Language

[msheesha 548]

Hi All,

I'm looking to hear about what others have done to improve your SO's language.

Our situation ~ husband has been here for several months, his English is good to me. I know what he's saying and/or trying to say. I'm used to his "accent" and pronunciation, and use of some French words (sparingly) when it's similar to the English word.

His work/office is with a couple of other people, and one of the guys speaks Italian, (which my husband also speaks). If my husband's ever in a pinch/taking longer to understand the English, the guy will talk Italian.

So, we'd really like to improve his conversational English and gain more confidence in his English comprehension.

Anyone take any of the university ESL classes? They're for adults who have a foundation but need vocabulary, conversation, professional situational help with English. Seem to be geared towards professors, doctors, graduate students, etc.

The other thought we had is using a family member who teaches ESL and having him work on conversational improvement.

What did others do whose spouses wanted to improve at this level?

Thanks

[moroccogirlny 100]

My husband took ESL at our library. Also online language websites.

[UmmSqueakster 54]

AbuS took an ESL course aimed at new immigrants and refugees when he first arrived, but for the most part, he's improved his english on his own. He reads a lot of news stories, and when he comes across a word he doesn't know, he looks it up, asks me how to pronounce it and commits it to memory. He practices writing and has someone proof read and smooth it out. And, when we speak, he's asked me to correct any pronunciation problem he has. It's a bit tedious, but it's really helped to reduce his accent. It's still there, but he's much easier to understand now than when he first came.

[MrsAmera 41]

Most universities do offer ESL classes targeted just on pronunciation/ speech. My husband has been taking ESL classes for awhile now and has started actual university classes this semester. Part of it I think is really just time. I noticed that the more he is reading, the faster his vocabulary is improving. I work hard to find him books that he will think are interesting.

[ErikaAndHamit 73]

Community college ESL courses are cheaper than at the U. The ones at the library are free and a great starter before officially registering.

[sandinista! 1,816]

My husband did placement testing and everything, but at least where we live, neither comm college courses nor university ones seem to be scheduled in any way conducive to working a full time job during daytime hours. My husband works almost 60 hours a week, does not want to miss work because missed time is overtime, and there's literally nothing offered in the evening late enough to work for him. It's pretty frustrating. There are all kinds of offerings for lower level skills, but once you hit a certain competency, a whole lot of doors get shut. It really doesn't make any sense to me at all.

[msheesha 548]

We ran into that a little bit as far as the competency.

He was enrolled immediately in the welcoming center/ nationalities service center ESL classes, and even though he was in the advanced classes, he was surprised that people have lived here for years and spoke less English than he did. (they were in the same class as he was).

Thankfully, the university classes do have evening classes. The next "semester" starts in March. So, hoping to get him into that.

Thanks for the suggestion about community college. Will look into that & see if it's less expensive.

Appreciate everyone's help.

MrsAmera - I wish my husband read more. He's not into novels, etc. Only policitics, newspapers. He misses his Moroccan newspapers and does a lot of online reading of news/politics etc. Wish he would read more!

Thanks everyone!

[And_Sam 44]

We have adult education ESL classes that are available in our county. My husband took one course in the spring at one center then transferred to a different center because the other one catered to spanish speaking people. He had to do a placement test for what level he is at. They have 6 levels and once he becomes proficient enough he will transfer to the community college and it'll go towards credits on a degree.

Google adult education in your county and see what do they have set up in the ESL. Hey, I'm happy with the free classes as long as they work!

[Nasturtium 500]

Ammar tried out two different kinds of ESL classes and quit both, deciding they were stupid. The last one was at the University. They were repeating like sounds, "Bird, word, nerd," and he ended saying "#######" and then got up and left. He said that was the last straw. (That was one of the best stories he has told me yet.)

Honestly it just takes time and more time than they want it to take. Now Ammar is much better than before-- in that he has more confidence and makes far less grammar and such mistakes. Now that he's into his PhD program and I'm editing his rough drafts, I can safely say he can write about a page and usually only make 1-2 mistakes per page. This makes 16 pages easier when he gives that to me. This in comparison to his MS thesis which was 99 pages and incredibly Engrish at times. He did that in Jordan though. Now he has to attend class and speak, work, read like 500pgs/week, and do school things-- so there is a lot more exposure to the language and usage.

[MrsAmera 41]

msheesha - it took me a long time to find something that he found interesting enough to read. What I found he liked were books by Moroccan authors. He's read two books by Leila Lalami (The Secret Son and Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits), The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (that one took a little more effort to get into). Right now he's reading A Life Full of Holes: A Novel Recorded and Translated by Paul Bowles by Driss ben Hamed Charhadi. Although they are in English I think he can relate to the places, some of the language and stories so it's easier to grasp.

[Vanessa1 7]

Hi All,

I'm looking to hear about what others have done to improve your SO's language.

Our situation ~ husband has been here for several months, his English is good to me. I know what he's saying and/or trying to say. I'm used to his "accent" and pronunciation, and use of some French words (sparingly) when it's similar to the English word.

His work/office is with a couple of other people, and one of the guys speaks Italian, (which my husband also speaks). If my husband's ever in a pinch/taking longer to understand the English, the guy will talk Italian.

So, we'd really like to improve his conversational English and gain more confidence in his English comprehension.

Anyone take any of the university ESL classes? They're for adults who have a foundation but need vocabulary, conversation, professional situational help with English. Seem to be geared towards professors, doctors, graduate students, etc.

The other thought we had is using a family member who teaches ESL and having him work on conversational improvement.

What did others do whose spouses wanted to improve at this level?

Thanks

Believe it or not, there are a TON of resources on YouTube. When my husband first got here he was on it all the time. We have a headset that he could put on with a microphone so I'd just hear him practicing sounds and pronunciations. They also have a lot of videos on customer service, dealing with American customers, job interview skills, American life, etc. At each stage of his transition here he's been able to find a bunch of help there. We talk about it too. There are even a bunch of videos on American slang and sayings. I also ordered him a dictionary and a book with American idioms. My grandmother says she can understand him a lot better now and he's been here just over 6 months.

My husband said that one of the biggest problems he was having was that when he learned English in Morocco it was more of the British English flavor and that he was taught by Moroccans who didn't know the accent so pronunciation was a big issue for him. He's taking classes now too and has permission from his professors to record the class and then I type up his notes and we talk about it. The understanding/misunderstandings can go both ways. It's a process but he really is improving. For my end, I see how hard he is working on English and I think about how much I have to learn for Darija.

I hope this helps and best of luck!

[Vanessa1 7]

msheesha - it took me a long time to find something that he found interesting enough to read. What I found he liked were books by Moroccan authors. He's read two books by Leila Lalami (The Secret Son and Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits), The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (that one took a little more effort to get into). Right now he's reading A Life Full of Holes: A Novel Recorded and Translated by Paul Bowles by Driss ben Hamed Charhadi. Although they are in English I think he can relate to the places, some of the language and stories so it's easier to grasp.

My husband LOVES Paul Bowles! He recently picked up The Boy who Set the Fire. (That may not be the exact title, but it's close.)

[Yass 0]

I was in the same boat as your husband, I speak Fluently French and Italian, but I cannot write a sentence in Arabic. Yeah I'm Moroccan, but Arabic was never the language we spoke at home. English was pretty hard for me to pronounce, what I did was taking ESL classes as well I start volunteering in my community in order to interact with people and make new local friends.

I improved my writing by opening a blog online, so I forced myself to write and interact everyday with my followers about subjects I find interesting .

[KittyPollitt 284]

Hi All,

I'm looking to hear about what others have done to improve your SO's language.

Our situation ~ husband has been here for several months, his English is good to me. I know what he's saying and/or trying to say. I'm used to his "accent" and pronunciation, and use of some French words (sparingly) when it's similar to the English word.

His work/office is with a couple of other people, and one of the guys speaks Italian, (which my husband also speaks). If my husband's ever in a pinch/taking longer to understand the English, the guy will talk Italian.

So, we'd really like to improve his conversational English and gain more confidence in his English comprehension.

Anyone take any of the university ESL classes? They're for adults who have a foundation but need vocabulary, conversation, professional situational help with English. Seem to be geared towards professors, doctors, graduate students, etc.

The other thought we had is using a family member who teaches ESL and having him work on conversational improvement.

What did others do whose spouses wanted to improve at this level?

Thanks

My present husband learned a lot about conversational english just from watching American movies with Arabic subtitles over the years. My ex husband, who is from Nepal, had a very thick accent, and we worked on it together by doing repetitive tongue twisters together. After several months of practicing, his accent improved greatly and it was a lot of fun doing them together

[Aly174 9]

I actually taught a semester of conversational English while I was in Egypt . I used videos, songs and various interactive games with my class. I didn't lose a single student and the reports I got from people outside of the class were that my students really enjoyed the class and felt it was helping them. Obviously, the best way of improving is repetition, growing into and becoming confident in one's language skills...in short it takes time and determination. Even those of us who have spoken English our entire lives occasionally will over some words or grammar here and there. Try to keep it fun because otherwise it can become so frustrating. My husband is fluent, just occasionally getting hung up with the "b" and "p" or meanings of our slang, he watched tons of movies,TV shows and youtube videos in addition to really listening to music lyrics. He is someone that has to know exactly how to properly pronounce something and will repeat it, write it and keep it to memory and also has to know what every word and phrase he comes across means. Another thing you could do is to get together periodically with friends and have a sort of "game night" there are so many really fun adult games out now that use language and creativity as their basis....so much more than the old days of Scrabble, Pictionary or Charades.