الملاحظات

The story of a person's life while learning English.

 Although I studied English since I was seven years old in a private school in Alexandria, and despite my high grades in the English language exam in high school (24 out of 25 in the third grade of secondary), and despite my studies at the Faculty of Pharmacy in English, I graduated from the university and my level The English is weak. Poor in the sense that I need to use Google Translate a lot to be able to read an article in English online. It is weak in the sense that I cannot understand the events of the film without Arabic subtitles, and it becomes very cumbersome if the film is accompanied by English subtitles.

 What does this mean?!

 This simply means that I will not be able to understand what is going on in this world unless it is translated into Arabic. I will only be able to follow the news through Arab media channels, which usually report the news in an impartial manner. I will not be able to read any books on new philosophical, political and economic theories and ideas unless they have been translated into Arabic. This also means that I will only read Arabic novels and will not have access to international literature and art unless it is translated. More importantly, I will never be able to specialize in any of the fields I want to study, because the books translated into Arabic are limited, and that is because the translation movement in the Arab world is very weak due to various problems, the most important of which is the lack of funding.

 How will I read these books?

 I still remember when I was studying screenwriting at the New York Film Academy in Manhattan, New York early this year - and I was very fluent in English at the time - and I would have preferred after school hours at the Academy to continue studying in New York public libraries rather than study at home . I used to go to the arts department and look at the shelves of books specialized in script writing alone, and I found huge numbers. I know very well that no matter how many years I live, I will not be able to read all of them, not even half of them.

 Then I remember my long search when I was living in Cairo in late 2012 for books specialized in writing screenplay, and I found only two books at that time: (The Story) by Robert Makki, and (The Screenwriting) by Mr. Field. Buried books were hard to reach. I remember that I went to the National Center for Translation in the Egyptian Opera House at the time to get a copy of the book (The Story), and the worker then thankfully - after the tip - entered a far away dusty room with some remaining copies. The provocative thing is that the translation of the book was bad, because, in my opinion, the translator was unable to establish accurate Arabic terms for the English terms found in the art of scriptwriting, and this is one of the problems of Arabic translations in general.

 Why couldn't I take advantage of the English language courses?!

 After graduating from university in 2008, I was very keen to learn English, and I was enrolling in a number of specialized courses, but this did not succeed in making me master this difficult language. It is true that any language is only divided into four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, and you can develop each skill separately, such as developing the listening skill by watching more and more movies, and developing the reading skill by reading more and more books. But it was like knowing the ingredients of food without knowing how to cook. It is easy to tell you that the ingredients for this meal are such and such, but that you will not be able to cook it and prepare it unless you know how to mix these ingredients together.

 How did you benefit from foreign journalists?

 I left working in the field of pharmacy in 2011, joined the media, and moved from Alexandria to Cairo. After the revolution, Cairo was teeming with foreign journalists from all sides, and my work helped me to form friendships with some of them, and we meet almost daily, or we meet by chance at the sites of events. English, of course, was the language of communication. Here I noticed that my English has improved significantly, and has become more fluid and eloquent

 I realized then that the best way to learn any language is to practice it. You will not be able to learn any language unless you practice it on a daily basis. Because practice makes you understand the spirit of the language. Practice makes you acquire new terms and teaches you when to use them and not others. Practice is what makes you able to mix ingredients for a delicious meal

 What did traveling in my English do?

 In late 2013 I traveled to work in Qatar. The predominant language of communication in Qatar is English due to the presence of a large number of foreign communities. She also took a number of specialized filmmaking courses that were only offered in English. Then I began my travels to Europe and the United States. Thus, it became necessary for me to listen, speak, read and write for days on end in English. All this contributed to the development of the language significantly. I remember when Al-Mandas’ film participated in the Documentary Film Festival in Paris in 2015 I went up on the stage and talked about the film and answered the audience’s questions in English fluently and fluently. This was a huge development for me

 In early 2017, I traveled to study screenwriting in New York for two months with students from all over the world. The graduation project was to write a script for a feature film in English from 100 to 120 pages. This course sharpened my skills to a great extent. Not only did I have to speak, listen, read and write in English continuously for two whole months, but the course itself was about the art of screenwriting, which is specifically a science related to language, skills of drafting dialogue and shortening long sentences in a few words

 Not to mention that during my stay in New York I used to go to the cinema and theater from time to time, and the cinema there, of course, is not translated. This is how you find yourself forced to stay for two hours trying to focus on everything that is being said. It was hard in the beginning and then gradually became easy

 Now, getting news from international news agencies and reading English books has become simple and easy, and you can imagine how much benefit you have obtained, especially with the feeling that you have become able to keep pace with the latest science, knowledge, art and literature that the world has presented without waiting for a translation that will not come soon.

 Why shouldn't you take language courses?

 What I realized during my English language proficiency journey is that language courses will not really help you unless you are studying in an English speaking country. I mean, you do not get a course to learn English except in the United States or Britain so that you can practice what you studied. But since many of those who read this article do not have the ability to travel or make friends with foreigners, and I was lucky in this, the solution from my point of view is to obtain specialized courses in different fields (economics, politics, management or any specialization), so that they are The study material is in English, and it is preferable for students to be foreigners as well, and this is available online on a number of websites that offer interactive courses

 The advantage is that you will master the terminology and vocabulary of this field, and you will communicate on a daily basis with people who are interested in this field and speak about it in English, and this is a powerful practical application that forces you to practice the language. Of course, there are those who are afraid because they think that they will not understand anything, but the truth is that you will understand a little, and you will need to make a double effort to understand the lectures and write the assignments, but the beginnings are always difficult, and the end result is worth trying.

 Is there a magic bullet for language learning instead of all this?

 Yes, there is a solution, and this solution was told to me by an Italian friend who is fluent in several languages ​​when I asked him: How do you learn a new language?! He replied: By having a girlfriend from a country that speaks this language. I asked him: When do you know that you have mastered the language?! He said: When you quarrel with her and you lose your nerve and you find yourself cursing her in her language, then only make sure that you have mastered this language. So I asked him: So, tell me, how many girlfriends do you have?

 Good luck, and see you at the top

Please log in or register to answer this question.

2 Answers

by (2.5k points)
0 votes

السلام عليكم ورحمه الله وبركاته ❤️ 

مساء الخير ❤️ 

منشوووور رااائع 

استمر....

بالتوفيق ❤️⁦(✿^‿^)⁩ 

by (751 points)
+1 vote
Wonderful salutation  . It is a discriminating topic. And cheers for your  time to give us such a dazzling and stately experiment.  All the best and thank you in advance for your next articles.
by (198 points)
I say thank you very much for your beautiful and wonderful words, and thank you also very much for reading my words.
198 Online Users
3 Guest 195 Member
Today Visits : 66731
Yesterday Visits : 91456
Total Visits : 54018941

3.3k questions

10.4k answers

14.1k comments

2.3m users

مرحبًا بك إلى Zamericanenglish Q&A، حيث يمكنك طرح الأسئلة وانتظار الإجابة عليها من المستخدمين الآخرين.
add
...