Hi everyone, I launched the project ‘writing’ for me, same as I launched project ‘role-play’ upgrade by registering on RPR (with some real good positive progression).
But there is one point I get to the limit and I want to push that limit further. As everybody might know, I’m not native English and I tend to write in 5 different languages, translating all that knowledge into English (more or less successful). The moment I write with a native English I’m every time impressed by the use of words and expressions.
My problem is my lack of vocabulary, all the time I need to look for words in one of those languages and try to translate, but often I miss that ‘second’ degree I so often use.
So my question here, do you have an idea or an help where I can improve my English (I mean not only by reading Shakespeare and Conan-Doyle).
For example, in France exists the ‘Projet Voltaire’ and that helps improve French knowledge (I scored 700/1000, French isn’t native language either). In Germany you have Goethe Institut.
I know there is Cambridge and Oxford, but does anyone have another idea?
Thanks a lot
But there is one point I get to the limit and I want to push that limit further. As everybody might know, I’m not native English and I tend to write in 5 different languages, translating all that knowledge into English (more or less successful). The moment I write with a native English I’m every time impressed by the use of words and expressions.
My problem is my lack of vocabulary, all the time I need to look for words in one of those languages and try to translate, but often I miss that ‘second’ degree I so often use.
So my question here, do you have an idea or an help where I can improve my English (I mean not only by reading Shakespeare and Conan-Doyle).
For example, in France exists the ‘Projet Voltaire’ and that helps improve French knowledge (I scored 700/1000, French isn’t native language either). In Germany you have Goethe Institut.
I know there is Cambridge and Oxford, but does anyone have another idea?
Thanks a lot
Books! Or, really anything you like that includes other people's writing, but yes, books and adjacent media help ALOT! I particularly like short stories and anthologies because they aren't as big a commitment as a full blown novel, and you get a wide taste of many different authors within the same sort of genre. Read lots of books in the genre you'd like to write in, and a few outside the genre you'd like to write in. Do not underestimate how much a humble book can expand not only your vocabulary, but your sentence structure. Whenever I feel like I'm reusing the same sentence structure or phrases, I know its time to read a book to refresh myself and get new ideas.
Also, I feel like some people are reluctant to use a thesaurus. I know in some writing communities I've been in, using a thesaurus was treated like some kind of minor sin, probably because overuse of it can lead to some pretty sloggy purple prose (and as someone who writes pretty flowery prose sometimes, I try to avoid that). But thesauruses are a great tool in any writer's arsenal. I quite like visualthesaurus, which arranges the words in thinkmaps.
Be curious about words. Even if you already kinda know the meaning of a word, looking it up can reveal other interesting words, and deepen your understanding of those words.
As a kid, I enjoyed reading dictionaries and encyclopedias for fun, which I'm sure also helped expand my vocabulary a lot.
I don't quite know anything along the lines of the projects you described, but this is usually the way I've improved my vocab as a native English speaker.
Edit: Even if you're a prose writer, reading poetry can be a great way to expand not only your vocab, but how you approach language in general. Getting into poetry completely changed how I viewed writing prose for the better. I know some people can't stand poetry, and I know its not for everyone, but I implore everyone to give reading some poetry a shot.
Also, I feel like some people are reluctant to use a thesaurus. I know in some writing communities I've been in, using a thesaurus was treated like some kind of minor sin, probably because overuse of it can lead to some pretty sloggy purple prose (and as someone who writes pretty flowery prose sometimes, I try to avoid that). But thesauruses are a great tool in any writer's arsenal. I quite like visualthesaurus, which arranges the words in thinkmaps.
Be curious about words. Even if you already kinda know the meaning of a word, looking it up can reveal other interesting words, and deepen your understanding of those words.
As a kid, I enjoyed reading dictionaries and encyclopedias for fun, which I'm sure also helped expand my vocabulary a lot.
I don't quite know anything along the lines of the projects you described, but this is usually the way I've improved my vocab as a native English speaker.
Edit: Even if you're a prose writer, reading poetry can be a great way to expand not only your vocab, but how you approach language in general. Getting into poetry completely changed how I viewed writing prose for the better. I know some people can't stand poetry, and I know its not for everyone, but I implore everyone to give reading some poetry a shot.
magioffire wrote:
Books!
As a kid, I enjoyed reading dictionaries and encyclopedias for fun, which I'm sure also helped expand my vocabulary a lot.
As a kid, I enjoyed reading dictionaries and encyclopedias for fun, which I'm sure also helped expand my vocabulary a lot.
Oh I know that one… 😇
Books and poetry is in general a good approach to learn a language, did that in German. I stumble a lot on thesaurus when looking for synonyms or do research on words.
I did that all in German and French, I once even started to collect all about horses in 5 different languages. I like research… So I’ll try to improve my skills until November, by reading and researching.
First of all, let me high five you!
Let me share my years of experience. I am also writing replies in Indonesia first before translating it all to English. Sometimes, vocabulary is like enemy when I feel like I used a word too much or I don't know what to translate a word into beautiful English's prose and having such difficulties to express myself a lot in English without causing too much mislead. But BUT Buuuuuut, that's the fun part! To challenge yourself to get to know what to put here and there.
As for me, Thesaurus is my best friend! I've been using that for years since the day I joined roleplay in English! I will look for the synonym words or the example of words using that Thesaurus provide. It gave a lot of insight on how you structure your words. I like fancy words! And then, this might be simple but Microsoft Word's spelling and grammar check also help me to structure my sentences! I don't know if there is still anyone using that feature when you have much options grammar checker online, but the OG Ms. Word still unbeatable for me. 😂
Also like magioffire said; books. Yes, books help a lot! I try to read as many as English novels or articles (there is not much English novels being sold in Indonesia and it's a lot more expensive than the local ones, sad), so for improving myself, I read Webtoon in English. Or Wattpad in English and once in a while, I will purchase English translation novel online to kick my brain to work on my vocabularies!
Being silent reader also helps me a lot. Here in RPR, there are tons of good stories with amazing writers and unique style of writings! I got tons of new vocabularies by reading others works too.
Last but not least, talking to the native English speakers also help me to improve my vocabularies! In daily, I don't really use English (as I don't have people I can speak to). I feel like when I'm being in English community, it's safer than being in a random public chat (with grammar nazi and such) because I feel like people are a lot nicer, they don't judge and give encouragement rather than criticize you without giving you an input. So, find a nice community (like RPR) gives you confidence and boost to write in English.
Let me share my years of experience. I am also writing replies in Indonesia first before translating it all to English. Sometimes, vocabulary is like enemy when I feel like I used a word too much or I don't know what to translate a word into beautiful English's prose and having such difficulties to express myself a lot in English without causing too much mislead. But BUT Buuuuuut, that's the fun part! To challenge yourself to get to know what to put here and there.
As for me, Thesaurus is my best friend! I've been using that for years since the day I joined roleplay in English! I will look for the synonym words or the example of words using that Thesaurus provide. It gave a lot of insight on how you structure your words. I like fancy words! And then, this might be simple but Microsoft Word's spelling and grammar check also help me to structure my sentences! I don't know if there is still anyone using that feature when you have much options grammar checker online, but the OG Ms. Word still unbeatable for me. 😂
Also like magioffire said; books. Yes, books help a lot! I try to read as many as English novels or articles (there is not much English novels being sold in Indonesia and it's a lot more expensive than the local ones, sad), so for improving myself, I read Webtoon in English. Or Wattpad in English and once in a while, I will purchase English translation novel online to kick my brain to work on my vocabularies!
Being silent reader also helps me a lot. Here in RPR, there are tons of good stories with amazing writers and unique style of writings! I got tons of new vocabularies by reading others works too.
Last but not least, talking to the native English speakers also help me to improve my vocabularies! In daily, I don't really use English (as I don't have people I can speak to). I feel like when I'm being in English community, it's safer than being in a random public chat (with grammar nazi and such) because I feel like people are a lot nicer, they don't judge and give encouragement rather than criticize you without giving you an input. So, find a nice community (like RPR) gives you confidence and boost to write in English.
Also you don't need to complete this writing challenge in English. You are allowed to write in your native tongue! But of course you can also use this opportunity to try and push your English abilities!
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