Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

Hi everybody,

English is not my mother tongue. Last week I went to a barber and realised how frustrated I might be in such situations. The barber asked me how to cut my hair and I didn't have a single clue what to tell her. (I knew what I wanted but didn't know how to say it in English! )

I am not weak in English. If someone asks me to write an essay about a complex issue like "the effects of the global financial crisis on the divorce numbers", I am fully capable to do so!! But when it comes to day to day activities like " going to barber, going to butcher , booking a flight etc... I am really feel myself limited in words and phrases I can use! This has been always annoyed me.

So I am looking for a book or website or any other source of info to strengthen this weakness of mine.

Can anyone help me to find such source?

Thanks in anticipation fellas! :)

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

dictionary?

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

Pictionary

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

Home and Away

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

I am not looking for words. I am actually looking for suitable sentences to use in various day by day situations.

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

Get English-English dictionary, you surely find phrase patterns there.

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

There is such a huge immigrant base here in Australia that people are used to non-English speakers. Tell people in words what you want and the phrases will come with time and practice. It would be like me trying to speak Mandarin in China. I may know words but only practice will teach me how to speak in their language.

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

Go to the pub, sit down, sink 5 beers and have a chat with the blokes next to you. You will be well versed after for almost any situation in Australia.

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

Go to a bookshop (Dymocks, Borders type)and get a phrase book for your language to English. Won't cover everything as a lot of them are aimed at travellers, but might give you a good start. Something like Berlitz is a good series to look for but just ask the assistant for an English-whatever phrase book :)

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

Beginners Australian - Words and Phrases:

----------------------------
"Mate" (in all it's wonderfully subtle forms)

"Ahhhhh yeeeeehhh"

"Nah, but yeeeehhh"

"No Worries"

"She'll Be Right"

"Good Thanks!"

"It's Great, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else"

"They should love it or leave"

"You think this is hot, you should have been here in <insert year>"
-----------------------------

They should last you for 5 years then you may have to branch out into the advanced section.

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

But as the old saying goes . . . "a picture paints a thousand words" . . . therefore I humbly recommend that upon your next visit to said barber, carry with you the attached photo, thereby leaving no room for potential 'awkwardness' . . . Best of luck! I'm sure you'll be fitting right in in no time at all . . .










http://pyleoflist.com/wp-content/upl...12/haircut.jpg

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

Oh Sparty, been raiding the family albums have we? :)

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

Hands up you got me . . . school photo . . . grade 10. In fairness, I wasn't so much fat as just short for my weight.

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

If it was an Australian barber and the OP couldnt communicate, theres every chance he came out looking like that kid. :rofl:

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

Looks a bit like Shane Warne. :lol:

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

'Yes . . . A little bit long round the back . . . and a liitle bit short round the front . . . and a little bit shape round the side."

Et voila! :rofl:

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

When its says 'No Thongs' Don't take off your undies.

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

For someone who struggles with speaking English, you don't half write it good! :lol:

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

I was thinking the same thing. How can you be good at one and not the other?

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

At a stretch you could use an online translator to translate what you want to say into English and note down some of them. Sometimes they're a bit off but I've managed to hold whole conversations in Finnish just using Google translate. My Finnish friend reckons it's not bad at all!

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

You can, if you have learnt a second or third language mainly at school and used it only at work. If you haven't lived long in a country where your second or third language is spoken, problems such as those encountered by the OP are quite common.

As someone whose first language isn't English, my advice to the OP is to just listen more to how other people say certain things. Most people are only too pleased or flattered that you are interested in perfecting their language. Watching TV, as someone else has suggested is also great. As much as I hate soap operas, I think they are a great way to learn a language.

Mrs JTL

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

:lol:

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

Thank you every one for your inputs.

Re: Is There a Website/Book for Migrants to Know What to Say in Different Occassions?
 

Quality!!!!! LOL