I am bilingual (french/english), but one thing really bothers me: I never get to speak in English. I read books in English, I watch movies in English, I read/write in English, etc. but I never get the chance to practice my spoken English. The end result is that although I understand/write English very well, I lack confidence when talking. I wish I could _talk_ on the net so that I "get" the accent and intonation. The best scenario would be to be able to discuss about things I'm interested in at the same time (startups, programming, etc.). I could actually host a Ventrilo server (anyone interested?) until someone builds an app for that :D
I should move to a country where English is spoken by most people. I was in the same situation one year ago before moving to Netherlands. You will never completely loose your french accent (hey they said it's sexy :) ), but you will improve a lot your vocabulary and your confidence in talking (especially after work and a few beers :)).
I would highly recommend playing online video games with voice chat. With almost any game you choose, you'll find a mature group of individuals that play casually and would enjoy chatting with you.
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I am bilingual (french/english), but one thing really bothers me: I never get to speak in English. I read books in English, I watch movies in English, I read/write in English, etc. but I never get the chance to practice my spoken English. The end result is that although I understand/write English very well, I lack confidence when talking. I wish I could _talk_ on the net so that I "get" the accent and intonation. The best scenario would be to be able to discuss about things I'm interested in at the same time (startups, programming, etc.). I could actually host a Ventrilo server (anyone interested?) until someone builds an app for that :D
This just posted on nytimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/technology/personaltech/28...
I should move to a country where English is spoken by most people. I was in the same situation one year ago before moving to Netherlands. You will never completely loose your french accent (hey they said it's sexy :) ), but you will improve a lot your vocabulary and your confidence in talking (especially after work and a few beers :)).
I would highly recommend playing online video games with voice chat. With almost any game you choose, you'll find a mature group of individuals that play casually and would enjoy chatting with you.
That's what I used to do actually. It was indeed a very effective way to speak English but I pretty much lost interest in video games now.