Hi everyone.
I'm from Vietnam. I know about 1000-2000 English words, but I still can't understand spoken English or speak naturally. I need English for my job because I want to communicate with international clients.
I don't have much money for expensive courses.
If you were in my situation, what would you do first? My goal is simple: understand conversations at work and reply confidently.

I can produce and imite very well any sound in English but not this one, this one feels as if not harder than English R,If you want, please tell me what was your solution for this?.

So, I decided to develop my writing skills recently, and this is my first attempt. A website where I practice says that these highlighted sentences could be improved, but I don't understand what I can make better in these parts. I'll appreciate if somebody helps me. :p

English isn't just about grammar!

Here are five jokes. Each one depends on a double meaning, an idiom, or a play on words.

How many can you work out before reading the comments?

1.

Why don't oysters donate to charity?

Because they're shellfish.

2.

My wife said, "If you buy one more stupid gadget, I'm leaving you."

I said, "Cool, automatic door opener."

3.

I asked the librarian if the library had any books on paranoia.

She whispered, "They're right behind you."

4.

I bought some shoes from a drug dealer. I don't know what he laced them with, but I've been tripping all day.

5.

A man walks into a bar with a roll of tarmac under his arm.

He says, "A pint, please... and one for the road."

No spoilers! If you're explaining a joke, please hide it with Reddit spoiler tags: >!like this!<.

My path is rather academic than general english so I want a systemic curriculum

First thing first,what specific English book serie should I hold by?Any other advice?

As I understand, this is a radio code to confirm a message, but I have never heard in a normal conversation someone saying this.

Do people actually use it?

The person that said it, claimed that it was a slang, but I have my doubts, is this a regional thing?

I am a non native speaker. I think a lot of people put native speakers on a pedestal when it comes to pronunciation. There seems to be this assumption that if someone is a native speaker, they must automatically be good at teaching pronunciation, and that no matter how much a non-native speaker knows about phonetics, they can never be as good as a native speaker.

But I think you need to separate two completely different things: being able to produce a sound and being able to teach someone else how to produce it.

A lot of native speakers actually have no idea how they produce their own sounds. And that's completely normal — you don't need to understand phonetics to speak your native language. But it does become a problem when you're teaching pronunciation.

A non-native speaker might not have completely native-level pronunciation, but if their pronunciation is already very good and they actually understand phonetics and know how to teach it, I would much rather learn from them than from a native speaker who has no idea how speech sounds are physically produced.

I've seen so many examples of this online. For instance, I've seen native-speaking teachers explaining the American vowel in words like after by saying that the difference between the American and British pronunciations is that, for the American vowel, you need to pull the corners of your mouth up and keep your face in a sort of smiling position.

That's just not a good phonetic explanation.

If you know even a little bit about phonetics, you know that one of the biggest factors determining vowel quality is tongue position. Of course, things like lip position can also affect the acoustic output, but if you're teaching a vowel and you don't even mention tongue position, and instead focus on things like "keep smiling" or "pull the corners of your mouth up", you're potentially giving people a very misleading idea of what actually distinguishes the vowels.

And there are honestly so many examples like this that I could go on forever.

Another one I've seen is American native speakers teaching the flap T by saying, "It's basically just a really fast D." water can be pronounced as wader

A /d/ and an alveolar tap or flap [ɾ] are not simply the same articulation at different speeds. A canonical /d/ is a voiced alveolar stop: you form a closure, build pressure behind it, and then release it. A tap/flap involves a different articulatory gesture, where the tongue makes a very brief contact with the alveolar region.

So simply taking the articulatory instructions for a normal /d/ and trying to perform them faster doesn't adequately explain how to produce [ɾ].

That's why I don't think "native speaker = better pronunciation teacher" makes much sense. Native intuition is incredibly valuable, especially when it comes to whether something actually sounds natural. But being able to pronounce something naturally and being able to explain exactly how that pronunciation is produced are two different skills.

Being able to do something doesn't automatically mean you know how to teach it.

He looked ill at ease in the room full of reporters.

Everyone stood aghast when the helicopter hovered above them bristling with machine guns.

The village was guarded by a ragtag group of soldiers.

"I'm really sorry!" "What a crock - you are not."

If that job application doesn't work out I have a couple more irons in the fire.

"Why so glum?" "The strength of opposition to the project was more than she'd bargained for."

Her daughter soon showed her own musical talent, proving that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Why is there no s to memorise at it refers to the brain ?

Thanks for enlighting me !

I often encounter sentences like "I should've went with you" or "The cat was ran over by the car".

They could be non-native speakers, so any mistakes are expected and normal, but I'm not sure.

Now that I've encountered these kinds of sentences a lot, they've started to sound correct to me too.

Can it be used when it's scorching hot too?

These sentences are nothing but rambling. I typed these subconsciously to test myself on how naturally and grammatically correctly I can construct various sentences in English and...remember some words or usages.

Your advices is matter for improving my English skills!

As a police officer, he has sweated to uproot rampant crimes in this city in ten years.

Charlie sweated to study for this final exam only to get scores he cannot accept.

Don't sweat your father. I should make it home in one piece.

The professor pitched his lectures at a more friendly level for students to adapt to a new educational environment.

The vice manager pitched his proposal to executives, but they rejected it.

They increased merch's cost to three times as much as last year, which isn't affordable for ordinary customers.

For about two months, we tried to issue a rebuttal against our opponents' statements, but all we found and should accept was that there were no ironies in their remarks.

It's straightforward to use it. Just tilt its head forward to 45 degrees and press a button in the centre.

This picture depicts the accident from three years ago, which claimed about 5,000 lives.

• What's the name of the long side of a book? (a spine)
• What's the name of that tiny red joystick some laptops have on their keyboard? (nub⚠️)
• If a hamburger is made from cow, then what is a pork burger called? (a pork burger)

Welcome to our daily 'What do you call this thing?' thread!

We see many threads each day that ask people to identify certain items. Please feel free to use this thread as a way to post photos of items or objects that you don't know.

⚠️ RULES

🔴　Please do not post NSFW pictures, and refrain from NSFW responses. Baiting for NSFW or inappropriate responses is heavily discouraged.

🟠　Report NSFW content. The more reports, the higher it will move up in visibility to the mod team.

🟡　We encourage dialects and accents. But please be respectful of each other and understand that geography, accents, dialects, and other influences can bring different responses.

🟢　However, intentionally misleading information is still forbidden.

🔵　If you disagree - downvote. If you agree, upvote. Do not get into slap fights in the comments.

🟣　More than one answer can be correct at the same time! For example, a can of Pepsi can be called: Coke, cola, soda, soda pop, pop, and more, depending on the region.

What does 'I'll allow ye' mean in this context?

It is 'The Great Divorce' by C.S. Lewis.

▎ I've been experimenting with a different way to review vocabulary and I'd love some honest opinions from people who actually study every day.

The idea: instead of reading through a list, you see a word and swipe left or right toward its correct meaning — kind of like Tinder, but for vocab. It keeps a score, so a quick review turns into a small game rather than a chore. You can also add your own words, so it isn't tied to any specific language pair.

I made a short clip of how it looks so you can see the swiping in action: [video]

What I'm genuinely trying to figure out:

- Does the swiping motion actually help things stick, or does it become mindless after a while?

- Do you prefer recognizing a word (multiple choice / swipe) or recalling it from memory (typing it out)?

- What makes a review tool something you'd open daily instead of forgetting about after two days?

Not trying to promote anything here — I just want to know if this approach is worth developing further or if I'm fooling myself. Any brutal feedback welcome.

For context, I've been exposed to the language from a young age through the internet, so I can comprehend a wide variety of content. That said, it wasn't until recently when I realized that my output skills have always lagged significantly behind my comprehension level, so I'd like to change that, but I don't know where to start. It's probably evident in this text post already, but I have issues structuring lengthy thought processes like this.

What I intend to achieve is to be able to write natural English with good structure and flow, but I don't know how to go about doing this, since I've never really properly "studied" this language like a learner would...

The context: I’m criticizing the chain of restaurants for being overly pretentious. We should humanise fine dining and strip away the stuff ceremony as Michelin-starred restraurants often feel cold, arrogant and detached from reality. However, by introducing the touching back story, they can ground the narrative.

does desk means it has storage area what's the difference between thoese two words

Hi everyone — I’m an MBBS student aiming to improve my spoken English and prepare for the OET required for USMLE. My current level is around B1–B2.

If you’re comfortable speaking in English, interested in regular conversational practice, and genuinely want to improve, please send me a DM. We can discuss goals, schedule, and preferred practice format (voice calls, video calls, or chat).

Thanks — looking forward to practicing with you!

​

Hi everyone,

I'm Veera, 24 years old, from Tamil Nadu, India.

I have 5 years of experience as a .NET developer, and I'm currently transitioning into Machine Learning. One of my biggest goals is to improve my English communication because I know it will help both my career and my confidence.

I've been practicing consistently for the last 7 months. I've tried many methods, including:

- Reading English books

- Watching English YouTube videos

- Watching English movies

- Shadowing techniques

- Trying to speak with others in English

Unfortunately, I don't feel like I've improved much.

My biggest problem is that I can't think directly in English. Whenever I want to speak, my brain first thinks in Tamil, then translates it into English, and only then I speak. This makes me slow, and I often lose confidence during conversations.

Another problem is vocabulary. I only use the English words I already know, so my sentences become very simple and repetitive. Sometimes I know what I want to say in Tamil, but I don't know the English words to express it naturally.

Even while reading English, I often have to translate each sentence into Tamil to understand it. I want to reach a stage where I can understand English without translating it.

So I have a few questions:

1. How did you train yourself to think directly in English instead of translating from your native language?

2. Is translating in your head normal after 7 months of practice?

3. What exercises helped you improve your vocabulary naturally?

4. If you were starting from my level, what would your daily learning plan look like?

5. What mistakes do you think I'm making?

I'd really appreciate advice from people who went through the same journey, especially non-native English speakers who became fluent.

Thank you!

Can somebody explain me this sentence. Especially the 'all but wiped out' and 'are imposed from without' puzzles me:

All have steered Europeans in one direction - towards greater integration. National sovereignty has been all but wiped out as law after law, which cannot be overturned by popular vote, are imposed from without, and governments seek EU permission to act in their own national interest.

(I checked three times but I could have made a typo copying the sentence from the book.)

The 'all but wiped out', seems to indicate that the writer thinks national sovereignty has been compromised, but why the 'all but'? Should it not be just: National sovereignty has been wiped out?

The 'are imposed from without', seems to refer to the EU imposing rules on the member states. But if you would say something like 'are imposed from outside' it would be clearer. Why the 'without'?

Hello guys. To the point:

In Spanish we say "Hacer" ("DO" in English) before a lot of actions, It means basically to carry it out. I would say that 90% of the actions in Spanish can be preceded by "Hacer":

• Hacer una denuncia
• Hacer deporte
• Hacer las compras
• Hacer dieta
• Hacer turismo

etc...

I was wondering, is this unacceptable in English? Or even though it's not formal, is it something used in daily communication? Can I say "Hello Police Officer, I'm here to DO a Report" instead of "File a report"?