Anshan English

It depends a bit on what the question was and whether you should reasonably be expected to know the answer in order to be competent or not. If the question is on topic, and you are often stumped, then it suggests that you didn’t prep sufficiently. If the question is off-topic, then it is quite Read More …

I would say there is no need for a foreign speaker to use foreign idioms. They’ll often get them wrong anyway and just confuse the conversation. Rather they can introduce their own native idioms into their speech, to give it colour and character. However, a foreigner listening to, or reading English, must know and understand the meaning Read More …

Both –ize and –ise are used by British people. Neither is correct, or incorrect. You’ll have some people say that one spelling is American and the other is British, but not true. The choise of –ize and –ise sometimes depends on the etymology – words with Greek routes are –ize where as Latin routes are  –ise. The Oxford English Dictionary standardised on –ize thus this Read More …

The answer is in the question. If it is superfluous, then you don’t need it. Concise writing is effective writing. When you add superfluous words, you create waffle. Use words when they are required to convey meaning. Omit words when the meaning can be conveyed without verbosity. Using a thesaurus allows you to be specific Read More …

I moved to the US several years ago. I speak English every day. I watch English TV, talk to friends in English and I’m also married to a native English speaker, I barely speak my own native language now, but my English doesn’t seem to be improving at all. It’s so frustrating because after many  Read More …

The native language should be used minimally. There may be some instances where using the student’s native language can help to explain a point efficiently, especially with beginner level students, or to bring students into order and discipline them. As students advance, the need to drop into the native language should diminish. The objective should Read More …

Generally, when writing, you should avoid all contractions. Over using contractions can make the writing harder to read and meanings my bedroom ambiguous. The reader can contact themselves if reading aloud and some would rather not contact if such is their normal style. An exception is when you are trying to write to imitate speech Read More …

My mother tongue is Portuguese, and we have two verbs that can be translated as “to be”: Ser and Estar. I Wonder if English has ever had this feature? I don’t know enough about Portuguese to understand the subtitles of Ser and Estar that would be needed to answer this authoritatively, however, I can talk Read More …

Yes, you can learn English just by living in an English speaking country but only with a great deal of determination. This is essentially how I learned Chinese. I landed in China with a job teaching English – I never had any Chinese language lessons, I just interacted with the local people and gradually picked Read More …

This is a common problem with all language learners. You compose sentences and thoughts in your first language, then translate them into the second language to speak or write. Likewise, you probably read in the second language but must translate it to understand. This creates a huge amount of work for your brain. Your first Read More …