Learning English as a Second Language on Your Own
When I was 20 I didn’t know when to use “have” and “has”. Hopefully, I’m getting better.
I grew up in Moscow, Russia. I studied English in middle and high school. I had been taught tenses, irregular verbs, how to use articles but I didn’t remember any of it.
All my teachers in middle school, high school, and college were Russian. All of them were 50–60 years old woman who never lived in English speaking countries. They taught students all the rules but with very little practice it was all pointless.
I remember when Tom Preston-Werner of GitHub came to Moscow to speak at one tech conference and there was a gathering at a bar after. I tried to talk to him but I couldn't make a sentence. Well, I did make one: I asked him to add themes support to Jekyll. I repeated it 5 times or so and he replied that he doesn't use “vim”. I was pronouncing “themes” as “vims”.
It made me realize how bad my English was.
TV-shows and movies
I watched TV series in English. I started with ones I watched before in Russia. Futurama, Simpsons, South park. English subtitles were very helpful since characters usually spoke too fast for me. Listening to the original voices is more enjoyable than the dubbed once, too.
I watched last 10 seasons of Simpsons, South park, Futurama, all Lost, 7 first seasons of House, all Firefly, all Rome and a dozen of others. I watched ≈100 movies. That’s a lot of hours spent. It’s very passive way of learning. With the most of the new words I learned, I forgot them the very next day.
Movies and TV-shows can teach you how to pronounce words you know how to write. For example, I knew the words “since” and “science” but I was pronouncing them the same.
Classes
When I was 22 I signed up for private English class. Just four weeks program or so. The teacher was a Scottish guy in his early thirties. Let’s call him Scott for anonymity purposes. Actually, I forgot his real name. Scott had a bad case of a lazy eye after somebody punched him badly. “An eye not to see with but to stare at”, he liked to say. He couldn't find any decent jobs in the UK so he went through a 4-weeks ESL certification course to teach English abroad.
It was a conversation class. Scott would pick a topic. “Should prostitution be legal?” was one of my favorites. Students would have to choose their “for” or “against” position and describe why did they choose that. It was the first time I had a real conversation in English.
Meeting native speakers
I attended Couchsurfing weekly meetups and met several people from different countries.
Learning happens naturally when you hang out with native speakers. I learned what “belaying” means when I went indoors rock climbing with one girl from the US. Let‘s just say that I learned it the hard way.
Living in English-speaking countries
I went to my first English-speaking country last year. I got a US tourist visa, quit my full-time job in Moscow, and flew to New York.
I lived in New York City for half a year.
I learned:
— “top-up” when I was buying prepaid SIM at JFK airport;
— “condo” when I was looking for apartments;
— “street car” when I needed one;
— “yield” when I saw a sign;
— “counter” when I asked “where should I put this plate”;
— “cleats” when I was buying a pair to play Ultimate;
— “oar” when I was rowing;
— “swag” and “dope” on a subway;
Vocabulary grew on its own while I was doing something.
I’m currently in Canada, Toronto. I have a tourist visa that allows me to stay up to 6 months.
Grammar
Living in an English-speaking country helps you improve your speaking and vocabulary. However, it doesn’t help much with grammar. This is why I’m wringing all of this. Please comment everything that’s grammatically incorrect or just doesn’t sound right.
Update: reading this 4 years later makes me want to delete it. It makes me cringe. The only reason I keep it is to (hopefully) encourage others to learn English even if they started as adults.
