Axel

The best way to learn English ?

There is not a single way. But the best one is probably to practise very young. I have been living a year in the Netherlands and I realized that everybody can speak it properly there. To understand why they do so well, we have to get back to their early childhood. Getting used to watch in English when you are Dutch and only 4 years old is a great opportunity to make headways. Actually there are no dubbers in the Netherlands and every English or American programme is merely subtitled. Every Sunday night on the French TV, we have American movies but we get used to hear the French voices of Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts or whoever…
However, in France, television is no longer the single way to watch american series or films. Downloading, VoD or youtube are new media whereby the youngests are able to watch everything in English.

On a day to day basis, Dutch teenagers watch Charmed in English with subtitles in Dutch, an alternative to English class?

I made an offer to the new president Nicolas Sarkozy but he was scared thinking that maybe dubbers could strike as well. Then my proposal didn’t even reach the Parliament.
Seriously, not everybody enjoy that much learning grammar in class, taking notes in English, putting English books around your room, listening to English language radio broadcasts, watching English news, movies and television. And moreover, it’s pointless to speak English with your friends when they are French. When you are 16 years old, the more English material that you have around you, the lesser you will learn and the less likely it is that you will begin “thinking in English.”

I guess the key word is E-X-P-E-R-I-E-N-C-E, going abroad, coping with culture and making foreign friends. New life, new language in fact!

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Sometimes, grammar training is not the best way to learn English

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