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Off-Topic About learning English and STANAG 6001

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I found listening to the same 75 minute long Korean story-telling CD every time I drive my car has helped a lot. It means I have 75 minutes worth of grammar and vocabulary, which is plenty for handling real life Korean.
 
I am listening English through stories and my favorite one is The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
 
I did some research here on The Academia of Art of War in Warsaw, Poland, and it turned out that estimated time of the exam will come up on 26-27th January 2017. It means I have two months for preparing.
 
I did some research here on The Academia of Art of War in Warsaw, Poland, and it turned out that estimated time of the exam will come up on 26-27th January 2017. It means I have two months for preparing.
Read, read ,read!!!
 
For spoken english, imagine yourself imitating an American speaking. Imagine how an American speaking Polish with a very thick American accent would sound and sort of do that mode when speaking english. Learn what the most common pronunciation issues are for Polish speakers learning english and work on them as syllables. I have friends in Bulgaria and their english proficiency is all over the place, some speak it near perfectly (they started as very young kids) and others started well into their 20s and will struggle with pronunciations. I have helped them a bit by just speaking to them (they usually have issues with the TH sound or a J sound). Figure what ever sounds have the biggest issue for you and work on making those sounds (a drill I gave my friend was "Think the thought that matters" and just told her to repeat it as it uses most of the TH sounds in english and they should all sound slightly different her first time sounded like "tink ta tout that matters).

I would avoid non-rhotic English. Its the kind used in the UK, Australia, South Africa, and a few parts of the US. Its when you pronounce the R at the end of a word as more of a "aw" sound. So car sounds like caw. Refrigerator sounds sort of like Refrigeratah. While both are 'correct' I would go with the more enunciated North American English.

Other than that. Just practice.
 
Thank you a lot, Sir.
I have a date of the exam and as I supposed it will be on 26-27th January, 2017.
 
Ok, so I wrote my first letter according to STANAG 6001 writing tasks. It is far from good writing but this is just first step into 'writing in English' world. Actually, it is second step, first I made when I started writing on this great forum.
So, if someone want to read what I have wrote, please read it and feel free to correct it:

The task:

Write a letter to your English friend with whom you were on a peacekeeping
Talk about: moving house; what your new house is like; what is good and bad about your
new neighbourhood; a problem you had with your new neighbour; the party next week
(invite your friend).

My answer:

Dear Tom,


Nice to hear you again. How are you? How your familly? Guess from where I am writing to you? Of course, you do not know, but I am writing to you from my new house I have bought last week. My new house is almost like I dreamed about it. Is located on the North-West edge of the Warsaw City centre. It cost me a lot of money but It worth it. There are two rooms in my new house, a badroom and a kitchen. The air is great because of the forest, which is located about 200 meters North from my hause.


There are five neighbours in the neighborhoods. Three of them are a soldiers, one is a doctor and one is a teacher from the nearest school. I think it is great to have the doctor as a neighbour as well as the soldiers. This people are very nice and helpful to me, although we had a little fight with the doctor. He is a peacefull person and do not like me through my occupation. I had to explain to him for what I am responsible in my job and I think he understood it.


In conclusion, I would like to invite you to a party, which I and me new neighbours are going to make in next Friday. I will show you my new house and the neighborhood.


Yours,


Mike.
 
Mike. This is very good. There are some minor spelling and grammatical errors, but I completely understood the story. If I get some time later this evening I will offer you some corrections with your permission.
Unless of course someone beats me to it.
 
For spoken english, imagine yourself imitating an American speaking. Imagine how an American speaking Polish with a very thick American accent would sound and sort of do that mode when speaking english. Learn what the most common pronunciation issues are for Polish speakers learning english and work on them as syllables. I have friends in Bulgaria and their english proficiency is all over the place, some speak it near perfectly (they started as very young kids) and others started well into their 20s and will struggle with pronunciations. I have helped them a bit by just speaking to them (they usually have issues with the TH sound or a J sound). Figure what ever sounds have the biggest issue for you and work on making those sounds (a drill I gave my friend was "Think the thought that matters" and just told her to repeat it as it uses most of the TH sounds in english and they should all sound slightly different her first time sounded like "tink ta tout that matters).

I would avoid non-rhotic English. Its the kind used in the UK, Australia, South Africa, and a few parts of the US. Its when you pronounce the R at the end of a word as more of a "aw" sound. So car sounds like caw. Refrigerator sounds sort of like Refrigeratah. While both are 'correct' I would go with the more enunciated North American English.

Other than that. Just practice.
I agree. Standard English is Northern US & Canadian English.
 
Ok, so I wrote my first letter according to STANAG 6001 writing tasks. It is far from good writing but this is just first step into 'writing in English' world. Actually, it is second step, first I made when I started writing on this great forum.
So, if someone want to read what I have wrote, please read it and feel free to correct it:

The task:

Write a letter to your English friend with whom you were on a peacekeeping
Talk about: moving house; what your new house is like; what is good and bad about your
new neighbourhood; a problem you had with your new neighbour; the party next week
(invite your friend).

My answer:

Dear Tom,


Nice to hear you again. How are you? How your familly? Guess from where I am writing to you? Of course, you do not know, but I am writing to you from my new house I have bought last week. My new house is almost like I dreamed about it. Is located on the North-West edge of the Warsaw City centre. It cost me a lot of money but It worth it. There are two rooms in my new house, a badroom and a kitchen. The air is great because of the forest, which is located about 200 meters North from my hause.


There are five neighbours in the neighborhoods. Three of them are a soldiers, one is a doctor and one is a teacher from the nearest school. I think it is great to have the doctor as a neighbour as well as the soldiers. This people are very nice and helpful to me, although we had a little fight with the doctor. He is a peacefull person and do not like me through my occupation. I had to explain to him for what I am responsible in my job and I think he understood it.


In conclusion, I would like to invite you to a party, which I and me new neighbours are going to make in next Friday. I will show you my new house and the neighborhood.


Yours,


Mike.
Very good. I understand everything very well.

Next time, be careful about singular and plural.

"a soldiers" doesn't make sense because "a" means "one".

"Do" is plural. "Does" is singular 3rd person.

"This" is singular. "These" is plural.
 
Mike,
I made a few suggestions for you, without trying to alter too much. My changes are in bold text. They are not perfect changes, and others may have different suggestions. But like I said earlier you did a really good job. Your practice is showing. Keep at it. Don't let up before the test. Another thing... I kept the 'commonwealth english' spellings as opposed to American english. (there are some subtle differences)

Dear Tom,


Nice to hear
from you again. How are you? How is your familly? Guess from where I am writing you? Of course, you do not know, but I am writing to you from my new house I have bought last week. My new house is almost like I dreamed about it. Is located on the North-West edge of the Warsaw City centre. It cost me a lot of money but it was worth it. There are two rooms in my new house, a bathroom and a kitchen. The air is great because of the forest, which is located about 200 meters North from my house.


There are five neighbours. Three of them are soldiers, one is a doctor and one is a teacher from the nearest school. I think it is great to have the doctor as a neighbour as well as the soldiers. This people are very nice and helpful to me, although we had a little fight with the doctor. He is a peacefull person and
does not like me because of my occupation. I had to explain to him what I am responsible for in my job and I think he understood it.


In conclusion, I would like to invite you to a party, which
my new neighbours and I are going to have next Friday. I will show you my new house and the neighborhood.


Yours,


Mike.
 
I'm very appreciate all the help and support you are giving me with my study. I will write more and some of my work I'm going to attache here, so you may correct them at any time. My current goal, which is to past the military exam according to STANAG 6001, is very important and it is a part of bigger idea. I belive I have a chance to reach level 3, and I hope I will do that before next year will end.
 
I did some research here on The Academia of Art of War in Warsaw, Poland, and it turned out that estimated time of the exam will come up on 26-27th January 2017. It means I have two months for preparing.
It means I have two months for preparing.

It means I have two months to prepare.

Honestly brother, if you talk like you write, your English is pretty good and understandable.
 
@Mark Kidd Thank you, Sir.

Here is another letter I wrote. This one I wrote using only a monolingual dictionary, which I bought last week. By the way, it was the best decision I have made to stop translating every word from Polish to English language. I am using Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary 4th Edition.

The task:
Write between 120 – 150 words.
1. You are on a language course abroad. You are not going to classes because you have had an accident. Write an email to your classmate including the following points: your condition; when, where and how the accident happened; how long you are going to be absent; ask about lessons missed; ask your friend to visit you.

My answer:
Dear Paul
Nice to hear from you. How are you? How is your course going? I am writing to you from hospital where I will have to stay until next Friday. I had a car accident last Monday. It was early morning when I was driving to school. The weather was very poor and it had been raining before I left my flat. I was on the main road, suddenly, another car hit mine with very high speed. I lost control and hit in the trees. I was shocked but still alive. I do not know who called for the ambulance but It came very fast
I have broken leg and a lot of bruises. Unfortunately, I will not be able to go on classes for the next two month. Would you come to visit me in hospital and bring the notes from classes with you?
Yours,
Mike.
 
@Mark Kidd Thank you, Sir.

Here is another letter I wrote. This one I wrote using only a monolingual dictionary, which I bought last week. By the way, it was the best decision I have made to stop translating every word from Polish to English language. I am using Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary 4th Edition.

The task:
Write between 120 – 150 words.
1. You are on a language course abroad. You are not going to classes because you have had an accident. Write an email to your classmate including the following points: your condition; when, where and how the accident happened; how long you are going to be absent; ask about lessons missed; ask your friend to visit you.

My answer:
Dear Paul
Nice to hear from you. How are you? How is your course going? I am writing to you from hospital where I will have to stay until next Friday. I had a car accident last Monday. It was early morning when I was driving to school. The weather was very poor and it had been raining before I left my flat. I was on the main road, suddenly, another car hit mine with very high speed. I lost control and hit in the trees. I was shocked but still alive. I do not know who called for the ambulance but It came very fast
I have broken leg and a lot of bruises. Unfortunately, I will not be able to go on classes for the next two month. Would you come to visit me in hospital and bring the notes from classes with you?
Yours,
Mike.
Really good work Mike
 
@Mark Kidd Thank you, Sir.

Here is another letter I wrote. This one I wrote using only a monolingual dictionary, which I bought last week. By the way, it was the best decision I have made to stop translating every word from Polish to English language. I am using Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary 4th Edition.

The task:
Write between 120 – 150 words.
1. You are on a language course abroad. You are not going to classes because you have had an accident. Write an email to your classmate including the following points: your condition; when, where and how the accident happened; how long you are going to be absent; ask about lessons missed; ask your friend to visit you.

My answer:
Dear Paul
Nice to hear from you. How are you? How is your course going? I am writing to you from hospital where I will have to stay until next Friday. I had a car accident last Monday. It was early morning when I was driving to school. The weather was very poor and it had been raining before I left my flat. I was on the main road, suddenly, another car hit mine with very high speed. I lost control and hit in the trees. I was shocked but still alive. I do not know who called for the ambulance but It came very fast
I have broken leg and a lot of bruises. Unfortunately, I will not be able to go on classes for the next two month. Would you come to visit me in hospital and bring the notes from classes with you?
Yours,
Mike.
I know native speakers that cannot write that well.
 
I believe in patience and practice, I don't have too much time before the exam, to be sure. I will write everyday at least one letter or/and one report.
 
I was on the main road, suddenly, another car hit mine with very high speed

"I was on the main road. Suddenly another car hit me at very high speed."

"I was on the main road when suddenly another car hit me at very high speed."

Both the above are acceptable. You may also phrase things differently, e.g.,

"I was driving on the main road when I was hit by another car that was moving very quickly."

"I was driving on the main road when, out of nowhere, another car - that was going very fast - hit me."

-S-
 
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