ESL Problems

I am an ESL person, I never used English in life until I started Canadian Pre-U. As a matter of fact, I kinda started to have contact with the English world when I started to listen to Hitz songs when form 5. Even when I was young I read Mandarin subtitles while watching Disney's. My family is a traditional Chinese family, we speak Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Malay, and very minimal of broken English. Therefore, the English language is kind of never useful in my life before. 

So, having English conversation with people was something I would never had imagined, and surprisingly it came quite smooth for me. p/s: I can't speak Manglish, I instinctively just can't put "lah" behind any English sentence, it just sounds weird for me. 

When we say English, America and Great Britain are countries that will pop into our head directly. The Malaysian English and English in anywhere of the world is very different. Have been speaking English for 3 years plus, if you want me to make a summary, I would say that proper English is wordy and polite (?), Malaysian English is, uh, straight forward and can only be understand by Malaysians and Singaporeans.

I found this posts on Renren.com, I found it quite useful for ESL people like us, especially people who are going for abroad study soon.

It seems to me that English people, or bananas, have some habits while they speaking English, for example,   

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表达自己意见 when you want to give your opinion：
1. I think that... *最简单的
2. It seems to me that... *可以用作表达意见，或者summarize或者confirm对方说的话。
3. I would argue that...*这里面用would来弱化语气。
4. Just to go along with what you said... *感谢读者下方留言提醒我这句话，真的很好用，承上启下。这句话还好在，它使你现在插话看上去legitimate，因为你是为了和前面的那个人go along啊。不赶紧接话，不就along不上了嘛。
5. Going back to what xxx said... * 同上。不过一般是你已经说了几句，此事，想要relate to something 别人刚刚提到过或者蜻蜓点水说道的东西。这句话的好处就是，一能bring others on board说看我的说法和你是有一致之处的， 二能表现他刚才说的东西你还有印象。
6. So basically 所以基本上 (added by myself, from experience)

同意或者反对 agree or disagree ：
I agree with you. *最简单的
Building on what XX has just said, ....
I am with you..., but [main point]. * 这里I am with you不一定表示同意也不一定表示反对，它主要的意思是说“你说的我听懂了/我跟上你说的了。”
I follow your logic, but have you thought about/considered this... [main point]...? *和上面一句话的逻辑是一样的：“你说的我明白了，但是...”
I see what you are saying, but I’m not sure I would argue that... *和上面两句话的逻辑一样。
With all due respect, I think...

谦虚的反对to disagree politely ：
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn't [a different topic]...?
I’m not an expert on..., it seems to me that...
I might be wrong, but ...
I suspect that I lack some [background] information about this aspect, but here is my two cents.
I am not sure about this..., you might want to check with Professor X... Would you mind letting me know what he/she says?
[别人说了一堆之后] This is one way to look at it. Another way to look at it might be....

疑惑追问：
Just to clarify,...
May I ask a follow-up question?
Could you say more (about it)? *不确定自己是不是听懂了，请别人多解释一些。
Could you elaborate on this?

会议报告、演讲之后提问 for Q&A in official events ：
That’s an amazing model/useful concept, but it occurred to me that [this/something] might also play a role....Have you considered ...?
Thanks for your talk. I completely agree with your conclusion, but as I’m sure you’re aware, Dr. XX explains this in a different way, and I was wondering if you could address her theory. * “but as I’m sure you’re aware”完全是给对方一个台阶下，可能那个理论他根本没有考虑过。但是如果对方是很senior的，我们也需要客套一下。

需求帮助 seeking help ：
I was wondering if I could talk to you about... *一般都是用过去时，在email里面也是如此。而且，虽然was wondering/hoping这种进行时看起来很怪，但是用法就是这样子的。
I was hoping that if I could talk to you about...
I was wondering if it’d be possible that you...*
Sorry to bother you, Professor X....
I realize this is an unusual request...
I realize that you are very busy...
Thanks for your time.
Thanks in advance for your help.
It would be great if you could...*这个是最常用的，尤其是email里面

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Use these and you will feel BANANAAAAAAAAA, aka act pro lah, make those ang mohs feel like you are social-able. LOL.

Being talkative is kind of a norm in English spoken countries, I had to make myself hyper and talk a lot when I am with them so that the conversation and atmosphere won't be weird. But still, being Malaysian is the best okay.