3 Levels of Writing to Ask for Help: English Learner to Native | EnglishAnyone

Today we’re going to transform a sample of writing from a non-native English learner

into something a native would say so you see how to express yourself in your speaking and

writing more naturally and fluently!

Sound good?

Now, on to the sample I got from a learner…

“I am Hang, who is received the email from you.

I come from Vietnamese.

Thank you for the email from you sent for me per week when new information.

I write this email to share with you about my problem.

I have learned English in many years, but my English skills isn't improve.

I can read well, but my listening skill is too bad.

I just understand some words when listening, not understand them means in conversations.”

OK, this actually wasn’t too bad.

I understood the message, but there are a lot of very basic grammar errors.

So let’s clean this up to make an error-free, Level 2 version of the sample, and then I’ll

talk about what I fixed:

I am Hang, who receives emails from you.

Here, you need to decide if you’re talking about one mail or many.

I’m just assuming many, and that this is continuing, so he receives mails, and not

“the email,” from me.

I come from Vietnam.

This is just the difference between a country and a nationality.

You’re FROM Vietnam, but you ARE Vietnamese, just like someone who’s Japanese comes from

Japan.

Pretty simple.

But things like this might need a bit of review from time to time.

Thank you for the emails you send to me each week with new information.

It’s this sentence that tells me he IS in fact talking about receiving regular emails

from me, and not just one.

So I was correct about that in the first sentence, and I can edit the grammar in this sentence

accordingly.

You also send an email TO someone, not FOR someone.

A message CAN be FOR someone, like “This call, or mail, is for you.”

But if you’re talking about sending something, you send or deliver something TO someone.

I write this email to share my problem.

You can “share” a problem or story with someone, or you can “tell someone about”

a problem or story.

I have learned English for many years, but my English skills haven’t improved.

You do something FOR many years if you’re talking about from a time in the past to now.

IN would be used if you’re talking about doing something in the future.

And because he IS talking about the past, his skills HAVEN’T improved.

Next…

I can read well, but my listening skill is very bad.

“Too” here sounds unnatural, so you’d use “very” instead.

Something like the weather can be “too good” or “too bad,” like if the weather is too

bad to drive, but a skill is more something you build from basic movements or steps.

So you’re not really “bad” at something when you just start doing it, and you can’t

really be “too bad” at it.

You’re just not very good yet.

Finally…

I just understand some words when listening, but don’t understand what words mean in

conversations.

Here, it’s not really clear if the problem is that he can’t hear clearly, if he doesn’t

understand the meaning of the words, or that some kind of lessons are easier to understand

than conversational speech.

But at least we’ve corrected the grammar.

Now, let’s see one way a native might express this for the highest level of natural, conversational

“flow”:

I’m Hang, a reader from Vietnam.

Basic information about your name and where you’re from can usually be combined.

And it’s much more natural to express a description as a kind of person or job.

So, instead of someone “who receives mails from you,” Hang would just be a “reader.”

Much easier, right?

Similarly, someone “who transports you from one location to another in an automobile”

would just be a “driver.”

It’s implied that he’s getting my emails if he says he’s a reader.

Next, he’s just thanking me specifically for tips and advice – or lessons – that

I send each week, so it’s more natural the way I’ve written it.

Thank you for the new tips and advice you send each week.

Likewise…

Let me tell you about my problem.

Just get to the point.

At most, you’d say “I’m writing because” I have a problem.

But, again, I know he’s writing, so there’s no need for him to mention it.

“Let me tell you about” is also a good way to introduce a problem.

Next…

I’ve learned English for many years, but my listening hasn’t improved.

Again, we want to get to the point and be specific about the problem.

There’s no need for two sentences when one will do.

Just state the specific problem without introducing something more general first.

After all, if you can write, there’s no need to mention that you can read.

Finally, we get to the specific problem in the last sentence: I understand some words

I hear, but often don’t understand words in conversations.

Now, this could be expressed more clearly, depending on what the specific problem is,

but this is fine for today.

Comparing the two examples, you discover one of the secrets to communicating well: simplicity.

See how you can improve the way you communicate by changing just a few simple words?

Feels pretty good, right?

Finally, try writing the “native” version in a comment below to improve your fluency.

And see if you can make it even better with YOUR OWN version!

Remember that if you transform your English, you really can transform your LIFE…

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