Du ju spik ingliš?

[zoran845]

I was thinking about this problem of how we learn what words mean, yesterday morning after I'd read your letter. We have a young nephew staying with us here for part of the Christmas holidays, so I decided to find out how he learnt words. So at tea-time I asked him: "Peter, what's a jungle?" (I was sure he knew the word; I wanted to know how he'd learnt it.) "Don't you know, uncle?" he said. "They have jungles in India. They're full of tigers and elephants. Jungles are hot and steamy. And branches come down from the trees like ropes, and monkeys swing about on them."
Well, you see, Peter knew what an Indian jungle was like. He said he'd learnt all that from his reading, probably from Kipling's "Jungle Books", and from other adventure stories. I'm sure he didn't go to his dictionary when he first met the word. It's possible, of course, that Peter learnt the word by seeing Tarzan films or picture strips, but even in that case, he learnt the word by seeing or hearing, not from a dictionary.
Read a chapter quickly, and then go back and read it more slowly. This time, use your reference books when necessary. But try to judge what is worth looking up and what can be ignored.

[zoran845]

Let me take you back to Tokyo to illustrate what I mean. One of our best English essayists is a man called Max Beerbohm. On those Kanda bookshelves there was a book of English essays, and among the essays was one by Beerbohm called Ichabod. To those of us who know the Bible the name is familiar, but in Japan the Bible is not much read. The owner of this book of essays had been very thorough. First he had looked up the pronunciation, probably in Jones's "English Pronouncing Dictionary", and had noted it in red pencil in the margin. Then he had gone to an encyclopaedia and copied from it a long note, twenty or thirty words, explaining who Ichabod was: a grandson of Eli. And a note about where Ichabod is mentioned in the Bible - the First Book of Samuel.
Now all that was a waste of time and effort. This essay of Max Beerbohm's is about a piece of luggage that was covered with labels - the kind you get from hotels and travel agents. The piece of luggage was sent to have the locks repaired, and when it came back all the labels had been cleaned off. Beerbohm was sorry, because the labels reminded him of his travels. So he used "Ichabod" as the title of his amusing essay. A reader not knowing Ichabod would want to know what the title meant. But a dictionary (the Concise Oxford, for example) tells you that Ichabod is a Hebrew word, used as an exclamation of regret: "The glory has departed". That's quite enough, isn't it?
The Japanese, like Germans, are very thorough. But there are times when being thorough is a waste of time and energy. So when you're reading, don't hunt out every word or reference that's new to you. Try to judge its importance.
You'll tell me it's difficult very often, for you to judge whether an unknown word or reference is important or not. I agree that this is often true. But it's not always difficult. You're going to be an architect, so words used in architecture are important to you. If you're reading a travel book, and there are descriptions of abbeys, churches, and cathedrals, you'll perhaps find the words "transept" and "clerestory". If they're new to you, you'll look them up. They're words that belong to your subject. But if the reader is a medical student, uninterested in architecture, he could pass them by. They're not at all necessary for his enjoyment of the book. I'm not an expert in architecture, but my ignorance of some architectural words does not prevent me from enjoying beautiful churches and cathedrals. When I go to Europe I take a "Blue Guide" or "Baedeker" with me. I read them when I go to see a cathedral or an old palace. If, as is sometimes the case, there are technical words I don't know, I don't worry about my ignorance.

[Bryan Fury]

caine kaže:

Uuu, ima svakakvih gluposti u prevodima, narocito u naslovima filmova... npr:

-Doom Generation - Dum generacija
-The Faculty - Fakultet straha (desava se u srednjoj skoli)...

Prevod filmova je bedno plaćen u većini slučajeva (mislim 30€ po filmu, tu negde). Tako da se ozbiljan prevodilac uopšte neće zamlaćivati s tim - to će obično uzeti da prevodi onaj kome "gori pod nogama" što se tiče para, ili oni što po halo oglasima naplaćuju prevod 100 dinara strani. Rezultat naravno ne može biti kvalitetan, što se i vidi iz primera.

[zoran845]

When I read my "Times" these days I often find articles about the uses of atomic energy. There are always words that I don't know - and some of them are so new that they're not yet in the dictionaries. But I'm slowly beginning to understand what some of the words mean - simply by meeting them so often.

Well, that's my advice to you. I hope you'll find it helpful. It isn't perfect, I know. There will be times when, if you decide not to look up a reference, you'll miss something that may be important. If you were reading British history, for example, and came across the name "Ulster", you would not be wise to pass it by. Even if you looked it up in an Atlas and found that it was the northern part of Ireland, you'd still be without the information you ought to have. Ulster is the only province of Ireland that did not break away from the United Kingdom in 1922. It's Protestant, the other three provinces (now called Eire) being Catholic. This bit of knowledge is very necessary to a student of British history.
But I feel I'm right in advising you not to be too thorough in your use of reference books - except when you're studying your own special subject. If you're too thorough, you'll lose heart and perhaps give up.
There's an old English proverb, "Give not counsel or salt till you are asked". You did ask me for advice! Does salt come into your Spanish proverbs, I wonder? "Help me to salt and you help me to sorrow" is another of our old English sayings. We think it's unlucky to spill salt, and if we do, we have to throw a little salt over the left shoulder - to keep the bad luck away.
I mustn't start writing about proverbs and popular beliefs, or I'll never finish.

Good luck to you in your reading. Do write again, and if you think I can help you in any way, please don't hesitate to ask.

Yours ever,
John Churchman

[darko90]

Jes majkemu ili jos bolje Yes of Skroz

[Lokigodofirendlies]

Ma ne vredi se baktati sa skolom i kursevima IGRE su najbolji ucitelji jer nema gledanja kroz prste(ajd da vidim nekog da predje Fallout kako su to autori zamislili a da ne zna dobro engleski) a i igras se u slobodno vreme pa ti je i koncetracija na max
Da mi ne bi igara i anima bez prevoda na srpski(sa eng sinhronizacijom) sad bi viko I have to powder my knees

[zoran845]

Uči se jezik iz svega: knjiga, serija, filmova, stripova, pa i iz igara. Avanture su (kao i RPGs) odlične za učenje jezika.

[Iron Maiden]

MMORPG's are the ultimate way of learning foreign language (offcourse, this way you can learn english, and , ummmm japanese...) I developed one rly bad habbit, i keep using leet acronyms while i speak (like, my friend says something dumb, and i yell WTF?)... I have became tr00 gamer, the one who has no life at all

[Bryan Fury]

Lokigodofirendlies kaže:

Ma ne vredi se baktati sa skolom i kursevima IGRE su najbolji ucitelji jer nema gledanja kroz prste(ajd da vidim nekog da predje Fallout kako su to autori zamislili a da ne zna dobro engleski)

Mmm... kako da ne.

[Neky]

... "plemenito drvo", odnosno ono drvo za izradu unutrašnjosti mercedesa i sličnih stvari. nešto kao orah, mahagoni, ebanovina... molim vas, hitno je. hvala unapred.

[Skols]

na brzinu.. "noble tree/wood"

[Neky]

Može li još neka pomoć? Hvala svima unapred.

[Sun Tzu]

Hm... Uvek možeš da kažeš high quality wood.

[Bryan Fury]

Kod automobila (ako su u pitanju automobili, nije mi do kraja jasno), se to zove jednostavno "wood trim". Ako je baš neko fancy drvo, moglo bi se reći "rich wood trim", ili "finest quality wood", itd. Ako može malo konkretnije šta ti treba?

[shrafko]

Wood trim bi označavalo da je nešto samo urađeno u drvetu, bez detaljnijeg objašnjenja o samoj vrsti drveta.

Ako se radi o mahagoniju, mahogany (wood)trim ili mahogany (wood) finish bili bi precizniji izrazi.

Treba imati u vidu da vrste koje ti navodiš (mahagonij, ebanovina), spadaju u tzv. "hardwood" (što btw nema nikakve veze sa "tvrdoćom" samog drveta). Stoga bi ti generički izraz bio "hardwood finish".

[Neky]

To to, hardwood, to sam video na stranim sajtovima. Nešto ću izmuvati, hvala svoj trojici.

[mciggzy]

lol, tema me inspirisala da sastavim mali video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtJhPULO0TY

[A M G]

mciggzy kaže:

lol, tema me inspirisala da sastavim mali video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtJhPULO0TY

Hehe, dobar posao si odradio sa ovim "titlovima"!

[NjegovaWisost]

Svako predlaže neki sistem učenja, a nema ljeba bez motike, šta je sa deset godina škole i učenja eng na časovima? Eh državo dokle si dogurala....

[Bryan Fury]

Ko je još nešto naučio u školi.