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 #17 (permalink) Wed Jan 24, 2007 15:29 pm Is going abroad the best way to learn English? |
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Che
If you ever want to know if you've mastered (completely mastered) the English language, pick up a book by William Faulkner (like "The Sound And The Fury" or "Sanctuary").
If you can understand Faulkner, you've mastered it.
The thing is, 'Sound and Fury' is standard reading for teenage English (class) students across the USA... and at least two-thirds of them probably are completely lost by about page 10. Faulkner knew how to confuse/lose the reader.
lol
Hell, I read it recently (again) and still couldn't get everything the first time -- had to re-read several passages to figure out what the heck he was talking about, what time frame he was talking about, etc. Faulkner doesn't really explain things.
The whole point of this light-hearted diatribe is this:
There are far, far, far easier reads than Faulkner's big novels... or at least those two. If you can follow them (understand them, not get lost, etc.), you have really mastered the language... better than many Americans even.
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Prezbucky
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| #18 (permalink) Wed Jan 24, 2007 15:35 pm Is going abroad the best way to learn English? |
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actually, never mind.
You could completely master English and still not get (understand -- slang) Faulkner, be able to follow his writing, etc.
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Prezbucky
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| #19 (permalink) Wed Jan 24, 2007 16:22 pm Is going abroad the best way to learn English? |
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| Jamie (K) wrote: |
| Compared to people of other nations, Germans are extremely hard to make friends with, so during just a short visit it's hard to have any meaningful human contact with them. |
My experience in Germany was that making the initial contact with someone is usually more difficult than it is in the US, but after that it's just as hard/easy to become friends with someone in the US as it is in Germany. |
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Yankee
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Location: USA
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| #20 (permalink) Wed Jan 24, 2007 20:12 pm Is going abroad the best way to learn English? |
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Hi prez
I'm not going to master it better than many Americans  ,It’s not real
I just want to improve my negotiation skill
Jamie (K)
I understand I can pick up a lot of language that will need to be fixed when I’m home , but I don't know how to explain… hmm
You can study Georgian for 3-4 years with best English teachers ,but some other guy who has never studied Georgian Grammar or has never read any Russian literature, but has been living in Georgia for 2 years will be better than you …
For example ,I’ve been learning English for 3-4 years,I’ve spend hundreds of hours..but I had been living in Russia for 2 years and to tell you the truth havent’s spend much time learning it..
But my Russian is much better ,than my English
so I think my main problem in English is negotiation 
I need an advice
I'm a citizen of Georgia,so I can send my money in College but my visa application can be denied.. this happens very often,so I will lose much money...
I'm looking for an emploeyr who could find me a job for me as a trainee,as I've already said I can work there without salary..
Can anyone help me,who should I apply?
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Che Gevara
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Location: Tbilisi, Georgia
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| #21 (permalink) Wed Jan 24, 2007 20:18 pm Is going abroad the best way to learn English? |
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| prezbucky wrote: |
| The thing is, 'Sound and Fury' is standard reading for teenage English (class) students across the USA... and at least two-thirds of them probably are completely lost by about page 10. Faulkner knew how to confuse/lose the reader. |
The language is not difficult. It's that he doesn't explain things, as you say. So in the first few pages of The Sound and the Fury, at first you think there's a war going on; then you think it's a golf game. Then you think it's some kids' game, like Capture the Flag, and you never really do find out. Probably people in the South at the time Faulkner was writing could tell immediately what he was talking about, but we don't know now without annotations.
The biggest problem for American high school kids in literature class now is not Faulkner's opacity. It's the fact that (a) the high school reading curriculum still contains tons of books that seemed "deep" and "significant" to the 1940s baby boomers back in the late 1960s but that we now know are sappy, and (b) just as the hippies spent enormous time trying to discern the "deep, hidden symbolism" in completely superficial, very corny songs by the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and Judy Collins, they force kids to delve for "deep, hidden symbolism" in sappy novels from the '60s. It's as if they think that hiding a mediocre apple in a huge, one-foot-thick ball of sticky Saran Wrap makes it delicious, when actually it just makes lunch aggravating.
My niece was totally turned off to literature by this type of hippie nonsense, which is tragic, because she has the natural sentiment to really enjoy it. |
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Jamie (K)
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Joined: 24 Feb 2006
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Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #22 (permalink) Wed Jan 24, 2007 20:27 pm Is going abroad the best way to learn English? |
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| Che Gevara wrote: |
I understand I can pick up a lot of language that will need to be fixed when I’m home , but I don't know how to explain… hmm
You can study Georgian for 3-4 years with best English teachers ,but some other guy who has never studied Georgian Grammar or has never read any Russian literature, but has been living in Georgia for 2 years will be better than you … |
That's not necessarily true. If you came into my classes, you'd see the fallacy of this belief. I've got people from various countries who have been here as long as 9 years -- and even went to high school here -- and when they take an ESL placement exam, they score at the low intermediate level, and they end up in ESL despite their high school diplomas. Meanwhile, the French woman and the Russian woman -- both of whom have been here less than two months -- are beating the pants off all the long-time residents. I even had one 18-year-old girl who was born here and lived all her life in my city, but based on her English, I thought she had come from Laos about two years ago! There are people who've lived here for decades and can't put a full sentence together in English! One man like that couldn't even think of the right word for "medicine" -- after living here 30 years! |
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Jamie (K)
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Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 5334
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
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| #23 (permalink) Wed Jan 24, 2007 21:14 pm Is going abroad the best way to learn English? |
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Jamie
Yep.
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Prezbucky
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Location: Nashville, TN (USA)
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| #24 (permalink) Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:30 am Is going abroad the best way to learn English? |
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Hi all
I've found what I was looking for abroad in my Country,in Tbilisi... and I feel really happy,cause now everything is so easy,I don't have to go anywhere ...
thatnks to all who tried to help me 
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Che Gevara
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