English improvement courses for foreigners?

[Mahjong]

Hi!

I try to expand my business but my English is my only barrier to thrive among my competition, and start to plan for having a "God Mode" (CCarter expression) business.

I'm asking anyone who've learned English but he's a foreigner, he learned English from the basics until he was able to produce well written content for his website visitors, to help me and anyone who's suffering from Engrish syndromes.

This post meant to be a reference for who suffers from the same issue, collecting as much information to guide them.

Also we welcome any native English speaker and writer, to give us advices, help us to cross those issues out of our lists.

P.S: My native language is Chinese.

 

[dsoul]

I'm no expert, and have poor English and grammar skills myself (even though I'm from England lol), but reading out loud could help.

At my kids school, to improve their English and speech, they made a point a few years ago of setting the kids books to read (Roald Dahl/Enid Blyton etc), and making them read out loud to the parents as homework. This continued for a whole year. We had to sign a card in their homework planner to say we had listened to them. It really did help my daughter.

Maybe by reading well written English literature out loud, the more you say the words, and sentence structure, the more it will "stick".

It's got to be better than reading in your head.

Like anything, practice makes perfect.

P.S Your English typing isn't too bad (I see much worse online!). A few mismatches, but you will easily get better with persistence.

 

[Joe]

I'd recommend you start by listing out all the functional differences between your language and English. If its just for online content then set aside the pronunciation aspects.

For instance, I'm guessing Chinese doesn't have pluralization of words, because your plurals are off. Also in the first paragraph you used Present Simple (incorrect) but in the second paragraph you correctly used Present Continuous. That could indicate a difference between grammar forms in the two languages.

After you have that list you know what to focus on when you're writing to avoid "foreigner sounding" mistakes. You can then pay someone to proof-read it (make sure he adds explanatory notes to corrections) and then learn from that proof reading result.

But based on your writing you're not far off from good English in your content. Maybe 70% mark. Unfortunately you have to have it over 95% for English speakers not to assume it's foreign.

 

[Mahjong]

I'm guessing Chinese doesn't have pluralization of words...

Yes. There are no plurals in Chinese.
Thanks for your advice.

 

[Curiouscat]

Not a native speaker myself, my English improved a lot when I started to read books, well written newspaper articles and watch movies. And I use Grammarly when I write.

There are usually a few typical mistakes people make over and over again when they mix their native language structure or words with English. Try to identify and avoid them.

 

[Tao]

Also we welcome any native English speaker and writer, to give us advices, help us to cross those issues out of our lists.

Should be "advice"

I would use a tool such as Grammarly to help with your general writing. Even the free version picks up quite a lot of stuff - not all of it 100% correct though - so be careful.

 

[Mahjong]

This is my last day here, I learned a lot, who will read my post please know this is not only for me it's for anyone who suffers from the same issue.

So please leave any "advice" you may find it useful to us.

Thank You.

 

[Vert]

I'm Spanish but I hang around English websites and communities. My grammar could be a little poor on many occasions, but I think it's enough to let other understand me.

My advice is that you read in English all you could. Little by little you'll become more and more fluent with this language.

As others have said, Grammarly could be a great help.