madmoiZelle speaks English : atelier débat

[Mircea Austen]

Don't mind me but there are some little mistakes that need to be corrected. Since they are very common mistakes, I guess everyone should know

- "the last month" : you don't need an article here; we all know it's October. If you wanted to say "ces derniers mois", the last few months" would have been correct.
- "make a progress" : Then again, no article. You just say "make progress" (in French, it is "avancer"). To say "progresser", choose the verb "improve".
- "wanting for me" : I think you wanted to write "waiting"
- "since 5 month" : First, don't forget the S at the end of "month", there are 5 of them.
Then, you say "for 5 months". You use "since" when you have a precise moment or a date. "For five months" is a duration.
"For" and "since" are both translated by "depuis" in French but depending on the context, you use either "for" or "since".



Edit : I just read your previous comment, please be careful with the irregular verbs, if you have to take an exam soon, this is the thing you must master!

Thank you so much ! It has been a while since I last wrote in english !

(Please, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, "I last wrote in english" seems to me weird..)

 

[Asmea]

"Since I last wrote in english" is absolutly correct !
Though you would better say "seems weird to me" instead of what you wrote

I'm sorry if I cannot detail it though, in both french and english I usually know what the right thing is, but I'm just so so bad in grammar and all that technical stuff

 

[Allie59]

@Asmea In fact, grammar is hard to learn because you need to practice english and pay attention to details you do not even know.
@Mircea Austen Yeah Hemingway ! I will read The Snows of Kilimanjaro when I have time... Otherwise, there's the English press

But anyway, we will become super bilingual

 

[Asmea]

@Allie59 : The thing is, I speak english everyday as I'm currently living in Sweden , but speaking it on a daily basis is still way different from writing ! When you speak it it's easy to get it right because of the "feeling", like in French when you know it's right because something else would just sound bad But when you write, somehow you think more because you have to think of the spelling and all that stuff, and im my opinion that's when you start making mistakes because you end up overthinking things At least that's the way it works for me and why I can't stand grammatical stuff

@Howling : If you don't t find any english book that could interest you at the moment, why not try to read one of your favorite french book (written by an english writer of course) in its original language ? Sometimes it can be a completly different experience ! (like Game of Thrones' french translation just sucks so much in my opinion While of course the original version is a masterpiece )

Anyway, I didn't mention it in my first post but this topic is such a nice idea ! Let's level up France's english level girls

 

[Howling]

@Asmea : Yes, you're right ! Maybe I can start with Harry Potter books And Game of Thrones I'm hesitating/I hesitate (I never know which one is right ), because I watch the TV show and I don't want to spoil me with the books.. Do you know wichc book refers to season 4 ?

 

[Asmea]

@Howling : Ahah I remember the first book I ever tried to read in english was actually the seventh Harry Potter book because it wasn't out in France yet Good choice ! About Game of Thrones, I'm not done with the books yet and only read the 1st one so far (I have the 4 first ones but left them in France for now ), so I can't be sure about the one-s- referring to season 4.
Moreover, as it is everytime a book is adapted into a serie, they end up mixing content between different books in a single season in the TV show. I guess you can read the first 2 books quite safely without being spoiled. However, I'd not guarantee anything about the 3rd book (as it's split into 2 clearly different parts, where in each part the really focus and develop a special area/character as I've been told, so maybe there you have a chance to be spoiled).
Anyway, the 1st and 2nd book is already quite a lot to read ! And maybe after these ones you will not be able to stop As good as the serie can be, the books are always so much more detailed

About I'm hesitating/I hesistate", spontaneously I would have said "I'm hesitating", because it's your current state, an action of your mind, and that the puprose of the gerund (gérondif in french) : "a noun formed from a verb, denoting an action or state" as mightly internet told me So if it's the gerund you have to use here it's correct ? I hope I'm not messing up your brain as much as I'm messing up with mine

 

[Howling]

@Asmea : Just like me ! I didn't want to wait until the launch of the french book
Thanks for the help, maybe I will purchase the first Game of Thrones this week.. I hope I could find it in english. I'm in Germany now for my exchange semester and I can't read a book in German at all !
The problem is that I know I could not stop read the books, I will have to choice between the TV show and the books when I will finish the second book But I have time, the books are very long..

Ahah thank you for the rule ! This difference just get me confused for a loooong time

 

[Asmea]

@Howling : I remember finding the first 4 books in a nice box on Amazon, if you don't find them in libraries ! If you're in a big city you should be able to find a library selling books in english !
Where are you in Germany ? I hope it's going well for you !

Also I found a few mistakes in your post, if you don't mind me correcting them (I put it in spoilers in case you do )

Spoiler

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[Mircea Austen]

@Melissa your favorite editor has accepted to correct my essays, she is so cute Last night we went to a poetry bar where I read a poem, it was so embarrassing TT But I'm even more afraid when I have to write in english... I had this horrible teacher who insulted me in front of all my friends in High School, since that day I'm always a little bit anxious when I have to speak or write english, which is ironical because I have absolutely no problem to understand or read it.... I can read some very complicated book in english for my studies, so I'm probably not so bad... I hope ?
In fact I think I'm, it's just that it is always complicated to learn a language that you didn't like. But thanks to my travels I like it now, even the australian accent !
I know that my test will be much more complicated, but I think that if I'm carefull I can avoid a lot of mistakes... After all, it is just a 200 word essay !


...
I just realize that it was not a "ECM in english", but a "workshop debate" but to be honest I don't really see a theme.... Somebody can enlighten me ?

 

[Melissa]

@Melissa your favorite editor has accepted to correct my essays, she is so cute Last night we went to a poetry bar where I read a poem, it was so embarrassing TT But I'm even more afraid when I have to write in english... I had this horrible teacher who insulted me in front of all my friend in High School, since that day I'm always a little bit anxious when I have to speak or write english, which is ironical because I have absolutely no problem to understand or read it.... I can read some very complicated book in english for my studies, so I'm probably not so bad... I hope ?
In fact I think I'm, it's just that it is always complicated to learn a language that you didn't like. But thanks to my travels I like it now, even the australian accent !
I know that my test will be much more complicated, but I think that if I'm carefull I can avoid a lot of mistakes... After all, it is just a 200 word essay !


...
I just realize that it was not a "ECM in english", but a "workshop debate" but to be honest I don't really see a theme.... Somebody can enlighten me ?

You've been so brave - and you are so talented ! And
And no, you are far from being bad ! You're gonna rock it baby !

 

[Howling]

@Asmea : I live in a very small city, but I can go to a "big" city this weekend to buy them. Otherwise I will see on Amazon !
'm near Kassel, it is in the middle of Gemrany, the middle of nowhere Where do you live ? Not in France I saw...

No, it's ok to correct me ! I'm here for that, I know I'm doing mistakes and I'm happy if someone can correct me ! So thank you to help me to improve my english In fact I can understand but it's always complicate to me to write That's why I want to read in english !

 

[Laetare]

@Howling Have you also considered reading the Hunger Games and Divergent trilogies (if you're still looking for something to read in English and interested in these books)? I haven't read them myself yet, but I heard they were not too hard to understand...

And hey I know Kassel ! I mean I've never actually been there, but I used to live in Frankfurt and I remember hearing "richtung Kassel" or stuff like that on the radio during the traffic reports
(Yeeeep so that was completely useless )

(Tell me if you want me to delete the part about Kassel later...)