<p>I'm Asian and my English speaking skill is very limited. I realize that limited ability and I'm trying to improve it by speaking with some American classmates I met at community college. I'm trying to make friends but, for some reason, they seem like they don't want to talk to me. Some of them even act like insulting me because they cannot understand my English. I think they might think I'm stupid or something. Honestly, I'm not stupid but the real problem is I don't know how to stress the words, I don't know how to pronounce or organize sentences. So, any of you guys please advise me how to make friends with Americans (whether with the girls or the guys).</p>
<p>PS I'm a male; so I cannot use my appearance as an advantage!</p>
<p>few things, I’d suggest. Watch TV, it’ll help you become more familiar with the accentuation of the language. Try repeating words and phrases you just heard.</p>
<p>next, be the funny guy. if you can make people they’ll be more likely to respond to you, heck even make fun of your own language skills. Sarcasm is a great skill to posses and it scales down well to people of lesser intelligence.</p>
<p>also, your writing seems decent, I’ve seen, MUCH MUCH worse engrish, if you hadn’t mentioned you weren’t a native speaker, I’d never have known. Admittedly, not everything you wrote flowed perfectly, but neither does every day conversation and I’ve seen native speakers fair far, far worse.</p>
<p>just give it some time. I’ve got a friend who grew up in Mexico and within 2 years of coming here, he was entirely fluent and spoke well. He had no more of an accent than a lot of the people who spoke natively (he grew up in a Hispanic area and there were native speakers who only knew English with worse accents)</p>
<p>u can always sign up for english tutoring and ur CC’s english tutoring center, and ask to be helped with conversation, it’ll be really good practice for you, and itll make, maing friends much easier.</p>
<p>try to hang out with other chinese people that speak english that can help translate stuff (i’m assuming ur chinese since there’s 2 billion of them)</p>
<p>Watch TV and talk to English speakers. Most Americans are kind to foreigners. I know I am. I know I helped my friend with her English. I’ll be honest, though, I could not understand her for the first 2 weeks.</p>
<p>"Watch the show Jersey Shore. Do the opposite of that. "</p>
<p>I have never seen that show, but I can imagine it being very stupid. I actually have family in that area-where they shoot- and it is really not like that. I hate people like that.</p>
<p>I agree w/ the others, your English is quite good regardless of your disadvantage. As a tip, you could try reading hw or other books aloud on a daily basis. I have known someone who had trouble with English such as you and this helped tremendously.</p>
<p>i got a friend from cc who’s from HK. all you gotta do is be a nice, helpful person and you got a friend. plus he hangs out with other people who speak his language</p>
<p>G.T.L.- gym, tan, laundry. 1) Hit the gym (or get juiced) 2) Spray tan your body to a golden bronze (or maybe go to a tanning salon) 3) Get fresh clothes (preferably Ed Hardy brand). When you are done, you will be ready to party with the Americans!</p>
<p>Stay in school, transfer to berkeley, make alot of money. Then make some more money. And then a little more. Then you will be accepted as an American. That’s how it works around here.</p>
<p>There is no other special methods in which you can enhance your English tremendously in a short period of time depending on how much you spend your time on speaking English. I’m also f.o.b, and it has been one and half years since I came to U.S.A, but ppl never know that I’m from Korea unless I say it, because my accent is almost americanized. The only reason I could get over it was because I do never speak Korean, and never hang out with Korean. I did even have to buy new laptop, because my old laptop which has a korean keyboard bothered me a lot.
Good luck !~</p>
<p>Well I’m an FOB myself. I’ve noticed that americans are human too and differ greatly. You’ll meet some few people who are actually open minded and wouldn’t mind if you’re an FOB as long as they understand what you’re saying (grammar).</p>
<p>Just don’t cut yourself off from the general populace like most of the fobs around here. Fobs at my school stay together, speak their native language, and barely talk in class. These are all ways to dissuade anyone from becoming friends with you.</p>
<p>“G.T.L.- gym, tan, laundry. 1) Hit the gym (or get juiced) 2) Spray tan your body to a golden bronze (or maybe go to a tanning salon) 3) Get fresh clothes (preferably Ed Hardy brand). When you are done, you will be ready to party with the Americans!”</p>
<p>" Just don’t cut yourself off from the general populace like most of the fobs around here. Fobs at my school stay together, speak their native language, and barely talk in class. These are all ways to dissuade anyone from becoming friends with you. "</p>
<p>Yeah I kinda agree on that, being an FOB myself. Some other nationalities in my CC like to group together and alienate themselves. I had a friend (or I thought so) who I added on facebook a month ago and he deleted me sometime this week. I checked his friends list and all our mutual friends who aren’t his nationality were deleted as well.</p>
<p>" Be funny. The FOBs that get made of in class are the ones that act too serious and never show any personality. "</p>
<p>Lol, I guess what you mean by “funny” is not like William Hung type of funny. Those people in my CC get pwned by racism.</p>
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<p>My Experience: MOST americans don’t care if your accent isn’t too thick. Just be sure to communicate well (it’s a bad sign if they say “What?” or “Sorry?”, that means you need practice) and try to learn what kind of “fun” they prefer. Some people do alcohol, some do art, some drive, some…are nerds. You’re better off joining nerds though. Just try to standout (gym, tan, laundry lololol) from the nerdy pack to get laid.</p>
<p>Perhaps find some other foreigners in similar situations and practice speaking English to each other? Or download Skype and set your profile to Skype Me, or contact people whose profiles are set to Skype Me. That way you can practice your English without the demoralizing side effect of worrying what people you see every day think of you.</p>
<p>Also, as much as possible disregard the people who made fun of your English. They are probably jerks. I’m white, at least a third generation American, and have what I’m told is a strong American accent, and I have a ton of respect for immigrants like yourself, even if their accents are impenetrable.</p>