flyhigh2006
发表于 2008-8-6 10:42:37
How to write like a native English speaker ?
This topic raise a good theme! As we know , people all over the world are studying English. But as a result , many of them only have the ability to write right words, right sentences and right grammar in English. But they can’t write a wonderful passage like a native-speaker! Even when some of them are in the English native speaking country, they can’t make understand of the local people’s talking or they can’t make a normal communication with the native speaker. So this has become a serious problem in English studying. All of this result from that we can’t write like a native speaker. So we must find out good ways to solve this problem.
This problem focus on that we only pay attention to the grammar, but we pay less to the speaking rules and the native speaker’s habits. There is a joke talking about a Chinese boy is studying French. But when he arrives France, he says that he found that the local people say the non- French! He can’t make understand of them! I think this is good example for the passage. We can catch some things from it. Now come to the passage, here are few suggestions by myself to this problem.
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
This is a good sentence that can solve this problem. As we know, a lot of things are contained in the books. There is a good proverb in Chinese that says“A book holds a house of gold; a book holds a face as smooth as jade.”From this we can recognize the importance in reading a book. Now our country has built a lot of “book edifice”.We can buy some books taking about the problem. For example, Writing and Reading Across the Disciplines is a wonderful book talking about this. So if you read some books about this, I believe that you will improve yourself a lot! Come on, try it!
A friend is a second self.
Since we come to the world, we have make a lot of friends. Like the proverb says “talking to the salt of earth is reading a good book”, so if we have a good friend that knows a lot, we can improve a lot by them! If we want to improve our writing ability, in my opinion, we may as well make a pen-friend in the English native speaking country. We can write to he(she) time by time. We can share our happiness, habits, and funny things with our pen-friends. Certainly, we can share our sadness as well. They can help us to find some methods to solve our problems. And the most important thing is that we can improve our writing ability by this way! What a wonderful idea! Have a try, please!
Know they knows!
By this question, what I want to say is that the culture differences is most important thing in writing like a native speaker. So we must know they knows! As we know, there are many differences between the Eastern and Western culture. For example, there are differences in the theory of value, the religious beliefs and the history. In the western country, people like raise dogs in their home, so if they say “you are a lucky dog”,they may praise you! But if you say the same thing to a Chinese people, he ( she ) may think you affront him ( she ). So this problem is the biggest hinder in front of writing like a native speaker! As far as I am concerned, to solve this problem can help us writing like a native speaker. The only is to know they knows. We must realize some culture differences and pay attention to it in the future. I think we will make it!! Do it from now on!!
THE LAST THING IS THE LEARNING MOOD
In learning, the learning mood is very important! Here are some proverbs for this! Do as them, and you will done a good job!!
1.Nothing is impossible for a willing heart.
2.A good beginning makes a good ending.
3.All beginnings are hard.
4.A little learning is a dangerous thing.
THIS IS THE LAST THING, BUT NOT THE LEAST!
DO AS MY SUGGESTIONS! AND YOU WILL IMPROVE A LOT!
DON’T BE HESITATE ANY MORE!
TRY AS YOU BEST!
COME ON!
GO!
WIN!!
liumx2000
发表于 2008-8-6 11:40:58
After my critic on the title, (http://www.readfree.net/bbs/read.php?tid=4626404&page=2#1877979
), I think it is only fair to follow the tune of the topic and try to dance with it.
Believe it or not, such contrastive linguistic study do us good to gain some useful tools while one is trying to acquire the 'feels' of a different language:
“英语是关系词凸现结集(connective-prominence nexus),而汉语是动词凸现结集(verb-prominence nexus)。”——enineera
http://www.readfree.cn/bbs/read.php?tid=4620507
Some of the posts focused on the interference of mother tongue, quite true, but interference is not necessarily evil, to cross the language barrier, it takes Herculean effort. And you can't just put your own thinking aside for sure. Thus, one needs to balance the thinking process in between harmonically. Language is a huge subject, thus said, there are easier ways to Rome, provided if you want to go to Rome at all.
The point is, believing in self-ability is important to go forward.
tuma.wang
发表于 2008-8-8 01:38:04
How to write like a native English speaker?
This is a really hard question. From my own experience, I think the most effective way is to copy from what native speakers write. Well, not really "copy". What I mean is, to read carefully what native speakers write, and try to remember how they express or describe; if you can remember it, then probably you can "copy" it from your memory when you need it.
But there are different writing styles among native speakers. Books, magzines and newspapers tend to have more "formal" and "correct" English. But most people here don't want or need to write articles for books or newspapers; they just need to communicate with English speakers. In this case, it's more important to learn from "normal" people around us.
My way is to learn from daily emails. I'm working in the China office of an U.S. company. This company has four big oversees sites in Beijing, Prague, Bangalore and St. Petersburg, and thinks itself as a global company. Although global, the company's working language is still (of course) English. We exchange tons of emails every day, and most (if not all) of them are written in English. Some people write wonderful or even perfect English, and I can learn a lot by just reading their emails. If I'm familiar with someone, I can even ask directly why he/she uses a certain expression.
And you definitely need to keep practicing. Write several long emails everyday for one month, you'll find your English improved a lot.
Just my two cents. :)
cannibal
发表于 2008-8-8 15:46:33
I am suggesting a blended program of both reading and writing together to learn how to write like a native English speaker. Here, I especially emphasize on reading.
By reading you can increase and improve some basic ingredients what is needed in writing. These ingredients include vocabulary, expression usage, grammatical usage, exposure to different questions and different ideas, and general knowledge.
By reading, you can look for examples of writing that could be adapted to become an essay to write. What do I mean by”could be adapted”? I mean that you recognize that the article you are reading is similar in some way to a good answer to the writing question or you recognize that there is something new in the article that you could copy and use in an essay, such as a new way to begin or end an essay, a new way to begin a paragraph, a new expression or just a new word to use.
By reading, you can especially look for reading passages that include examples of someone writing his or her opinion.
By reading ,you can also look for reading passages that have a similar basic topic to what you want to write. Maybe you could wait until you have collected a few good ”new things” and then use them all together in an essay.
Basically, my idea is that learning from examples of native English speakers' writing is a good way to to improve your writing.
xie1
发表于 2008-8-12 22:39:13
I’m an editor and English editing is part of my job. From the daily work, it is realized that the original hidden meaning is the most stubborn blockade for speaking in a native way. For example, once an author translated “半随机定量” to “demi-randomized quantification”. Demi is equal to half; hence from Chinese, all of us can understand what she wanted to say. But from English, people could not understand. They would ask, “since it is a random test, how could you divide it into half. The demi might be arbitrary.” The best way to say “半随机定量” is “semi-randomized quantification”, which is used most frequent and there is no artificial effect in selection. So the first thing that I want to say is not to be satisfied with those superficial translations. To be a native writer, the innermost thing is to understand the essentials of what you want to say. It is necessary to find out the equivalent entity that both Chinese and English people can recognize to bridge the cross-cultural communication. Several other examples, I could also deliver here, like most frequent used “事业” in China, there are quite a few translations with different English meanings. If you are interested, you can have a try. But I can tell you, the most basic meaning that you might neglect is “non-profit”. Because in China “事业单位” is a kind of public service organizations with government budgets, in western countries, they are also named as non-profit organizations.
书生论剑
发表于 2008-8-13 09:02:47
How to write like a native English speaker ?
As the English learners, all of us want to write like a native English speaker. But the fact is that
writing is still a big trouble for us, nomatter the beginners or the experienced user of English.
The first and the most important reason is that our education leaves our students a strong trend
over study. After experiencing the school study for years, they all learn to avoid making mistakes,
almost in any study aspect. When they write in English, the first principle they adopt is to escape
mistakes. The result is that they will use simple words or sentences, which can hardly match the
native language.
The second one is the cultural influence. Culture shock is also shadowed in language learning.
We can find hinds of Chinese cultural elements with our English writing. One element is our
thinking style and habits. For example, westerners think over problems in a more practical way,
while we Chinese are good at reasoning or pondering over issues. Another one is the word
choice. A dependency on our own culture will lead to a confusion of understanding to native
speakers.
No doubt that there must be other factors influencing learners’ improvement on English writing.
Under consideration of these unavoidable factors, the following suggestions are given.
Firstly, learners must make it clear that we are learning something. There is no reason being shy. What you need is to open yourself to speak, to write. Mistakes or errors are the necessary parts in
the learning process. No one will laugh at a learner’s errors.
Secondly, it is necessary to master certain principles in language learning. Writing, as a special
part in English learning, should be emphasized with certain learning strategies.
Recognizing that there is a task to complete or a problem to solve, language learners will use whatever strategies they possess to attend to the language learning activity. However, whereas experienced language learners can approach language-learning problems in a systematic way and are
usually successful in selecting appropriate strategies to complete a language-learning task,
novices may be less efficient at selecting and using strategies to task.
It is quite hard to be perfect with language learning. It is not reasonable to require your own
English to be perfect. Just try to express your ideas in your own words. Once you find your ideas
are quiet clear in your writing, your English will be good enough then.
cannibal
发表于 2008-8-13 10:29:35
I share my tip with all of you:
When I don't know how to speak what I want to say like a native English speaker, I usually use "google" to find out the native English speaker how to speak it.
shnba
发表于 2008-8-14 20:22:50
How to write like a native English speaker ?
As a English learner the most embarrassing fact is that after learning English for many years,
We can write right words, sentences and grammar in English,but still find no approach to write like a native English speaker. For high-grade learners "right"is not enough,why we strive to write but
just called "chinglish" and how to write like a native English speaker? I want to share my own
experiences with you and make a progress for us.
We have been achived the goal "right" then I don't pay attention to vocabulary and grammer,but
they are basic and imporant no doubt.About the reasons concerned "native" I think thinking style
and culture are the key factors.Chinese thinking style and having little or no knowledge of the
cuture of native English lead to chinese expression,that is "chinglish".
I think reading play a key role to free from "chinglish", We can learn the culture from extensive
reading and intensive reading is the best way to understand their thinking style.When you thought
like a native then you can write like a native. Someone has no interest in reading and just keep
large vocabulary in mind,then make use of these words to writing but in chinese thinking style.It's
the major reason of "chinglish".
Beside read,practice is also important.,Write in English for a dairy or blog are good way to
familiar with English expression. Also,we could copy out the foreign novel,it's helpful not only for
writing ,but also for reading.
I n a word,reading and practice writing daily are exactly good ways.If you can communicate with
the native and obtain their help will be accelerate your learning!
fenggdoc
发表于 2008-8-19 21:21:59
How to write a native English speaker?
First,Listen to talk radio, podcasts, and audio books. It's good listening practice. Audio books, especially, are an opportunity to hear writing. Besides hearing words pronounced that aren't normally used in conversation, you'll hear complex sentence structures inflected.
Scend,Build your vocabulary. Reading is the best way to do that since it exposes you to a far wider range of words than conversation or spoken media, such as radio or television. Collect words you don't know. In addition, browse in the dictionary, play word games, and subscribe to a word of the day.
The third,Practice writing. Write for a journal, blog, or wiki. Wikis, especially, need writers and frequently come with a whole community of editors who will help you. Whatever and wherever you write, practice daily, if possible. In email and text messages, use complete sentences. That's writing, too.
popcorn2
发表于 2008-8-21 22:35:32
[size=5][color=#FF0000]Here are a few writing tips that I’ve learned from personal experience. I’m not an expert in grammar and spelling so I won’t give you a litany of English grammar lessons. 1. Read quality books, blogs, journals etc. that are written in English 2. Practice helps so continue writing. Don’t be scared to commit mistakes.
3. Prepare an outline of your post. Identify the main points you want to raise.
.4. When writing, use simple words and sentences.5. Write your posts ahead of time.
6. Use available softwares to help you check your grammar and spelling.
7. Write about your expertise or the things that interests you.8. Join forums or chat rooms.
9. Welcome comments and feedback from your blog readers10. Learn from your mistake. Go ahead and edit your post11. If you have the resources, enroll yourself to a writing class. If you have the means, attending a writing class is always helpful. You can also buy books and other materials that can help you improve your writing skills. Just don’t forget that the internet is full of resources that can help you.
There you have it. I hope you found this post useful. Do share your thoughts and comments. If you’ve got something to add on the list, share it through the comment. Thanks you for your time.
soy_justiny
发表于 2008-8-22 10:18:08
How to write like a native English speaker?
How to write like a native English speaker? This is a question surrounding every English
learner. Today I will share my experience about writing to all of you.
I remeber an old saying that culture is father of language from a famous linguist. Actually, we
are not English or American. We are pure Chinese, and live in an orient culture rather than
western one. We are short of atmosphere and circumstance of the English learning that is
originated from culture. So, the first one to write like a native English speaker is to study
western culture, and it is indispensable.
Secondly, practice is imperative as well. I had an English teacher who names Bill from
Australia, and I asked him how to write English well for ever. He always answered me only six
words, reading more, writing more, reciting more. So now we know, practice is good at English
study.
Thirdly, I think we should build a western thought. It is very important because we could use
English words, sentences and grammer correctly once we build a western thought.Certainly, it
is much difficult to us, but if you want to write like a native English speaker, you have to
do that. How to build a western thought? I suggest that we should think about something toward
western one as much as possible. Moreover, we may watch English movies and listen English
music as much as we can. It is for us to contribute to lingual feeling of English learning.
How to write like a native English speaker? It is mixed question of easiness and difficulty.
We study hard and finanlly can write like a native speaker. When it comes down to it, what
still matters most to us is the process and skills of the
lmo771018
发表于 2008-8-22 23:37:56
A discussion of how English native speaking scientists should write and how theyactually write reveals one of the constraints to how far a non-native speaker ofEnglish will go when writing scientific articles. This is complemented by consideringaspects of English that journal editors have reported as influencing their assessment ofmanuscripts submitted by second-language authors. I indicate some of the ways nativelanguage and culture affect these aspects, with special reference to discourse andrhetoric in science writing. This is illustrated in relation to Dutch and Spanishwriting. I argue that non-native speakers of English can more easily adopt the normsof English science writing if they understand where their native writing culture ispositioned in relation to English writing culture.
Box 1: General recommendations for writing `scientific English'
(The ideal)
use short sentences
when possible, write in the active voice rather than the passive
avoid unnecessary jargon and long words
avoid using noun clusters and stacked modifiers
write concisely (no pointless words and phrases)
write precisely (use correct terms, be specific)
Box 2: Characteristics of scientific English
(Reality!)
complex sentences
frequent use of passive constructions
plenty of nominalisations
jargon
noun clusters and stacked modifiers
hzieegm
发表于 2008-8-26 13:23:26
Issue Writing 002:How to write like a native English speaker
Some idea about " How to write like a native english speaker?"? Of course not.Because i have not been a native english speaker yet. You can got it from mine words.But i can talk about some suppose from the view of a native chinese english speaker.
First,we should know what the native english is.When i study english from teaching material,it of course is the one spoken by most american people,i think. And i am happy that we speak chinese without so many syntax. But mine idea changed after i read some english newspaper. And now,i never think the teaching material is native english.
So,i think if one want to be a native english speaker,the best is to read some newspaper,because the word and syntax in newspaper is widely accepted by most of people.The way to get newspaper is the interet.You can read news you interest,for example the football or basketball or business..... You can be a native english writer without feeling baldness.
But of course if you just want to pass the exaim,the teaching material is best choice.
zaza1106
发表于 2008-8-26 14:37:23
What invariably happens to Chinese students in terms of English writing is that most of us seem to be short of the capacity of composing the sentences as native speakers do. Of course, we definitely can not do it in 100% the same way, owing to English is not the mother tongue of us. Yet we are sure that we can get closer to it if we practice it in the following ways.
To begin with, no other means of writing English can be compared with reading English books. Good books offer to us great thoughts, beautiful sentences or even simple words that are natural and classic. As long as we can catch, accumulate and use them properly, we can construct the stable foundation of our writings. Then the next come to watching, English TV series or movies. It’s much more important to be natural in writing rather than just piling up flowery words and sentences. What we write should be felled true and of daily life, so TV or movies are the tools that can help us to get native speaking. Last but not least, that’s practice. Only when we keep practicing can we get closer enough to our aim.
vfdat
发表于 2008-8-29 16:59:39
How to write like a native English speaker?
How to write like a native English speaker is a tough question to answer for most of us. We can't think and speak like a native speaker at most occasions, which is a great obstacle to us. What’s more, we don't have a living environment with lots of native speakers. All the above-mentioned conditions are disadvantage to us.
However, we live in age of networking; there are tons of resources on internet that we can utilize. In my opinion, only if you can make full use of the internet and check your writing before publishing it, you can write like a native English speaker. In the least, you can make fewer mistakes in writing.
Which tools can we rely on in writing? Networking dictionaries such as Yodao from Yodao.com and www.dict.cn are best of them. Two of them can help correct your vocabulary and sentence use. In addition, they can give you many writing examples for your reference on the premise that you can make sure which one is right or wrong. So be careful before you write as the dictionaries tell you.
In a word, the more carefully you write, the more like a native English speaker your articles.
gongchao6330
发表于 2008-8-29 18:11:55
How to write like a native English speaker?
For those who use English as a second, it is difficult to write or speak like a native speaker. Because we have different cultural backgrounds and different think methods, we often learn English word by word, and then use English grammar to glue words to form sentence. This way it is difficult to speak like a native. In my opinion, we can rethink how we learn Chinese, our mother tongue. Do we learn Chinese word by word or by grammar to speak a native Chinese? How do we learn? We just learn Chinese by speak, we can speak a native Chinese even before we can write the words or know the grammar. We just hear and speak, just it! Learning native English is just like that. So firstly we should hear what native English speaker say, we can listen to BBC, VOA news, English movies, songs, generalist .etc. And most effectively talk to a native speaker. Secondly, we should speak, speak out loudly. Don’t fear mistakes, only by speak once and once again, try and error can we speak natively. At this point we should learn from babies, they just speak and speak, no matter it is wrong or right. And they benefit much from it, they learn a native language in a very short time. I think we can do this too.
tiger200
发表于 2008-9-1 00:45:48
Write like a native speaker? The only way i think is to think like a native.So another problem comes, how to think like a native? First of all you must read as much as you can, in my own experience mag is much helpful than newspaper, the philosophy lies in is when you're reading you're learning their writing custom too, every laguage has its own rule, follow that rule, you get your way, so it may means that you should give up what you usually doing, the way you think and write, giev it up, no mercy, try to remenber what the phase they are using and finally use it in your own. And be careful, here I don't mean totally copying, because indeed no one can write like what we have seen on the newspaper, sometime i feel those journallists are wallking dictionaries, so many uncommon and complicated words they are using, no one will really do that in our daily life.
So in my mind what is good piece of writing means: understandable, logical mind, and artistic.
peonk
发表于 2008-9-5 16:22:35
First, we shall analyze this topic’s purpose.The key word is “NATIVE”, then how do we define it?
The most important character of English native is he reacts in English. If you happen to spray coffee on a native, he would shout out “SHOOT” instantly rather than think of XX first and then translate it into English. A reaction in English is superior than a translation in terms of English usage.
So, the 1st idea is to think in English as you are writing something. That’s very much like others’ notions of ACCUMULATION, but when compared in nurturing in English proficiency, I believe thoughts are much more important than just collections.
And 2nd, keep practicing and try to write your thoughts down on paper, get away from MS WORD. Just fetch a clean paper and begin writing several key words, then key phrases till the full passage is finished. This is a very important way to appreciate the beauty of a language and make yourself fell love with it.
3rd, revision makes perfection. Keep your passage contents succinct and smooth in expressing your thoughts. A native will not use very long-winded phrases. To exhibit all your language skills in one sheet is a very bad habit. Sometimes you might not conscience of the fact that the complex phrases you cherish are actually rubbish for others to read. When this happens, it’s not a problem others are not talented enough to appreciate your passage, it’s only a problem that you are not logic enough to express your thoughts.
At last, if we can understand the topic and change it into “How to write like an English native” and then to “How to write like an American”, that’s it!
chinamoon
发表于 2008-9-6 22:17:04
This question does not have an easy answer but one of the things you have to do is train yourself to think about English like a native speaker does. Of course a native speaker doesn't often have to think about what (s)he will (say) (write) but a learner of English must think first and then write. You have to ask yourself 'How would a native speaker (say) (write) this?
You cannot put English words into a Chinese sentence!! it is important for you
then,practice writing short sentences. Make your sentences clear.Write each idea as a single sentence.One action uses one sentence.You don't need to run a bunch of ideas together in every sentence while adding descriptions and questions and even more good ideas onto the ends of the string of verbs and adjectives you have so overwhelmingly belaboured at the start of your poor, badly treated, sentence.Complexity is not always needed.f you write clearly, people can understand you easily.As you get more practice at simple sentences, you will become a better comunicator.As you become better, more complex ideas will be easier to expre
also ,fun is important.Maybe english website is a good choice.english blog,myplace,mylot ,try them !
zljlfy
发表于 2008-9-7 10:01:01
I firmly believe sufficient imput entails plenty of output, especially for our Chinese who lack foreign language environment. So the best way to overcome this obstacle is to read more, memorize more and practice more.