talk and communicate with other people without irritation which is sometimes caused because of my English ability.

Thanks again for your advice, Torsten. I'll try to take as much as English in as I can, and I'll enjoy it. I'm really glad I'm here in this site.

Kumi

[Kumi]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your reply.
You are the first person as a Japanese in this site! I'm also glad to have you here.
Yes, let's enjoy learning English together! Thanks for letting me know the link.

So, we need a lot of exposure, exposure and exposure ourselves to English. Don't you think so?

Kumi