First of all read a lot. Read local communities like Reddit, HN (here), slashdot, etc. This will make you familiar with the daily language.
Second, listen a lot. Watch movies with original sound and English subtitles. Try to understand, try to make sense of it. If you listen English songs, try to listen a little more attentive.
Then write a lot. Try to take your notes in English. Comment your code in English. Try to comment more into stories or forums around the world.
These three will sharpen you in daily English. You'll become more familiar. Becoming fluent becomes after becoming familiar. As everyone said, also read books, novels in English and take notes, however some books' vocabulary may be drastically different from others (e.g., Both Hyperion Cantos and Ready Player One are SciFi novels, but latter one has a much more accessible English than the former).
Last but not the least, don't focus on your progress. You'll advance inevitably. Just continue doing so, and you'll find yourself much more improved after some time. Fluency is best when it comes with time, and when it's built step by step, it becomes permanent.
Mimicking is the critical skill for spoken English.
I bet you have ugly flaws in your spoken English, although I also bet that your written English is better than many brought up speaking English.
I often deal with tourists, and I detect serious flaws in their speaking as a result of their learning to read and write first (transliteration is a problem too). Common ways of teaching English in schools are deeply flawed IMHO.
Babies and children learn by listening, talking, mimicking, and some correction.
The best late learners of speaking English that I have met, have been those that interact by talking and mimicking, with very little (if any) reading/writing. My favourite was a young Japanese guy that had worked in East London and Australia, and his accent would switch between perfect Cockney and perfect Ocker depending upon where he had learnt a phrase!
Personally, my Spanish only really improved when I had a Spanish speaking girlfriend that didn't want to speak English with me.
Obviously if you mostly interact in English by writing, it doesn't matter.
But if you want to work in a country, you will usually be judged quite negatively if you have a strong accent.
Also clearly not everyone can find a way to talk with native speakers.
Learning by listening to movies and mimicking songs including accent of the singer helps a lot and is fun. (e.g. in my experience Spaniards typically have horrific English due to dubbing films into Spanish, while Portuguese often are way better at English).
Ideally limit reading and limit learning grammar/spelling until after you have a good grasp of the language. That's how all native speakers have done it.
This is great, but you're missing out on spoken English.
I think one of the biggest obstacles in speaking is overcoming the fear of saying something wrong, or not being understood. At least that was the case for me. Once you get over that fear and get a more "I don't give a crap" attitude towards if what you're saying is correct, and instead just say it, you've come a long way and it will help you improve.
Simple version of what I'm trying to convey:
Try to not be afraid to say something wrong, just speak your mind. Don't worry about grammar when you speak. It will come naturally after a while.
Personally I learnt most my spoken English through co-operative computer games and speaking to other players over ventrilo / mumble or in-game voice comms. The fear of saying something wrong or being misunderstood was minimized in this online setting, sitting safely at home but still communicating with real people.
I've to completely disagree. Only way to learn to "speak" is to be in environment where you can only speak the new language and you have to speak.
You can read 10 years and won't be fluent. You can watch for 10 years and won't learn a thing. I've been watching Japanese animes before high school. Do I speak Japanese, no! Only 10 or so words.
One thing that cements this the fact grammar is something that's not absolute.
Again from experience, very important, you can take 5 semester of esl courses and still sound like you came over here last month.
> Watch movies with original sound and English subtitles.
Something I've heard over and over is that using subtitles actually stunts your growth, because it's too easy to fall back on instead of making sense of what you hear.
There's no substitute for exposure. "Learning" and memorization can help you recognize language use. But it's exposure that makes it second nature (i.e. automatic).
And as far as speaking goes, remember that you're using muscles and nerve signals. Just like with any other physical activity, i.e. a sport, it's practice -- doing it -- that improves facility.
If you're reading in a different language, try readlang (I'm not an owner, just a happy user.) It's a browser plugin that does 2 things: (1) inline translation, including of phrases, so reading becomes much much less painful; and (2) every word or phrase you look up, it saves as a flash card for you to review. It's well worth the $5/month.
Sound advice. Also, try to get to the next step as soon as you can, while still working on the previous ones. We are surprisingly quick to adapt even when facing complicated challenges, so take advantage of that. And always do something that you like. It will keep you both motivated and focused.
Adding more to @bayindirh's comment.
I am currently the active user of this app called 'memrise'. This app will help beginners improve their vocabulary. Also talk to yourself in the language you are learning, that will help you eliminate the translation lag.
This. As a native English speaker, this is a pretty good summary of exactly how I became proficient in a other languages, starting in my teens. True fluency takes years. It is not something that can just be rushed.
I grew up in Italy. Among EU countries, Italians have one of the worst English accent and vocabulary, because Italian TV "dubs" every single movie and TV show ever invented. In fact, you often hear that "Italian dubbers (e.g. voice over actors) are the best in the world".
In my teenage years, my father gave me an amazing present: for two summers, he paid to send me to study English in Scotland once, and in Sussex once. I did learn some English, but most importantly I associated English with "ability to travel and see the world".
My English was quite good for Italian standards, and quite bad in general, until I got to age 18. I then decided I wanted to learn English really well. My resolution became to watch movies only in English, and to read only in English, for years. It worked.
Finally, in 2003, I won a fellowship to study for one semester at UC Irvine. When I came back, my English was at a very good level.
From 2008 onwards, I worked for US companies (Amazon, VMware), and have been living in San Francisco since 2012.
Looking back, I believe it was "hard" for me to make these decisions and put the effort in, compared to my peers. I was also fortunate to have a family that supported me and loved me dearly.
When I go back to my home town (Assisi, in Umbria, Italy), I always think about this. Ah, life. Sliding doors. Decisions. Etc.
I'm English. A couple of years ago I started learning Italian by listening to podcasts (Coffee Break Italian) and reading children's books. I then travelled to Assisi to try it out for the first time. The locals were fantastic, they slowed down and spoke very clearly. It's a beautiful place.
I agree though, travelling and learning about new places in another language is awesome, it unlocks so much, and really encourages you to learn.
> In fact, you often hear that "Italian dubbers (e.g. voice over actors) are the best in the world".
Hah, I've heard that from my Italian relatives, but didn't know that it was a widespread thing to say. When I heard it, I couldn't help but think "What a weird thing to brag about." It'd be like bragging that you're really good at tracing over art. It's a sad brag, because it's conceding entirely the ability to become good at making original things.
Another weird thing I've heard from my Italian relatives is that all the Asian corner/grocery stores in Italy are run by the Chinese mafia. When asked why they thought that, their answer is usually a variation on "There's no other way they'd be able to put together the money to own a store." So, in other words, simple racism. You ever heard this claim?
Adding my experience to the "Italian thread". I want to share just to say that it's easier than you think, and you don't necessarily need special experiences if you can't (or you didn't) have them.
During school I always studied French, and very little/basic English. I did a 3 months full immersion in Dublin, but it didn't help that much. When I started my PhD I literally had issues with the "s" at the 3rd person.
Because I was required to write primarily in English, I started doing that: write a lot, and do exercises to be better at writing. In parallel I started to read more in English, mostly research papers. I still had issues with reading, let alone speaking. Specifically, I never read an entire book in English, and I still used to read news in Italian even though a lot of them, especially technology news, are much better in English.
The major change for me has been starting to watch series in English (the first one was The Big Bang Theory), initially with subtitles in Italian and soon after subtitled in English -- I highly recommend the latter. With that, I transformed. I watched TBBT also dubbed in Italian, I realized how worse it was (jokes not got by translators, weird voices once you heard the real ones, etc.). I remember soon after I was excited and watched the black swan in English, I certainly had improved but couldn't get most of it still.
Fast forward a few years, improvements were clear. I published peer reviewed papers, and spoke to conferences. I moved to San Francisco and survived well. Five years in, I live here, my wife is American, and I work & live primarily in English. I can't work in sales :), but my English is certainly fluent for my work, to talk to people, and to speak in public.
In summary, from 0 to fluent writing a lot, watching TV series, and later talking to others.
I'm a native speaker, but one of my roommates didn't know much English when I met him. After about a year, he was 70% fluent in English. Coming to America and making friends is pivotal in learning English.
Firstly, be immersed in the culture of the language you're trying to learn. It's easier to learn English if everyone around you speaks it. The social pressure to learn it will trump your own motivation. You will be motivated to learn English if you want to interact with people.
Secondly, work with native speakers on a project that has nothing to do with learning English. Find something you find interesting and find native speakers with similar interests. We worked on a side project, and he was learning English and programming at the same time. We were doing something fun, and it helped him pick up the language faster.
Finally, watch English comedies with your native English friends, ask them to put on subtitles. We watched Silicon Valley (HBO) and he started to get the jokes pretty quickly. It helps to have a sense of humor. If you're new to English, your English friends will find some of your sentences funny, and that's a good thing. Laugh with them and learn more.
To improve my english I listened to a lot of Country and Rap music. This way I kinda learn a lot of slang words and expression.
First job in the states my coworkers weren’t really talkative. I used to go to a stripclub during the weekends. Trust me your brain will be more than motivated to learn english when you need to talk to half nudes girls haha.
TV shows. I watched so much TV shows that when I first came to the United States, a taxi driver claimed that I had a "New York accent". Shows like Seinfeld are especially good, because they also help you get comfortable with american culture, which is an important part of communication.
It probably helps that I do rubber duck debugging[0] a lot :)
I can’t emphasize this more. The first show I watched without subtitles (CC) was Dr House. I watched 6 seasons and it was painful as hell but after watching 100s of episodes it starts becoming easier.
Also, I would write every single word I did not understand and google it.
After reading many answers, I'll add one step I didn't see fully stressed: after getting used to read and listen to English, find a way to start speaking it. You can't become fluent without actually speaking it.
For me, what did the trick was actually going to a advanced spoken English course where I lived (I was already very proficient with written English): what we were doing most of the time was just discussing things in English, with the supervision and help of our teacher. Among my best "investments".
Today, you could probably find something online, but I'm not sure if it would be as useful.
Regular speaking is definitely important. I'll add a related advanced tactic. Switch your inner monologue language to English. So whenever you're thinking with the help of language, do it in English. This will go a long way towards making your verbal speaking faster and more natural, because you'll no longer be doing quick translations in your head.
To be more precise, at least for me, this thinking language system seems to be heavily influenced by learning. I've been doing most of my thinking in English for the last decade or so, and most of the things I've learned during this time are stored in my head in English. [1] However my earlier life lessons are still in my memories in my original native tounge. This is interesting because I started learning English more than 25 years ago, but even things I consumed in English got translated and stored in memory in my native language.
--
[1] Of course there are more factors in play than just thinking in English. I've also been better than ever in English and English media makes up for a larger percentage than ever in my total consumed media. I'm sure all of these and more have played a role, in addition to changing my inner dialogue language, in storing my memories in English now.
10 years ago I joined college and didn't know a thing about English. Somebody pranked the whole class in the first day, by coming, writing their credentials on the board in Japanese and speaking in English. I thought to myself, I'm so behind.
Pirated a web design book some time later and tried very hard to learn it. I still remember learning the word "rather" from context instead of translating it.
After that, I made my 'world' in English. Movies, books, everything. Discovered HN by that time, and watched Two and A Half Men repeatedly with friends, over and over and over. I'm sure that repetition helped a lot.
Forcing yourself to speak in English can also help (xbox party chat for example), specially when I kept asking myself, do I really know English or am I just a fraud? Will I be able keep a conversation when the time for it comes?
I know a bunch of people that learned English but never passed that point where you can 'get' things in English. So, it's worth doing it by yourself. Being one of the very few in the theater getting the meaning of a joke, that subtitles did not translate well, is great.
People's expectation of what is considered "fluent" is very different and many different approaches can work. Regardless of where you are, there are things that you can do.
I am Vietnamese and studied English as a second language at 10 years old. I have been living in the US for the last 10 years -- 1/3 of my life. I have very little problems communicating in English now, but I want to give you a glimpse of how confident I am with my English. I used to know a professional interpreter who is not a native speaker either but has got an excellent grip on English. He interpreted for a couple of US presidents on their diplomatic trips. He often commented on my Facebook that my English is shit when I had Facebook. He would poke fun at my misspellings and grammatical errors. I still write, listen, and speak like a machine.
If I remember it correctly, the translator fiend's advice to everyone was always that to read lots of books. His advice to learn to speak English was to go out and talk to the English expats. Many long for a friend, and you might learn a thing or two on the way. He did that when he was 20. I think those are a solid advice.
For me, it was a little bit different. I think a big part of it is that I had an itch to do it. When I was younger, I learned English by reading MSDN + VB manuals because I needed to code. Then for a couple of years in HS, I lead an indie translation project to translate a couple of Harry Potter books to Vietnamese. My schedule was totally fucked up in the summer when the books came out: Sleep in until noon, then at night just translate 1/4 of a chapter or so, or proofread other people's translations until 6 AM. After that project, I wouldn't care if my English is not good anymore, I knew I've dealt with enough shit to not be intimidated by English.
But in general, I think what works best is that you have to have a use for it. If you don't have a use for it, your work doesn't depend on it, then you need to have a hobby in which your English skill is needed to get the work done. Maybe you can make an impact or two along the way. It's just like to learn a new programming language or paradigm.
Like now, I'm a professional HN commentator, and it requires some serious English skill, don't you see ;-)?
I tend to think that learning a language is like dieting; it's not a one-time action and there's no end to it. It's a lifetime commitment.
That's said, being fluent is often not as important as being well spoken. I've seen many native English speakers who don't seem to understand what they're talking about even by themselves, while I've seen some non-native speakers who has minor pronunciation or grammatical problems but are very good at choosing right words and making a point. I'd rather want that kind of skill.
I’m a Chinese speaker and also on my way advancing English skills. What I learned from my past experience is that don’t distinguish between good and bad sources of contents. Enjoy nonsensical shouts and murmurs in YouTube, Reddit, or other communities. At first I tried a lot to follow recommandations on Top X lists, only to find myself quitting frequently on the half-way because either I lost interest or they were too far from daily English I can learn for practical usage. Now my opinion is that there’re always gold and craps in contents of a certain language, and since languages were invented first for daily communications, which by nature are full of nonsense and improvisation, “crappy” contents are always far more than well-composed ones, but it’s from these craps that you know what daily interactions sound/look like, and get the bonus of less likely getting bored.
Of course it’s always helpful to keep certain doses of more “serious” contents. I always enjoy the challenge of reading longforms from The New Yorker (forgive me if you don’t think that a challenge, but from my point of view as a non-native speaker the vocabulary thereof is quite a challenge) or non-fiction books. You’ll feel improved in both skill and intellect aspects if you can persist.
On my first year of college at home (Saudi Arabia), we had what they call orientation year which consists of intensive English and math courses. I talked to our English instructor asking him if I could stop by his office everyday during his office hours for a casual chat to improve my conversational English, and he kindly agreed. I spent a semester doing that, and picked up his Scottish accent along the way :D
The following year I travelled to the US for school. My first year in the US had minor improvement in my English fluency because I was mostly hanging out with a group of Saudis. Later that year I learned about a local group started by an ESL teacher called English Conversation Club. They have multiple groups during the week of US Americans hosting meetings at their houses, inviting internationals for casual conversations, playing games, and making friends to improve the conversational English and learn about the different cultures. They also hold parties throughout the year for the different holidays (e.g. 4th of July, Christmas, etc.). At the time, they had 3 different group meeting during the week, and I went to all of them. I also took time to reflect on the conversations on my way back from the meetings (noting misspeeches, word-choice, etc.).
During that time, I learn that the on-campus speech clinic offers accent reduction services, and they offer 50% discount for students. I took those sessions for 9 months until the therapist decided that I have reached an acceptable level.
These were the major players in improving my fluency, in addition to reading, writing, and paying attention to conversations in movies and TV shows.
Some people, though very few, can become native English speakers on their own. The people that can divide into two distinct camps, musicians and heavy movie watchers (English movies of course).
Musicians by training are talented listeners and heavy movie watchers, whether talented listeners are not, get exposed to so much real sounding English that they can't help but to learn it subconsciously if in no other way.
Typical adult listeners no longer here sounds as they are but map sounds of foreign languages into the sounds their brain already knows. This lack of accuracy in listening is the primary impediment to become fluent in a language.
Musician here. I completely agree. But I think anyone can do this. We musicians transcribe solos of jazz players- not because we want to play like them, but because we want the feel in our vocaulary-- because we want to hear and understand better. Every musician I know learns languages easily and many are good at immitating accents and word choice. This is exactly what we do when we improvise in the style of... Mozart or whoever. It works!
Like a lot of people here, I learned English by reading articles online and books in subjects that interested me as well as watching TV shows/movies with English subtitles.
What helped me was to avoid translating every sentences to my native language, but instead watch for patterns in the language and fill in the blanks. When I did not know or understand a word, I'd look it up in the dictionary or Google.
I recently spoke with a native speaker and I saw that my vocabulary could still improve, but overall it went well. If you speak with anglophones, tell them to not be afraid to tell you when you make mistakes. Practice is key.
If you make your learning less like "learning" you will have great chance of learning anything new.
Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing (not necessarily in any order) are key to improving your language skills.
Pick few subjects that you are reasonably excited about. Movies, Technology, Fashion, Current Affairs, Religion, Music, Designing... basically anything that do not bore you and spend some time finding channels that talk/write about these. Make sure you are able to spend at least a decent amount of time everyday watching/listening/reading about those.
I had very poor English language speaking skills even after I completed my college. I took it as a challenge and made sure I spent at least 15 minutes every day listening English news (I live in India and this was some 20 years ago, so the options were very limited back then)
Read English news papers for about 30 minutes, and always noted down new words and their meaning and kept referring to those when I wasn't preoccupied anything else.. .those notes used to stay with me for few days before I threw those away for newer ones.
Also, moving to Bangalore helped me a lot because, many of my new friends didn't share my mother tongue so English was our primary communication medium.
Thinking about it, it was kinda boring to be honest, I dont know if i will do the same for learning any other language, but I was really motivated to learn English back then so that probably kept me going.
By doing. Try to write, read, speak and listen to large volumes of English. I've written blog posts, chatted a lot with people in games (mainly text, sometimes voice), talked English at every opportunity (e.g. I'd seek out non-Dutch people in class and do projects with them), wrote elaborate answers on the security stackexchange website, listened to audio books, etc.
I didn't have good experiences with apps that try to gamify the process like Duolingo, but that might have been because I used it in semi-corner cases: in English I wanted to go from mediocre to advanced, and for German I already knew Dutch so most of it was super basic and didn't really help me.
I've also looked for other hacks to get better at a language, but the thing that really helps is just by doing. I guess audio books are sort of a hack, because you don't have to be very actively busy with it: you can put an audio book on while doing laundry, dishes, driving/walking/biking, falling asleep, etc. And it teaches you vocabulary (most unfamiliar words are clear from context), correct word use (including proverbs/sayings), and pronunciation. Unfortunately, I noticed later that I don't know how to spell those words, but that's just a minor issue (easy to look up when needed). I still encounter words randomly and think to myself "oh that's how it's written! I just read this sentence fluently but I never read this word before".
As a native English speaker, sometimes I'll read a word but since I've never heard that word read out loud, when somebody finally says it, my mind explodes because it sounds different to how I pronounced it in my mind.
It is one thing to study English in a country that does not speak it, and a completely different thing when you need it to survive. Being surrounded by people speaking English(French, German,Chinese) and feeling totally stupid as you can not even communicate the basic means you have to learn or have to learn.
I recommend "fluent forever" book and Gabriel Wyner stuff in general to learn as fast as possible. ALWAYS START BY PRONUNTIATION,like kids do, or else you will have to unlearn what you learned badly.
I studied in Tamil medium. When I entered college, I could not speak a sentence in English. Here are the things that helped me.
1. Read Bible cover to cover many time with a Tamil Bible side-by-side. I didn't understand many of the words / phrases. Still I kept reading as long as I understood the meaning.
2. In college we met every evening for prayer. I started sharing messages for few minutes. I made lot (a lot) of mistakes, but my friends helped me improve. Lot of folks made fun of me, but I still kept going because two of close friends kept encouraging me.
3. Watched Friends series with sub-titles. I didn't understand many of the dialogues because I lacked context. Still I would memorize sentences and repeat to myself.
4. Started writing a blog[]. The one I have currently is 2nd or 3rd one. In the first blog, I wrote primarily about what I knew well - SQL, Vantive etc. So the content was there, I had to only find ways to express it. Even now, I write about what I know or what I learn, so that makes it easier to blog.
5. When I read articles or books, I note down the sentences or phrases I like. I store them in Evernote and re-visit them often. I try to use them in some daily usage.
Next month I will deliver a keynote speech in Azure global bootcamp in my city (Chandigarh). From not able to speak a sentence in English to this, has been a long journey of frustration, encouragement, and satisfaction.
Reading the bible to learn English does not seem like a good idea. The English of the bible is not common everyday English that will be most useful for communicating with others today.
Watching films or television in English, with subtitles in your native language is good advice.
Warning: it’s not an easy solution, just an effective one. The main idea is “memorize more” and “practice more”. Judging by his blog posts, it seems to work.
To answer the question in title, I came to Canada and lived here for the last 20~ years. Since day one, I always opted to try to use English (rather than my first language) whenever possible. It was hardest at first, but the more I did it, the easier it became.
When I started learning French, a native speaker told me to exaggerate the sounds. It turns out that I was softening the sounds that are uniquely French because I lacked confidence in my spoken French.
I imagine that the same thing would work for learning to speak English with less of an accent.
That obviously doesn't help you learn the language, but I found that it helped me to speak better (or at least more confidently), so I spoke more. More practice is definitely helpful.
Yeah, I totally agree about exaggeration, but I think it can also have a positive impact on learning the language. A big issue I see with non-native speakers of languages I know is that they stick to the comfortable sounds of their native language, approximating the foreign sounds instead of trying to really imitate them. If you haven’t done it before, it feels ridiculous to try to put on what feels like such an exaggerated “fake” accent. But what you’re doing is getting a handle on the phonetics, which increases your ability to recognise and distinguish those sounds when listening, and be easier to understand when speaking. It also helps you cope with phonetic variations and different accents, which may at first sound totally different from the “standard” language you learned—but if you understand the phonemes as a native speaker thinks about them, your comprehension will be much more resilient and adaptable.
[+] [-] bayindirh|8 years ago|reply
Second, listen a lot. Watch movies with original sound and English subtitles. Try to understand, try to make sense of it. If you listen English songs, try to listen a little more attentive.
Then write a lot. Try to take your notes in English. Comment your code in English. Try to comment more into stories or forums around the world.
These three will sharpen you in daily English. You'll become more familiar. Becoming fluent becomes after becoming familiar. As everyone said, also read books, novels in English and take notes, however some books' vocabulary may be drastically different from others (e.g., Both Hyperion Cantos and Ready Player One are SciFi novels, but latter one has a much more accessible English than the former).
Last but not the least, don't focus on your progress. You'll advance inevitably. Just continue doing so, and you'll find yourself much more improved after some time. Fluency is best when it comes with time, and when it's built step by step, it becomes permanent.
[+] [-] robocat|8 years ago|reply
I bet you have ugly flaws in your spoken English, although I also bet that your written English is better than many brought up speaking English.
I often deal with tourists, and I detect serious flaws in their speaking as a result of their learning to read and write first (transliteration is a problem too). Common ways of teaching English in schools are deeply flawed IMHO.
Babies and children learn by listening, talking, mimicking, and some correction.
The best late learners of speaking English that I have met, have been those that interact by talking and mimicking, with very little (if any) reading/writing. My favourite was a young Japanese guy that had worked in East London and Australia, and his accent would switch between perfect Cockney and perfect Ocker depending upon where he had learnt a phrase!
Personally, my Spanish only really improved when I had a Spanish speaking girlfriend that didn't want to speak English with me.
Obviously if you mostly interact in English by writing, it doesn't matter.
But if you want to work in a country, you will usually be judged quite negatively if you have a strong accent.
Also clearly not everyone can find a way to talk with native speakers.
Learning by listening to movies and mimicking songs including accent of the singer helps a lot and is fun. (e.g. in my experience Spaniards typically have horrific English due to dubbing films into Spanish, while Portuguese often are way better at English).
Ideally limit reading and limit learning grammar/spelling until after you have a good grasp of the language. That's how all native speakers have done it.
[+] [-] sh4z|8 years ago|reply
I think one of the biggest obstacles in speaking is overcoming the fear of saying something wrong, or not being understood. At least that was the case for me. Once you get over that fear and get a more "I don't give a crap" attitude towards if what you're saying is correct, and instead just say it, you've come a long way and it will help you improve.
Simple version of what I'm trying to convey:
Try to not be afraid to say something wrong, just speak your mind. Don't worry about grammar when you speak. It will come naturally after a while.
Personally I learnt most my spoken English through co-operative computer games and speaking to other players over ventrilo / mumble or in-game voice comms. The fear of saying something wrong or being misunderstood was minimized in this online setting, sitting safely at home but still communicating with real people.
[+] [-] nashashmi|8 years ago|reply
I told that to two people. Both of them had very thick accents. 6 months after watching, they lost their accents.
The movies are inspirational and full of guidance. And they are funny.
[+] [-] techsin101|8 years ago|reply
You can read 10 years and won't be fluent. You can watch for 10 years and won't learn a thing. I've been watching Japanese animes before high school. Do I speak Japanese, no! Only 10 or so words.
One thing that cements this the fact grammar is something that's not absolute.
Again from experience, very important, you can take 5 semester of esl courses and still sound like you came over here last month.
[+] [-] Izkata|8 years ago|reply
Something I've heard over and over is that using subtitles actually stunts your growth, because it's too easy to fall back on instead of making sense of what you hear.
[+] [-] pasbesoin|8 years ago|reply
And as far as speaking goes, remember that you're using muscles and nerve signals. Just like with any other physical activity, i.e. a sport, it's practice -- doing it -- that improves facility.
[+] [-] x0x0|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] slx26|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ukpa|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] senorsmile|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ojuara|8 years ago|reply
When I start to read everyday and watch series with english subtitles, I fell that I was moving forward.
I need to focus on writing and conversation.
[+] [-] xuesj|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simonebrunozzi|8 years ago|reply
In my teenage years, my father gave me an amazing present: for two summers, he paid to send me to study English in Scotland once, and in Sussex once. I did learn some English, but most importantly I associated English with "ability to travel and see the world".
My English was quite good for Italian standards, and quite bad in general, until I got to age 18. I then decided I wanted to learn English really well. My resolution became to watch movies only in English, and to read only in English, for years. It worked.
Finally, in 2003, I won a fellowship to study for one semester at UC Irvine. When I came back, my English was at a very good level.
From 2008 onwards, I worked for US companies (Amazon, VMware), and have been living in San Francisco since 2012.
Looking back, I believe it was "hard" for me to make these decisions and put the effort in, compared to my peers. I was also fortunate to have a family that supported me and loved me dearly.
When I go back to my home town (Assisi, in Umbria, Italy), I always think about this. Ah, life. Sliding doors. Decisions. Etc.
[+] [-] mikejharrison|8 years ago|reply
I agree though, travelling and learning about new places in another language is awesome, it unlocks so much, and really encourages you to learn.
[+] [-] CydeWeys|8 years ago|reply
Hah, I've heard that from my Italian relatives, but didn't know that it was a widespread thing to say. When I heard it, I couldn't help but think "What a weird thing to brag about." It'd be like bragging that you're really good at tracing over art. It's a sad brag, because it's conceding entirely the ability to become good at making original things.
Another weird thing I've heard from my Italian relatives is that all the Asian corner/grocery stores in Italy are run by the Chinese mafia. When asked why they thought that, their answer is usually a variation on "There's no other way they'd be able to put together the money to own a store." So, in other words, simple racism. You ever heard this claim?
[+] [-] ecesena|8 years ago|reply
During school I always studied French, and very little/basic English. I did a 3 months full immersion in Dublin, but it didn't help that much. When I started my PhD I literally had issues with the "s" at the 3rd person.
Because I was required to write primarily in English, I started doing that: write a lot, and do exercises to be better at writing. In parallel I started to read more in English, mostly research papers. I still had issues with reading, let alone speaking. Specifically, I never read an entire book in English, and I still used to read news in Italian even though a lot of them, especially technology news, are much better in English.
The major change for me has been starting to watch series in English (the first one was The Big Bang Theory), initially with subtitles in Italian and soon after subtitled in English -- I highly recommend the latter. With that, I transformed. I watched TBBT also dubbed in Italian, I realized how worse it was (jokes not got by translators, weird voices once you heard the real ones, etc.). I remember soon after I was excited and watched the black swan in English, I certainly had improved but couldn't get most of it still.
Fast forward a few years, improvements were clear. I published peer reviewed papers, and spoke to conferences. I moved to San Francisco and survived well. Five years in, I live here, my wife is American, and I work & live primarily in English. I can't work in sales :), but my English is certainly fluent for my work, to talk to people, and to speak in public.
In summary, from 0 to fluent writing a lot, watching TV series, and later talking to others.
[+] [-] anonytrary|8 years ago|reply
Firstly, be immersed in the culture of the language you're trying to learn. It's easier to learn English if everyone around you speaks it. The social pressure to learn it will trump your own motivation. You will be motivated to learn English if you want to interact with people.
Secondly, work with native speakers on a project that has nothing to do with learning English. Find something you find interesting and find native speakers with similar interests. We worked on a side project, and he was learning English and programming at the same time. We were doing something fun, and it helped him pick up the language faster.
Finally, watch English comedies with your native English friends, ask them to put on subtitles. We watched Silicon Valley (HBO) and he started to get the jokes pretty quickly. It helps to have a sense of humor. If you're new to English, your English friends will find some of your sentences funny, and that's a good thing. Laugh with them and learn more.
[+] [-] raitom|8 years ago|reply
First job in the states my coworkers weren’t really talkative. I used to go to a stripclub during the weekends. Trust me your brain will be more than motivated to learn english when you need to talk to half nudes girls haha.
[+] [-] maybeiambatman|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] specializeded|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maxxxxx|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chipuni|8 years ago|reply
Tip well.
[+] [-] Bromskloss|8 years ago|reply
Then I bet you know the difference between a violin and a fiddle.
A violin has strings; a fiddle has strangs.
[+] [-] yzmtf2008|8 years ago|reply
It probably helps that I do rubber duck debugging[0] a lot :)
[0]: https://rubberduckdebugging.com/
[+] [-] imd23|8 years ago|reply
Also, I would write every single word I did not understand and google it.
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] danmaz74|8 years ago|reply
For me, what did the trick was actually going to a advanced spoken English course where I lived (I was already very proficient with written English): what we were doing most of the time was just discussing things in English, with the supervision and help of our teacher. Among my best "investments".
Today, you could probably find something online, but I'm not sure if it would be as useful.
[+] [-] Strom|8 years ago|reply
To be more precise, at least for me, this thinking language system seems to be heavily influenced by learning. I've been doing most of my thinking in English for the last decade or so, and most of the things I've learned during this time are stored in my head in English. [1] However my earlier life lessons are still in my memories in my original native tounge. This is interesting because I started learning English more than 25 years ago, but even things I consumed in English got translated and stored in memory in my native language.
--
[1] Of course there are more factors in play than just thinking in English. I've also been better than ever in English and English media makes up for a larger percentage than ever in my total consumed media. I'm sure all of these and more have played a role, in addition to changing my inner dialogue language, in storing my memories in English now.
[+] [-] rapfaria|8 years ago|reply
Pirated a web design book some time later and tried very hard to learn it. I still remember learning the word "rather" from context instead of translating it.
After that, I made my 'world' in English. Movies, books, everything. Discovered HN by that time, and watched Two and A Half Men repeatedly with friends, over and over and over. I'm sure that repetition helped a lot.
Forcing yourself to speak in English can also help (xbox party chat for example), specially when I kept asking myself, do I really know English or am I just a fraud? Will I be able keep a conversation when the time for it comes?
I know a bunch of people that learned English but never passed that point where you can 'get' things in English. So, it's worth doing it by yourself. Being one of the very few in the theater getting the meaning of a joke, that subtitles did not translate well, is great.
[+] [-] jimmies|8 years ago|reply
I am Vietnamese and studied English as a second language at 10 years old. I have been living in the US for the last 10 years -- 1/3 of my life. I have very little problems communicating in English now, but I want to give you a glimpse of how confident I am with my English. I used to know a professional interpreter who is not a native speaker either but has got an excellent grip on English. He interpreted for a couple of US presidents on their diplomatic trips. He often commented on my Facebook that my English is shit when I had Facebook. He would poke fun at my misspellings and grammatical errors. I still write, listen, and speak like a machine.
If I remember it correctly, the translator fiend's advice to everyone was always that to read lots of books. His advice to learn to speak English was to go out and talk to the English expats. Many long for a friend, and you might learn a thing or two on the way. He did that when he was 20. I think those are a solid advice.
For me, it was a little bit different. I think a big part of it is that I had an itch to do it. When I was younger, I learned English by reading MSDN + VB manuals because I needed to code. Then for a couple of years in HS, I lead an indie translation project to translate a couple of Harry Potter books to Vietnamese. My schedule was totally fucked up in the summer when the books came out: Sleep in until noon, then at night just translate 1/4 of a chapter or so, or proofread other people's translations until 6 AM. After that project, I wouldn't care if my English is not good anymore, I knew I've dealt with enough shit to not be intimidated by English.
But in general, I think what works best is that you have to have a use for it. If you don't have a use for it, your work doesn't depend on it, then you need to have a hobby in which your English skill is needed to get the work done. Maybe you can make an impact or two along the way. It's just like to learn a new programming language or paradigm.
Like now, I'm a professional HN commentator, and it requires some serious English skill, don't you see ;-)?
[+] [-] euske|8 years ago|reply
That's said, being fluent is often not as important as being well spoken. I've seen many native English speakers who don't seem to understand what they're talking about even by themselves, while I've seen some non-native speakers who has minor pronunciation or grammatical problems but are very good at choosing right words and making a point. I'd rather want that kind of skill.
[+] [-] firexcy|8 years ago|reply
Of course it’s always helpful to keep certain doses of more “serious” contents. I always enjoy the challenge of reading longforms from The New Yorker (forgive me if you don’t think that a challenge, but from my point of view as a non-native speaker the vocabulary thereof is quite a challenge) or non-fiction books. You’ll feel improved in both skill and intellect aspects if you can persist.
[+] [-] m_sahaf|8 years ago|reply
The following year I travelled to the US for school. My first year in the US had minor improvement in my English fluency because I was mostly hanging out with a group of Saudis. Later that year I learned about a local group started by an ESL teacher called English Conversation Club. They have multiple groups during the week of US Americans hosting meetings at their houses, inviting internationals for casual conversations, playing games, and making friends to improve the conversational English and learn about the different cultures. They also hold parties throughout the year for the different holidays (e.g. 4th of July, Christmas, etc.). At the time, they had 3 different group meeting during the week, and I went to all of them. I also took time to reflect on the conversations on my way back from the meetings (noting misspeeches, word-choice, etc.).
During that time, I learn that the on-campus speech clinic offers accent reduction services, and they offer 50% discount for students. I took those sessions for 9 months until the therapist decided that I have reached an acceptable level.
These were the major players in improving my fluency, in addition to reading, writing, and paying attention to conversations in movies and TV shows.
[+] [-] sunstone|8 years ago|reply
Musicians by training are talented listeners and heavy movie watchers, whether talented listeners are not, get exposed to so much real sounding English that they can't help but to learn it subconsciously if in no other way.
Typical adult listeners no longer here sounds as they are but map sounds of foreign languages into the sounds their brain already knows. This lack of accuracy in listening is the primary impediment to become fluent in a language.
[+] [-] brooklyn_ashey|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] remir|8 years ago|reply
What helped me was to avoid translating every sentences to my native language, but instead watch for patterns in the language and fill in the blanks. When I did not know or understand a word, I'd look it up in the dictionary or Google.
I recently spoke with a native speaker and I saw that my vocabulary could still improve, but overall it went well. If you speak with anglophones, tell them to not be afraid to tell you when you make mistakes. Practice is key.
[+] [-] juzffoo|8 years ago|reply
I had very poor English language speaking skills even after I completed my college. I took it as a challenge and made sure I spent at least 15 minutes every day listening English news (I live in India and this was some 20 years ago, so the options were very limited back then) Read English news papers for about 30 minutes, and always noted down new words and their meaning and kept referring to those when I wasn't preoccupied anything else.. .those notes used to stay with me for few days before I threw those away for newer ones. Also, moving to Bangalore helped me a lot because, many of my new friends didn't share my mother tongue so English was our primary communication medium. Thinking about it, it was kinda boring to be honest, I dont know if i will do the same for learning any other language, but I was really motivated to learn English back then so that probably kept me going.
[+] [-] lucb1e|8 years ago|reply
I didn't have good experiences with apps that try to gamify the process like Duolingo, but that might have been because I used it in semi-corner cases: in English I wanted to go from mediocre to advanced, and for German I already knew Dutch so most of it was super basic and didn't really help me.
I've also looked for other hacks to get better at a language, but the thing that really helps is just by doing. I guess audio books are sort of a hack, because you don't have to be very actively busy with it: you can put an audio book on while doing laundry, dishes, driving/walking/biking, falling asleep, etc. And it teaches you vocabulary (most unfamiliar words are clear from context), correct word use (including proverbs/sayings), and pronunciation. Unfortunately, I noticed later that I don't know how to spell those words, but that's just a minor issue (easy to look up when needed). I still encounter words randomly and think to myself "oh that's how it's written! I just read this sentence fluently but I never read this word before".
[+] [-] tphan|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pipio21|8 years ago|reply
It is one thing to study English in a country that does not speak it, and a completely different thing when you need it to survive. Being surrounded by people speaking English(French, German,Chinese) and feeling totally stupid as you can not even communicate the basic means you have to learn or have to learn.
I recommend "fluent forever" book and Gabriel Wyner stuff in general to learn as fast as possible. ALWAYS START BY PRONUNTIATION,like kids do, or else you will have to unlearn what you learned badly.
In order to polish it, I joined Toastmasters.
[+] [-] jjude|8 years ago|reply
1. Read Bible cover to cover many time with a Tamil Bible side-by-side. I didn't understand many of the words / phrases. Still I kept reading as long as I understood the meaning.
2. In college we met every evening for prayer. I started sharing messages for few minutes. I made lot (a lot) of mistakes, but my friends helped me improve. Lot of folks made fun of me, but I still kept going because two of close friends kept encouraging me.
3. Watched Friends series with sub-titles. I didn't understand many of the dialogues because I lacked context. Still I would memorize sentences and repeat to myself.
4. Started writing a blog[]. The one I have currently is 2nd or 3rd one. In the first blog, I wrote primarily about what I knew well - SQL, Vantive etc. So the content was there, I had to only find ways to express it. Even now, I write about what I know or what I learn, so that makes it easier to blog.
: https://jjude.com
5. When I read articles or books, I note down the sentences or phrases I like. I store them in Evernote and re-visit them often. I try to use them in some daily usage.
Next month I will deliver a keynote speech in Azure global bootcamp in my city (Chandigarh). From not able to speak a sentence in English to this, has been a long journey of frustration, encouragement, and satisfaction.
Good luck.
[+] [-] chrstphrknwtn|8 years ago|reply
Watching films or television in English, with subtitles in your native language is good advice.
[+] [-] eric24234|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] emmett|8 years ago|reply
Warning: it’s not an easy solution, just an effective one. The main idea is “memorize more” and “practice more”. Judging by his blog posts, it seems to work.
[+] [-] shurcooL|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] faster|8 years ago|reply
I imagine that the same thing would work for learning to speak English with less of an accent.
That obviously doesn't help you learn the language, but I found that it helped me to speak better (or at least more confidently), so I spoke more. More practice is definitely helpful.
[+] [-] evincarofautumn|8 years ago|reply