My 2 years English journey

[dragon930]

Hello everyone!

I would like to share with you my experience with learning English as a second language. I've been learning for about 2 years now. It means that I hadn't had almost any experience with speaking/writing before that.

At the beginning of that journey, I was able to read some articles partially… Making sentences for me was a disaster, it was very hard.

Anyway, I started the studying process by watching a lot of Netflix with English subtitles even though when I watched a movie the percentage of my comprehension was ~30%. There were lots of new words and some of the grammar structure was new for me. Therefore, that made me feel angry many times.

So, in order to improve my vocabulary, I started to write the new words down and their definitions. Over time I realised that I had a big list with a lot of words and definitions and in fact, I wasn't able to remember most of the words after a few days.

In hindsight, I think it was a mistake, I used to forget a lot of words in this way … I should have written the whole sentence every time I found a new word.

A few months later and after some time of wondering how to proceed, I decided to book an individual lesson with a teacher. It was a disaster the first time, because of the lack of vocabulary and confidence as well. You probably know about these platforms that you can pay for a 1to1 lesson(I am not going to mention the platform). Anyway.

With these lessons, I built a lot of confidence over time and certainly I improved my vocabulary because I used to discuss some specific topics with the teacher. At the same time, I started to learn grammar from free resources on the internet because only by speaking on these platforms with individual teachers I was able to improve my vocabulary and confidence, but I felt stuck with my grammar.

So maybe here is the time to mention why I want to learn this language. It's because of the industry that I am currently working in, even though at the company that I currently work for, it's not mandatory to speak this language, but in the future, I will be required to be fluent. That means I will have to write reports, talk with clients etc …

On the other hand, I like learning this language because I have access to a lot of resources that are in English. So I am motivated enough and have the time to work on it.

Let's continue … I was doing all of that for almost a year and then I realised that my listening skill wasn't good enough, so I started to listen to some audios that lasted for 2 minutes each. I tried to write everything that I heard down and then compared it with the transcript. It helped me to improve my listening for sure.

I also started to use flashcards on daily basis to learn new words and to make sentences in order to train my grammar and it helped.

At this moment my learning process includes:

1. Talking with a native teacher(US/UK) almost every day for 30 minutes. That is because I don't want to lose my level of speaking and everything that I have achieved so far.

2. I bought a business English student book and I am trying to spend at least 30 minutes a day going over all of the lessons.

3. Watching Netflix is mandatory before sleeping. Having English subtitles as well.

4. I spend some time learning grammar but I am not sure what is the best way to do that. On which basis, how often etc …

5. Talking with some people in certain communities.

6. Listening to podcasts.

I feel like... I am only using the language now but I don't improve my way of expression, grammar etc … It's important for me to be able to speak advanced English in the business environment and not only.

Can you suggest something that I can improve in my studying process?

Thanks!

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

My two-year English journey


Hello everyone!

I would like to share with you my experiences with learning English as a second language. I've been learning for about two years now. It means that I hadn't had almost any experience with speaking or writing it before that.

At the beginning of that journey, I was able to read some articles partially. Making sentences for me was a disaster. It was very hard.

Anyway, I started the studying process by watching a lot of Netflix with English subtitles even though when I watched a movie the percentage of my comprehension was about 30%. There were lots of new words, and some of the grammar structure was new for me. Therefore, that made me feel angry many times.

So, in order to improve my vocabulary, I started to write the new words [STRIKE]down[/STRIKE] and their definitions down. Over time I realised that I had a big list with a lot of words and definitions, and in fact, I wasn't able to remember most of the words after a few days.

In hindsight, I think it was a mistake. I used to forget a lot of words that way. I should have written the whole sentence every time I found a new word.

A few months later and after some time [STRIKE]of[/STRIKE] wondering how to proceed, I decided to book an individual lesson with a teacher. It was a disaster the first time, because of the lack of vocabulary and confidence, as well. You probably know about these platforms that you can pay for a one-on-one lesson. [space (I am not going to mention the platform.

[paragraph break]
Anyway, with these lessons[STRIKE],[/STRIKE] I built a lot of confidence over time, and certainly I improved my vocabulary, because I used to discuss some specific topics with the teacher. At the same time, I started to learn grammar from free resources on the internet, because only by speaking on these platforms with individual teachers was I able to improve my vocabulary and confidences. But I felt stuck with my grammar.

So maybe this is the time to mention why I want to learn this language. It's because of the industry that I am currently working in, even though at the company that I currently work for, it's not mandatory to speak this languages. But in the future, I will be required to be fluent. That means I will have to write reports, talk with clients, etc.

On the other hand, I like learning this language because I have access to a lot of resources that are in English. So I am motivated enough and have the time to work on it.

Let's continue. I was doing all of that for almost a year, and then I realised that my listening skills weren't good enough, so I started to listen to some audios that lasted for two minutes each. I tried to write everything that I heard down and then compared it with the transcript. It helped me to improve my listening, for sure.

I also started to use flashcards on daily basis to learn new words and to make sentences in order to improve my grammar, and it helped.

At this moment my learning process includes:

1. Talking with a native teacher(US/UK) almost every day for thirty minutes. That is because I don't want to lose my level of speaking and everything that I have achieved so far.

2. I bought a business English student book and I am trying to spend at least thirty minutes a day going over all of the lessons.

3. Watching Netflix is mandatory before sleeping. Having English subtitles is, too.

4. I spend some time learning grammar, but I am not sure what [STRIKE]is[/STRIKE] the best way to do that is. [STRIKE]On which basis, how often etc …[/STRIKE]

5. I talk with some people in certain communities.

6. I listen to podcasts.

I feel like[STRIKE]...[/STRIKE] I am only starting to use the language now, but I am not improving my way of expression, grammar, etc. It's important for me to be able to speak advanced English in the business environment and elsewhere.

Can you suggest something that I can improve in my studying process?

Thanks!

Welcome, Dragon!

I'll let a teacher answer that. Keep up the good work!