Discuss: How Did You Learn English

So, how did you learn English if you aren’t a native speaker? For me, it started of course in school, mainly in high school I learn a lot, but the last years it continued to improve by watching English shows and definitely by being on forums and having to write in English.

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I was forced to learn to communicate at school. Thrown in the deep end much? :joy:

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We learn English in school from an early age. I have a bit difficult for languages and hearing what is right. Vocabulary is not a problem but sentence structure and prepositions have been a struggle for me. My English improved when I was around 12. That was around the same time I started to read books and watch a lot of series in English.

So, I first got exposed to English in school but I became more fluent by reading and hearing English outside of school.

I do think I have a hard time hearing how I actually speak because in my head I pronounce things how I hear others pronounce them. But when I hear myself on recordings it’s just so bad, and this goes for my native language too :woman_facepalming:t2: This might be a disadvantage when learning languages.

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I watched english shows or youtube vids with dutch subtitles that’s kinda how I learned it.

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I always knew English, even though I am not exactly a native speaker :sweat_smile::new_moon::dizzy::black_heart: My first language is Greek, but I think in English :eyes:

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I still don’t speak English :eyes:

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I first started learning at kindergarten, we had an english teacher and he was english and we were taught words and then i picked it up in elementary school.

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school. when I went to school you got it from second grade. now you get it already from 0 grade

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School and stalking rps reading posts on the internet :smiley_cat::green_heart::eyes::sparkles:
School gave me some basic vocabulary and grammar and then I expanded my knowledge by spending too much time on the internet :smiley_cat::green_heart::eyes::sparkles:

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I started learning it in my kindergarten and I’m that one kid that only watched Cartoon Network. :joy:
Plus, learning English in my country is a big deal so even if I didn’t want to I basically had to because teachers in every high school really force it.

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From school.
At the beginning I was really bad at it and didn’t like it, then it clicked for me and now it’s the only subject I don’t need to study at all.

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I’m from the US, where people predominantly speak English, but I learned English from school! Spanish was my first language and I didn’t know English until I was taught at school.

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I was in English Language Learners (ELL) from kindergarten through second grade, which I tested out of in third grade. ELL was a saving grace. I received many opportunities because of it, like additional classes with children with a similar background, holiday parties, bingo nights, and most importantly, a study buddy, Sue. Sue helped me after school with my assignments, provided me with books, encouraged me to write, and even supported my dumb idea of writing a diary from the perspective of a giant. XD Even in a city with very few immigrants or people who spoke English as a second language, I’m thankful they still knew the importance of a program like this.

When I was in elementary school and middle school, there was a program called Reading Counts. After reading a book, you would take a 10 question quiz on it. If you answer at least 7/10 of the questions correct, you would earn points based off the difficulty of the book, and collect prizes for reaching milestones. I was motivated by the promise of keychains, medals, certificates, prizes, and the pizza and ice cream celebration at the end of the year. I was (and still am :face_with_hand_over_mouth:) a competitive child and constantly tried to surpass one of my classmates, so I read often (never did catch up, he was always 10 points ahead of me, ahahaha). In my free time, I read books like the Magic Tree House, Geronimo Stilton, Junie B Jones, and etc. with my older brother and sister.

And, well, now I can pass as a native English speaker. :3

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I was fluent in Japanese and only Japanese when I was four, so I was just thrown into the deep end knowing absolutely no English in school. I picked it up and became fluent in a year though, so it was okay-ish :joy:

I read a LOT of books and I was always studying. My parents put a lot of academic pressure on me, I was studying to get into secondary school as soon as I started primary school :joy::joy:

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I’ve had a few lessons in primary school, but I didn’t learn much other than apple, banana and how to say my name :joy: I’ve learned the most during high school or rather at the end of it.

Bump, being in touch with native speakers helped me to improve my English so much! Even though I’m still terrible at actually speaking it, I can write, read and listen but speaking is still scary :grimacing:

Well I moved to Australia when I was like 5 years old. And of course I had to go to school. I think I did find it kind of difficult to begin with, but I talked with the other kids and just learnt it I guess.

Bump!

Are you proud of learning English? Or do you wish you would have learnt another language? :eyes::sparkles::green_heart:

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