Let speak english here!

[George Moran]

We are learning it. I am looking for a speaking teacher

OK. One good way to learn to speak:

white down a short newsflash, a flight update at an airport, a famous commercial you like.

For ex:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the last call for United Airlines flight 414 to Nashville that will depart at 16:15 from Gate 7. All passengers can board now. Thank you."

or

"Some people like to climb mountains, I like to build planes. In a sense, this is what we do: we build your digital business even while you're up and running."


You can use Google to read it back to you.


Then try to repeat it many - many times, perfecting your speech clarity and pronunciation.


After a while you get a hang of it, and start speaking much faster and with greater confidence, your pronunciation greatly improves as well.


You can start reading news articles or book chapters out loud, repeating the same sentence until you can say it clearly, fast and with minimal accent.


This is how I learned, and I speak without an accent, even though I came to the US at 23.

 

[Svetuchka]

OK. One good way to learn to speak:

Great! Thank you! This is really helpful!

 

[Medbrat 153]

My translation of an article from the "financial times" magazine.

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[Medbrat 153]

There is an American in Kharkiv who invites you for a speaking club.

 

[George Moran]

This statement applies only to such countries where English is the official language. there seem to be 88 of them. and there are 250+ countries in the world at all. so, there is no complete hegemony. That is true for those people who are going to live / work / study in Canada, USA, England, Australia, etc.

If you plan to settle in France, you need to learn French, in Czech Republic - Czech, in Poland - Polish, in Israel - Hebrew. Knowledge of English will be "+", but nothing more.

In business, finance, IT and many other areas you need English in order to participate and matter.

In most countries and areas (excluding, perhaps, mountainous regions of Pakistan, African deserts and such) English will help you communicate, it's a link between people speaking different languages.

 

[George Moran]

Agree with you, but this is not always the case.
it mostly works in hotels, supers, etc.
as I wrote earlier, ordinary people in Greece know Greek and that's enough for them. With mini-hotel owners in Montenegro it was also not possible to reach an understanding. And these aren't mountainous regions of Pakistan, African deserts and so on

Almost nothing is always the case.

How long ago was that?

Young people in Europe speak English in huge numbers.

As to
"ordinary people in Greece know Greek and it's enough for them",
I can reply
"ordinary people in Greece that speak only Greek earn on average far less than someone who speaks English".

If 600 euros a month is enough for them, they don't have to learn English or anything else.

 

[George Moran]

Formerly it's right but if you are not in IT in Europe it's better to choose the German language. German is widely used in Europe everywhere and you have more chances to get a good job. Because even waiters know English well.)

I cannot argue with that since I am not in Europe.

However, I doubt that German is more useful than English in France, Spain, Italy... For jobs especially.

Most TNCs have CEOs and officers speak English as they are frequently transferred from one part of the World to another, and in Asia German is somewhat useless, while English is widely spoken, particularly in business world.

Most dynamic employees display flexibility and can work with customers, vendors, coworkers around the world, and this is where they need English.

 

[George Moran]

11 - 12 г.
Do I have to communicate only with young people? ))

So, we are talking 10 years ago!

In 1997 I had a problem using a credit card in Germany. Everyone wanted cash.

A lot changed since then.

You don't HAVE to communicate only with young people, but there are lots of English speaking people everywhere in Europe.

In Ukraine s proportion of people that can speak/understand English is much - much higher now than in 2011.

Fluent English is a ticket to success - professional, financial, etc.

Some people meet their future wives and husbands abroad, and a Greek and a Ukrainian, a Russian and an Italian, a Kazakh and a Pakistani most often speak English with each other.

 

[Граф Калиостро]

Formerly it's right but if you are not in IT in Europe it's better to choose the German language. German is widely used in Europe everywhere and you have more chances to get a good job. Because even waiters know English well.)

What about French?

 

[George Moran]

where did you get such confidence?

What European countries have you visited over the past 10 years?

when did you visit Ukraine for the last time?

or is this an option "высоко сижу, далеко гляжу"? )))

My entire life experience taught me that change is a fact of life, the only constant in life.

I only visited Mexico, Spain and Portugal recently, but you don't have to visit to know. I read articles and communicate with people who visited different countries as well as with people that live there.

I have many friends in Ukraine, and I see spectacular increase of use of English words and phrases in Forumkiev and Kharkovforum. "The writing is on the wall", as they say.

 

[George Moran]

German is also very useful in Europe.

Oh, I have no doubt of that. Of course German is very popular and useful, as well as French.

I am just disputing the fact that German is more useful, more prevalent in Europe than English.

This does not sound right to me.

 

[George Moran]

perhaps this is a necessary condition, but far from sufficient.

those people who grew up in Israel speak excellent English, but not everyone goes beyond the national average salary.

or how will we measure success? ))

No doubt.

Those in Israel (Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Romania, etc.) that speak English have better job prospects than ones that don't, on average, especially in HiTech and global industries.

Also if you are a scientist, you better speak English if you want to be taken seriously, in Israel as well as in Iran or Vietnam.

Or lets say you are a football player or an actress. If you want to thrive on the World stage you better learn English.

Everyone has their own definition of success, but high income/net worth, as well as recognition by peers in other countries, or even globally, are most popular measures of success, IMO.

 

[George Moran]

My entire life experience taught me that those people who did not know English will not learn it, especially at the "far beyond" age
or have all these people died out like mammoths long ago?

Old people retire from public life and die, young people grow up.

Very small percentage of people in the USSR knew English, average people had no use for it, lest they be considered spies or traitors.

Now people that were born in the 80-s and 90-s, that grew up after the fall of the USSR, are in their 30-s and 40-s, they are much more likely to know English to some extent, and parents nowadays do everything in their power to teach their kids to speak English.

Therefore, the proportion of English speakers now is much much higher than 10 years ago.

 

[George Moran]

these are just nice words.

and I realized that you weren't in Israel either.
there they teach spoken English in schools.

after graduation you speak excellent English.

but not everyone works as scientist, football player or an actor.
many people work in ordinary jobs with a salary of $ 2 K.
Sorry, it's about nothing.

What kind of success are we talking about?

Nice words are better than rude words, right?

I was in Israel in 1993.

They taught English in school in the USSR. Barely anybody spoke it, though.

In Israel, though they teach English in schools, a large portion of the population does not speak it, just like in many other countries where English or another foreign language is taught in schools.

Of course kids that plan to enter a University, work in HiTech, etc. make sure they are fluent. Just like in other countries.

Yes, many people do not speak English. But many do, much more than 10 years ago. Everywhere, not just in Israel.

In most non-English speaking countries most people can live entire lives without English. But those that want succeed, need it.

You can even live in the USA and not know English your entire life, if you run a business and your clients are Russian, Polish, Mexican, etc. You can even become rich while not speaking English. But that's unlikely.

We are talking about success as measured by professional engagement with peers in other countries, and global recognition of your talent, for example.

 

[George Moran]

in my opinion success is a salary that you can afford to live on without saving much, your own apartment in a good area for 1 - 2 million dollars, and not living on a rented, etc. we have different ideas about success.

Yes, we do have different ideas about success.

Your definition of success is too philistine, for you it just means being "rich" by layman's standards.

Good salary and apartment ownership (!) = success?

To me success is more about personal fulfillment and recognition of achievements by others.

Successful is not "well off" or "rich".

High (?) salary and house/apartment ownership is a measure of comfortable lifestyle, but not success.

A successful inventor, doctor, university professor, scientist, athlete may be totally financially inept and nearly bankrupt, but successful and recognized by the World nevertheless.

Many successful inventors, composers, writers, poets, scientists, actors died poor, never had a million $ apartment or high salary.

Yet they are known for their success hundreds of years after their deaths.

 

[George Moran]

it means, sorry, you didn't have all this.

and I have a living example before my eyes.

The successful inventor, Doctor of Technical Sciences, university professor, scientist, outstanding specialist in his field - we have all this in abundance at home.

He could to move to France when it was relevant. But no - "где родился, там и пригодился." And completely in vain.

In general, you are unlikely to understand me. Here I am so mercantile, yes. I propose to round off this discussion.

What didn't I have?

Do you think there are no doctors, professors, outstanding specialists here in the West that are poor when they are old?

Here it depends a lot on your money management and investment skills, and if you just didn't pay attention to money, if you are a spendthrift, a gambler, if you invested all your money in some enterprise that did not work out you can be penniless in old age.

On the other hand, if you are a teacher earning measly $2K - $3K a month, but you lived below your means and invested diligently, you can be a millionaire.

If you are a millionaire, you could just be a good saver, a prudent investor, though not particularly successful in your career.

I am not saying you are mercantile (they don's say it like that in English, it's purely Russian translation), I am saying that success usually brings money, but not always.

There are plenty of people with money that are not at all successful.

I don't understand why it's so hard to get what I am saying.

I see why you are bitter, but your bitterness influences your opinions and not letting you see clearly.

I have a coworker, a very talented engineer, she is an old lady. She is brilliant and exceptionally good at what she does, she is a workaholic who spent all her life working for good companies and earning large salaries.

She is well respected by her colleagues and always praised by her managers. She knows several languages, she is very interesting to talk to, well traveled, highly educated.

However, she made a bunch of bad decisions in her life (trying to become a doctor mid-career, owning a farm, horses, etc.)

So, she has very little in terms of financial security, she has to work to pay her bills.

 

[Граф Калиостро]

French is spoken in France, Belgium, Switzerland... Sometimes in the tourist industry you can meet people that don't speak French, nor English but they know either Spanish, or German.

Is it true that French is for lovers?

 

[Граф Калиостро]

It's because German

German is very rough unfortunately.

 

[Medbrat 153]

Американка рассказывает про свою машину

 

[Граф Калиостро]

It is desagreable to listen to but now I'm sorry not to have studied it before. And now it's a bit late to do this.

Are you 70 y. o. ma'am?