Попытка освежить и приумножить знания, а также сдать экзамен

[Eva_mcfly]

it's a hight time for me to write

it's high time that I wrote (?) https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dic ... =high+time

thank you, Juliemiracle!

it's hight time... Я хотела написать, что самое время написать новый отчет.

seeing - случайно увидела в гугле, когда что-то искала...

конечно, realised нужно было.
seeing movies

watching (?)

I slowly understanding

I slowly realised (?)

[Eva_mcfly]

tourist,

Thank you, tourist.

Well, I still think I don't do my best for learning English. Every time I have my lessons I think I could do much more after that.

[tourist]

Relax Eva, you're doing just fine )

[acapnotic]

By the way, it seems to me you undervalue your English level

That may be true, but we have no way to verify it. :) I am honest when I say I don't have a sense of English. I can write a perfectly natural sentence and follow it with an unnatural one, and I won't see the difference. Sure I can make myself understood. But that is possible even with unnatural collocations and grammar structures. Just as you can speak with a fairly strong accent and still get your message across.

With an accent, you can at least record yourself and then compare with the speech of a native speaker, but how can you recognize unnaturalness? You look at your sentence and it's perfectly clear and grammatically correct. That's all you can see. However, they may just not say it this way. That's a subtler thing than an accent.

[acapnotic]

I think you have to go through a really HUGE amount of input to figure out (subconsciously) and remember the natural English patterns. Then you will be able to immediately feel whether a particular utterance corresponds to them or not. Because it will sound either familiar or strange. Simple as that. There is hardly another way. You can read about those patterns in grammar books, of course, but this will likely remain your knowledge about the language rather than your sense of it. It will help you find your way when writing, but you will calculate that way rather than see it.

[Eva_mcfly]

Хотела спросить, кто что думает о слушанье фоновом? Есть ли от него польза? Или так можно слушать лишь только то, что ранее біло разобрано.

[Eva_mcfly]

At some point, I realized why I feel no layers of words whatsoever. I think mostly it’s because of using Eng-Rus dictionaries for a really long time. That’s right, I used to look every single word up in a translation dictionary. So I think it might be a good time for changing my approach to learning the new vocabulary. I have to look it up in a translation dictionary only if I have no idea what it could mean.

For the first time, that thought occurred to me when I was analyzing my mistakes while reading your corrections guys. Especially one pair of words caught my eye – understand and realize. In Russian, they have the same meaning, but if we talk about English, there is a difference for sure.
So I think it would be really helpful for my progress to start learning new words and collocations include the words I already familiar with. For example, yesterday I did some exercises from Azar’s grammar book. More specifically, it was a lesson about articles. Is it simple, right? So I used that lesson to learn some new collocations. For example, the word “a student”. I would say “a good student”, but now I can say “a brilliant student, a part-time student, a first-year student”. The same with the word “food”. I know it could be tasty/healthy/delicious/ mouth-watering … But yesterday I learned luscious/rabbit/nourishing and some collocations with simple verbs also.

I am so excited! All of you know that common phrase: “забудьте все, чему вас учили”? That’s exactly how I am feeling. And I think, my major problem with English vocabulary is my willingness to learn as many new words as I can instead of learning collocations with words I know. Would it be a good idea to hit “English collocations in use” or any similar self-studying book, or better to keep on looking the collocations up with words I already have in my active vocabulary? Which one way does make a sense to you? On top of that, I would be appreciated if you can recommend me any fiction or nonfiction with a simple language.

[acapnotic]

Yes, it's a good idea. I've thought about it many times. But there is the problem of their huge number. Too many words and even more word combinations. But of course it's good for active skills.

Non-fiction with simple language is probably someone's blog. There will be useful collocations in it as well. Those that are really used by ordinary people, not just something from a dictionary.

[Easy-Breezy English]

I would be appreciated if you can recommend me any fiction or nonfiction with a simple language.

You might want to check this site out:
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/

Especially this part, for fiction:
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/z/1581

There's all kinds of good stuff there, and it's graded by level.

[Eager Beaver]

start learning new words and collocations include the words I already familiar with

You might want to have a look at Key Words for Fluency (the entire series, starting with Pre-Intermediate). Also, you'll benefit a lot if you start paying attention to words that usually go together when you read books, articles, or other content written by educated native speakers.

[Eva_mcfly]

As Eager Beaver mentioned above, I indeed should pay attention to words that usually go together. I tend to read a book/an article quite fast, although I get the gist of it. But what's the use of that kind of speed reading, if I can't concentrate on common collocations? For a long time, I have been learning only new words and idioms so I didn't pay much attention to words that go together.
I feel like I've hit the language learning plateau, but it seems to be a good strategy to overcome it. It doesn't mean I shouldn't learn any fancy words, but at my current poor English level, I have to learn common collocations.

By the way, I used "pay attention to words that usually go together" 2 times. I happen to use тавтологии in my native language so I have this problem with English as well. I looked some synonyms up. I found one I know already but "focus on" totally slipped my mind when I was writing my post. Does it seem to be a good replacement (substitution) for "pay attention to"? I know the context it rules always.

[tourist]

Eva_mcfly,
I think this post by acapnotic, is the answer.
It should be tattooed on every learner's [ ...] insert the part of the body you prefer. )
The key word is HUGE.
Whatever amount of reading, writing, watching you consider a lot .. multiply it by 5 8 10:
that would give you a realistic chance of progress.

[Eva_mcfly]

My short report is here :)

I worked a lot on my grammar. It’s a tricky thing for me. I am not sure in which way I should practice all those grammar structures I’ve been learning, so it makes me frustrated. I do all the grammar exercises and read some examples on the internet, but it doesn’t help much.

Also, I studied 2 units from Keywords for fluency (have started with Pre-Intermediate level).

I think I should have a go at reading adapted books. I tried to read some of them but it was rather boring. Now I have a desire to focus on words (looking collocations up) and the grammar patterns I’ve already known.

I didn’t talk much in English for the last few days as my language partner was on the go.

By the way, I've found "First Expert" recently. This book is well-known with learners who are going to pass such an exam as FCE, but I think it would be too difficult now. Had better polish my English at my current level.

[Easy-Breezy English]

I do all the grammar exercises and read some examples on the internet, but it doesn’t help much.

Have you found anything at all that works?

You might find it useful to look for particular grammar structures you are studying at the moment in the texts you are reading.
For example, if you are studying, say, the Present Perfect, try to find examples of it in whatever article or book you are reading. Underline these examples and think about why this structure is used in every case.

[Eva_mcfly]

There’s no secret, podcasts have been gaining popularity for the last few years. Although, I found out about them not such a long time ago, to my taste, listening to podcasts is a much more effective and flexible way to stay tuned on learning English/to remain focused on learning English (not sure which expression fits better) wherever you are. I’m thinking about listening to a whole lot of them during doing my chores or going shopping.
Could you recommend me your favorite podcasts?

By the way, recently I’ve found a place where you can listen to your favorite movies
http://listentoamovie.com

Besides listening to podcasts, I would like to use some of them as material for learning new vocabulary and grammar structures, so it would be nice if you could help me to find some podcasts with transcripts (apart from podcasts for English learners), I’ve already found the vast majority of them.

[Eva_mcfly]

Во время прохождения Азар возник вопрос. Наткнулась вот на такое: I don't need to get out of the river for us to talk. Не могу разобраться, что это за зверь такой "for us to talk". Возможно, в последующих главах и учебниках об этом расскажут, но все же хотелось бы понять...

[Juliemiracle]

Eva_mcfly,
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dic ... ritish/for
see #13

[Eva_mcfly]

Juliemiracle, спасибо большое! Я встречала подобные вещи, но не с for us. Теперь буду знать, да и в учебнике должна тема где-то быть ведь. Может не в первом, а во втором или третьем.

Ну и сразу, чтобы попрактиковаться, напишу пару примеров, надеюсь, что использовала правильно for. Как я поняла, у него значение для того, чтобы. Есть ли разница между ним и so that?

I downloaded a comedy for us to watch.
You brought some chocolate for me to eat/ to cheer up. Насчет последнего уверенности нет.
My dad gave some money (sent a check) for me to buy a house. Здесь, наверное, все же to me нужно...

Как-то запуталась.

Нашла вот такой пример:
The dolphin was near enough for me to reach out and touch it.
Правильно ли я поняла, что он значит: the dolphin was near enough so that I reached out and touched it.

В COLLINS DICTIONARY отмечено so that british. Тем не менее, как я понимаю. for someone to do sth и so that употребляются в обоих вариантах английского.

Пытаюсь переписать примеры из словаря, чтобы использовать for

Rooms are spread far enough apart so that guests do not feel on top of each other.
Rooms are spread far enough apart for guests not to feel on top of each other.

It helps to lower blood sugar so that you feel less hungry and unconsciously eat slightly fewer calories.
it helps to lower blood sugar for you to feel less hungry ...

Вполне допускаю, что несу полнейший бред. Как я понимаю, эта конструкция помогает сократить предложение, а значит ее нужно усвоить ...

[Eva_mcfly]

Today I completely finished working on the first book from Azar's grammar course. I should start the second book, but I will take a break for a week.
You can congratulate me because that first grammar book was literally the first one I worked through from cover to cover. I am sure it wasn't a waste of time. And I hope that English grammar, which I absorb day by day, will become a part of my own use one day.

By the way, I'm leaving for Poland tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure I might find anyone to practice English with there. Moreover, I am kind of introvert. Yet, I will try to get the most of my trip. I am going to keep up working on my English, though. I packed my e-book already and downloaded some podcasts on my phone and some of my favorite movies on a laptop. I think to continue reading graded readers during the trip. I may write short summaries after each book.

I need some advice. Should I start the second of Azar's grammar course when I get back, or it would be better to work through yet another textbook on basic grammar? For example, I found "The good grammar book" by Swan. It's also recommended for beginners. I know that Swan's book is British but Azar's one is American. Of course, British English, as a whole, is not the same as American, but I'm not sure, there is a huge difference in grammar.

[acapnotic]

or it would be better to work through yet another textbook on basic grammar?

Judging by your posts, you have learned basic grammar already. I think you just need to practice it, to make it automatic.

[Eva_mcfly]

Just finished the test I came across in Белая Мишка's thread. My score is 65/100. It has been said my level is C1. I think it is B1 so far.

During my trip, I tried working on my English. For the most part of the time, I read graded readers (started Level 2), and focused on grammar, to boot.
Also, I watched a few lovely movies from 90s. I might write a review tomorrow evening. But first of all, I have to learn how to do that type of writing tasks.

[QwestDay]

I think it is B1 so far.

You're the second most humble person I know.

to boot.

what do you mean?

[Eva_mcfly]

I should have looked at my notes... My score is 67, but it's not a big difference :)

[Eva_mcfly]

I think it is B1 so far.

You're the second most humble person I know.

to boot.

what do you mean?

It seems I used the idiom in the wrong way. Shame on me!

I am not sure if I'm humble or not. I mean, you cannot be an Intermediate level learner, and then, out of the blue, become an Advanced student. Moreover, I think, my level of English grammar is about Pre-Intermediate.

[Zlatko_Berrin]

my level of English grammar is about Pre-Intermediate.

Don't you think you underestimate yourself a bit?