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How to improve speaking skills

 
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I'm unable to convey what i know in english correctly, so , i decided to work part time job , like tele com employee so i can speak well in english,

Any Suggestions are appreciated

Thank You
 
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Initially I too had this problem.Youll just improvise with experience
 
Arun Giridharan
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I get too afraid, when i try explain concepts to some people i forget many things on that topic, i'm unable to find what is causing this.<In the end i get some bad remarks on me>
 
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Go to public web chats, find someone to speak english with you.
 
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For speaking Fluent English you have to Practice a lot on Tongue Twisters. This will Speed up Your skills.

 
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There is also an organization in the U.S. called "Toastmasters" that helps folks learn to speak in public. You may want to check and see if there is one near wherever you are.
 
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Instead of thinking in the vernacular and then translating it to English while speaking, start thinking in English. You will notice a remarkable improvement.
 
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Vishal Hegde wrote:Initially I too had this problem.Youll just improvise with experience



Haha, I'm sorry. I don't mean to make fun of you, but this is a particularly funny and ironic mistake.
 
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You do need to practice, it's true. Without practice you won't improve. However the other thing you need is somebody to tell you when you're wrong. Quite often people will smile politely and overlook it when you make mistakes, which is nice but just reinforces those mistakes. So try to talk to somebody who won't feel they have to be polite to you.
 
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1. Watch Hollywood movies with subtitles. Pay close attention to the dialog and the text and what the characters are trying to convey.
2. Whenever you write anything, read it a couple of times and make sure your grammar and spellings are correct.
3. Install a dictionary that has audio for pronunciations and make it a habit of looking up the words and hear how they are spoken even if you think you know the word. You won't believe the number of times you will stand corrected.

Do this and I promise you will be fluent in an year or so. Worked great for me

Remember, it is not at all difficult. Being an Indian, you probably already know 2+ native languages and English is not a totally new language for you anyway.
 
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If it is the English language then, try these:

1. Avoid your native tongue/language. As Maneesh said, simply think in English.
2. Watch Hollywood movies and tele-serials.
3. Avoid fillers.
Not sure, but sometimes starting (and more importantly maintaining) a blog can help.

However if you are talking about communication skill, which you can not do even in your native tongue, you need some booster and the experience/learning-curve will be completely different.
 
Vishal Hegde
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Stephan van Hulst wrote:

Vishal Hegde wrote:Initially I too had this problem.Youll just improvise with experience



Haha, I'm sorry. I don't mean to make fun of you, but this is a particularly funny and ironic mistake.




Seriously i still get goosebumps when providing lectures in public, but my English has definetly improved a lot..Initially I usually used to speak Hindi and hence had trouble speaking the same... So I decided to see some English series initially and the very first series was FRIENDS.. it was really difficult for me to understand what Ross and the other charecters were saying due to the US Accent and it was a headache for me to understand it first but gradually I was able to get in Sync with the show and really enjoyed the Humour it had in it. But still my English speaking skill was not improvised as I havent started talking yet..Slowly and steadily during project presentations etc i used to mumble a lot..and (i still do it when i get nervous) , but with calls with clients from US/UK/Singapore I have improvised...

All i can say is that its like diving into a sea without knowing how to swim and suddenly you are swimming in it
 
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If you enjoy singing, I can recommend listening to English music and trying to sing along. Find the lyrics for the song, print them out if you have to, and sing along.

I used to sing along with a lot of the German music I loved, and even though I already knew a bit of German, I think it not only improved my pronunciation, but also my vocabulary a lot.

For me, computer role playing games also made my English and German a lot better.
 
Maneesh Godbole
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Paul Anilprem wrote:1. Watch Hollywood movies with subtitles. Pay close attention to the dialog and the text and what the characters are trying to convey.


I wouldn't really rely on this. Here you are presuming the person who wrote the subtitles knows good English.
 
Arun Giridharan
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American English is not correct English , as i see , what do mean by (gonna, wanna ) these things make no sense .
 
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Arun Giridharan wrote:American English is not correct English , as i see , what do mean by (gonna, wanna ) these things make no sense .



IMHO, no language is correct or incorrect in absolute sense. If majority of the people in one region speak in a certain way, then that is the correct way for that region. Just because the name of the language is same in two regions doesn't mean exactly one of the dialects is "correct".
 
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American English certainly is correct, and I actually find it preferable to British English.

Things like "wanna", "gonna" aren't American English. They're slurs.
 
Arun Giridharan
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Paul Anilprem wrote:

IMHO, no language is correct or incorrect in absolute sense. If majority of the people in one region speak in a certain way, then that is the correct way for that region. Just because the name of the language is same in two regions doesn't mean exactly one of the dialects is "correct".



Are you saying wrong becomes right if huge number of people follow it , for example : If huge number of people are corrupted than corruption becomes right and truth fails ?
 
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Stephan van Hulst wrote:American English certainly is correct, and I actually find it preferable to British English.

Things like "wanna", "gonna" aren't American English. They're slurs.



I got a movie in star movies channel , they speak those words.
 
Paul Anilprem
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Arun Giridharan wrote:

Paul Anilprem wrote:

IMHO, no language is correct or incorrect in absolute sense. If majority of the people in one region speak in a certain way, then that is the correct way for that region. Just because the name of the language is same in two regions doesn't mean exactly one of the dialects is "correct".



Are you saying wrong becomes right if huge number of people follow it , for example : If huge number of people are corrupted than corruption becomes right and truth fails ?



No, absolutely not. I am saying that in case of a language, there is no absolute wrong. The purpose of a language is to be able to communicate. If you speak Indian English in deep down american south (or vice versa), no one would understand you and that would defeat the purpose of the language. That, imho, would be closest to "right" or "wrong" you can get.

And btw, your argument about corruption is a good example of "8) Proof by Straw Man (Straw Man Fallacy)" described here


 
Stephan van Hulst
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Exactly, the actors slur the words. Just like Brits have their own slurs. You'll be hard pressed to find a British movie where they completely speak "correct" English, as you call it.

For fun, I invite you to watch the movie Snatch. It's the most wonderful English you'll find.
 
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I am improving with javaranch
P.S : till my graduation I hated English .... may be immaturity...
 
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Paul Anilprem wrote:
And btw, your argument about corruption is a good example of "8) Proof by Straw Man (Straw Man Fallacy)" described here



I think there's a rule which says that if you see a forum post which goes "Are you saying...", the answer is inevitably "No".

As for language correctness, basically the majority usage is by definition correct. People who try to maintain that, for example, the word "momentarily" means "for a short period of time" rather than "soon" just look foolish if the large majority of people use "momentarily" to mean "soon". Which they do.
 
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Once can improve their verbal communication skills by studying a thesaurus. One or two hours a day should help!

Roget's International Thesaurus, 7th Edition
http://www.amazon.com/Rogets-International-Thesaurus-Barbara-Kipfer/dp/B0054U58MG/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325031799&sr=1-4

Good luck!
 
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fred rosenberger wrote:There is also an organization in the U.S. called "Toastmasters" that helps folks learn to speak in public. You may want to check and see if there is one near wherever you are.


I'm a member. It's an international organization. There was a recent article that it expanding rapidly in India.
 
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For anything, the only important ingredient is "Practice" and not afraid of making mistakes. Because, making mistakes is actually a constructive way of learning. Its just like writing our own code, rather than copying from others. Speaking a different language is quite difficult for non-native speakers. It is not just with English, but any language. But as others pointed out, plan it, practice it, correct it.
 
Arun Giridharan
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Japanese have there own freedom on there language , in India where is the freedom on the language.

In Brief

I have most of my friends are Japanese and Indian , Japanese they actually don't know English , they only know Japanese language they code in japanese ,they speak in japanese , in India it's reverse why is that ,we have to have Hindi on the Target (language) (we have code in hindi , communicate in hindi).
 
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Arun Giridharan wrote:.. they code in japanese ,..


You mean to say they write the Japanese equivalent of public static void main(String args[])?
 
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Well, Japan has had an incredibly walled off culture for many centuries. They've been isolated from a lot of outside influences, and I guess that plays a big factor in it.

And of course English is one of the official languages in India.
 
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Maneesh Godbole wrote:You mean to say they write the Japanese equivalent of public static void main(String args[])?


I wouldn't be surprised if they used Japanese identifiers, be they in kana, romaji or other.
 
Arun Giridharan
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Soon enough India must forget about english for while build app and language in HINDI . Let me try once
 
Arun Giridharan
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Stephan van Hulst wrote: of course English is one of the official languages in India.


Your right in India each and every person kind of know English.
 
Stephan van Hulst
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Well that's not really what I meant to say. Just that it's more likely people will know the language.

Over here, we have two official languages, Dutch and Frisian, but hardly anybody (except for the Frisians of course) can understand the latter of the two.
 
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Stephan van Hulst wrote:

Maneesh Godbole wrote:You mean to say they write the Japanese equivalent of public static void main(String args[])?


I wouldn't be surprised if they used Japanese identifiers, be they in kana, romaji or other.



I've seen code with identifiers in all kinds of languages on this forum. French, Polish, Portuguese... if that's your native language then it makes much more sense to use variable names which you can understand. Likewise for code comments.
 
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Arun Giridharan wrote:
In Brief
I have most of my friends are Japanese and Indian , Japanese they actually don't know English , they only know Japanese language they code in japanese ,they speak in japanese , in India it's reverse why is that ,we have to have Hindi on the Target (language) (we have code in hindi , communicate in hindi).


Because not all Indians know Hindi, and don't have an obligation or interest to learn it either.
 
Maneesh Godbole
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Paul Clapham wrote:
I've seen code with identifiers in all kinds of languages on this forum. French, Polish, Portuguese... if that's your native language then it makes much more sense to use variable names which you can understand. Likewise for code comments.


I was not referring to identifiers but literally things like
 
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Paul Clapham wrote:I've seen code with identifiers in all kinds of languages on this forum. French, Polish, Portuguese... if that's your native language then it makes much more sense to use variable names which you can understand. Likewise for code comments.



IMHO, it depends. If you are the only person who will ever write, edit, modify, or document the code, then write in any language you like.

I never write such code. Its always part of a bigger effort. As soon as you add a second engineer to the effort, you have to use a common language.

Having the computer understand your code is only part of the goal. Having other engineers understand it is equally or perhaps more important.


Back OT: the way you improve any skill is to practice. Toastmasters is a great way to practice.
 
Arun Giridharan
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In Home or Work Area , how can i improve this skill

1) Communication skill - You know about the concept very well , when you answer it all fades away ( I mean your unable understand and communicate) .

2) English skill - I have started practising every day

PS How to think better ?
 
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Nothing simpler! You can easy raise your english skill by visiting this page - Easy Way to Learn English | Aztekium
Many of tricks & tips for being more fluent and more and more!
Good luck,
regards!
 
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Hi okazo,welcome to ranch!
i checked your link,but the page is 50%(or more) covered with adds which seems really annoying.their are other sites like "BBC Learning English","British Council","Duolingo"..etc..  and they are comparatively enhanced in quality and its contents.one can easily start learning with these sites with much ease according to his/her level.

These link explains you more about these kind of sites.

Thankyou.

kind regards,
Praveen.
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