How to write in English?

[Phuquy]

Hi everyone,

Could you please advice me how to write in English. I am struggling when I write in English. If I want to write something in English but I have to think in Vietnamese is fine I have no problem in thinking of what I want to write but the problem is my English is not smooth. And when I attempt to think in English then my mind seem blocked I all words seem vanished.

Please help me how to avoid this problem and adivice me which method to improve my writing skills in English.

Thank you for your help.

Phuquy

[meomok]

If you're not used to think in English, think in Vietnamese and translate first. Write down whatever you have. Stop and leave it there for half a day. Come back and read and polish your own writing. If you don't understand what you have written before, you would need to re-phrase it. Trim things/words that sounds uneccessary to make the writing clearer and shorter.

One thing I found quite different between vietnamese and english writing is that Viet tends to write long sentences (which, in Vietnamese it sounds perfect and very nice) but when translated into English it becomes very confusing.

But for the start, this is how I did for my own writing.

[Tanyenbai]

Hi PhuQuy,
You are writing very well. Excellent. Just go ahead the way you are. You are Phuquy, you could never be Shakepears nor Nguyen Du. Speeling mistakes are of no problem.

[wild4ever]

I think a very important aim you should keep when you write in English is to keep your mind flies in English. Vietnamese and English are two diffrent languages. Some sentences or ideas in your vietnamese may be very nice but when you translate them into Eng,I would tell you this in my own experiences, the whole thing will look like nothing but a bunch of mess! That's because Eng doesn't talk in the way Vie does.
For example, I think everybody knows this proverb: " có tật giật mình". If you try to translate it into Eng exact the way it is, I don't think anybody would understand. Otherwise,in English, they have a proverb with probably the same meaning: " The cap fits, then wear it"
The first time you might find it's difficult but don't give up. You can try little by little like try to think of what you are doing, what are you feeling,etc in English in your head. Step by step, you will get better ^^