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Off-Topic About learning English and STANAG 6001

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mikhael

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This post is completely different. It isn't about pulling, pressing, swinging or squatting however it's about being strong becasue as we all know strength has many faces.
I decided to be strong in other aspect of my life relevant to my work. Currently I'm master corporal. I had been studying for five long years and luckily I had finished last year so now I have only one thing to do to become an officer. This "thing" is to pass the exam of English language by NATO language standards STANAG 6001.

Description of STANAG 6001 from page Campaign Military English: The Course - Teacher's Book
"A STANAG, or STANdardisation AGreement, is an international military standard created by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for regulating equipment, procedures, tactics, training and just about everything that affects how armed forces from different countries work together on operations and exercises.

STANAG 6001 is a language proficiency scale designed to allow comparisons of language ability in different countries. The scale consists of a set of descriptors with proficiency skills broken down into six levels, coded 1 through 6. They are defined as follows:

Level 0 No practical proficiency
Level 1 Elementary
Level 2 Fair (Limited working)
Level 3 Good (Minimum professional)
Level 4 Very good (Full professional)
Level 5 Excellent (Native/Bilingual)
Language proficiency is recorded with a profile of 4 digits indicating the specific skills in the following order: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing
"

By the way If I knew English on this lvl I would write more on the forum and understand You even more.
My question for You is do You have any tips, advices ideas, thoughts or anything which can help me to learn better and quicker?
 
@mikhael ... there is only one way... practice
Your English is excellent by the way... keep posting here.
You will do well when you take your exam.
 
@offwidth Thank You, Sir. I know I have to practive a lot and I have already started listen BBC radio on my phone but listening is not a problem. I can deal with reading part of the exam too but I'm little confused about writing . Maybe You have right that I should write more and more. Learning English has many benefits like writing with You and reading all post in Strong First forum.
 
This post is completely different. It isn't about pulling, pressing, swinging or squatting however it's about being strong becasue as we all know strength has many faces.

It isn't about pulling, pressing, swinging or squatting; it's about being strong because, as we all know, strength has many faces.

I decided to be strong in other aspect of my life relevant to my work.

I've decided to be strong in other aspects of my life, those related to my work.

I've decided to be strong in the aspects of my life related [or relevant, if you prefer] to my work.

Currently I'm master corporal.
I'm currently a master corporal.

I had been studying for five long years and luckily I had finished last year so now I have only one thing to do to become an officer. This "thing" is to pass the exam of English language by NATO language standards STANAG 6001.

I recently finished my studies after five long years and now have only one more thing to do to become an officer, to pass the NATO English language, standards STANAG 6001.

Description of STANAG 6001 from page Campaign Military English: The Course - Teacher's Book

From Campaign Military English: The Course - Teacher's Book

"A STANAG, or STANdardisation AGreement, is an international military standard created by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for regulating equipment, procedures, tactics, training and just about everything that affects how armed forces from different countries work together on operations and exercises.

STANAG 6001 is a language proficiency scale designed to allow comparisons of language ability in different countries. The scale consists of a set of descriptors with proficiency skills broken down into six levels, coded 1 through 6. They are defined as follows:

Level 0 No practical proficiency
Level 1 Elementary
Level 2 Fair (Limited working)
Level 3 Good (Minimum professional)
Level 4 Very good (Full professional)
Level 5 Excellent (Native/Bilingual)
Language proficiency is recorded with a profile of 4 digits indicating the specific skills in the following order: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing
"

By the way If I knew English on this lvl I would write more on the forum and understand You even more.

(By the way, if my English was better, I would write more on the forum and understand you better.)

My question for You is do You have any tips, advices ideas, thoughts or anything which can help me to learn better and quicker?

My question for you is: do you have any tips, advice, ideas, thoughts or anything that would help me to learn better and more quickly?
 
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Those are my edits - others should feel free to suggest alternatives.

Happy to help.

-S-
 
I'm a high school English and languages teacher. Your English writing is perfectly fine in my opinion. I actually think no editing is needed in your post above, except that we do not capitalize the word "you", we only capitalize the word "I" because we pronounce the letter's name. By this logic we ought to write "U" instead of "you" but we don't due to written conventions invented by the King James Bible writers who were the main force behind standardizing the English language.

I went through the intellectual hell, starting in the mid 1990s of learning Latin, Ancient Greek and Korean. I already spoke fluent French. The most helpful method for me to learn Korean was to read a bilingual Korean book (in my case the Bible, since it was the only one I could find). I read "Genesis" in Korean about 30 times over and over, out loud to myself, always checking the English facing page when I needed to. Of course, the Bible does not contain the range of vocabulary needed for true modern fluency beyond a "kitchen" level, but it gave me the base I needed to progress, like the way attaining "Simple" does for our kettlebell strength and skill.

I think the best way to learn a language is through textbooks. I found some absolutely AMAZING Korean learning textbooks. I copied them all out slowly by hand - all the examples, all the exercises. It was slow as hell but it gave me virtually the entire language. At least I remembered about 80% of everything I read&wrote down. I think copying out by hand works best. It's what Bach did to learn how to compose - he copied out organ pieces so he could bring them back to practice and perform at his home church. I use the "Bach method" for my own language learning.

I also always looked for opportunities to speak with people. I spent this summer in Korea practicing Korean. That's what brought it all together finally and gave me fluency.

Probably reading English stuff is what will benefit you the most at this point. Reading out loud if your vocal chords can handle it (mine no longer can) makes the reading more valuable as a training tool as you're learning to speak and listen at the same time as read.

So I think. :)
 
@Kozushi Your post was very motivating for me but I have a question for U, especially about rewriting a text-book. On STANAG exam I'll have to write a formal text like report so what should I take for rewrite? I have already started to listen English language as well as reading all kind of test.
 
@Kozushi Your post was very motivating for me but I have a question for U, especially about rewriting a text-book. On STANAG exam I'll have to write a formal text like report so what should I take for rewrite? I have already started to listen English language as well as reading all kind of test.
I would find similar reports and copy them all out by hand. You'll notice stylistic features as you copy, which you can use in your own composition later on.

If you can't find anything "formal" to copy out, then I would use news stories from the internet. Assuming US English is the standard, then using CNN news stories ought to work.

Lifting weights is itself "copying" as we are quite simply "copying down" movements again and again and again! :) As we copy them down, we notice little subtle adjustments we make in terms of exact positioning, timing, rest, heart rate, energy levels, maximum reps, etc..., and we make adjustments accordingly.
 
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Your written English is very good already! How long does it take you to think about the words to use, is it fluent, or do you need to construct the sentences slowly?
I am not familiar with the actual STANAG classification and requirements, but just by reading what you write you would qualify as a level 3 easily (I work in an industry whose official language is English (aviation, air cargo to be specific), and a lot of people I work with could not write the way you do, and that is still proficient enough for professional communication)

As to how to improve your writing, yes practice is the best advice! Reading newspapers will give you a good exposure to expressions used (reading internet forums will not be ideal although this one is still good, too much variation in levels, you need consistency in vocabulary and expressions to make quick sense of it), listening to the language will give you skills to understand and react quickly, and to end it all you should find a chance to talk as often as you can.
I take it you are of Eastern descend (?), there are many internet groups of people trying to learn a language, where they offer sessions over skype or other conferencing tools where you can have a conversation with a native English speaker and get practiced, and in turn you have a conversation with them in your native language and teach them

read, write, listen, then speak, repeat, and you will be acing that exam in no time! You're doing very well already
 
@ClaudeR Thank you very much for your kind words. You asked about constructing the sentence, well, I'll tell U that somethimes is fluent and some other time is not. I have a lot words in my head, I know what I want to tell or write but when it comes to do that I need to check few of them in the dictionary, just for sure.
The biggest problem I have is with tenses and the/an/a. As U can see there is a lot things that I have to learn.
 
@mikhael ... keep it up. It is a skill just like strength. So practice is key. Like we have all said, your command of English is pretty good already. I will point out a couple of things to watch out for however. In this age of technology many people get sloppy with their writing, especially on Internet forums. I am guilty of this as well. We use lots of abbreviations and things that aren't even words. I know that it is for the sake of convenience but none the less it's not proper English.
For instance in your last post you used "U" instead of "you".
I am not being critical, just trying to help.

Do you know the actually spelling requirements of your test? Does it matter if you spell words the 'American' way or the way many 'British Commonwealth' countries do?

For instance: colour versus color, specialize versus specialise etc.

Anyway, all the best, and if there is anything we can do to help, I'm sure that you just have to ask.
 
It is like you just said, if I will need help all I will have to do is ask. The Strong First Forum is a great place where people from all around the world are helping other pepole from all around the world :)
As to the English exam I will use an example. Here are an exemplary of tests for all skills:
Listening test in military English on level 2
SLP 2222 – oral exam format
STANAG 6001 reading test, level 2
SLP 2222 – English exam – writing
What do you think of them? Are they hard for you or not so hard?
 
What do you think of them? Are they hard for you or not so hard?
@Kozushi Sir, I have no problem with reading and listening. I'm doing a tests almost every day and it's becoming even easier. As about speaking, I have met a friend who had been on a course for 6 months last year and he has improved his English. Furthermore, his wife is studying English philology. We had talked for 2h, in English of course, and they said consentaneously that my speaking English is very good. I do not know how it is possible because I have never spoke in English for that long before. So, right now I will have to focus on writing. I am going to write a reports to them and they will check my writing skil.
 
Mikhael

I would like to encourage your efforts to learn English. I am only modestly proficient in a few non-native languages (Russian, Spanish), but I really enjoy the process. Time and well-directed effort are key - try to stay patient. I don't know if you have access to or could afford Pimsleur products - I have loaded some of them on my phone and find them to be helpful, in particular for spoken language.

Best of luck.
 
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