how to sound more sophisticated

[salivia_baker]

The title says it: how about a lesson that teaches you to sound more sophisticated.

the most problems arise when I try to express complex thoughts and make them sound more sophisticated (which leads to a total breakdown of English grammar). I am used to form really complicated sentences in my native language and I would love to be able to do that in English as well

[Rob]

Sounding sophisticated is a tricky thing to do, however your English is very strong so I can only imagine what your German is like!

Personally, I think the best way to sound sophisticated is to speak and write naturally. Also, if you're speaking naturally then it's not likely to backfire on you. If you're comfortable with the words and sentence structure you are using then it's not likely to break down.

As far as sounding more sophisticated, I think there are two schools of thought here. There's one that says use big words, make long sentences and use funky punctuation. On the other hand, there is a "less is more" philosophy.

I used to be a strong proponent of the first school. I remember when I was began taking writing seriously, this was some time during high school. I was trying to sound like a genius and it was not working out at all! My teachers would write all over my papers, cross out huge portions of the page that they (rightfully so) felt were unnecessary and point out that I didn't fully understand the meanings of some words I was trying to use. To throw a vocab word in here, I was being bombastic (someone who intentionally uses big words to sound smart. Verbose is a similar word more or less meaning the use of too many words to say one thing). Some time during college (I think I had been reading lots of Hemmingway at the time) my writing style changed drastically in the "less is more" direction.

I feel the best way to sound more sophisticated or eloquent in spoken or written English is through word choice than word count. The easiest way to do this is to develop your vocabulary. There are numerous synonyms for every word. By knowing synonyms for words one can keep their writing interesting by not repeating the same word over and over again. Also, it's very easy to be "wasteful" with words if that makes sense. In writing and especially speaking I'd suggest making sure every word has a purpose. Short sentences can be beautiful too! By keeping your sentences clear, direct and concise you'll be able to better keep the attention of your audience.

In English literature there was a trend a few hundred years ago during the Romantic period to be verbose. A good portion of this was due to the fact that some writers, namely Charles Dickens, were paid per page rather than per book. For this reason authors of the time had a direct interest in filling their writing with useless and boring information. In turn, while many of these books are classics, they are to many an acquired taste. I myself am not a fan if you can't tell!

It is rather ironic that I just wrote a small novel to preach a "less is more" philosophy in speaking and writing, however I hope this has been helpful and thank you for being such a dedicated student!

Rob

[salivia_baker]

My German is very complicated

And I think there lies the problem because in German we say: the more complicated you can write/speak the more educated you are. Hence my tendency to try to build complicated sentences in other languages even though I know that it doesn't work that good (or that it's beyond my ability)

It's not so much the "big words" because as you say it depends on your vocabulary. I would like to have lessons that teach me how to have words like "hence" or "therefore" to build longer sentences or to connect ideas/thoughts.
To write/speak in a good manner I believe you should mix long and short sentences, words and the structure of a sentence. For example: I am German. I am a student. I am a woman. I am.. We do learn very early on that you can connect sentences with "and" :
I am German and I am a student. But now I can also distribute information in other ways: I am a female student from Germany
The thing is I am looking for such tools that help me to arrange the information I want to give in different ways.

I know that I have to work on my problem to think so complicated but I believe that there is still something to learn for me in order to sound more sophisticated.

I do agree that you shouldn't use big word just for the sake of it or to write more complicated then you have to. But in some cases in order to express a rather complicated thought it is helpful (especially in the scientific world)

[ShadeyLane]

For English, sounding sophisticated would be keeping your replies clear and concise. You can mix your "big" words in while making sure things flow well. It's taking what you learn from English and using your knowledge of interacting with people. Just about every culture has a few things in common. And the more you learn English vocabulary, the more you have to work with.

Doing a lot of reading actually helps one improve immensely. I can tell who around me reads verses those who don't read because of certain words I hear them use.

[salivia_baker]

The problem for me is that I cannot be concise in english as I can in my native language (because it is much simpler for us to create words we need and we have more possibilities to make grammar work for us because it's more complicated then english grammar).

I feel more comfortable speaking colloquial english because I am no concious about speaking another language. I don#t have to think about it. But when I have to speak formally I get really nervous and am very concious about what I am saying. And I would like to get some guidelines in order to be more relaxed. I don't want to sound like a robot.

I actually don't learn many words when I read (books) in english, I rather pick up things when watching a program, browsing or listen to songs, podcast etc. because then I can look them up very easily. I especially like it when I watch a Japanese show with English subtitles and then look up words from the subtitles

[ShadeyLane]

Your best bet might be learning how to write essays in English. MLA format forces us to speak more formally. Since you do well in conversational English, taking a writing course might help improve that because you're taught to look up words.

You might think you won't do well, but sadly the average college student in America averages a C at best. I had to take English Composition twice. Long story, but I transferred colleges and my old Academic Advisor didn't send in my transcript request. However, in my private college I did a great job, and an C there is an A in a community college. That let me know that local colleges aren't actually raising the bar to teach their own people properly.

But I guess the bright side is, if you took a course in that, you would most likely excel.

You can also try finding movies that deal with formal settings, like a ball or high society party/business party. I watch TV shows in Korean, and what I love about variety shows in Korea is that sometimes they put captions on the program of important topics. So I will read the Hangul and write the English equivalent I saw in the subtitles.

[salivia_baker]

Concerning the format I believe I know how to write an essay. I also did read several in my university studies, which I always liked because they are easier to understand then those which are written in German. However I am very unsure about the language itself used in an essay because I tend to be more complicated then I can express it in English. That means I have to simplify it in order to write it down. But then I don't see/know when it is still formal and when already informal.
I can only think of things like: avoid repetition, do not use contractions

I want to watch more British movies and shows in order to pick up more words. The British English has words where American English describe.