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English is my second language and three things helped me to improve my written English:
- Reading a lot. Fiction. Science. Science Fiction. News. Discussion lists.
- Wachting movies in English.
- Writing English. No translation, but my own things. Mostly newsgroup stuff for me and lately
marketing and PR material.
Writing is the best of the three. But it must be original, it must be your writing.
Suggestion: Buy some books on creative writing or locate some lessons online. And then write with
maximum speed and miminum criticism.
My two Euro cents (which are right now worth a lot more than $0.02),
Jens
P.S.:
Of course, having a solid school knowledge of English in the first place and some translation and
professional English classes in university didn't hurt either :-)
But that should be no problem for you, I think.
<zitiere wer="Anne Scully">
>
> Hi folks,
>
> I have a slightly unusual problem that I haven't seen discussed here before.
>
> I moved to France a number of years ago, learned French, met the love of my
> life, and stayed here. Now, I've been a technical writer most of that time,
> and have also been doing quite a bit of French-English translation. As a
> good tech writer should, I've been keeping up to date with tools,
> technologies etc.
>
> All well and good, except... last Monday, for the first time in a while, I
> wrote a few pages of text. Text that was not instructional. This one had
> proper paragraphs and everything. However, when I read back over it, it
> sounded a bit like, well, franglais. Sentence structure, phrasing, choice of
> words, ...all had definitely been influenced by the French all around me.
>
> Now, since I have no intention of leaving France, I want to know what I can
> do to maintain my written English to a certain standard. I'm very aware that
> if my English deterioriates, my chances of earning a living will too.
> So....what can I do? I still read mostly in English. Are there any specific
> books that might help? Or any other tips/suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Muja
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