English Conversation

Once you learn enough vocabulary and polish your grammar, you won’t have as much fear as at the very beginning and will be eager to use your English in conversation.  However, even though Americans are known to be very open-minded and straightforward, certain conversational topics are better to be avoided.

It is never a good idea to discuss standards of living. Curiosity is in human nature; yet, inquiries of this kind are frowned upon. Job-related questions are fine as long as they do not involve anything salary-related. Or, ask a New Yorker how much they pay for a wonderful downtown loft and watch how quickly this person finds an excuse to walk away from you.

One question you will hear very often, usually accompanied by a genuine smile, is “How are you?” It makes you think your response should be just as sincere and honest-to-goodness. Yet, hold on – do not go into the gruesome details of your latest break-up, an atrocious behavior of your coworker, or paying off an outrageously high interest on your credit card. There will be time when you’ll talk about what and how you feel; for now, just say, “I’m good” and move on to the next topic.

America is probably more ethically and culturally diverse as any other country. But even after centuries of people of opposite beliefs and ideas living side by side, certain tensions and grievances still exist in the American society. You might feel strong about politics, religion, race issues, or reproductive rights, but these topics are rather controversial and might easily turn a discussion into unpleasant, heated arguments.

Meetup: Groups for ESL Students

New York is a great place to be an ESL student. You are fully immersed into American culture, exposed to the English language and get to see with your own eyes everything that makes New York one of the most exciting cities in the world. But as welcoming and densely populated as the city is, sooner or later you might run into a problem of not knowing enough people with whom to practice your English language skills. Your classmates might not be always available – after all, everyone has a lot of responsibilities to deal with on a daily basis – and your new American friends might not be always willing to play the role of English tutor due to the very same reason. Online language communities like Livemocha that we wrote about earlier are definitely a great solution, but nothing beats a face-to-face conversation.

Enter Meetup.com, a hugely popular online network of local groups. The membership on the website is free and you can join as many groups as you want. Those of you interested in practicing your English, should check put these groups:

We Are New York was founded in January 2011 and has only 7 members to date. Yet, it’s very active – in less than 3 months, WANY held 2 meetups and has 6 more scheduled. The events are not only free but also are a lot of fun. Along with your fellow Meetup group member, you will sing karaoke to one of the most famous songs about Big Apple, Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York.”

New York City English as a Second Language was created in 2005 and has over 450 members, all of whom are raving about the group. If you want to make new friends, practice your conversational and reading English skills in a relaxing atmosphere and have fun while doing that, email the group’s organizer, Al, and ask to join the NYCESL.

English Idioms: A Piece of Cake or A Can of Worms?

English idioms are one of the most difficult topics for any ESL student to master since they are not translated literally and cannot be understood from the individual meanings of their elements. If your new smart phone cost you an arm and a leg, it does not mean that you actually had to amputate your limbs in exchange for a high-tech gadget. There are over 15,000 idioms in the English Language so it’s understandable why it might be quite a challenge for a non-native speaker to know them through and through. Yet, there is no need to look for a shoulder to cry on. If you happen to stumble upon an expression you don’t know, you can refer to one of the many online idiom dictionaries.

A good place to start is The Free Dictionary. With over 12,000 idioms, it’s one of the most comprehensive resources on the web. You can browse through a list of random idioms and pick up a couple of new expressions. If you want to see the idioms containing a specific word, enter it in a search field and see what you get.

Online Idiom Dictionary is another must-see website. Similar to The Free Dictionary, it also provides you with a list of most common idioms and expressions picked at random. For every idiom, there is an example of its use in the sentence. The dictionary is significantly smaller – it contains about 5,000 expressions – but it’s less crowded and more pleasing to the eye.

If money is no object, you should consider investing in the Cambridge Idioms Dictionary. It has up-to-date content, a section on the most commonly used idioms and the option to search for an idiom by different topics. Click on the picture to learn more about pricing and availability.

Practice Your English Skills Online

Everyone has a favorite social network. It’s either a ubiquitous Facebook, or straight-to-a-point Twitter, or down-to-business LinkedIn. Here’s another service that you might want to check out, LiveMocha. It’s an online language learning community offering free and paid lessons. The website is very popular and has over 9 million members from all over the world. What you can do there, is to find a native English speaker for language practice. You can ask questions about grammar, word usage, translation, take online tests or quizzes, and more importantly, work on your English speaking skills. Since practice makes perfect, you should use all resources you have to perfect the language, and this website offers just that.

Livemocha community is built on reciprocal approach wherein people work together to help each other learn the languages they want. When you create a profile on Livemocha, you need to specify what language you want to learn and what language(s) you speak fluently, and the website will match you with other members.

Livemocha has an online chat where you can practice your written English Skills. If you don’t know a meaning of any word, you can use the built-in Phrase Translator to look it up. You can also work on your understanding and maintaining a conversation using the Conversation Scenarios. This will definitely come in handy when you’ll be taking tests or writing essays.  You can use a microphone and/or webcam to talk to your Livemocha partner and practice your conversational skills. If you want to work on pronunciation, you can record phrases, words or texts and submit a spoken exercise for review.

All basic features of Livemocha membership that you might need to work on your English skills – chat, messaging, and flashcards - are free.

Small Talk for ESL Students

To develop and practice your English skills, you need to talk as much as you can, preferably with native speakers of English, so you could get a feel of the English speech flow. For those of you who have American roommates, friends or coworkers, it should be pretty easy. However, for most of you finding conversational partners other than your classmates and professors might be a bit challenging, even in a city as big as New York. Yet you don’t need to know someone to start a conversation; you can talk to cashiers at the supermarket, sales assistants at department stores, people you meet at a party, or commuters on a train. The good news is that you don’t need to engage into long discussions which might be hard for you to maintain at this point; all you need to do is to master the art of small talk. Small talk is actually a big part of American culture and the ability to start a light yet interesting conversation is valued very highly. Here are some topics that you should definitely consider discussing:

Weather
It does not matter if it’s raining cats and dogs or it’s the hottest day of the year; you can talk about how much you like or hate it, whether it makes you miserable or  happy, and of course, how it’s different from your home country.


Hobbies
It’s always interesting to learn what other people like to do in their spare time, so don’t be shy, go ahead and tell a person you met at a party about your lifelong passion for writing poetry, painting, or running 5 miles every day. If they happen to share your enthusiasm, you might have just made a new friend.


Entertainment
Talk about new releases, hottest bands or latest scandals in the world of show business, which there are plenty of. Remember, though, that we all have different tastes and preferences, so don’t be too quick judging Justin Bieber’s haircut, Blake Lively’s acting chops, or Snooki’s drinking habit. A shouting match or, worse, a fistfight with a die-hard fan of any of the above is never a good idea.

Learn English with Visual Thesaurus

At the very beginning, you can get away with some basic vocabulary. If you know enough to ask questions, express your thoughts and maintain a conversation, it means that you are going to be just fine when it comes to your daily routine. You can ask for directions when lost, order food at the restaurant, talk to your friends about your day and try wowing your date with the story of your life. This is a great beginning. However, as you go further in your English studies, you will realize that in order to move to the next level and become a fluent and eloquent speaker, you need to work on increasing your English vocabulary. When it comes to learning new words, everyone has a method that works the best. For some students, it’s necessary to write down the words and their translations while others prefer working with flash cards. For those of you who rely on visual memory in your studies and everyday life, you might use Visual Thesaurus to increase your English vocabulary, and dramatically so.

Visual thesaurus creates word maps with relations between words. For example, a visual map for a word “visit” will look like this (the image from Dictionary.com):

You can regroup the words by clicking on any of them and every time you do that you see a different map representing the semantic relationships between words and concepts.

Visual Thesaurus has more than 145,000 words and 115,000 meanings. Read more about Desktop and online editions of Visual Thesaurus and take a look at the VT magazine about writing, words, language and creative process.

YOUR NEW FAVORITE FACEBOOK APPS

It’s hard to find a website as time-consuming and addictive as Facebook. The seemingly never-ending saga with the privacy issues aside, it’s a really great resource for staying in touch with your friends and family, spying on your exes, networking and meeting new people. Or, if you happen to bored, you can easily kill an hour or two playing Mafia Wars or FarmVille. However, while games are a lot of fun, you might be better off engaging into activities of a more educational nature, since now your goal is improving your English language skills. So here’s what you should definitely try on Facebook:

Word Quizz

This app, perhaps, is better suited for more advanced users, because while it appears to be easy, you do need to have a pretty good command of the English language to answer the questions. You need to guess only one word that fits all three sentences and once you get it right, it’ll be embedded in your mind forever.

Test English Grammar

You can choose between 2 modes of difficulty, normal and easy, and work either with 5 or 10 multiple choice questions at a time. It’s suitable for ESL Students of all levels for questions range from easy-peasy to somewhat tricky. In an unfortunate event of getting a question wrong, you have an option to discuss it with your Facebook friends and get this particular grammar rule straighten out together.

English Placement Test

In case you ever wonder where you stand as an ESL Student, take this test, and all your questions will be answered. Want to transfer to one level up in your program? You can definitely consider using your test result as a supporting argument.

English Academy Quizzes

You have 10 minutes to take a test of any level, ranging in difficulty from beginner to advanced. If anything, you definitely can use this app to prepare for your exams.

How To Increase Your English Vocabulary

Do you dislike reading because a lot of words are unfamiliar to you? Do you often find yourself at loss for words not due to emotional duress but simply because you don’t know how to say what you want? Don’t worry — many people, and even native speakers, are no strangers to this phenomenon. Fortunately, there is a way to overcome this weakness. Good working vocabulary is one of the defining factors in your success as an ESL Student. Of course, that does not mean you should start memorizing dictionary entries in alphabetical order. As we might have mentioned before, a bit of creativity and a lot of dedication go a long way toward your progress with studies. What if new words, along with their etymology, meaning and pronunciation, were selected at random and sent to you every day and all you’d have to do was to read and memorize them and then impress your friends and classmates with your English vocabulary? You can’t perfect your English overnight, but what you can and should do is to learn a little every day, so let’s start with an absolute minimum – one word.
Dictionary.com Word of The Day
Here you can sign up for a daily email and learn new words as well as the ways to use them in the sentence. Dictionary.com is a website you should definitely consider bookmarking for it offers a truly comprehensive array of linguistic tools, from thesaurus to an online translator. The website also has a “Did you know?” section where you can learn very interesting facts about words, such as what pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which is the longest word in the English language, means.
Merriam-Webster.com Word of The Day
This is a great subscription service offered by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, owned and operated by the world-famous Encyclopedia Britannica.  Visited by over 40 million people every month, the site is one of the most popular and comprehensive vocabulary resources on the web. The print edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary is one of the all-time bestselling American books.
A Word A Day
The New York Times called this newsletter “”the most welcomed, most enduring piece of daily mass e-mail in cyberspace.” Sign up and see for yourself what all the fuss is about.

Online Resources for Beginners

Previously we mentioned the importance of self-study and use of additional resources in learning the language. To start you off, we compiled a list of websites with free English exercises aimed at beginners.

Beginner’s English Vocabulary Word Lists

Here you will find lists of words describing body parts, colors, days of the week, months and numbers from 1 to 20. What’s remarkable about this resource is the number of different learning and testing modes. You can test yourself in spelling and typing games, working with dictionary flash cards or flash puzzles.

Elementary English Exercises

A great collection of exercises for the beginner level where you can learn basic nouns, verbs and adjectives.

English Vocabulary Games With Pictures

In a fun and easy way you can learn the vocabulary for animals, food and drinks, fruit and vegetables, sports, household, and shapes of objects.

Vocabulary Quizzes

This website has one of the best collections of vocabulary exercises and over a hundred vocabulary lists covering topics from clothes to parts of a car.

Confusing Verbs

Here you can learn the difference between commonly confused English verbs.

Common English Mistakes

If you are in doubt whether you should choose “there” or “their” – after all, they do sound almost identical! – you’ll definitely find this material to be useful. Go over all sections and don’t forget to take the free online tests!
More Confusing Words

Another resource with explanations and exercises targeted at learning the difference between commonly confused English words.

Keys to Successful English Learning

As with any other studies, the keys to successful learning of English are hard work, dedication and consistency, which means you absolutely must attend your classes, actively participate in discussions and do your homework.  But even when you don’t have classes, you still can – and should – continue learning the language. Here’s what you can do

Use Additional Resources

There are hundreds of websites with free vocabulary and grammar exercises, quizzes and games, ranging in difficulty from the most basic to very advanced, so regardless of your level of English, you can definitely find something to work with. Not only is it a fun way to learn, but also it’s a great supplement to your school studies.

Watch Movies and TV

To those who just embarked on learning English, this may seem a very difficult and definitely not enjoyable task. However, while indeed difficult, it is a very effective way to learn. The more you are exposed to English, the quicker your progress will be. You will learn grammatical rules and word usage, pick up the intonation and rhythm of the language, and get used to fast speech styles. At the very beginning you can start with watching TV and movies with subtitles, but over time you’ll need them less and less.

Speak English As Much As You Can

You can memorize grammar rules, words and idioms, but keep in mind that it’s just a part of the learning process. You have to constantly practice everything you learn by communicating in English with your friends, coworkers and classmates. You may feel a little self-conscious at the very beginning because you might not be sure how to pronounce a word or what verb tense to use. Remember that mistakes are natural since you are just starting to learn the language and the only way to move on to the next level is to work through the difficulties.

What To Expect While Learning English

Learning a new language is never easy. Knowing what you can expect in the process will help you avoid desperation and stay focused and persistent. Difficulties in learning will greatly depend on the degree of difference between your native language and English. Students whose native language is French or German generally face fewer obstacles than native speakers of Chinese, Japanese or Arabic. This is something that you should definitely keep in mind if you experience difficulties with any aspects of learning. Remember: everyone is capable of mastering English, but some of you might have to invest more time and effort into it. So what are the most common difficulties that you might encounter?

Pronunciation
As you already know, the same letters in English words are pronounced differently. For instance, the letter “a” in “cat” is not the same as “a” in “rate,” and the digraph “th” is pronounced differently in “there” and “thaw.” The way to deal with it is to learn and constantly practice the rules of pronunciation and memorize the exceptions from these rules.

Grammar
While it may seem confusing and complicated at the very beginning, English grammar is actually very structured and clear. Do a lot of grammar exercises, write often and read a lot, and you’ll learn it in no time.

Spelling
Read, read and read once again to learn the spelling of the words. Memorize the rules of spelling and learn to recognize the exceptions by doing a lot of vocabulary building exercises, word games, puzzles and quizzes.  And don’t forget to invest in a good dictionary!