its quite heartening to see people willing to improve thier english proficiency.

So my take on this, whatever it's worth.

1) speak more (no way around this - practice makes perfect...so they say)
Find friends that share your interests. It's easier if you enjoy talking about something you like. Insist on speaking english, explain that you want to learn. (most) People will respect you for that.

2) read more and read aloud!. It will help if you can hear yourself. This will also help your reading comprehension and pick up proper grammar and vocabulary.
Someone mentioned Reader's Digest. Excellent way to start for general literature.

3) Think in english. The reason why some people's english grammar is off is because they think in thier native language, then translate.
Unfortunately this will take time.

4)you could be a copycat and follow other people's way of speaking, slang, accents, but unless you have been actually living many years where you are planning to "emulate", you'd probably come out sounding all funny.
It's better to be speaking good english with a malaysian "accent" than trying to pretend to sound good but with poor grammar. This is a mistake many people make....especially when they are in the presence of a gwailo....its hilarious like hell.

5) restrain yourself with using "bombastic" words. Doesn't help you when you use those words before you can string a proper sentence together. Take your time with that, it will come to you in due time.


I'm having the same problems...just that I am learning French, I have to basically live, eat, sleep French to learn it properly.

At least most people do speak English here.....I have to subject my horrible french at my foreign co-workers.....




I myself speak with a hybridized Canadian/British accent. It does quite become usefull to be able to do that, since the Gwailo's are usually more confortable with you, and the local (telephone/service) people tend to treat you better when you sound like a gwailo. When you request an escalation to speak with "someone that speaks english" (-admittedly some people that man the support telephones can be quite bad at it), they usually refer you to the manager and you get things done more quickly.

This post has been edited by jaycee1: Feb 27 2009, 09:32 AM