Hi, Micheal!   
   I read your message from  17.10.2016 12:14   
   about Ways to learn English in non-English speaking country.   
      
   Thank you for your story. Just for practicing my English I will make a few   
   notes. To find errors is a good training for a learner. Of course, I will be   
   happy if you point out my mistakes.   
      
   -----Beginning of the citation-----   
    MD> I was in Moscow to meet my FidoNet friend three years ago. It was   
    MD> not a long trip, but he decided to bring me to English Club   
    MD> meeting. I learned English in my school and my knowledge was enough   
    MD> to pass an exam in my University. After this time I haven't speak   
    MD> English about 2 years. And it was... Horrible. I met 50 people   
    MD> talking English _the_same_ time. I could not put words together in   
    MD> a sentense. I kept the silence for all meeting (it was about 2.5   
    MD> hours) and just marked my city on the big map. After that I had   
    MD> gone away and was able to breathe easily again. Uggghhh.   
   ----- The end of the citation -----   
      
   "I was in Moscow to meet my FidoNet friend three years ago."   
   I heard they use "to" instead of "in" when saying about a trip. Or maybe it is   
   possible to use any of them? Ardith! ;)   
   "I was to Moscow to meet my FidoNet friend three years ago."   
      
   "he decided to bring me to English Club meeting."   
   IMHO we should use "an" for "meeting" (before "English").   
      
   "After this time I haven't speak English about 2 years."   
   spoken   
      
   "I met 50 people talking English _the_same_ time."   
   at the same time.   
      
   I kept the silence   
   I kept silence (we don't speak of a particular silence)   
      
      
    MD> 1. I found some services like wespeke.com, gospeaky.com and   
    MD> communicated with foreigns using text chats and video calls. Yeah,   
    MD> it is great and free!   
      
   My mobile Internet doesn't allow it unfortunately. ;-(   
      
    MD> But talking with native-speaking person is   
    MD> very hard cause it is not simple to find them there. So I needed to   
    MD> concentrate on listening to adopt to big variety of accents. But   
    MD> talking with people abroad is awesome! And difference in hours does   
    MD> not seem difficult. That's how I met my friend and penpal fronm   
    MD> Italy!   
      
   As I already told here, in my theory, the main problem for the Russian people   
   is the fact that the Russian speech is significantly slower than the English   
   one. I believe an Italian should speak and understand better than a Russian. ;)   
      
    MD> 2. I participated in open source project with guys from Honduras.   
    MD> Sometimes we have a video calls with 10 hours time difference but   
    MD> mostly we communicate using text chats. The're speaking Spanish and   
    MD> we need to prepare to every meeting (translate documents, etc).   
      
    MD> 3. I watch tv-series in English using English subtitles. Yes, it is   
    MD> bad, but there is a one problem for me described next.   
      
    MD> My vocabulary is not so big. It is ok to speak with somebody about   
    MD> usual things, but I feel not comfortable when we're switching to   
    MD> another specialized topic (not about computers). In school we just   
    MD> tried to remember the words by writing them in a paper with 3   
    MD> columns: word, translation and pronunciation. I remember tonns of   
    MD> papers and now I can't remember most of them.   
      
    MD> Is there any way to remember the words in not so boring activity?   
      
   IMHO there is only one way - to read interesting texts and books. I believe   
   that interesting books are the best choice. _Paper_ books are highly   
   preferable, IMO. It is true when you learn any subject. You can make remarks,   
   underline new phrases, new words, write their meaning. After reading the book   
   you can easily peruse it through and quickly refresh the new words and   
   phrases. Such a repetition will help memorize words more effectively.   
      
   Constant reading is a very good tool for word memorizing.   
      
    MD> 4. Every month I visit local English-speaking club. It is really   
    MD> interesting, yeah! And free :) I have got a membercard!   
      
    MD> This are the ways I'm trying to keep my English in usable   
    MD> condition. Maybe I'm not right in some parts, but I want to know   
    MD> English better and do not afraid to use it everywhere and anytime.   
      
   In the battle to conquer English there are two battlefields: the spoken   
   English and the language of the English literature. The way to the literary   
   language IMHO lies only via constant reading.   
      
   IMHO it can be compared with a camp-fire. If you have smoldering coals - new   
   firewood will catch fire quickly.   
      
   Bye, Micheal!   
   Alexander Koryagin   
   ENGLISH_TUTOR 2016   
      
   --- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox   
    * Origin: Quinn's Post - Maryborough, Queensland, OZ (3:640/384)