<p>well. I'm also an international student who is attending college this fall.
After reading through all the posts before, I found out that most of them are more focusing on how to get along with a daily English, speaking, listening and communicating stuff. but not so much emphasised on studing and cultural aspects.
For me, i live in a big city here with a really prestigious University, so I started to make friends with the american students who were doing their oversea studies here since I knew that i was going to US college.
Actually I've had an American boyfriend for several months. Basicly we speak english with each other everyday, talking about different stuff and making fun of each other. (He's back to States yesterday though...sigh~)
I'll say that I can understand 99% of his english, but with other americans especially from south is range from 80% to 95%, Don't know why.
My main problem here is about reading and writing. I really want to get good grades in college, coz I'm still thinking of transfering to other better colleges . My vocabulary is very very limited.also the american culture and history is an obscurity for me, even it's so short like only 200 years.
Like each time I tried to watch stuff like the daily show. I even though I understand what they say, I can't laugh coz I don't know the background of that thing or who in hell they are laughing at.
I have had a basic knowledge about US geo, history, and social background. Much more than most Americans to my homeland- China. But it's not enough for any conversation in a deeper culture or politic base. I still havn't found a quick and efficient way to resolve it. And I'm desperately mad for my lack of knowledage, and my lliteracy.
besides my writing skill is really really bad. My essays are such a horrible mess, with limited phrases, inaccurated words and cliche.
Can anyone help.</p>
<p>Ok, I think your two main concerns are the lack of cultural literacy (that includes history, current politics, and pop culture from about 1990s and until today) and stellar writing skills. Here is my advice (I've been in the US since 7th grade - about 6 years):
There really isn't much you can do to improve your cultural literacy very significantly until you get here. I would recommend reading an AP US History prep book to get some historical background and constantly following the US news and online newspapers to keep up with the politics. It will be very difficult for you to obtain information on the more obscure things that most people here know (bands, songs, TV shows, fads, famous court cases, and prominent figures of the 90s, for instance). With that being said, people here are quite tolerant if they know you're an immigrant, so they won't think you are stupid if you don't know this stuff. Don't expect the impossible - you weren't born in the US, so there is no way you can blend in with natives right away. (e.g. you won't understand the Daily Show if you don't know the politicians and the recent news, as well as some history and recent pop culture)</p>
<p>As for writing, there is only one piece of advice I can give you -read, write, read, write, and read and write again. There is no quick way to go about it. Read books that are far above your reading level. I don't know what your reading level is, but I'd suggest at least a junior-year honors high school curriculum (Scarlet Letter, Hamlet, Grapes of Wrath, Wuthering Heights). Or, if you feel up to it, you can try the senior-year AP curriculum (Brothers Karamazov, Sound and the Fury (I don't recommend it if you're not 99% proficient in English and extremely patient), Madame Bovary, Invisible Man - by Ralph Ellison). Make sure you look up unknown vocab and memorize it as much as you can. And as a plus, these books will give your analytical and reading skills wonderful practice. And as for writing, I recommend creative writing to improve your style and analytical writing to improve structure and argument progression. Just read a few chapters from a book, then write a creative short story (not necessarily related), or an essay about the themes/characters/setting/etc. Your style will inadvertently be affected (and improved) by what you've just read.</p>
<p>Excellent advice olgita! All aspects of writing (style, spelling, vocabulary, etc.) are improved by extensive reading. It really is key.</p>
<p>The only suggestion I would make is that the reading doesn't necessarily have to be the hardest that you can handle. One technique that school teachers use here is to tell students to count the number of words that they don't know on each page. If there are more than five, you are stretching yourself, possibly beyond your level of tolerance. The more important factor is the volume of the reading. Read the newspaper, read Harry Potter, read whatever you can find in the "young adult" section of the public library in the city where you are studying. I tell my adult English students to try Harry Potter or any other novel that they are familiar with in their first language. You will know the characters and the plot, and will be able to work out new vocabulary from context.</p>
<p>Wishing you a great experience in the US!</p>
<p>^^ I agree that the best way to improve your literacy is to start reading books (or magazines) in English (same advise as for improving SAT Writing portion). There's a huge variety of cheap books in English so you've got to find something you like. Ask an American friend to recommend you a good read. And I'm more inclined to agree with Happymomof1 on this - books don't necessarily have to be too difficult.
If you can't easily access books in English, then read online portals of reputable American newspapers. Depending on the topic of your interest, you can find a big variety - TIME, New York Times, Newsweek, The Economist and likes if you're into current events and more serious writing as this will also help you improve your conversation about politics or even some about cultural problems of contemporary America. If you like music there is Rolling Stone, if you're into fashion and every-day girl stuff then you can find Elle(girl), Cosmo(girl), Vogue etc online.
Personally, I recommend the first group of more serious writing as they will expose you to more difficult words and more formal writing. And they write about huge range of things, not only politics, so I am sure you'll find some topic of your interest. </p>
<p>If you want to know "who in the hell they're laughing at" then keep a pen and paper always near-by when you're watching TV and write down what/who you didn't understand. You can look it up online and learn more about it later.</p>
<p>Maybe you should also start watching sitcoms in English with Chinese subtitles. Sitcoms are fun, and they often include various jokes specific to American culture that are not as hard to understand. I found them as a good way to learn about American culture and some of those American media/historical figures because most of the humor uses them + same people/events came up in several different shows so I could figure the context.</p>
<p>It's great that you found Americans nearby! I agree with Olgita that there isn't much you can do before physically arriving to USA but I believe there are some ways to increase your knowledge a bit. Like asking your boyfriend and/or friends to talk to you more about his/her view of USA, most/least favorite American things, etc. Lots of topics are bound to come up as some people love to talk about greatest <em>American</em> guitar player/rock band in the history, some about contemporary problems like racial tensions in some areas, differences between East Coast, West Coast, Midwest and South, or even illegal immigrant problems or immigration-regulation laws (Yes, I've had a friend like that). Ask them what they like/miss/want/dislike about USA, or what major differences they noticed between USA and China etc and I guess you should learn a lot about American culture.
Or if you don't understand what your American friends are talking about, ask them about it. If you happen to ask lots of questions, then explain that you're eager to learn more about American culture and that their stories are invaluable to you. Maybe you can even tell them to talk to you more about USA as you'd like to learn more before you leave for college.
This is, of course, if you are not already talking about these things.</p>
<p>As for writing, besides reading books and magazines, try reading essay writing tips and some writing rules (you can find them online, too). But for it to really improve, you should write a lot and get a feedback on them (you don't have to write a War and Peace, maybe just a short 0.5-1 page reflection on a book you've read, what happened today, how much you like chocolates etc.) Ask someone you trust (teacher, native-speaker friend) to look over your essays and honestly tell you what needs improvement. </p>
<p>I hope you'll find something fun to read :)</p>
<p>Where will you be going to school, just curious?</p>
<p>And just as a recommendation - I have a Chinese friend who reads a lot of Amy Tan's writing, both in English and in Chinese, I believe. </p>
<p>And as for the happymomof1 and boho_girl's advice about the level of books, I suppose you should just read whatever helps you best. I found that I learn the most vocab when a book is a few reading levels above my "comfort level," yet I can still understand most of the unknown words in context, without a dictionary. Looking them all up and memorizing them is still the best way to learn, but if you see a word a few times in context, then look it up, it doesn't take as much effort to remember.</p>
<p>More ideas on where to find books to read:</p>
<p>Make friends with the staff at your university library, especially the reference librarians. They all will have favorite books and authors that they can recommend to you. Ask them about non-fiction as well as novels. Ask if the library has a "leisure collection" - that would be a section set aside for books that aren't related to classes. Sometimes these books aren't in the main library, but are in another location on campus. Some residence halls also have small collections of paperback books that have been donated by students who are finished with them.</p>
<p>If your university has an Elementary Education program, the university library will have a collection of children's literature for students in that program to analyze for their classes, but anyone at the university can either read them in the library or check them out and take them home. If you just want to learn some US history quickly, this might be a good place to start. There should be novels set in different time periods of US history (one series to look for is "Dear America" which is written in the form of diaries written by teenage girls), as well as non-fiction books about historical and cultural figures.</p>
<p>If your university doesn't have many "fun" books, find out where the local public library is. If it is easy for you to get there, go visit that library and make friends with the librarians and ask for their recommendations for things to read. Once you are in the midst of your studies, you might find it hard to make time to read "for fun", but many students like to do that to relax, and any trip off campus will give you a nice change of pace.</p>
<p>In your original post you wrote "I'll say that I can understand 99% of his english, but with other americans especially from south is range from 80% to 95%, Don't know why." Don't worry about this just yet. Lots of people who have lived in the US their entire lives have difficulty understanding people from other parts of the country. With exposure to other variations in pronunciation and regional words, your comprehension will improve. Don't ever be afraid to ask someone to repeat something, or to ask for further clarification. Everyone here will know that you are an international student!</p>
<p>olgita:SUNY Binghamton....
not really good school though. coz i'm a poor kid.
hehe....I don't know if I'm too bad coz I'm already thinking of transfering even before college.
Major is IR or Poli Sci minor German probably</p>
<p>btw thanks for all your advises. I will soon get start to read~ !!</p>
<p>jast reemembar yu kan brekh raight thru the langige barriyer</p>