Writing English

[KhrisMUC]

Kindly replace "sentence" with "utterance" then.

Wie sagt man eigentlich auf englisch, dass etwas am Thema vorbeigehende Korinthenkackerei ist?

[DasJan]

"This is off-topic currant diarrhoea."?

Das Jan

[BENDET]

I guess US Americans would say: "Don't be rude!"

@Möwe:

Yes, you are right. Actually I often realized I am a diffrent person when talking English. I think it is easier to talk about feelings, experience and opinion in English. Somehow that leaves me with the impression German is a good language for rational thoughts.

@Rocky:
Damn, sometimes I am really stupid!

[TheRock]

Hell, was abut time !
There's nothing better than an english spoken FPS-Shooter...
"Kane, so you are alive, buddy!"... Ahh this is sound...

[mOnkeY~]

There's nothing better than an english spoken FPS-Shooter...

Yeah, thats right.
I think all games are better in english than in german, because it sounds cooler and more excitingly.

What are you thinking about that?

[max_power]

I'm glad to see you enjoy writing here. Actually I have to switch a lot between languages. Maybe this is the reason, why my English grammar is gettig worse? (At least I've the impression it does.) So if you read any bad sentence or a too-much-German-sounding one, please let me know!

On the other hand I realize that it's getting much easier to start talking English, too, but by the mentoind cost of adaequate grammar.

This message was written very fast without hardly any thinking, so I hope that you'll find a lot of mistakes.

By the way, once my English teacher wrote under my exam: "Very poor, even for you".

[Padmé]

Right, I'll only point out my favourite mistake !

This message was written very fast without hardly any thinking, so I hope that you'll find a lot of mistakes.

- find the error yourself and get a cookie ! ^-^

[max_power]

To write something without thinking?

Really, I've no idea.

[Potato]

Can you give me some good programs for translations?
I only know http://babelfish.altavista.com/ but I search for a better one.

[max_power]

Which is your goal? In my opinion all of these programs are quite bad.

[Furymars]

Hallo !
I kann only BE & AE . So Ich can´t verstehen buisness Englisch.
Is das very schwer to lernen, or ist that easy zu learn.
Sorry für my Frage, but Ich can nichts with AE und BE anfangen, when Ich later mal to England travel.
Würde that gerne know.^^

[Threepbrush]

oh...just stumbled across this thread...and it's really funny because people act really different in a different languages.
i think i'm not too bad about english...but this is only true when it comes to written english. when it comes to spoken english my brain is too slow. because i have to translate every single sentence...and when I'm finished with one, the next three ones have passed away.
i know...this is about practicising...but i'm just too lazy...and one wouldn't make a snake win the 1oo-meter-championship.
and reading this i'm afraid, my written english isn't that gorgeous too.

[Padmé]

because i have to translate every single sentence...and when I'm finished with one, the next three ones have passed away.

Yeah - that is annoying.
If you just keep practicing/talking/reading in english, you'll get to a point where you can just flip this tiny switch in your brain and think in english.
life becomes much easier after that, trust me.

Come to think of it, this might be the reason why some of you sound more germanized than others - because you're first thinking of a sentance in german, and then translating it to english.

[max_power]

Usually I start thinking in English directly. But - I guess - just because I'm now living for over four months in Sweden. Actually I have to switch between three languages, but of course my Swedish is a bit... hm... what might be a good word? I'd like to say that I'm not not very expirienced in Swedish and just speak on a quite low level. This probably is my biggest problem during speaking: Grammar is not so important, because most people will understand you anyway, but if you have to think about the words you might use, you get stuck.
Maybe my other problem ist, that I'm learning and speaking a third language right now, when it's the first time I'm really using my English. So please help me with my mistakes, and you'll always keep a place at my heart.

[Masterofclay]

The best way to acquire the "ability" to flip that switch in your head from your native language to english is by spending time in a place where you can't communicate in your mother language. The best opportunity is of course a student exchange or work placement in a different country. But to refresh that state of mind, you need only a few days. I noticed this some weeks ago, while I stayed at the International Festival of Animated Film in Stuttgart. Most of the filmmakers I spent time with were from foreign countries - Great Britain, Australia, Finland, Croatia, Israel, France, etc.. The only way to have a conversation in a group was to speak English. At the beginning I often had to search for words and stumbled a lot, but after two or three days I noticed that I was even thinking and dreaming in English. Unfortunately that state wears off after one or two weeks.