new to Brum - just saying hello :)

[townie]

Virgil you have been in the country less that month and you use words I have never heard of. I think your English is better than you are letting on. I only went to a secondary modern school but I know people who went to grammar school and could not write and spell like you do after less than a month. 

[caryonder]

Hi virgil, you might want to try Cannon hill park, if you wish you might see a good game of cricket, Edgbaston close by, not so good now since the tulips not there. (They used  <many years ago> hold a tulip flower show , nearly every year . alas not now, but still a nice park , in same area as mosley? nearby!

[Virgil]

Virgil you have been in the country less that month and you use words I have never heard of. I think your English is better than you are letting on. I only went to a secondary modern school but I know people who went to grammar school and could not write and spell like you do after less than a month.

I don't know what letting on means.
yes, I am in UK since 15 November and until this datdatespoke with maybe 50 foreign customers: english, greek, jew, german, all sorts .
all negotiations and deliveries were made using my self learned English.

This is my "speaking" experience.
about certain words, most of modern world words come from Greek and Latin. A good culture was helpful.
Last but not least, I read a lot of books in English. Most of them with the simplistic business/marketing slang.

I don't know English. I know well a part of it and I am totally beginner in using daily English.

[caryonder]

"Letting on". As easy as I can make it,  " make believe"  ( Ian rich but really I am poor) is my best example.

[townie]

Virgil your English is very much improving. words like denotative, xenophobia. I didn't learn them at school and I was there for 10 years and you have learned them in a month. Well done Virgil 

[Virgil]

What my concern is: "denotative" and "xenophobia", for example, don't have Saxon origin. Therefore, such words are meet in almost any European language.
such words are just an excuse helping me to avoid using the real English, words of British origin. Looking back into this very post, I can identify 60% Latin origin words. Or maybe I am just lucky, reading a lot helps me to improve vocabulary with low effort.

[caryonder]

Well, read on Macbeth.

[Virgil]

I can't
the writing style is unbearable for me.
the Romanian translation of Shakespeare's opera was too difficult for me at the age I tried it. Back then, I could only read some sonnets of him. Never tried again.
when it comes to murderers, I prefer russian writers.

[townie]

Virgil you say that, You never had English courses before so all I know I have learned alone. Me, books, and foreign. English arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. Not only is your English very good but your History of England must be applauded. And all that from November.   

[maggie]

Virgil, just read that which you have been absorbing, very good if one is going to be a teacher .lecturer or such..
To speak with ordinary people  your must lower your aim, ok thats an unusual idea I suppose but that would be more
in keeping with most of us on this Forum..
Actually I congratulate you on your learning capacity but
it is not everyday conversational  .We are on the whole a down
to earth collection of Brummies, ok we all have a slightly different accent from various districts we grew up in but
on the whole are plain speaking ,no frills .. You will very
soon get hang of us with practice,cos you try hard..

[caryonder]

Whole hartily agree with " maggie" comments, we are quite easy to get on with, wherever we come from, a little reserved maybe. i just wonder exactly what you need?