How do you know english,asian people? [Archive]

pinkypat_6

11-09-2003, 04:30 PM

Asian people in this forum use there english very well. :) so tell me how could you use it well , do you study at an international school, gone overboard or what, or you just use what you learned in every day english class at school. I'm thai but i went to live in canada so i could use english pretty ok . How bout you guys? :happy:

une_topaze

11-09-2003, 05:12 PM

err..in school??? spent 12 yrs of my life learning the proper english grammar and all. in malaysia, english is taught as a secound language in school. my family speaks english at home and i read a lot of novels, that's how i learn my english.

pity though that in the end, when i have my own handphone and email accounts, i started to type lyke dis becoz im not in skool nemore. i'm not saying that my english is good but at least when i talk in english, other people understand what i'm saying.

pinkypat, your english is good. do you speak with a canadian accent too?

pinkypat_6

11-09-2003, 07:02 PM

Yes, i think i speak with canadian accent,thats what others say. nowaday i hardly speak english, no one to talk to. I use my english on this forum, makes me improve alittle and preventing me to forget my english.

kahel

11-09-2003, 09:52 PM

In the Philippines, English is considered as a second language.Our school curriculum includes English as early as Kindergarten. Imagine how long we have been exposed to the English language.Ü Most Filipinos are blingual or multilingual (including dialects).

I used to have this extensive english vocabulary but since I'm trying to learn a new language as of the moment, I think it's getting creakier everyday. *sighs*

I need more practice.

viruskangta

11-10-2003, 02:33 AM

well..i was born in canada lah, and i still live in canada now, so that's why i write(well?) in english..cant say my grammar's rite sometimes though..lol :bleh:

wackycashew

11-10-2003, 02:52 AM

well, i was born in hong kong and learned some english while i was there in elementary school. then my family immigrated to canada when i was 9. since i've basically grown up in canada and i came at a young enough age, my english is pretty good and i don't speak with a chinese accent. i got mistaken for a CBC by some of my chinese friends when i first met them. :sweat: anyway, i'm glad that i have a good mastery of english and still able to understand chinese even after being here for so long. i like to have a good balance of things. heehee... :happy:

sUm^MeR

11-10-2003, 04:21 AM

Well, I still consider my English sucked big time. But well, that's why I'm in this forum. This forum doesn't only give me all the bits about Jay, but I can also learn some slangs and cool terms.

Anyway, I took English private lesson eversince I was 10 years old. I was so obessesed with US, Hollywood, and their actors, so I started to learn English so that I could read the Teen Beat Mags, and such.

I was very blessed to get an opportunity to spend my University years in US. It was the best experience of all. Living there for 4 years had made my English improved a lot; especially the listening part since listening to people converse in English was like my daily bread there.

And after I come back home to INdonesia, I still tried to make a full use of my English by watching unsubtitled TV Shows, and tried my best not to read the subtitle given in the silver screen movies. I talked a lot with my Sporean friends, and make use of this forum as a way to polish my English.

However, it is still imperfect. I still make a lot of mistakes in choosing the right vocabs. But I believe that you learn from mistakes. And practice makes perfect. So... practice, practice and practice. ^^

lil~jo

11-10-2003, 04:21 AM

Well, I'm asian but born in NZ.
So thats probably why my English is fluent.
Though I wish it could be better.
My parents are from Malaysia, and their English is great, such a great command of Englsih.
Mum said that the european government marked they're papers and gave them a curriculm to study from, so thats why many of the Malaysian's english is so good!

cmy_185

11-10-2003, 05:04 AM

English is our second language in Malaysia. but sadly my english is better than my first language cos i use english more than malay, even when speaking with malay friends.

my english is ok. i used to read a lot of novels and books when i was young ( 13 and 14 ) and learned lots of words and vocab. but once i entered higher secondary school. i had no time to read them anymore.just text books. so my english did not improve since then..
i speak canto at home.hehe.i think more in chinese than english.. i'm more obssesed with improving my chinese and learning new languages now though. etc. japanese and korean. a lot of malaysians are bilingual /multilingual too.

pinkypat_6

11-10-2003, 05:36 AM

So..lot's of people have been in canada like me aye,cool! you can really know lots of great vocabs on this forum. Keep on practicing people.
Hey, malaysian peeps mostly speak english, right?
So that when i go to malysia, i could comunicate with more easily...great great!

vunsin

11-10-2003, 05:52 AM

Well, most Malaysians should be able to speak English if they've at least graduated from secondary school (high school). But not all! Some people from my school couldn't speak English (or even read much!) until the day they graduated. :oops: I guess it also depends on family backgrounds and what you do with the English that you've learned.

Most Malaysians (especially the Chinese) are multilingual. At least in my generation we are! Nowadays kids just think it's cool to become bananas. They won't speak Chinese even if they understand it. :-x

Well, I was fortunate because in addition to the English learned in school, my mom also sent me to special English schools to further improve my English skills. I guess she could tell I had a special talent in languages because I was always winning language-related competitions in school. So anyhow, I had studied English (as a subject) since I was 3 until I graduated from secondary school at age 17. After that I started attending college and of course then everything was in English.

Four years ago I came to the U.S. and I've been here ever since. At first I had a Malaysian accent, but now I think it's no longer obvious. I didn't make a conscious effort to get rid of my "accent" because it wasn't like I was ashamed of it or anything. But nowadays, people just assume I'm from around here (Michigan) and they'd be really surprised when they find out I'm not American. I think I've been here too long. :dry: I hope people won't think I'm stuck up or something when I go back to Malaysia and speak English without all the "lah's" and "loh's" and don't pronounce words the British way (like we were taught in school).

yukiko

11-10-2003, 03:57 PM

mmmm..i've learn english when im still a girl. :p n we all have english lesson in skul. maybe my english not good, sometimes i can't write what i mean. but at least i still can get what others mean. its bad..
i wanna learn more n more. but now im learning japanese. so ...i prefer finished my lecture 1st.

panda_shine

11-10-2003, 11:41 PM

I was born in HK and during preschool & kindergarten I learned basic English vocabularly. Then I moved to Canada in grade 1 and just started learning it in school. =)

Charles

11-11-2003, 12:00 AM

i'm from Malaysia n i do speak English >:D..i was sent to English tutorial class when i'm just 7 or 8 years old..it's kinda like forced to..*LoL*..

lil~jo

11-11-2003, 03:34 AM

Charle, you are in Auckland at the moment right?
Your English must be very good, since you'd be sitting your exams quite soon, or infact you might have already finished.

une_topaze

11-11-2003, 07:03 AM

Well, most Malaysians should be able to speak English if they've at least graduated from secondary school (high school). But not all! Some people from my school couldn't speak English (or even read much!) until the day they graduated. :oops: I guess it also depends on family backgrounds and what you do with the English that you've learned.

Most Malaysians (especially the Chinese) are multilingual. At least in my generation we are! Nowadays kids just think it's cool to become bananas. They won't speak Chinese even if they understand it. :-x
i'm going off topic a little here but i noticed that most malays and malaysian chinese have difficulties carrying conversations in english. of course they will graduate from high school but their conversational skill in english is very poor (as long as they get minimal pass is ok lah.... :dry: ). some of them are good grade achievers in school, but they always find that their weekness in english can be a setback from studying overseas. i can actually sees my friends struggling to catch up their lessons which is conducted in english in universities & colleges because they can't digest what's been taught.

the fact that we have SMKJC (almost all subjects are taught in mandarin in this school) doesn't help either (but malaysia indian are good in english, i don't know why). my grandad and dad speaks with a heavy british accents cause they studied during the colonial days... :laughing:

vunsin

11-11-2003, 07:08 AM

Well, une_topaze, while I agree that some people won't be able to carry on a decent conversation in English, I'm glad to say I'm not one of those people. I think it depends on whether you speak English at home or not. Most of the people who do end up as bananas. :dry: Why does it have to be so extreme? :dry: Just for the record, I never spoke English at home, but somehow I just ended up not having problem with English (or any other language that I study). I guess that's the only thing I'm good at. Don't ask me to do math... :oops:

Charles

11-11-2003, 07:29 AM

Charle, you are in Auckland at the moment right?
Your English must be very good, since you'd be sitting your exams quite soon, or infact you might have already finished.
i'm taking NCEA which start this coming wed ..

by the way,most students from the top three classes speak English..i mean back in Malaysia then the other classes behind the top three classes don't usually speak English

snail

11-11-2003, 07:44 AM

I immigrated to Canada when I was 7. (I am 20 now!) so... hmm... if my English WASN"T good...then i would be quite worried :)

When I first came to Canada, I was in ESL (english as a second language) class for one year. After that, I spoke English fluently ;)

smilepiggy

11-11-2003, 09:05 AM

i learnt english since i was like? kingergarden. yea...its all in the education isn;t it? hahas. i still remembers that i almost flunked my english when i was in primary 1 and my mum had to be called to school to see my teacher...but now, i guess my english isnt any better, anyway. but at least i dun fail now...but i still prefer to speak chinese thoughmost pple in school speks english..

E-Ping

11-11-2003, 09:46 AM

Yea....i started to learn English since i was like...in kindergarten.Back then i was six..now i'm 18...i've learnt English for almost 12 years and i'm still learning it in college now.And i wasn't from SRJKC (in M'sia) but i was from a Malay school which focused on not just Malay language but English as well.Other than that..i have always loved languages..and i can do quite well in all the language subjects (well...at least better than those subjects that need u to do all the counting things!) :dry: ...since i love English i tend to watch lots of English movies and listen to many English songs.They really help me a lot.And not forget the English teachers as well.I'm so lucky becoz the teachers who taught me English since kindergarten until high school were all really good.Oh...almost forgot to mention..my English teacher in college now is good too! :laughing:

Don't ask me to do math... :oops:
hahah...vunsin...i guess both of us hate math and can be pretty sux at it! :laughing:

christinetang

11-11-2003, 10:01 AM

Im from the UK, so my english is very good but im Chinese so that makes english as my second language. To be honest with you guys, my english is way better than my chinese as 6 days a week i learn english in my primary school and 2 days i learn chinese at this chinese school over here in the UK but i have graduated (i duno how i did that :oops: )
At home, i talk to my parents using chinese but when it comes to talking with my sisters i talk/shout at them using english.
Sometimes, i wish my chinese is better because if i go to Hong Kong people can always tell that your not from Hong Kong originally because of the way you talk. :cry:
I tend to speak fluent english and people say that im a 'Geordie' but that isnt true because im faced with the english people every day and i sometimes talk like them which i hate!!!
Overall i think that the above people such as Pinkypat, une_topaze,Kahel,etc have really good english from what i can see from these posts. :D

smilepiggy

11-11-2003, 01:29 PM

heh... i take both english and chinese as first languages here though i'm chinese. guess i'm pretty lucky to be living here. though it can be real stressful and competitive and stuff

pinkypat_6

11-11-2003, 05:24 PM

vunsin wrote:
Don't ask me to do math...

hahah...vunsin...i guess both of us hate math and can be pretty sux at it!
Hey, not only you here, me too, my sucking math skills make me hate it. I do good in other subjects. if you were looking at my exam results you'd see the math stand out( bad resutls). you just never get good at it how much you try,oh well be proud, your like jay :bleh: ...of topic a lil
English for malaysian and other countries in asia is all the same, it's the second language, you learn at school since your a kid, to speak it fluently depends on the oppertunity you get. all for all if you don't speak it you'll loose it.
Amazing how you people learn and improve your english. :) the lucky people who get to go overboard. i wanna go overboard and stay there for about10 years up(mabey it's called imagrate now :happy: ).[/quote]

pinkypat_6

11-11-2003, 05:30 PM

Christinetang wrote:Overall i think that the above people such as Pinkypat, une_topaze,Kahel,etc have really good english from what i can see from these posts.
Thank you, but lot's of people on this forum can use their english as well as each other,including you too! :yeah: :)
Christinetang wrote: At home, i talk to my parents using chinese but when it comes to talking with my sisters i talk/shout at them using english.
Like me too, :yeah: I speak to my sis in english so that i could use my english(preventing me to forget). :happy: we don't go along good, i hardly talk to her in one day, nothing to talk about. nobody to speak english to. man if i didn't have this jay chou forum,how would i be. :)

kahel

11-11-2003, 09:03 PM

it's basically second language here in the philippines. there is this "language" that sprung with the mixture of english and filipino we call it coño. mostly darn rich brats use this.

vunsin

11-12-2003, 03:09 AM

Don't ask me to do math...

hahah...vunsin...i guess both of us hate math and can be pretty sux at it!
Hey, not only you here, me too, my sucking math skills make me hate it. I do good in other subjects. if you were looking at my exam results you'd see the math stand out( bad resutls). you just never get good at it how much you try,oh well be proud, your like jay :bleh: ...of topic a lil

Haha... Glad to know I'm not the only one. I used to feel so stupid in school... Luckily I got really good grades for Malay and English and some other subjects that didn't involve numbers so that kinda even out the scores!

And over here, there's this stereotype that Asians are supposed to be good at math. What a joke! Almost every American I know is better at math than I am. :blush:

E-Ping

11-12-2003, 08:05 AM

And over here, there's this stereotype that Asians are supposed to be good at math. What a joke! Almost every American I know is better at math than I am. :blush:

It's not that strange for them to have such a perception though..in fact in M'sia alone the Chinese are thought to be extremely good at math...that's so not true..i'm chinese and still,my math sucks so much! :dry:

kecokele

11-12-2003, 09:53 AM

Singaporeans are mostly bilingual as we learn both English and a mother toungue as our 2nd language in our schools. Our educational system is modelled after the Britain one as we sit for GCE 'O' Levels at the end of Sec 4 (around 16 years old) and GCE 'A' Levels at the end of junior college (around 18). I guess that's why most of us can converse quite well in English as the official medium. but for me, i can express myself better in words than vocally. more used to speaking Mandarin whether at home or in school with my friends. Also able to understand both Traditional & SImplied CHinese. guess that's d best of two worlds. heez
and of coz, my maths suxs too. managed to pull through in sch. but if i can choose, i'll rather not take maths. *bLeaHz* :oops:

cmy_185

11-12-2003, 09:57 AM

yes, the students from Chinese Schools tend to excel in math more in Malaysia.! the students who were math geniuses in my class studied in a chinese primary school.. chinese schools give loads of math hw to their students i guess! pity the students who can't take the workload!

vicky@kiky

11-15-2003, 04:51 PM

I usually go aboard on school holiday to study English

I've just got back from school cultrul exchange in Japan.
It's very good fun,I have lots of friends in another country because I'm not shy to speak English

Now I'm studying Chinese for buisness reson
Oh!! I'm really busy

pinkypat_6

11-15-2003, 07:52 PM

vicky@vicy wrote:I usually go aboard on school holiday to study English
wow,cool, do you get scholarshio or your parents send you there? i wanna go overboard on school holidays. any suggestions for scholarships on school holidays.

vunsin

11-15-2003, 09:40 PM

i wanna go overboard on school holidays. any suggestions for scholarships on school holidays.

Erm... Overboard = 1) from a ship into the water, 2) show extreme enthusiasm.

Do you mean go abroad as in go overseas/ outside your country?

destined

11-15-2003, 09:48 PM

i was born in england which makes me a bbc, and go to english school thats y i know how to speak english, i remember when i was little i use to speak chinese and couldn't speak english

bbsasa

11-17-2003, 05:40 AM

when i was little i was pretty interested in reading and my mum always speaks to me in english other than our own dialect. then it was at school plus i am frm an english school. so to me it's either i speak english, our dialect - hokkien or malay (rare unless have to). i guess i do have somewhat strong command of the english language which makes up for my other weakness which are maths and science. now it's either english or cantonese most of the time and the occassional hokkien and mandarin here and there.

evenstar_sc

11-19-2003, 05:52 AM

Like bbsasa, I like reading alot as a kid and still do, so that's where a majority of my English came from and my family has always used English as a medium of communication at home so I never really had a problem with English, just my lack of ability in speaking mandarin and canto bothers me as i get older.

I'm slowly learning and I don't think my canto is that bad... :laughing: Also i just take it for granted, that English is like a first language to me then Malay and Canto. Right now, I mostly converse in English, and (try to) converse in Canto and Mandarin. It's not often I get to speak Malay now so it's getting abit rusty, in my secondary school years we were speaking BM fluently!

I didn't think math was too bad tho' it's just the additional maths that really sucked! :crazy:

kaye21

11-19-2003, 06:02 AM

learned english in school...not really used to speaking english at home...

luckypurple

11-21-2003, 09:58 AM

i use english everyday in the office coz i'm working in one of american company.

so i think my english not bad lah..:)

Vicky:)

czavender

11-22-2003, 06:18 AM

i learned of course at school!!!!. and i love to read english novels and im from philippines and english is a second languge here!!!

haterpunk

11-22-2003, 04:33 PM

I'm Thai..and was born in BKK Thailand...
aniwayz..im in an international skool since 1st grade till now..i usually speak thai..with friends..family..all da time..i speak english at skool only when im in classes..but i still managed to speak fluently with a pretty good american accent..but..when i type like this..i would use the "chat language" haha..of and of cousre..my english grammar n'stuff aint perfect!
in normal Thai skools, the english education is not that great...they just learned about grammars n'stuff..but they cant reallie speak fluently..because they [the skool] dont reallie stress on that factor..
but the fact now that international skools in BKK and other places around Thailand are popping up one by one..i think in the future, ppl would be better in speaking english fluently...
and also..there are a lot of projects where thai kids go do some testings and were chosen to study overseas for a year..(exchange student type of thing)

actually..i got a lot of chinese blood...but thai-chinese kids..in this generationz doesnt reallie know how to speak chinese animore (actually chinese ppl that migrated here in the earlier times speak teochew)..i reallie wana learn mandarin but..dont reallie haf da time to do so..but now im also learning spanish at skool :glug:

crusty-applepie

11-25-2003, 05:44 AM

im from the philippines, so i've known how to speak english since i was little. education here is in english. it's the official formal language here. so more or less, everybody can understand english.

i ddnt realize how fortunate we filipinos are that we speak english quite well until i started studying here in sweden. it's an international course and most of the asians had a really hard time participating in class at first. but now since we all have to speak english to each other, everybody's english is getting better. :happy:

OLive_aNN

11-26-2003, 06:06 AM

However, it is still imperfect. I still make a lot of mistakes in choosing the right vocabs. But I believe that you learn from mistakes. And practice makes perfect. So... practice, practice and practice. ^^
Nobody is perfect, so why practice? hahaha jk... :bleh:

I think English is not a second language in Indonesia. I used to learn English at English courses but last year my Mum sent me to a school with Singapore curriculum. I am forced to speak English and now my English has improved, but I think my English stil sux.

jAywalkIng_xiaozhu

11-27-2003, 06:22 AM

masterCP

11-27-2003, 09:18 AM

Like what Kahel & Kaye21 said, Filipinos have a good grasp of English since the Americans introduced their education system here in the country after the Spanish was driven out in the turn of the century (1900).

But unlike most Asians, our English differs from the British English as it is mainly American. I have read magazines & books from Singapore & Hong Kong, they all follow British grammar & usage. :) Quite hard to comprehend but it grows on you...

aina

11-27-2003, 02:09 PM

me?? just practice and often watch american movie and try my best to not read the subtitles, or watch anime or chinese/taiwan DVD, you know there are some subtitles, i usually set it to english, not indonesian nor melayu....but still my english is broken... and here i am practicing my english with all of u guys :)

pinkypat_6

12-01-2003, 05:36 PM

lynette_swan wrote:
me?? just practice and often watch american movie
how long did it take you? :glug: you sure are pretty good, learning from movies and get this good at english. you must like these movies very much do you. :happy:
one of my friends at school is so crazy about punk , rock, hard core music and all. she listens to them tries to know the meaning and now she's knows lots of cool words and it also improves her english too. i was very amazed how she learned from english songs.

~WInnIE~

12-02-2003, 02:12 PM

hey
i'm actually a BBC. i was born in England. and i cant speak more than a sentence of mandarin. haha :blush:
i'm just about to do my GSCE's moks tomorrow, has anyone heard of them?
i learn a little bit of mardarin from Jay's songs. reading the lyrics and trying to think what the words mean. and also from the translated lyrics from here.

hehe abit weird if u think about it cos u guys are practicing ur english and i'm the other way round. :happy:

Lil_bb_Wen

12-08-2003, 05:22 AM

Hehe. I learn Eng by readin novels written in Eng. I'm studyin abroad in Canada. At first, I didn't expect to be able to communicate w/ all those Canadian when I first arrive, [I used to fail Eng back in Indonesia] but then, I keep readin novels, newspapers, & yea, by eng website too. So I don't have many difficulties to communicate usin Eng now. [but still, I hate grammar, I'm still not good at it] Hehehe.

pinkypat_6

12-09-2003, 04:46 PM

I'm studyin abroad in Canada.
Really, which province, how did you get to go study abord there?
I've lived there(in ottawa ontario) before.

Das Le Epi

12-13-2003, 12:20 AM

not sure if I am allowed to ask an additional question in the middle of a thread, but does it annoy you when people use things like " u r 2 cool, dayme st8"?

pinkypat_6

12-13-2003, 05:47 PM

not sure if I am allowed to ask an additional question in the middle of a thread, but does it annoy you when people use things like " u r 2 cool, dayme st8"?
yes, it really is. it wasts our time to read it and mabey make people don't wanna read it. :glug:
DON"T do it OK!! :wink2:

Das Le Epi

12-14-2003, 06:21 AM

heh, it annoys me even as an american born anglophone (and sinophone too ^^;), but more out of aesthetic reasons than anything. However, when francophones do it (when, of course, typing French) I just get confused.

shoya

12-14-2003, 06:48 AM

Hi Hi...I'm Thai too. I've studied Eng for almost 10 years in school so I can communicate in Eng but it wasn't very good. I didn't study in the International School. Arr..great to see you Thai in here!!

PS. Anybody plz tell me what award that Jay recieved in MTV ASIA AWARDS last year??
Mail it to me plz .... toon_wazzup@hotmail.com ...thankz :wink2:

pinkypat_6

12-15-2003, 04:57 AM

Shoya, i answered you in the private messeges.
Go and Check.

k-ren

01-24-2004, 07:23 PM

vunsin pretty much explained everything about learning english in malaysia...and there's also influence from tv...
i'm so glad that we are able to learn english in school..unlike any other countries which doesn't think english lessons are really necessary..
i strongly think that singaporeans have excellent english..what more to say those who are from the usa or europe..
sometimes when i read posts here..i'm just like amazed..wow..pretty good english..it really helps me with my english essay..

gosh..i really hate those people who are like typing stuff like this >>>i Dn RelLy LyK Em Bcz ..thy're lYk So bzarre..it's so hard to read..

knock

01-25-2004, 10:16 AM

hm.,. in s'pore.. we take english as our 1st language, n our mother tongue as our 2nd language... so 2 ppl here, it is VERI impt 2 pass well 4 eng in order 2 pass e whole exams, may it b olevels or a levels... if we fail eng, it means we go nowhere, even if u score quite well 4 other subjects...
though its quite impossible as we r taught in eng... so most of us have a good command of english.. though we tend 2 use improper eng, called Singlish!! haha.. but i find it cute leh... yah lor? keke...

Yea, most pple in my school has a very good command in english and are idiots at chinese. It's like we would rather die than do a simple chi worksheet and everyone groans during chi. In singapore, if you fail eng, you gotta repeat another year even if you scores As in other subs. Quite terrible eh? Haha!

Yep. For me, i dont reallie like chinese too la. But im lucky cuz my family is of a chinese speaking one. So im rather of a balanced though still stronger in English. Heh heh. Recently, i listened to more Chinse songs and decide ta explore Jay's song tt whie im improving in Chi!:D

MayJung

01-25-2004, 11:18 AM

in normal Thai skools, the english education is not that great...they just learned about grammars n'stuff..but they cant reallie speak fluently..because they [the skool] dont reallie stress on that factor..
but the fact now that international skools in BKK and other places around Thailand are popping up one by one..i think in the future, ppl would be better in speaking english fluently...
and also..there are a lot of projects where thai kids go do some testings and were chosen to study overseas for a year..(exchange student type of thing)

That's the fact in Thailand..people learn English since they were in kindergarten until they graduated from university,still most of Thais can't speak English fluently..that's too bad because I think English is the most important language in the world and people're supposed to use it well..like haterpunk mentioned Thai schools (normal ones) tend to focus on grammar rather than conversation or how to use it in everyday life..I myself learn english since I was 3 and now I'm turning 20 (almost 18 years!!)I study English as my major at university but my English is not good enough :glug: ..I sometimes have problem in choosing right words as well..I went abroad several times but just a short of period (cutural exchange program)..so my English skills didn't improve much..I wish I can use English like native speakers (surely I have to go to country that uses English as first language and stay there at least a year :happy:) that's one of the reasons I'm going to continue my studies in UK.. :angel:

tortilla_chips

02-01-2004, 05:04 AM

yeah....cos eng's the 1st language here....but mine's not v good cos everyone in my family communicates in chinese and this hokkien dialect :D

knock: hmm......but i tot if you fail any core subjects (maths, chem, bio, physics, eng, additional maths, ss, geog, history, mother tongue, eng literature, c lit, depending on wat u're taking) then must repeat :? ? and if you're in the special stream and u dont get A1 4 o levels chinese you'll have 2 drop higher chinese or get retained :cry:

krunchee

02-27-2004, 08:06 AM

i'm from the philippines and we've been learning english since we're kids...other than that i grew up in an american residential area in the university campus...uhmmm, it's a bit weird to explain...but it's like while i was growing up, our neighbors were americans...so i speak english with an american accent and i have better command with the english language...my best friend's american...my mom taught collegiate english...my major in college was english...and i'm almost finished with my MA in Language and Literature...so that pretty much explains why i speak english well...

most of the time i think in english...hehehe...and i tend to expless myself better in english, too.

JiE_LuN'z_BabE

06-04-2004, 08:14 AM

I was born in LA. Moved to Indonesia when I was 5. Raised there for 12 years. Moved back to LA last summer.

Through my life I've been taught English both in school and at home. My mom graduated from Texas and my stepdad is Japanese-American. Hence, my lousy English. HAHAHAHA.

rainiez

06-04-2004, 09:55 AM

I live all my life in a small city called Bogor, Indonesia. I don't really remember how I know English. My parents have a high expectation for me as the first in the family. I learnt English at EF since I was in grade 3 and stop taking English lesson at grade 6. All people in my family are forced to have the ability in English that's why my father often brings us to a foreign bookstore. There comes my interest in learning it untill today. I like learning languages specially English that can be used almost all over the world and I thanked my parents for "forcing" me to learn English back then. Used to speak English at home but now speak Chinese most (in the proces of learning)

Lizzy

08-06-2004, 08:34 PM

I have been livin in South Africa ever since i was 4! So i speak english most of the time!my Chinese is what suffers!

xaznboix16x

08-06-2004, 08:54 PM

i used to live in vietnam even though im chinese. i moved to america when i was 3 so i grew up learning english here. i can speak cantonese, but forgot vietnamese and chiao zhou? my parents also forced me into learning mandarin and i thank them for that because mandarin music is all i listen to now.

SimpleBlackHumor89

08-06-2004, 09:13 PM

well i was born in america, my parents came here from taiwan... sometimes i wish i was born in taiwan, i cant read chinese, sucks...a lot especialy for the jay lyrics. i go to chinese school, but it doesnt really help cos if i dont do the hw, they dont care... so it doesnt help alot.

elaine

08-06-2004, 09:20 PM

well, i was born in malaysia...even though my grandparents are from china and my parents can read, write and speak chinese, i cant do any of those...LOL! my parents was from a small town and spoke chinese but when they came up to the city, it was english all the way...they brought me up by speaking in english...plus in school, we have to learn english as the second language

SuperHyperGirl

08-17-2004, 10:04 AM

i was born in mainland China and i went to live in the U.S. when i was 12 and came bak again after two years wit my English well improved. :angel: i read a lot (and i mean A LOT pplz) of novels and stuff and became nearly nearsighted... i used to have such good eyesights... *sigh* oh well. i suppose one gotta pay the price. :oops: :cry:
and i really think my English is rusting badly after i'm back. :shy: no one to speak it with except my friend from Malaysia... and now we're in different schools... :cry: i should say different cities! :cry: :cry: i moved to Shanghai last month, and she's in Suzhou. :glug: though we can still visit each other from time to time, since the two cities are only an one-and-a-half-hour train ride apart. but it's not the same... :cry: hopefully there's someone in my new school who can speak proper English with me... :worry: i hate the Chinese accent, :rasp: and i think i'm catching it too... :crazy: :cry:

sunnygirl

08-24-2004, 09:51 AM

i learned english since i was in primary school. In Brunei, English consider as a second language but i think most of the bruneian mixed malay with english. when i was in form 5 im in art class and studied malay literature so i concentrated more in Malay lang. I still have grammar mistakes and my eng usually mixed with malay. I tried to chat in inernational chatrooom that used eng lang and listen o read english mag in order to improve my eng. Im still learning n hope i'll get better by joining this forum n also boost my confidence in using eng lang :rolleyes:

Vicluva

08-24-2004, 10:01 AM

I was born in Shanghai and moved to Australia when I was five. So basically all my schooling has been in English (except for my weekend chinese classes) and it's become my first language. When we first got to australia my parents were really worried about my english so they let me watch lots of english tv and read, etc, and after i became fluent they started to worry about chinese :wacko: Now my chinese is one level above my english but i don't speak chinese outside of my house and cinese school so i've got no problem with english grammar and spelling.

msv

08-24-2004, 10:01 AM

i go to chinese school, but it doesnt really help cos if i dont do the hw, they dont care... so it doesnt help alot.
Er then how bout you start caring and doing the homework? hahah, it is for your own good even if they dont' enforce it.

I was born in Thailand but I came to America when I was 5 years old, so that's how I know the english language and I think my english is proficient hahah. Er let's see, my native language is getting a bit rusty though, since the kids my age speak mainly english or mix the words up together. Quite sad too seeing your native language dying, which shouldn't happen to any language at all since all language are beautiful. :unsure:

pyre

09-16-2004, 02:51 PM

i was born in australia and currently being educated here..quite funny though, i sed to do esl cos viet was my first language and i couldnt speak english to save my own life! now, the subject english is my best subject and i am even beating the white anglo-saxons! haha

much_love_87

11-24-2004, 07:54 PM

i was born in asia... n now i study in USA... my english is kinda ok la... still got 1/2 asian n 1/2 american accent.... english is my second language... i speak my own dialect at home... so yeah... i gotta improve my english... *Sighs*

twink0star

12-28-2004, 05:30 PM

i was born in US but went to school in Hong Kong....they teach english in school there...but just with a british accent .....then i came back ...now living in Houston....lots of asians ....got rid of my asian accent lol

SimpleBlackHumor89

12-28-2004, 08:01 PM

i was born here, in california, but my chinese isnt that good. i can understand it, but i can only read and write some of the words. i go to chinese school, but i never really learn anything, i just sit there and stare at the board...

when i talk in chinese, i have this weird enlish accent

JennEmma

03-19-2005, 10:51 AM

I once schooled in an english school called St. Angela's Convent School in brunei and it was an 'all school girls'. Since then, I learned english by the age of 4 years old. I use british system. I must say, My english is good since english is very important in brunei.

Ling

03-19-2005, 11:12 PM

I learn my English through school -- I was born in the US & grew up here

pyre

03-22-2005, 11:02 AM

I was born in Australia..so I learnt it at school! :D

jiali

03-22-2005, 11:10 AM

English is one of main languages in Singapore, since we were once under the British Colony. So, i learnt it in school too, plus english is the main language used in lessons, except mother tongue lessons.

pianochic250

03-22-2005, 03:59 PM

well, i live in america so we kinda have to speak english over here, i moved to america from china in 3rd grade so it's about 6 years now, that's why my english is superb! haha not really, i really suck at grammar, but yeah, that's how i learned my english.

Katie23

03-22-2005, 04:17 PM

I learned it at school, from age 11 on. Plus by watching tv, coz tv from America (and also other countries) are in their own language, which is great. Many many Dutch people speak English (though some way better than others), it's part of our culture :)

s.Jay.c

03-23-2005, 03:34 PM

Over here in Malaysia (as many Malaysians here have said), we are taught English in school as a second language. Though it's taught here as a second language, it's actually my first language!

I grew up - am growing up in an English speaking background because my whole family and the majority of my closer friends speak English. I speak English everyday and have been learning it since I was 4. I use Mandarin and Malay very rarely because I really suck at it. i can speak English fluently and my grammar isn't bad but it's not that good either. Still room for improvement, eh? hehe :bleh:

weemalyn

03-23-2005, 04:07 PM

In Singapore the main medium in school is English. We studied every subject using English except for our mother tongue language (eg, Mandarin, Tamil, Malay). So we started to get in touch with this language since we were young, about 4 years old when we attended nursery classes.

English is a very common language in Singapore. I must say that I think we are fortunate to have English as our first language. Because it is such an important language and a common one among countries over the world.

AnzuMazaki

05-09-2005, 05:56 AM

Um...I lived in the U.S for quite a bit...^^ And actually i still move around back and forth so my english is okay...maybe even better than my chinese...hehe

gigiopolis

05-09-2005, 06:02 AM

I was born in Hong Kong but came over to Canada when I was 2, so I've been immersed in the English language for basically all my life. Although, my Cantonese is still pretty good, thanks to my mom. =)

hong trang

06-16-2005, 12:32 PM

I started studying english since i was 10, just study from school. Actually, at school they teach us a very boring english, just the grammar, the new words, .... but no practice .All you have to do in the class is: keep silent, write write write and write T__T.

Consequently, most people are bad at speaking and listening,

But when i was very small, i listened to english songs and watched foreign films and i loved them so much. Since then, i determined to study english in order to sing e songs or understand the films . But now, i think it really important to me, for my future job or just to comunicate with you all.

So i try my best to talk to foreign people to improve it. But i think my present e is still not good enough. I hope i would speak it fluently in a near future ^____^

_eLlE-

06-16-2005, 01:11 PM

Well... I'm an aussie.. so basically i learn everything in english... australia.. how it going mate?? lol
But i can't speak chinese or understand or write.. although i spent 7 year in chinese skool learning nothing lol rofl..

Onigiri

06-16-2005, 01:21 PM

I am ABC(Australian Born Chinese) and my grandparents can't speak english and my parents are just so-so at english so due to communication with my parents and grandparents as a child I learnt my Cantonese in this way. Also I have an older sister and cousins who all spoke English as well so before I started school I knew English. So since I was born I've been getting the best of both languages, Cantonese and English! :D

zhoudaoyan

06-16-2005, 03:02 PM

well. it was the first language that my parents started talking to me with!! haha when i was still living in singapore and well.. now i live in australia :D. figure the rest out urself!! haha. But i guess English is the most common and umm.. how do you say... international language?? * haha if you know what i mean*. Most youngsters nowadays will be able to at least speak a little english as the western influence now is so strong.

Minosaki

06-17-2005, 04:15 AM

I errr...learn it in school...In Singapore, English is our first language and is a very very important language...if you fail it you die...you will not be promoted to the next level... :crazy: I also speak English at home...so no doubts... :wave:

venetta

07-14-2005, 09:58 AM

when i was still in indonesia i learnt english by songs and movies and sometimes school 9honestly school didnt really teach that much..just some grammar where you can actually learnt it yourself from book). and then i moved to singapore about 4 years ago and at first i thought i'll be using english everyday but i was a bit mistaken. this is cause most of friends are indons too and we're just speak indo. but since english is like compulsory in school and as what minosaki said we have to be good at it or we die...my english have improved quite a lot.

abcd

07-14-2005, 10:48 AM

when i was in panama (im asian with asian parents and i just happened to be born there), i was in a private school who profusely taught english since it was the only foreign language...all we spoke was spanish which is the native tongue and english...
oo and watching tons of american movies and shows has also helped me refine my english

yygall

07-14-2005, 11:40 AM

Well, I was born in Hk but moved to Aust...and i've lived in syd for more than 8 years...
i would not say that my english is perfect..I still make silly grammar mistakes and let's just say that i have no distinct writing style...but as long as other ppl understand what i'm saying, it's all ok!

friends_pt

07-14-2005, 12:30 PM

Well, english is a must language in Singapore so since kindergarten, we singaporean kids will learn english. so that's basically how i learn english. but nowadays, kids in singapore are from english speaking family which strengthen their english fundamental.

_eLlE-

07-14-2005, 03:26 PM

born in Australia and grew up there so i have to use my english.... and then with chinese.. i can't speak.. but with 7 years of chinese skool i noe a little. and my family and friends are azn... so yeah

jayfanaticgirl

08-26-2005, 11:10 PM

We have to learn English in China.. Required foreign language class!

cookielmy

10-06-2005, 05:34 PM

In Malaysia, kindergarden times were taught in English. At home, everyone speaks English. So I guess I picked up the language since the day I was born :rolleyes:. When I went up to primary, the school speaks Malay though but of course I still sticked with English. Honestly, my vocabulary is kinda poor last time, but after reading english books, watching SO many english movies and all, I guess I've improved a little bit. :oops: This forum also helped me alot of course.
But in Malaysia, every Malaysian speaks Manglish :D including me. Is somehow like a culture. *haha*. I don't use Manglish here of course, people wouldn't understand me :oops:
jayfanaticgirl, thanks for giving such information. I didn't know that in China there's a require to take english lessons. That's nice :happy:.
I hope I know mandarin too.

.:MikE:.

12-16-2005, 11:05 AM

In VietNam, we had to learn E at primary school and we learnt it till the end of University. But, U can see it, my E is not so good

crazygiggles13

12-16-2005, 12:12 PM

haha..no its good! ^_^

well...i was from taiwan..but then i moved to australia for school so i had to improve my english...i was "chucked in the deep end" and nearly drowned ^_^ haha..jks..jks..im ok

but yea..thats how!

sam_ho

01-07-2006, 12:17 AM

actually~ im borned in Miami, but i "originally" belong to Taiwan...my family is from Taiwan. So since my dad is diplomatic, so i move to places everywhere around the world...thats why i have to improve my taiwanese writing...my grammar is ok. well, i guess that explains how i know asian and english people!

PingPong700

01-07-2006, 12:29 AM

I'm born in Singapore, lived there for 2 years, then lived in HK for 1 year, then I moved to Canada when I was 3 years old =) I speak fluent English...almost fluent Cantonese and working on my Mandarin right now haha...

darkangeldori00

01-07-2006, 12:33 AM

well i live in the us so my english is pretty good but i lived in taiwan 4 2 years and my chinese is pretty fluent and i dont relaly have an abc accent =)

liliceprincess

01-07-2006, 02:12 AM

i am currently living in las vegas. But i am originally from Taiwan. Although born here though. ahah. I learned english when i was in kindergarden. English is the primary language at school, but nowadays, even at school since there is so much asians. We all speak in our own languages to each other unless we are talking to another nationality/country speaker,

aznjayhunter

01-07-2006, 02:19 AM

hm, i was born in shenzhen, china. i was in kindergarten/preschool ther until i waas 6 and my family immigrated to the US, where im currently living. well, over here in this "ALL WHITE AND KOREAN COUNTY," there wernt alot of chinese people to talk to in the first place. i live in fairfax, virginia, and this place is like i guess the "wealthier" area (not to be braggin.....harhar) and so with no chinese people to talk to, my sister and i learned english quickly at a young age in elementary school. i been in the US for 7 years, and my english is perfect.

iruka

01-09-2006, 02:08 PM

i'm from the philippines and, as other filipinos said here, we studied english in school. it's one of the main languages used here. i remembered when i was in preschool until elementary, they would fine us for not speaking in english in school... O_o we can say schools strongly encourage (err... "force") students to be really fluent in english. we only have 2 subjects in school taught in the native language (filipino and philippine history) and the rest is taught in english. i think they did it too much. most kids these days don't speak in the native language anymore... it's so sad :(

for me, i think i write better in english and speak better in filipino.. lol.. i prefer speaking in our native language even though i know english... :P but sometimes we could stop ourselves from using some english words...

sorry for the long post... anyway, i prefer people speaking in their native language and use other languages only if they need it...

btw, aside from english and filipino, i'm studying japanese in college just for fun... and i want to learn mandarin and korean too... lol! actually my language skills are deteriorating because of the addtional stuff i want to study... ^^;;;

Jelly

06-09-2006, 01:02 PM

Well,Vietnamese fans learn English at school. It's about 12 years and more if you want to be a businessman or ~woman..I think may English is not well :-)

minty

06-10-2006, 07:06 AM

i was born in HK but i moved to NZ wen i was 3 and a half.

I was really shy and didn't understand any english...so i didn't talk much.

but then at primary school there was the ESOL programme, wich allowed kids like me who didnt hav english as their 1st language to learn english.
As a result of the programme, my english became pretty good... by yr 4 I was reading ahead of my age and i was in the top spelling group , got myself stuck in reading eng bks and I made lotsa english-speaking friends!!!

shez

06-11-2006, 09:16 PM

i know english people because i live in england haha

chinese people i generally meet through chinese school and normal school as a lot of chinese people get accepted into the best schools as they are clever

khmerchef

06-13-2006, 10:47 PM

Hmmm....well, since I live in Atlanta, and was born here in the US.....I'd have to say that my english is pretty much authentic.....But my grandmother never let me forget my roots [Cambodian/Chinese] At school and outside of the house/family, I'm allowed to speak all the english I want. But at home, I'm only allowed to speak Khmer(the language of Cambodia). No one in my family knows any Chinese dialects at all. Up until I found out that I'm part Chinese, I started to try to learn the dialects. Cantonese I can pick up much faster, because it kind of resembles the Khmer language in some way, I'm having a little trouble with Mandarin though....but I'm learning...

I find that a best way to learn/understand a second, third, or fourth language is to be exposed to it. Whether it be by people, friends, music, movies, etc. etc. I can't stand it when older Cambodian people speak to me like I'm 2 or 3 years old....because the majority of the kids my age doesn't know their own native tongue....and the elders are surprised and I can speak/read/write in my "family's"language.

liliceprincess

06-14-2006, 06:29 AM

ahaha I learned english because i am a citizen in the US, and then i go to public school here in america, therefore i have to use english everyday. Other than that ahhh lol i dont usually use english. I mainly use chinese at home. aka mandarin.

puukiness

06-14-2006, 06:50 AM

heh, i'm born in america, raised in america! thats probably why, but my english isn't all that well! ^^;;

Hanako

09-16-2006, 06:04 AM

I study English in school. So I study English and Filipino, because I'm from the Philippines.

(But now in Canada...)

phoenix_fire

10-07-2006, 10:41 PM

It's not that strange for them to have such a perception though..in fact in M'sia alone the Chinese are thought to be extremely good at math...that's so not true..i'm chinese and still,my math sucks so much! :dry:
Its strange, so many people think asians should be good at maths. I'm absolutely terrible, but there's another chinese guy in our maths class who excels completely so I guess it evens out :bleh:
I found this interesting link in regards to the opinion that asians, especially chinese, are good at maths. Check it out if you have time, its quite interesting...
Even though I grew up speaking chinese and english, I'm pretty certain english is my first language, so it doesn't apply to me.
http://www.aare.edu.au/01pap/whi01153.htm

kwonsang26

05-05-2007, 04:28 PM

My goodness,this thread has been dead for several months,but oh well.Yeah with me,I was fortunate enough to be born in the USA.Growing up watching american television & constantly speaking english in school.

I eventually became more advance in english when I got into high school.But trust me,I'm also not perfect at english.I still have to look up certain terms in the dictionary since the english language is so vast & broad.

But I do agree that there are many intelligent english speaking asian people in this forum who weren't born in the USA.Makes me so damn proud to be asian.^^:bleh:

joce

05-29-2007, 01:41 PM

at first it seems hard to learn english... i started learn english when i was 6 years old. so i dont even know how can i learn english pretty well.
hahaha... :D
but since grad seven, i went to the international scool and everyday at least there is english lesson. so i understand english pretty well and practise it a lot...

lnln

08-07-2007, 08:01 AM

i've been learning english for years but i'm still not good at english cause i don't get much chance to practise it.so i'm trying to use my poor english in this forum,lol

chiyaki

08-12-2007, 01:00 PM

I saw that most of you know english because you're living ( or lived) in english spoken countries! That's ok but you should know that you guys are luck persons !! Ad for me, I 'm Vietnamese. Although english is the most popular foreign language in vn , many people can use it. But I myself interested in english much so I think I can communicate with other people in english.
Jay's fansites are often written in chinese so I like JCNet a lot, peope here use english.^^

fampar

03-27-2009, 08:03 PM

I'm born in Perú (South America)

I studied English in the Institute. I mean I took English lesson.However, my English is still imperfect.

I still make a lot of mistakes in choosing the right words and time TT.TT.

I try to improve this using the net ^^

jay_chou_fan

03-27-2009, 08:31 PM

uhh lol kinda hard to say, i was born around an english neighborhood so i had to adapt from being in california(now in oregon). but yes im very fluent in english because its basically the only language i kno almost perfectly. my other language, "Hmong" not so good at it. but anyways, yes i had to learn, yes it took a long time, but in the end, it payed off

Qinghe

03-30-2009, 03:04 AM

I was born in another country, but I lived almost my entire life in America. I learned Hmong at first. Then I started school at age four or five and I learned the English language. Yeah, that's about it. I had to talk English at school, at the store, at the library, etc. Yep, that's it.

DaeronX

03-30-2009, 11:19 AM

uhmm probably just watching TV and playing a lot of videogames lol... Im from hong kong and people here might know the proper grammar but their accent is just HORRIBLE i corrected that so i would i say i pretty much have an american accent XD

jay_chou_fan

04-01-2009, 07:11 AM