How do you improve your English skills?

I'm first!

I've been trying to improve my English through different modes of learning, I attend classes at YouMove English School, I've watched several series lately, like " Supernatural, Lost... " Always I can I'm listening to podcast " Flatmates " and I pratice my writing and reading with my friend on the internet and every day all day long I'm here at forúm EE.

I'm not improve my speaking yet, I'm very shy... that's so hard for me to do it, sometimes I talk to myself... I'm getting crazy!

Cheers! In special to Flávia.

I've trying improve my English skills through these things:

- I attend classes at SENAC School;
- I watch films series in English at least three times a week;
- I always listen to podcasts - One of I really enjoy listening is Spark from CBC (it's Canadian);
- I practice conversation with a friend on the internet by email and msn,
- I participate in the EE forum and EE Chat.
- I surf on the net looking for good videos and tips to improve my English as well.

By the way, Flavia you had a great idea in ask to everyone about our habilities on this beautiful language.

I'd forgotten other thing I do to improve my English is collect phrases and expressions in a notebook. Doing this, I can improve my writing, vocabulary and speaking, because I use them to read aloud. I collect them in movies, series, English Experts blog and others great blogs.

If you wanna know more about this kind of study, I can ask me: danilorpo@gmail.com

(well...my first post in this forum...so let's go.)

I improve my english:

-Watching movies and series like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy, Supernatural, blablabla, always in english but with subtitles (cause I'm still learning some vocabulary)
-Listening to music and singing with the lyrics that I take on the net... and also trying to translate it 'cause I like to know what I'm singing.
-Participating of many internationals websites, like DeviantArt, it's an art website and there we meet a lot of people around the whole world, so I improved my english a lot talking with people who commented my pictures and stuff.
-Talking in english with some friends.
-Being an english teacher... well my english skills aren't perfect, I mean... I'm not so good in english, I got a lot of dificults in vocabulary and speaking fluently ahhh and also in prepositions as you can see... but I'm very good with grammar and I teach the first module of an english school here in SP. students love the way I teach because I'm patient and dynamic and I think i was born with that feeling of being a teacher, and I'm just 19 years old, but I teach people like 50 years old and they're learning well. =P
-...

That's it. I love this forum, I've been coming here for a few months but this is the first time I decided to post something. Congratz to the staff team! This forum helps a lot!

Hello!!

I improve my english:

- Attend classes at Centro de Línguas Antonio Houaiss ("Argos" - Jundiaí);
- Watching movies in English with subtitles in English too;
- Listening musics and studying the vocabulary;
- Reading little books, articles...;
- Writing answers here in the E.E. forum.

Bye!

I use to talk alone because I dont´n have anyone to practice with me , I ´ve been studying only in my english classes , sometimes I watch films , listen music , answer tests on the internet for know how is my grammar , today it´s my first day in this blog and I intend practice more now !

Well,

- I have contact with the English language every day. I listen to podcasts and music, I access Web sites in English, I even play learning games in English (like crossword puzzles);
- I search some words/phrasal verbs in Google, then I look at the results to see how they are used;
- I watch videos in English;
- I read aloud lots of texts and dialogs to practice my speaking;
- Sometimes I watch movies without subtitles;
- And I access English learning websites like English Experts.

Bye

Well,

I have trying to be in touch with English language;

watching Tv, movies in English,
Reading aloud texts,
and now participating in the EE forum.
I like to hear podcast, this improve pronounce .

I really do all that stuff,

Attend classes at Instituto Internacional de Idiomas (III) - I bet you don't know this one.
watch movies in English, subtitles in English as well.
I also listen to musics in English.. actually, I don't listen to Brazilian musics (very much) :/
I'm so curious, I scan everywhere due to find interesting things about English
and..well.. I Talk to Myself!! haha thats insane i know

I am an American, so you would think that I do not need to improve my English skills, however this assumption would be incorrect. Like all people I am lazy and I tend to lapse into vernacular or slang and I do not pay attention to proper grammatical construction. Reading what I have written or said helps me.

Since Cristina Panizza and I took the walk down the aisle (marriage) I try to use proper english when talking to her and I try to correct her enunciation, and construction by saying "English Lesson" - and then telling her what she said wrong.

She has two words that she has not been able to master and uses the Portugues words rather than English. A friend of ours from Sao Paulo who lives in Pensacola has the same problem. The words are sheet, and beach which both ladies can not enunciate correctly and people think they are cussing. both pronounce "ee" as "i" and ea "it", I think it is cute.

In my humble opinion the only way to improve your skills in any endevour is to practice, Practice, PRACTICE.

By the way, I intend my posts to help my Brasilian friends with their construction and vocabulary, and have no intention to imply that I am smarter or better. After all I can barely get by ordering a coffee in Portuguese.

Mr. Slayman is right.. Practice, Practice, Practice.
I improve my English reading, writing and of course speaking (or at least trying to speak).

Ravenna,

Thank you for your response, and agreeing with me. My only suggested correction to your post is to ask that you and all other members call me Bill, while appreciated, calling me "Mr. Slayman" is not necessary.

Oh, that's okay then, Bill! By the way, it's your name William? Because I know a guy nicknamed Bill and his true name is William! ^^ Best Regards and welcome to the English Experts Forum!

Ravenna,

Yes, William is my given name, ame the name on my birth certificate is William John Slayman, Junior (a real mouth full) so I use the nickname of Bill. When I was growing up my Aunts and Uncles would call my Father Big Bill and me Little Bill, which was OK until I started high school.

One suggested change I would make is to say "Is William your real name?" You can also use given, or proper instead of real.

Thank you for responding and asking questions. I do enjoy trying help my Brasilian friends improve their English Skills, even though I need help myself.

Thanks for answering Bill!
For sure you are helping me to improve my English skills and I'm writing down your tips.
All the best, and if you need any help with some Portuguese stuff, just let me know!

Ravenna

Well, that set me wondering why the Englishexperts forum does not have a section for foreigners willing to learn (and discuss) Portuguese. Foreigners could write posts either in Portuguese or in English and ask forum users questions about Brazilian Portuguese in any way they want. By "in any way they want," I mean anything Portuguese, the informality that goes with it and the possibility of leaving out cuss words and vulgar expressions unexcluded.

What do the forum mods think?

Hello,

I have improved my English studying it every day through different ways, even though somedays I don't find a lot of time to. I have visited and participated in the EE forum (in other words: here), where I see opportunities to become better my discussing skills in writting. I am able to learn penty of grammar rules and tips here. For the last two weeks, I did a account at SharedTalk.com, where I have spoken to other people in English, so, it is improving my conversation skills. I am also listen to podcasts, almost every day I find time to that at the moments I am cleaning my house or going home by bus.
I have had some friends who I am speaking to through Skype, I mean people throughout the world. To be honest, it has been amazing to me speak to people that I don't know and doesn't know my native language, it has showed me I am able to be understood through only my English.
On the weekends I have watched some TV series where I can learn a lot of idioms and words, it has made my ears to aware of differents accents and levels of speedy voices. Often I listen to CNN and BBC radios by Internet.
Regularly I read texts and cartoons in order to make me aware of informal English.

Well, I guess I said everything.

Regards!

I improve my English skills by:
-listeninig to music
-watching movies
-talking with my cousin
-sometimes i listen to podcasts

- I watch series in English,
- I always listen to podcasts,
- I participate in the EE forum.
- I read to NYT.
- I talk to native speakers.

I listen a lot of podcasts, I read some texts everyday, I practice conversation with myself in the mirror (because I am too shy to talk to others) , I watch films in english (with transcript in portuguese first, then I watch without transcript), I watch tv shows in the internet and I also listen musics in english, most of the time.

Well, that's what I do to improve my english.
xo, Lu.

I practice english every single day through tv series, musics and websites.
Everyday I watch something in english, like: supernatural, family guy, american dad, the simpsons, the vampire diaries, true blood.... Even the animes I used to watch with subtitles in portuguese I now watch subtitled in english.
Once a week I go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ to practise my spoken english (By the way, I would like to know an american website akin to this one) and english experts to solve my questions.
I also attend to classes at CNA, though I'm not learning as much as I used to (I'm in last level).
I think in order to learn english you need to be very determined and practice a lot.

My pronunciation is my worst problem.

p.s: I dont know why but I can watch cartooned(Ive just made this word up)-tv series(the simpons for example) without any subtitles and I understand everything, but I can't do the same with non-cartooned series. Weird, isnt it?

I usually listen to musics with lyrics, I pay attention to English classes (exemplary student ^^).
I think I only improve my English skills that way... Wow, now I feel terrible.

To improve my English skills, I use to listen to podcast in ESL(English as a Second Language) sites, it's very good. And I like to choose some English musics to listen to, and sing... I try, try a lot to sing that music untill I become good and sing with the pronunciation correctly.

I read magazines and papers in English, I listen a lot of podcasts, I listen stand up, I read all posts that forum, I watch movies/TV Shows in English.

I don't still understand everthing I hear, but I go on trying.

Hugs
Eduardo

I improve my english skills by watching english movies, listen to english musiscs, going to my english classes twice a week and mostly surfing the net!

I improve it doing something in English at least 15 minutes each day.

Hi, I'm improving my English by watching movies on TV, listening to the radio, talking with friends in my job, in my professional position we uses too much English (IT); last whole week I worked as interpreter on a congress in my church, there were people of several states from USA and Canadians too, it was amazing. It was a good chance to putting me on proof.

Well, everyday I listen to the English As A Second Language Podcast, by Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Then, I listen to it one more time, and I write the script of the podcast, so I can practice both my listening and writing skills.

I also listen to songs in English, and I watch a lot of movies as well as tv shows, with English audio and subtitles.

- I listen to a webradio from the US...