Trying out another blog homework.
This is easy - I am blessed enough to live in a foreign country with plenty of expats. The language we all communicate in is English - the international language. As I'm an English teacher/proofreader, I'm often asked about how to improve the accent of someones spoken English or how to use 'proper' English. Of course I can help a little bit, but most of that comes from using it more often and speaking more in everyday situations.
Don't worry - I'm getting to the skill I'd like to have.
I'd like to speak another language.
I constantly hear people asking how to improve their English, and they don't need it. If you can communicate then you're fine, maybe use a thesaurus or dictionary but apart from that, keep our accent, keep your unique identity when you speak to others.
I can't speak another language - it's not from a lack of trying, I lived in Paris for 3 years, i can understand the gist of what someone is trying to say to me and the like, but only after being surrounded by french speakers or a week or so, and yet I still can't speak back to them or reply in the same language. I can understand a bit of German, I lived in Russia for a year and can barely read a menu, let alone ask more that 'kag di la?'. I currently live in the Czech Republic, and am trying to learn little bit at the time, but still struggle.
I get asked how people should improve their English - I want to ask how did they learn another language?
That's the skill I want - to communicate with another person in their home language rather than in English.
