How can adults learn English from scratch?

I think it’s best to memorize and listen to New Concept English.

It is recommended to attend New Oriental’s “Adult Beginner’s Course” to build a foundation first; the teachers there are excellent and highly experienced! What is learned there is not just English, but also a sense of confidence! Then study New Concept Books 1 to 4, and it’s best to have a language partner. This post was last edited by wxj98710 on 2008-12-12 17:12.]

Keep going, keep persisting. If the foundation is solid, then find some books to memorize from. Memorize as many as possible; that’s what I plan to do now.

It depends on which skill you want to develop. Translate: http://www.bilinguist.com/ – a Chinese-English forum with many experts. http://www.chinatranslate.net/ – China’s translation website, claimed to be the largest professional translation site in the country. http://gb.transea.com/ – machine-based instant translation, suitable for translating entire websites and paragraphs, but not very accurate. Suitable for the general public: http://www.si-china.net/ The personal website of free translator Feng Jingbao, featuring information on translation skills and interesting anecdotes from the translation community. It places more emphasis on simultaneous interpretation; its moderator, Teacher Feng Jingbao, is one of the best simultaneous interpreters in China. http://www.rahul.net/lai/companion.html A family assistant for translators. English. http://www.cn-trans.com/ is a professional translation website where one can learn many useful things related to translation; it also offers a lot of valuable content on grammar, reading, teaching, and writing. http://wfwok.topcool.net/grammar.htm provides detailed grammar tutorials, including practice exercises, which can be downloaded. http://home.njenet.net.cn/ewriting/w/ewriting.htm The graduate writing course at Southeast University consists of only 7 units, but it is very helpful for improving reading and writing skills. http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/subidx.cfm The grammar section of an online English teaching website, with 120 entries. http://www.englishchina.com/ English China – it has a large number of site links, but its updates are slow. http://www.icansay.com/ Locked in English. There are excellent materials for reading current affairs articles. http://edu.netbig.com/kaoyan/e4/245/20000524/25387.htm Online university English question bank. http://webster.commnet.edu/writing/writing.htm An assistant for English writing. Links to various foreign resources. http://www.english.ac.cn/ Voice of English – very comprehensive.
http://www.lrenglish.com/armysoft/default.htm Liang Rui’s English courses – help improve English skills quickly; allows listening to English broadcasts in real time, with special sections on listening skills.
http://202.38.69.59/ A personal website with excellent content.
http://www.ting*e.com/index.html A dictation website.
http://www.broadcastenglish.com/special.htm Broadcast English website.
http://www.cycnet.com/englishcorner/listening/voa.htm China Youth Network.
http://voa.soage.com/%20voa A listening-related website.
http://www.xlxch.com/lookmp3/mp3_rm.htm Listening Special Zone.
http://www.look4bug.com/ Allows listening to many radio stations in real time.
http://dsc.discovery.com/ Discovery Channel – rich in content.
http://www.quancheng.org/ “Loose-leaf English” – texts of some VOA news stories.
http://www.englishabc.net/ae/ “Words & Idioms” is a free radio lecture series provided by Voice of America.
http://202.112.105.179/english/ Check it out – free listening to news stories, along with their text versions.
http://www.yeworld.net/ Shanghai International Studies University’s website; listening and reading news is its biggest feature! Friends who are practicing VOA Slow English, don’t miss it! It also includes materials ranging from children’s English to college-level English: http://www.english.ac.cn/listen/index.htm – a great website for English listening exercises. It offers the following resources: New Concept English, listening practice for beginners, modern text reading, ESL-Lab graded tests, CNNSF news tests, and online Bible resources. http://www.ol.com.cn/class/train/english.htm – 100 common English phrases (in video format). http://www.gz.supergnet.com/local_content/zhang/edu/index.html – Modern communicative English (in video format). http://www.twr.org.hk/gb/OnAirF.html – Easy ways to learn English (online radio). http://www.putclub.com – An excellent website for listening exercises, with a great forum as well. http://ec.hku.hk/ **University English Center – a really great website.**
http://medweb.533.net/Estudy.htm – An English learning website; it mainly features lectures from Australian English broadcasts as well as various links.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ – A writing lab from Purdue University in the United States.
http://www.16congress.org.cn/amcstart.htm – Teaching programs from Taiwan; “Air American English” can be listened to online.
http://www.liveabc.com/ – A Taiwanese website for English learning, offering magazines and online broadcasts.
http://www.wwitv.com/ – A collection of broadband TV stations from around the world.
http://www.researchchannel.org/ – A large collection of videos from American universities.
http://202.112.105.179/english/ – New Vision English Exchange Center; it has many useful resources.
http://www.steglish.com/ – A great website for business English.
Websites with exam-related resources:
http://www.gter.net/index.jsp – “寄托天下”.
http://www.taisha.org/ – A rather silly website.
http://jijing.org/ – A forum for exam preparation tips.
http://www.bebeyond.com/ – A great website for those who want to pursue an MBA abroad.
http://www.toeflcn.net/ – Toefl-related information.
http://www.manfen.net/ – A great site for sharing experiences related to exams.
http://www.51test.com/ – Website providing registration information for overseas exams by the Ministry of Education.
http://grediagnostic.ets.org:443/basic/blogin.htm – Online registration for GRE exams.
Websites related to IELTS:
http://211.147.1.40/ – “Wuyou IELTS”, a well-known IELTS website.
http://www.ielts.org/ – The official IELTS website.
http://www.ieltsnet.net/ – A professional site focused on IELTS exams, with lots of useful information.
http://www.rotolife.com/ – Information related to IELTS exams.
Websites related to CET exams:
http://english.chinaschool.net/test/cet/main.htm – CET-related content on this site.
http://www.examres.com/c/at27.htm – Exam resources.
http://www.jzit.edu.cn/English-club/index.htm – English club; includes sections on listening, speaking, and presentations.
http://www.lwood.net/ – Hujiang English – one of the best English learning websites I’ve seen; its forums and FTP download center are excellent, and it’s very popular.
http://www.wwenglish.org/ – Wangwang English, which can compete with Hujiang English; its forums are also very popular.
http://www.crazyenglish.org/ – Crazy English Club. Methods for learning English*, tutorials, and all the latest materials. http://www.360abc.com/ Expo English offers a large number of free, original courses; it’s quite distinctive, and its forum is also excellent. http://literacynet.org/cnnsf/ CNN English learning resources. http://www.oeol.net/ Oxford English Online – a website for learning English created by graduates of the University of Oxford, dedicated to helping Chinese people learn pure English. In addition to spreading English knowledge, helping Chinese people learn English and improve their skills in communicating in this language, this website also provides various information on studying abroad, as well as insights into English-speaking countries’ cultural traditions and customs. It is a free website; all the knowledge, information, and services it provides are completely free. http://www.tingli.com/ Tingli Network – a wide range of current articles that can be downloaded and listened to using REALPLAYER. http://www.listeningexpress.com/ – Listening materials from VOA, BBC, and NCE. http://yyenglish.myrice.com/pages/data1.htm – Yangyang’s listening material database; please download as much as possible when the internet connection is good. http://broadcast.yahoo.com/ Yahoo Broadcasting Station, multiple channels. http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/ Collection of speeches from the American History Channel; REALPLAYER is required. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speechbank.htm A comprehensive collection of famous speeches (text + audio). Searchable. http://library.westmont.edu/bibinst/SearchAids/Com15.html Resources for practicing public speaking in English*. http://oec.xmu.edu.cn/hanyu/eng/more.asp English Learning Corner – downloads of English pronunciation tutorials, videos of the CET oral examination, Sunshine English, a new English speaking tutorial, the National Public English Test System, as well as information on the College English Test Band 4 and Band 6. http://www.tigtag.com/community/language/index.asp The English section on the Dida Study Abroad website – everything related to studying abroad, plus some information on foreign language training. http://www.ppenglish.com.cn/ “PeiPei English”. Those who are learning Peipei can go take a look! http://eee.tsinghua.edu.cn/ Tsinghua Online English Classroom – it has two sections: Culture Plaza and Student Plaza :) Go and take a look. http://www.englishtown.com/ English Town; although it is a paid site, it still offers a lot of free content. Friends from all over the world come here to learn English! The biggest feature is the voice room! Once you go in, you can chat in English; you can start using it right after registering (registration is free), and you can also find English language exchange partners. The key is whether you can stay consistent

Thank you for providing so many websites for learning English; I’ve been struggling with it. A few days ago, I attended a lecture given by a native speaker with a pure London accent, and I couldn’t understand a single word. When I came back and saw an English word, I didn’t know what to do, so I used Kingsoft. The more often I used it, the less confident I became in my own abilities, and I relied on Kingsoft even more. I don’t know what to do

I remember there used to be a software called “Learn English from Scratch” that was pretty good. Based on your level, decide which book of New Concept English to start with; Books 1 and 2 are both very simple.

If you have no foundation at all, you still need to start from scratch; some basic memorization is necessary, such as words and short passages. You need some material first; as for complex grammar, there’s no need to worry about it – dealing with basic communication isn’t that difficult

If your neighbors have children in elementary school, study just like them. The English content for grades 5 or 6 is also very interesting; it comes with illustrations, and there are audio tapes as learning tools, making it an excellent way to study.

BBC English news audio, updated daily: http://www.hxen.com/englishlistening/bbc/index.html VOA English news audio, updated daily: http://www.hxen.com/englishlistening/voaenglish/index.html CNN English news audio, updated daily: http://www.hxen.com/englishlistening/cnn/index.html Online English TV channels: http://www.hxen.com/englishTV/index.html Online English radio stations: http://www.hxen.com/englishradio/index.html English news: http://www.hxen.com/englishnews/index.html Bilingual Chinese-English news: http://www.hxen.com/interpretation/bilingualnews/index.html Daily English learning: http://www.hxen.com/meitianyingyu/index.html Hope this is helpful to everyone!

[Repost] My experiences after graduation – dedicated to those who struggle with English. First, let me introduce myself: I am a graduate of the Mechatronics program from the class of 2003. I started taking the CET-4 exam in the second semester of my freshman year; I took it a total of 7 times, with scores of 58.5, 53, 45. My score on the fourth attempt was around 40, and I scored in the 30s on the remaining 3 attempts. I didn’t even dare to check my score on the last attempt. In short, my situation can only be described as frustrating. If I had to add an explanation to this word, it would be \"despondent.\" Below is my journey in learning English. After graduating in July 2003, I started working at a private company in Zhejiang, with a monthly salary of 1,500 yuan. My job involved mechanical product design, and almost all the information provided by clients was in English. So in August 2003, I began my first attempt at learning English, studying for 5 hours every day; I persisted for 15 days before giving up and turning to playing online games instead. In March 2004, I grew tired of online games; once I became familiar with my job, life became utterly boring. I felt lost about my future and my life seemed devoid of color. At that time, my job responsibilities shifted to project management, which introduced something new and made work more interesting. My job now required me to communicate with clients in English, so I embarked on a second attempt at learning English. I persisted for 20 days before giving up. Then I started reading online novels during my breaks at work and in my free time, and my life once again became dissolute. This situation continued until July 2004. Due to irregular eating habits over a long period, I developed chronic gastritis. The doctor warned me to exercise more, maintain regular eating patterns, and develop good living habits; otherwise, if this condition became chronic, it would cause pain for the rest of my life. Under the doctor’s threats, I began to exercise for 1 hour every afternoon after work (running and strength training). After sticking to this routine for a month, my health gradually improved, and my mood became more optimistic and positive. During that time, I determined my career goal: to become a top-tier professional manager. The path ahead became clear, so in August 2004 I started my third attempt at self-studying English. I would get up at 5:30 every morning and go to the foot of the mountain (the company was located near a mountain), where I would read aloud or recite English phrases. During my free time at work, I read the \"Shanghai Student English Newspaper\" and \"China Daily\" provided by the company. After work at 5 p.m., I would exercise and have dinner, then spend 5 hours from 6:30 to 11:30 practicing listening skills. On average, I dedicated 10 hours per day to learning English, with Sundays off. The results improved at a pace that was almost visible day by day; confidence and a sense of achievement soared, which led to a strong and intense interest in English, driving me to keep going. By July 2005, I was able to fully understand the programs broadcast on BBC Radio. I could watch English-language movies without the need for subtitles, and even when I encountered words I didn’t know, I could hear their pronunciation and then write them down. When listening to people speak, I would instinctively translate what they said into English in my mind. However, when it came to spoken language, I never had the opportunity to converse with others, so I remained uncertain and lacking confidence. That changed on September 3, 2005 – it was a historic day that I will remember for the rest of my life. A client from Donnaly in England came to visit us (by then I had been promoted to project manager, with a monthly salary of 3,000 M). When the client spoke, I found it very easy to understand him; his speech was not much different from Chinese. So I stopped the salesperson from translating and started talking to the foreigner myself. At first, I was nervous and my tongue felt stiff, but that feeling disappeared after a minute. I excitedly introduced to the client the projects we worked on together. We had a great time over dinner, and I even told them a few Chinese puns. The boss sitting across from me looked at me with great interest at that moment. After the client left, the boss spoke to me and raised my salary to 6,000 per month, saying that I might be sent to the office in the United States next year. Still, I decided not to stay here. My home is in Datong; it’s too far from here. I want to settle down in Beijing. I’m 26 years old this year, and at 27 I should start my first love affair while settling down. My 3-year contract won’t expire until next October. I’ve analyzed my strengths: 1) A degree in mechanical engineering, 8 months of experience in product design, solid knowledge of mechanics, and proficiency in using 3D and 2D software. 2) One and a half years of experience in technical project management, including half a year as a project manager; I’m familiar with the system documents and quality procedures of various companies. 3. Fluent in English, but without any English certificates. I consulted with headhunting firms, and they said that if my qualifications are as I claim, I can find a job in Beijing with an annual salary of 100,000–150,000 yuan. I’m now waiting until October next year; during this year I’ll try to gain some experience in management, and an annual salary of 200,000 yuan isn’t a dream! What I want to say is that certificates are completely useless in real life once you enter society; what really matters is your actual skills. In our company’s sales department, there’s someone who has passed the TEM-8 exam, but he still can’t be said to be good at listening – his salary is only 2,000 per month. The above are my general experiences since graduating. What I want to tell you is: 1. Keep your life orderly, especially in terms of diet, as it will make you happy. 2. Find something simple yet useful to do, so as to gain a sense of achievement and feel happy in a short period of time (for example, I make it a habit to exercise for one hour every day; I have done this without interruption for one year and three months, which has helped me achieve a fairly good physique. In July this year, I participated in the CCTV Golden Partner male model selection contest in Zhejiang province, but was eliminated in the third round and failed to reach the finals). This sense of achievement gives you the motivation, energy, and perseverance to keep learning. 3. Find a suitable learning method – stop memorizing words by rote. Once you’ve finished high school, you’ll be able to express any idea you want to foreigners. Go and practice your listening and speaking skills; in the real world, no one cares about certificates or documents. The ability to speak and understand is what truly matters. Moreover, it’s easier to see progress in listening and speaking, which gives a sense of achievement and further motivates you. It is recommended to combine the Crazy English method, the Ten Thousand Methods approach, and the reverse method for learning; you can search online for specific learning methods. 4. Most importantly, find your own direction of development – it is the lighthouse in the distance; only with a clear goal can continuous motivation be maintained