English Grammar and Foreign Languages

[Aerin-Sol9]

You know, the best way to have good English grammar is to learn a Foreign Language. I speak, read and write fluent french, and that helped significantly in my English grammar. I went to a french school for 5 years, and even though we weren't allowed to speak English, I think that our English was much better than the English of other schools. I have to admit though, my French grammar isn't as good as it could be. redface


What do you think?  

[Aerin-Sol9]

I guess this is a boring topic...sorry!  

[[Joan De Arc]]

Well, it DOES help me...I speak chinese, and it helps me to insult people...XD
Like this word..It means "other"
"Ney-geh" is the pronounciation. Now say it really fast. *giggles*  

[Aerin-Sol9]

That's funny.  

[[Joan De Arc]]

And there's one where my spanish teacher, Mr. Mullins, said something that sounded like, "b*****d". I gotta get him to tech me it.

But unto the subject...
Well, if you know latin, then it increases your field of vocabulary.  

[Aerin-Sol9]

Yeah knowing Latin does improve your vocabulary. Knowing any Latin/Romance language will improve your vocabulary.  

[[Mammon]]

While I am not fluent in a foreign language I was subjected to classes in other languages. Now maybe it's because I didn't have a real aptitude for these other languages, or maybe it's because I didn't actually become fluent in them, but I didn't find what little schooling I had in another language to be a benefit to my English grammar.

What did help, believe it or not, was instant messaging. I know, I know, who would have thought it could be true. In my case this is why it worked: Instant messaging forces you to evaluate what constitutes a sentence. If what you're typing is important enough to get sent off all at once, so that you don't want to hit enter in the middle, then it's probably a sentence. If you can hit enter and continue on without feeling dirty then there was probably more than one sentence there. Admittedly this will only work if you already have an inherent desire for good grammar; but, so long as things are getting typed out fully, I would endorse instant messaging as a useful tool for teaching at least some basic level of grammar. But that's just me, and I'm a little crazy.  

[The Man who was Thursday]

It's not English grammar exclusively. It's grammar in general.  

[Xillania]

I know a little bit about some foreign languages. I don't really think they helped me all that much with English (aside from vocabulary,) but that's because I mostly mastered English grammar by reading a lot between third and fifth grades. (I began to learn Latin in sixth grade. By then I was fluent in English enough that the learning of the Latin grammar didn't aid me so much in helping me learn English grammar as it did in broadening the scope of my grammatical understanding. That's one reason why I never had any problems at all with Spanish grammar. Syntax has always been my forte.  

[splashseal]

Aerin-Sol9

You know, the best way to have good English grammar is to learn a Foreign Language.

Damn straight. I've always said the same thing. You never learn proper grammar until you take a foreign language class, and I have had several. I would have to say that French, German, and Latin have helped me the most.

Pathetic that you learn basic English grammar in foreign language classes, though.  

[The Man who was Thursday]

Again, it's not English grammar you're learning. It's basic grammar.

Subjects, objects, verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions, adverbs, etc. exist in other languages. They don't teach grammar so much in later years of English because you've spoken it all your life; you should be fluent.

Foreign languages, though, require you to have a much deeper understanding of grammars; they use one language to teach another, so the only real way to teach it is to compare grammars.  

[Aerin-Sol9]

Ezra Pound

It's not English grammar exclusively. It's grammar in general.

I never said that it's English grammar exclusively. I was simply pointing out that it helps your English grammar a great deal.  

[Aerin-Sol9]

sparkling_sora

Aerin-Sol9

You know, the best way to have good English grammar is to learn a Foreign Language.

Damn straight. I've always said the same thing. You never learn proper grammar until you take a foreign language class, and I have had several. I would have to say that French, German, and Latin have helped me the most.

Pathetic that you learn basic English grammar in foreign language classes, though.

Yeah, it is pretty pathetic that you have to learn other languages to get a good grasp on English grammar.  

[Aerin-Sol9]

[Mammon]

While I am not fluent in a foreign language I was subjected to classes in other languages. Now maybe it's because I didn't have a real aptitude for these other languages, or maybe it's because I didn't actually become fluent in them, but I didn't find what little schooling I had in another language to be a benefit to my English grammar.

What did help, believe it or not, was instant messaging. I know, I know, who would have thought it could be true. In my case this is why it worked: Instant messaging forces you to evaluate what constitutes a sentence. If what you're typing is important enough to get sent off all at once, so that you don't want to hit enter in the middle, then it's probably a sentence. If you can hit enter and continue on without feeling dirty then there was probably more than one sentence there. Admittedly this will only work if you already have an inherent desire for good grammar; but, so long as things are getting typed out fully, I would endorse instant messaging as a useful tool for teaching at least some basic level of grammar. But that's just me, and I'm a little crazy.

Wow, that's pretty interesting. *scratches head*  

[[Mammon]]

Aerin-Sol9

Wow, that's pretty interesting. *scratches head*

Sadly enough, that's not the first time I've gotten that response from others. Luckily, because I'm a little crazy, I always have the voices in my head to tell me everything is alright.