Me and the Foreign Language

Jun 28, 2018 17:13
Today I would like to write my post under the theme of 'me and the foreign language.'

The reason that I study English is closely related to my purpose in life.

I am currently researching diagnostic and measurement technology at my university, and I would like to become a researcher who is active on the front lines of that field.

Toward this goal, two abilities are essential: one is the ability to read scientific papers written in English, and the other is the ability to disseminate study results to the world in English.

Because of this, I learn and write English on Lang-8 every day.

However, these days I have not practiced listening and speaking; undoubtedly, I need more practices towards an international conference that is held after a few months.
私と外国語

今日は「私と外国語」をテーマに、記事を投稿します。

私が英語を学ぶ理由は、私の人生の目的と深く関係しています。

私は現在大学で診断・計測技術に関する研究を行っており、この分野において世界の第一線で活躍する研究者になりたいと思っています。

そのためには、英語で書かれた論文を読む能力と、英語で研究成果を世界に発信する能力が不可欠です。

これら能力を身につけるため、私は毎日 Lang-8 に記事を投稿しています。

しかし、リスニングとスピーキングが疎かになっているので、数か月後に控えた国際会議に向けて特訓しなければなりません。
No. 1　TheCutestOtter's correction
  • Me and the Foreign Language
  • Me and Foreign Languages
    　You could also say, "Me and English" because that's the language you want to focus on specifically.
  • Today I would like to write my post under the theme of 'me and the foreign language.'
  • Today I would like to write my post under the theme of "me and foreign languages".
    　Alternatives:

    (1) Today's post is going to be about me and foreign languages.
    (2) My post today is about me and how I learn foreign languages.
    (3) For today's post, I am putting my experiences with foreign languages front and center.

    I'm according myself some stylistic freedom in the sense that these alternatives are drastic reformulations of your original sentence. I'm just sharing them with you so you can get inspired.
  • The reason that I study English is closely related to my purpose in life.
  • The reason that I study English is closely related to my purpose in life.
    　In this case, you can leave out "that". I would go without that.
  • I am currently researching diagnostic and measurement technology at my university, and I would like to become a researcher who is active on the front lines of that field.
  • This sentence is perfect! No correction needed!
  • Toward this goal, two abilities are essential: one is the ability to read scientific papers written in English, and the other is the ability to disseminate study results to the world in English.
  • This sentence is perfect! No correction needed!
  • Because of this, I learn and write English on Lang-8 every day.
  • This sentence is perfect! No correction needed!
  • However, these days I have not practiced listening and speaking; undoubtedly, I need more practices towards an international conference that is held after a few months.
  • However, these days I have not practiced listening and speaking; undoubtedly, I need more practice with this in preparation of an international conference that is held in a few months.
Here you go! Your English is already really good, so my corrections only affect smaller parts of speech which sound a little unnatural to my ears. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to let me know and I'll do what I can to help out.
Toru
Thank you so much for the corrections!
I'm glad to hear you say that. (^^)
No. 2　Matt's correction
  • Because of this, I learn and write English on Lang-8 every day.
  • Because of this, I practice my English writing on Lang-8 every day.
    　"learn and write English" just sounds a little off to me.

    Like "learn" and "write" are 2 different qualities of actions and so they don't really work together. At this point, I think you can plainly state that you have already learned English and rather you are putting what you have learned into practice to improve. Certainly, through this improvement process you are learning things. But that is not the heart of your activities I would think.

    Also "write English" vs. "write in English" - the latter is more common. If you do a google search for those 2 phrases with the quotation marks, you'll see that the latter has 10 times as many results as the former.
  • However, these days I have not practiced listening and speaking; undoubtedly, I need more practices towards an international conference that is held after a few months.
  • However, these days I have not been practicing listening and speaking; undoubtedly, I need more practices towards an international conference that is held after a few months.
    　undoubtedly, I need to spend more time working on my conversational abilities in preparation for an upcoming international conference.
    no doubt, I should prioritize conversational practice to prepare myself for an international conference I will be attending in a few months.
    doubtless, listening and speaking practice will be most beneficial for my participation in an upcoming international conference.

    Similar to TheCutestOtter, I've taken some liberties with your original sentence.

    "these days" points to the past leading up to the present moment, so "have been ---ing" is a better verbal construction with that adverbial phrase.

    "conversation" is a reverbalization of "listening and speaking" without being repetitive. Also, you might add a modifier like "formal" to indicate the specific type of conversational skills you want to practice.

    "upcoming" is a good adjective replacement for the wordy "held in a few months."
Have you checked out italki.com for your conversation practice? It's a great site that I have recently been using to practice my Japanese conversation. I have been writing about various topics here to receive help regarding expressions, vocabulary, and grammatical constructions which I then am able to practice orally via Skype with Japanese tutors. It's been great practice for an upcoming phone interview test I have.

Best of luck with your continued efforts!
Toru
Thank you so much always for correcting my post!
And thank you for letting me know that site! It looks great.
I would like to try using it in the near future!
Matt
Let me know how it goes. Good luck finding some good language partners or tutors.
No. 3　David's correction
  • However, these days I have not practiced listening and speaking; undoubtedly, I need more practices towards an international conference that is held after a few months.
  • However, these days I have not practiced listening and speaking; undoubtedly, I need more practice towards an international conference that will be held in a few months.
    　practices --> practice - Here it's being used as a singular noun.

    towards an --> towards (preparing for)/(getting ready for) an - You need more practice for what reason?

    that is held --> that will be held

    after --> in
Toru
Thank you so much for the correction!
> You need more practice for what reason?
It is because I don't want to be humiliated at the conference.
David
Humiliation is good for the soul... if you can live through it. ;o)
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