Tópico: About Readings in English

[_tiago]

I want to improve my English, if someone could help me correcting grammar, coherence and interpretation, I’ll appreciate.
With some difficulty, I’ve been reading books and articles in English. My idea is summarize here excerpts that I find interesting. The articles I’ll mention the link. The books, I’ll mention which is and what pages I refer.
I really suspect of my discipline for this purpose, but... While I don’t abandon the idea, any discussion will be appreciated too.

[_tiago]

First of all,

Who’s in charge by Michael S. Gazzaniga

In the introduction (pages 1 – 6) the author proposes a defense of our responsibility in our acts, despite all determinism that emerges of the current knowledge. The argument is, although we have automatic responses, we

have cognition and beliefs of all kind, and the possession of a belief trumps all the automatic biological process and hardware.

But not just. He points out, without much support, that the mind constrains the brain. I really didn’t understand what he wants to say with this, I think he wants to say that our brain was designed under the influence and control of the mind, the part of us in contact with the reality. Because of that, our brain has the features that our mind needs. Why we are in charge because of that, I just can suppose this in a simple way: we see, we believe, we choose. For example, when we have to find the best way to a destiny, we search, we find a way that we believe will be the best and we choose.
I don’t see much free will here. We just can’t count or regard all variables that based the path of our choices, but they are there.

[Muad'Dib]

I am doing the same thing.

You can try to read sites like BBC, times and washington Post. You do not need discipline to do that. You can create an habit (an or a habit?).

English is not difficult to learn. The biggest problem is the listening.

[_tiago]

I've read this ones too.

[biscoito1r]

From your text I can see that you have not yet mastered the art of thinking in English. Your choice of words shows that you're merely translating things in your head and writing them down. My advise to you is that you should try to watch movies in English with the subtitles, also in English, on. It helps a lot as it will force your brain to respond faster, as well as allow you to become more familiar with grammar and usual choice of words.

[Gaúcho]

Fun Fact: I've been dreaming in english. A lot.

[Fabrício]

From your text I can see that you have not yet mastered the art of thinking in English. Your choice of words shows that you're merely translating things in your head and writing them down. My advise to you is that you should try to watch movies in English with the subtitles, also in English, on. It helps a lot as it will force your brain to respond faster, as well as allow you to become more familiar with grammar and usual choice of words.

Biscoito, do you think that's more effective than watching movies with no subtitles at all?

I'm another one trying to improve my english, and I appreciate if you all could give me some help too. Don't be shy to correct my mistakes, and give me some tips and advices, please.

I recently bought a kindle and I'm buying english's books in Amazon to practice. But I have a long way ahead until I can dominate the english language... 

[biscoito1r]

From my personal experience, watching with the subtitles helps a lot. It'll also help you improve your spelling. After sometime however, you are not gonna want to do this anymore, as your English will improve significantly and the subtitles will become an annoyance. Also, try to find some people to talk to, I've seen cases of people who were good at reading in English, but were not quite as well when it came to day to day conversations.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

I've read this ones too.

"these" ones.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/topicos/aprenda_ingles/

[_tiago]

I've read this ones too.

"these" ones.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/topicos/aprenda_ingles/

Thanks and welcome back!

[Rocky Joe]

From my personal experience, watching with the subtitles helps a lot. It'll also help you improve your spelling. After sometime however, you are not gonna want to do this anymore, as your English will improve significantly and the subtitles will become an annoyance. Also, try to find some people to talk to, I've seen cases of people who were good at reading in English, but were not quite as well when it came to day to day conversations.

I watch movies with subtitles even when they are spoken in portuguese. 

[Muad'Dib]

From my personal experience, watching with the subtitles helps a lot. It'll also help you improve your spelling. After sometime however, you are not gonna want to do this anymore, as your English will improve significantly and the subtitles will become an annoyance. Also, try to find some people to talk to, I've seen cases of people who were good at reading in English, but were not quite as well when it came to day to day conversations.

Nice advice.

I simply do not now wht i was no doing that. I was listening youtube videos with lyrics of music that i knew, but is not so effective as movies.

I am one of those that you talk above. I can read very well but listening and write is a little hard.

Another good advice:


This "dude" has the best way of speak that someone who is trying to learn english can dream.

[biscoito1r]

Dude, that is the all mighty Carl Sagan.
Remember that unlike Portuguese, where you can omit the noun, the same cannot be done in English, unless if you're using the verb as a command.

[Muad'Dib]

Dude, that is the all mighty Carl Sagan.
Remember that unlike Portuguese, where you can omit the noun, the same cannot be done in English, unless if you're using the verb as a command.

That was a joke. Probably something like the Poe's law happened here. Everybody knows that "dude".

Can you, or someone, explain to me where i should put a noun and i did not?

[Gaúcho]

Dude, that is the all mighty Carl Sagan.
Remember that unlike Portuguese, where you can omit the noun, the same cannot be done in English, unless if you're using the verb as a command.

That was a joke. Probably something like the Poe's law happened here. Everybody knows that "dude".

Can you, or someone, explain to me where i should put a noun and i did not?

From my personal experience, watching with the subtitles helps a lot. It'll also help you improve your spelling. After sometime however, you are not gonna want to do this anymore, as your English will improve significantly and the subtitles will become an annoyance. Also, try to find some people to talk to, I've seen cases of people who were good at reading in English, but were not quite as well when it came to day to day conversations.

Nice advice.

I simply do not know why I was not doing that. I was listening to youtube videos with lyrics of music that I knew, but it's not so effective as movies.

I am one of those that you talked above. I can read very well but to listen and to write is a little hard.

Another good advice:


This "dude" has the best way of speak that someone who is trying to learn english can dream of.

I did some corrections in your text. I'm self taught in english, so I suck in this noun thing, but I noticed that you forgot the pronoun "it" in the "[...]but it's not so effective as movies.[...]" sentence.

EDIT: ah, and always remember that when you want a word in the infinitive, you have to put the "to" before it. Example: escreve = write ; escrever = to write.

My advice to you guys is to keep reading, watching, playing, and listening to stuff in english. That's how I learned.

[biscoito1r]

From my personal experience, watching with the subtitles helps a lot. It'll also help you improve your spelling. After sometime however, you are not gonna want to do this anymore, as your English will improve significantly and the subtitles will become an annoyance. Also, try to find some people to talk to, I've seen cases of people who were good at reading in English, but were not quite as well when it came to day to day conversations.

Nice advice.

I simply do not know why I haven't been doing that. I've been watching youtube videos with subtitles of songs that I knew, but it's not as effective as movies.

I am one of those that you talked about above. I can read very well, but listening and writing is a little hard to me.

Another good advice:


This "dude" has the best way of speaking that someone who is trying to learn English can dream of.

I made a few more corrections

[Muad'Dib]

A little worse than I thought.

The strange thing is that I can read well in english. Even when i see words that I do not know, I can deduce (as I do in portuguese). But I am not able to maintain a conversation naturally. I have to think in portuguese and translate what I am trying to say.

I will try to keep a "natural" conversation here and I would be grateful if you guys help me with corrections and hints.

I will try to use the most sophisticated english that i can use to force my mind.

I still do not know where I made mistakes in that "noun" shit. The pronoun and the prepositions I am aware that i always forget.

The corrections made by Biscoito I am quite able to understand when I read, but i can not see the difference between the way that I wrote and the corrections. Every time that i see this kind of sentence I mentally translate as "eu tenho assistido", and when i wrote that post, in my mind, i wanted to express something like: "eu estou assistindo". There is a difference? I am trying to think in english and use this kind of formulation always, but it is hard to me. Could someone show me where, in this post, I should use (should "have" used exists?) this kind of sentence ("I've been").

I have some problems with false cognates too.

Thanks alot.

[Muad'Dib]

The first thing that I thought after read the last two posts was that I am talking a "childish" english. Something like a children learning to speak.

[biscoito1r]

Pronouns are words that replace nouns, therefore a nouns can be pronouns. I wanted to leave it up to you.
"I'm watching" implies that you are watching at this exact moment. "I've been watching" implies that you have watched something on a regular basis. I'm not sure whether it is grammatically official, but this is just how we talk . There is a similar thing with past tenses which can be a little tricky. "I did it" and "I've done it" for instance, the first one refers to something that happened in the past and it is now over, the latter one has to do with something that happened but still has something to do with the present, as I said, I don't think it is official, but it is how we roll bro .

I should use (should "have" used exists?) this kind of sentence ("I've been").

I've no phreaking idea of what you meant by that. If what you meant was if the verb "to have" can ever be used as synonymous with "to exist", then the answer is no. Always use "there is" or "there are".

Try to join an English speaking forum, and please let them know that you are trying to master the language, or they might think you're American .

Another advice is to always proof read what you write. The English language has a way of messing with your brain with all the your, you're, where, were, two, to, too, bye, by, buy ...

[Muad'Dib]

Thanks biscoito.

Neither do I know exactly why I used that phrase.

Well, I've been watching Cosmos again. Mr Sagan was one of the most important man that the mankind ever saw. Trully a genius. We are monkeys near him.

He should born 500 years later. Bad luck for him, amazing luck for us.

[Muad'Dib]

"Our generation must choose. What do we value more: the short-term profits, or the long term habitability of our home?"

Carl Sagan.

I am watching (I've been watching the serie, but right now I am talking about what i am watching in this moment  ) the episode 4, where he talks about venus and the greenhpuse effect.

Decades ago. And we were not able to learn fucking nothing with him.

[Muad'Dib]

I would like to join a foreign forum, but it would be quite artificial to me.

Suddenly I pick a forum in the net, join it, and say to the members: "Me brazillian, me learning english, me talks".

I need justification to do that. If I do, possibly I would stay there for one or two days and disappear.

[biscoito1r]

That is way you should pick a forum of something that you find interesting. Such as something like an English version of clubecetico. Perhaps you should try http://www.leagueofreason.co.uk/ .

[Buckaroo Banzai]

I have noticed only very recently that there are many videos teaching English in youtube. Most of the stuff I've seen so far is very basic, which is even somewhat weird as there are no subtitles (not that I noticed at least) and the teacher assumes 100% listening comprehension and then goes on to teach some very basic stuff. There may be some interesting things though, I recall having seen something I didn't know before, but I no longer remember what it was. I hope have indeed learned it, hehe. They're usually about 10 minutes long. It seems that most of them are from a site called "engvid.com", you'll find these with teachers with youtube usernames like "JonhDoeESL".

There are lessons on grammar, vocabulary and pronounciation. But beware of some pronunciation lessons:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/BjMxlPm532A" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/BjMxlPm532A</a>



I think it could be interesting if we posted links or embedded the ones we find good here.

[Gaúcho]

Safadenha!