Drallon and Samand, you are correct in saying the baker’s cake will probably taste better even though they both followed the same recipe. The baker’s experience will prevail.
The same is true with learning English, a student may have the recipe (grammar rules) but a lack of experience may cause confusion with its implementation.
Furthermore, learning grammar will impart knowledge but will not give an understanding. To acquire an understanding requires reading, writing, speaking and thinking in English with a teacher or tutor to guide the learner. This may be a root cause of why a person can study English for years and still not be able to communicate in English.
An example of this is a student who studies English for the sole purpose of passing an English test, in this case, they may memorize the anticipated answers, but knowing the rules is not enough.
By contrast, a two-year old child does not know any rules but figures out how to communicate and become fluent in two-three years. An adult has an advantage over a child because they have more knowledge.
I have interviewed people from Mexico concerning how long it took them to reach their level of English fluency, the answer was 6 months, from knowing little to no English to fluency.
How did they do it? Because they were in an “English only” working environment. Therefore, if they wanted anything, they had to learn the English word for it and speak it. They did not take any English classes either!
They learned what we call, “on the fly” such as Japanese companies use “just in time” inventory control. In other words, learning as you go along.
Many people that aspire to learn English do not have the opportunity to be in an English only environment. However, they may forfeit other opportunities.
For example, take the Englishbaby website. There are literally thousands of people who visit this website and only a very few take the opportunity to write a response to the lessons. You do not want to miss writing opportunities and keep the knowledge in your mind.
A person can have a four-word English vocabulary and can say in response to a lesson, “I like it” or “I do not like it” and then expand from that foundation.
Take myself for an example. Spanish and Japanese I am learning and aspire to learn Chinese. I can speak more Japanese than Spanish because I worked in a Japanese environment for 26 years and a Spanish-speaking environment for 3 years.
Therefore, when I encounter a Spanish or Japanese speaking person, I use my limited vocabulary to try to communicate in those languages. When I go to a Chinese restaurant, I tell them “thank you” in Chinese and ask the server how to say other words in Chinese and I write them down.
My point is this, take every opportunity to use whatever you have and start communicating in English. Do not be afraid of making mistakes; even fluent people make mistakes!
Concerning the word “the,” fortunately, it is the easiest of all grammar rules and used before a noun to introduce it. In the case of “future,” this word can be a noun or used as an adjective. Here are some examples:
“Laws can shape the future”
“Future” in this sentence is a noun indicating an idea about specific things relating to laws that are to come. Therefore, use “the” before future.
“Let’s discuss future goals”
Future in this example is an adjective indicating discussing various goals in a general sense, however, if it referred to specific goals of a noun, then you would use “the.” For example, Let us discuss the future goals of the company.
Irene, I plan to go into more detail concerning future tenses next time.
|