Need Advice to improve English communication skills

navin007

navin007

Disciple
I want to improve my communication skills and my English also but don't have time and much money for classes and i don't believe them my work time is from morning 9:00am -9:00pm Monday to Saturday and Sunday after 12:00pm so and notes or help will be helpful,



Thanks in Adivance,
 
In my experience, reading proved to be most effective.
You can start off with books from agatha christie/dan brown/robert ludlum/tom clancy/john grisham and then maybe try p. g. wodehouse (hell, i think everyone in the world should learn english just to read wodehouse!).
The REALLY good books might be too boring so the authors i've listed above are mostly from the spy-thriller-murder genre.
 
that is nice idea of reading books as if from my young age i was running away from books now they are my needs so i am running behind them i took one book from street side of larry king how to speak and talk and will take other books too like of Les Giblin's as refereed by puns and other refereed by Crapmpants thanks for the advice.
 
Crapmypants said:
In my experience, reading proved to be most effective.
You can start off with books from agatha christie/dan brown/robert ludlum/tom clancy/john grisham and then maybe try p. g. wodehouse (hell, i think everyone in the world should learn english just to read wodehouse!).
The REALLY good books might be too boring so the authors i've listed above are mostly from the spy-thriller-murder genre.
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but it is hard to understand their languages..
 
My story, may provide you with a few ideas. But I also believe that besides the effort put by self, a bit of guidance from a professional will help you to handle the initial failures and skepticism.
I had a serious stammering problem in my childhood. I still have them when I loose control due to excitement but those situations are few. In class VII I moved from a vernacular school to an English medium residential school. Needless to say first two years I was embarrassed to open my mouth. Then my English teacher (Rao sir, RIP) put the following regime for me:
- pick up an English novel and finish it in two weeks and create a single page summary of whatever I read. Obviously I started with Enid Blyton and then slowly moved into Frederick Forsythe, Robin Cook level and then higher like Kafka, Le carre, Rand etc. This helps you to recognize the sentence construction varieties and introduces your sub-conscious mind to conversational sentences.
- Spend one hour daily reading aloud from any English book - does not matter if you understand or not. Any phonetic problem due to a word, look-up in the dictionary with phonetic symbols and try to pronounce it with the help of Sir.
- Make it a habit to listen to English news from both AIR and BBC (during my time the TV had just started and my school did not have one)
-Watch all English movies sincerely that were screened in our school on weekends. We watched a lot of British oldies as well as old Hollywood ones
-Take every opportunity in the class to speak/present in English

By class XI I was winning in inter-school debates and extempore speeches

Also remember that I was good in English writing, so I had only one enemy to conquer - fluency and diction and use my stammering to provide some importance to specific works in a sentence.
 
Start with Enid Blyton, progress on to higher ones then!
Try with The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, Agatha Christie.. They are easy to understand, vocabulary can come next!
 
Navin idhar bhi??:p

Read newspapers Eng. ones.
Watch/read movies. Yes read them...the subtitles so you can get the sentences and grammar. And listen to the voices.
Read some novel which interests you and make sure you complete it.
Speak in front of a mirror. It boosts your confidence.
 
I saw that during my college days.In the school I don't remember exactly what all I saw - some old Agatha Christie movies and quite a few who-dunnit kind of movies, few Alfred Hitchcock ones, a lot of westerns and a lot of war movies. Usually in these movies my important take-aways were some dialogues done in a particular way like that one from Gone with the wind - Frankly, I don't give a damn. I still use this in many of my vocal communications with a tweak as per the context.
 
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nRiTeCh said:
Navin idhar bhi??:p

Read newspapers Eng. ones.
Watch/read movies. Yes read them...the subtitles so you can get the sentences and grammar. And listen to the voices.
Read some novel which interests you and make sure you complete it.
Speak in front of a mirror. It boosts your confidence.
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+1 and even today I practice all my presentations before a mirror in the privacy of my room. It helps me to control my timing as well as not to runaway with the words
 
Listen to BBC news. If you want to improve English at least listen to or read proper English, and anything is proper but American English, unless you need to communicate with people who don't give a damn about English.
 
ithehappy said:
Listen to BBC news. If you want to improve English at least listen to or read proper English, and anything is proper but American English, unless you need to communicate with people who don't give a damn about English.
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Funny, for Indians to whine about linguistic differences between American and British English. Of course, the English started the, well, English language. But it has grown beyond its origin. We're taught British English in our schools, but we've carved out an unique version out of it ourselves. There is no one "proper English." It is a highly adaptable language. That's what makes it easy to learn.

American or British, just learn the language and communicate your thoughts clearly.
 
I am surprised that Harry Potter along with some comic books isn't mentioned here.

I'd recommend it over Robin Cook and Frederick Forsythe as they are often procedural and sometimes cram technical details which can overwhelm new readers.

Edit: Add Michael Crichton books on the list too.
 
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