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I am a lower intermediate French learner trying to introduce reading into my program to accelerate my french learning. The problem that I am facing however is that fact that most French books seem to be written in Le Passe Simple which is a tense that is redundant to spoken French. While I appreciate the need to understand this tense eventually to be able to appreciate French in its fullest I am still struggling to fully grasp the spoken tenses and not ready to add an additional (“unnecessary“) tense to my load as well as, more importantly, deprive myself the opportunity to learn the tenses that I really need to learn. So I come here seeking advice on where I can find a selection of books written in “spoken French”. I imagine that I am not alone in this scenario and most beginner or intermediate learners want to focus on the spoken tenses when choosing their reading material. Any advice is appreciated. Merci!

I love reading books in English, especially the classics. One of my favorite authors, I have to say, is Jane Austen, and Vladimir Nabokov (though he is Russian). I was wondering what yours were

I know that sometimes the books we get assigned to read in school can be boring. However, I've found some interesting reads, and I'm interested in knowing what everyone's favorite (or least hated) book from school is. Mine was "The Outsiders".

Learn new languages by reading anything you choose. This was inspired by other site/projects like the opensource Lwt, the closed source lingq etc... Here's how it works: - You import any text you want. - When you read, there's a built-in dictionary which allows to quickly get its translation. - LingLibre marks in the text this word as saved with a particular color. The more you read, the more words appear as 'known'. There are still more functions as: importing from other software like lwt, exporting to Anki Suggestion of similar words to the words you've already saved integration of Google translate to translate the whole sentence direct import of webpage, PDF, EPUB etc... keyboard shortcuts for very fast reading statistics etc... This project is opensource: it's free to use and to modify: Any participants are welcomed to use and help coding this project: The main project (source code) is hosted here: https://github.com/gustavklopp/LingL Any code suggestions, discussions, bug reports should be posted here: https://github.com/gustavklopp/LingL/issues You can download it (Linux, Windows, Mac) here: https://github.com/gustavklopp/LingL/releases

Better English Issue #1 Wins Kirill participated in, and finished, his first half marathon on September 15, 2019. Kirill is a full time lawyer, father, husband and more! And yet, he managed to squeeze running into his hectic schedule. Read more about the race here. Kirill is pictured above with his family. (You can see the images on your laptop, if not on your phone!) Let me know of recent wins in your life, big or small, that you’re proud of! Write to me here, [email protected] Send pictures! Vocabulary Expansion Did you know that in English we don’t eat coffee? We drink coffee. We have coffee. We imbibe coffee. We sip coffee. But we don’t eat it. Eating involves mastication, involves chewing. What about ice cream? We don’t eat ice cream, either. We don’t chew it. However, we don’t simply swallow ice cream, either, as if it were a liquid! We have ice cream. We don’t eat ice cream. We don’t imbibe ice cream. We don’t sip ice cream. We just have ice cream. That’s it! When speaking of consuming any solid food, semi-solid food, soft food or liquid, the safest, and always correct, verb to use is “to have”. Recently, I had eggs cooked in butter with sliced tomatoes and hot peppers. I also had milk with two tablespoons of Nescafe Clasico stirred in. What did you have recently for one of your meals? Did you see any new vocabulary? Read the above short text on Readlang! To Eat, To Drink, or To Have That is the Question Resources Readlang is a great tool for vocabulary expansion and review. Check out this series of short tutorials and get started! Getting Started with Readlang Video Download Helper is a Firefox extension that allows me to download and save, offline, most of the videos I want to save for further study offline. You;ll know you’re in the right place because of the easily recognizable yellow, red and blue ball logo. Recommended Reading Outliers is a series of true stories and observations. I listened to the audiobook and you can, too. Interview Grant Cardone interviews Joe DeSena. Enjoy the conversation. If desired, adjust the speed to 0.75 by clicking on the settings button on the right side of the video toolbar. Listening Comprehension Challenge Secrets of Success in 8 Words, 3 Minutes What was this person saying and what made understanding them so challenging? What could this person have done to make it easier for his audience to understand him? How can you make your English easier for your audience to understand? Gems from Class interested vs interesting Both interested and interesting are adjectives. interested says something about how the subject feels For example: I am interested in travel. In this sentence, “I” is the subject. This sentence talks about how “I” feel. interesting says something about the power of the subject to make other people feel a certain way. For example: Travel is interesting. In this sentence, “Travel” is the subject. This sentence talks about the fact that “travel” has the power of making people feel a certain way. For more practice and to subconsciously learn the rules, do some online exercises. Here is a link. Repeat the exercise many times until you get 100% correct repeatedly. Pronunciation & Intonation met SOUNDS LIKE set, bet debt, jet, let, net, pet met is the simple past affirmative form of the verb “to meet” meet SOUNDS LIKE meat, seat, neat, feet, feat, Crete meet is one of the simple present affirmative forms of the verb “to meet” the other simple present affirmative form of the verb “to meet” is meets Tip: When reading and writing, use your voice! When you use your voice, you’ll be less likely to write “met” when you mean “meet”. You’ll be less likely to write one word, when you really mean another one. Poll Here is the question: What is your BIGGEST problem with English? The Sharing Economy Enjoying this Better English newsletter? It just takes a moment to share useful and inspiring content with a friend or a business colleague. Do you believe you need better English? We are committed to serving adults who are non-native speakers of English. Those adults--out of necessity--use English at work, and they have an intermediate or advanced level of English. Does this describe you? Do you have have access to 30 minutes per day, technology and the determination to get better at English now? Contact us today. Niamaat aka “Nia” +52 33 2235 2989 [email protected] Get Better English Now Copyright © 2019 Get Better English Now All rights reserved.

One of the ways that I learned vocabulary in English was watching movies in English and reading the translation in the subtitles, I always thought that it helped me and my teacher always encouraged us to do so. After some time and practice I stopped using the translations as subtitles and started watching the movies with English subtitles so I could learn a little bit of orthography too. I think that is a fun way to learn a little bit more a language and to practice without knowing. I don't have English classes any more and I think that this has helped me to still have contact with English, what do you think?

Hi, I would like to share a project offering bilingual stories to help children learn a language: Https://www.100-days.net/en/projekt/culture-NetWorld

Good morning dear learners If you are interested in learning French I can propose you a great place. It is a French group on Facebook. I created this group yesterday (and I have already more than 200 people inside ! It is amazing). How does this group work ? Every week I propose an article from a famous newspaper and I make my followers read it, study it. I will propose soon some podcasts also to help my followers improving their listening skills. Of course it is 100% free. Concept : Learn French language by reading and listening current news from French Newspaper So if you are interested in it do not hesitate to join us ! Here is the link : THE DAILY FRENCH Cheers

Yeah, this is our own app. It is new and we are studying on it. I am believing this app can easy people's reading on a foreign language. Reading Browser is showing you translations by Google Translate. Check it out.. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tr.com.blogspot.androidlister.readingbrowser02

Are there books that you wish were translated into your native language? I have a lot of those. There are some excellent fiction and nonfiction books that I've read in English that I really enjoyed and I'm pretty sure my Polish and Russian friend would love too. Unfortunately, not all of them speak English, and the books have never been (and probably will never be) translated into Russian/Polish. Each time I keep thinking - why does it happen? Why so many really rubbish stuff gets to have a professional translation, but so many wonderful books never get the chance? Do you also have the same problem or is it easy to find the books you read in your native language's version?

I was thinking about this not such a long time ago. I remember that several times, both in real life and on the Internet, I heard people say something like "I used to really like the books of X, but now that I've read his biography I no longer like that author". I've had the same happen to me a couple of times: really enjoyed the book but when I discovered some ugly facts about the author, I just couldn't look at the book with the same eyes. Is it important for you? Do you care what kind of person wrote the book you were reading, in any language? Have you ever felt disappointed when you learnt unsavoury details about the author's life or his/her views?

Sharing some techniques on how to learn German or say any other language (vocabulary, accent etc.) fast. 1. Read books – this is my favorite – good for those who love reading and at the same time wanting the benefit of learning the language on the side. You may be slow at first but that is normal because you are reading in different language and not in your mother tongue. My advice, try not to look to every word in the dictionary during your reading, just keep on reading, it would avoid you to get bored. I know it may sound not right but believe me, it works. 2. Listen when the native are talking and then take note – Once in a while, I just keep my mouth shut, not asking question and just let myself listen when people talk around me, and then I take note some words that are new to me and if there is a chance ask some of them to tell me what those words mean or I look it up myself and then use it the next time I have the opportunity to do so 3. Watch film or TV – I think everybody is familiar with this one. I do not have to go further, let us save time J 4. Read simple signs – When I was driving places, I give notice to those signs on the way or around. This is great especially if you are driving in the same direction everyday. Eventually you will memorize these words since you are encountering them often. 5. Play scrabble – Sounds old but this will help. Just play the game and do not be furious of losing it, just think of the advantage side of it. Let them win in a while and learn vocabularies, that way you can win big too and then next time, win both sidesJ 6. Think like a child then converse, converse and converse – I know, there are a lot of factors that are holding us back (esp. new language learners) to talk to people, especially to the native speakers. I know them, because I had that stage in my life. When I was in school, there are a lot of time I wished I would not be on the spot where I have to talk or explain something, I was scared to mess myself, I was shy that I would not say it right. But this is not the right way to learn the language faster. In a study, kids are faster language learner than adults. Factors why is that so are, children do not have any hesitant to converse, they do not hold themselves, they are open, they are not shy and most of all, they are not scared not to speak perfectly. Adults should do the same. Just talk and do not be furious to be imperfect when it comes to language. That way you will practice and get better everyday and learn a lot. I know there are still a lot to mention, feel free to share yours