So I would like to know from the Chinese users of GoKunming. What are you personally doing to improve your English? What has worked well for you and what hasn't?

Mandrake
kunming-english-tutoring.weebly.com

I'm not Chinese (but my wife is). Many of our Chinese friends have really improved their advanced English through Toastmasters (also improves speaking skills). Meets weekly at various locations. Check it out.

Yeah I am familiar with Toastmasters. We also have it back in my home country. I would imagine though that a high level of English would be required for something like that.

Mandrake
kunming-english-tutoring.weebly.com

You forgot to put http:// at the beginning of your second spam link, so it made it not clickable.

@ yankee00. Yes I did. Not serious. Hardly a spam link. If you know the etiquette of forum discussions, a link below your name is hardly considered spam.

I actually genuinely would like to start a discussion for the Chinese users of GoKunming, so that I can learn more from them and them from each other.

Mandrake
kunming-english-tutoring.weebly.com/

Now I want to learn spoken English well, but I don't know what method to have effect, the teacher told us we can on this site to make foreign friends, so I on this web site to see, hope to meet you, thank you

@ Faithy. If you are looking to learn spoken English, then it would be good to learn from an experienced native English speaker who can teach you spoken English.

Also there are numerous English corners around Kunming at various times where you can go to practice your listening and speaking skills. If you need some more information about these, GoKunming has some information posted on the site, or I can tell you about the ones that I know of. Just let me know.

The best way to improve, is just to speak, and speak as much as you can. It is okay if you make mistakes, but practice makes perfect. Also study English every day to learn new vocabulary, this can be done by watching English movies, or reading English books and articles.

I have also sent you a P.M. with further information as well.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

well...I am a Chinese, and I must say American drama is really helping me improve my English~

To learn to speak a language you obviously have to practice speaking it a lot. However, to improve your vocabulary beyond a certain point (i.e., that of everyday language usage), you need to READ a lot - in written material you will find a lot of words and usages that you will only rarely hear in daily conversation.

Mitty_abby, when you watch American drama do you watch it with Chinese subtitles? I would advise you don't, only use English subtitles.

I agree with Alien. Reading is vital. I wish I knew enough Chinese characters to be able to do this with my Chinese studies, but currently only know about 1000 characters well, not nearly enough to be literate yet.

To become literate in English is far easier in my opinion.So you can rapidly grow your vocabulary by reading English novels, websites, etc.