How did you learn English?

[Mehrbod]

I believe pretty much everyone around here speaks English (or other languages) to some extend

It's also a very good way for learning a foreign language, to ask others and see how everyone else has learned it already.

So go on people, give us some story on your learning background, and other things as you find related.

[Ouroboros]

Interesting topic, My uncle lived in Ireland for 20 some years, and when he came back he made sure every kid in the family learns how to speak English, it was a great thing he did and I'll always be grateful. But the problem with learning English the way I did, is that I royally suck at grammar and also have a ridiculous Irish accent.

You didn't share your story lad, how did you learn English? I'm guessing it involved a lot of books and classes, since you do it so neat and proper..

[Theodor Herzl]

I was 13 when I moved to Canada. I grew up with Canadian kids and I had my first girlfriend when I was 14 , She really helped me to learn English

[Ouroboros]

I don't suppose anybody'll top that? That's the best way there is me friend
I wish I had me one of them nice "teachers" growing up you know

[Russell]

!!Still Under Construction

[Anarchy]

To put it in a nutshell,I had been to english classes since my early childhood which continued till my high school graduation.During these years I was so interested in learning any language even Arabic,their whole complexity fascinated me so much.When I was around fifteen years old,I watched a TV program about some Iranian translator who knew 11 languages including old latin.!!
That was my wish to learn all those languages and even more
I was also so fond of linguistics and the language changing in the course of centuries
That was something never went real and that's a pitty but I still have my dream

[Nevermore]

I've been learning english for abour 2 years(myself without classes) but now i can only read and listen well
my writing and speaking are terrible.

[Mehrbod]

Interesting topic, My uncle lived in Ireland for 20 some years, and when he came back he made sure every kid in the family learns how to speak English, it was a great thing he did and I'll always be grateful. But the problem with learning English the way I did, is that I royally suck at grammar and also have a ridiculous Irish accent.

You didn't share your story lad, how did you learn English? I'm guessing it involved a lot of books and classes, since you do it so neat and proper..

My learning did involve a lot of books, but no classes. I can't explain just how much I hate attending a class and learning with other people. I've developed this sense over the years that if too many people are all doing the same thing, then the thing's ought to be just plain wrong or unnecessary or avoidable in some manner! That's how much I distrust popular judgement

The only thing I've ever learned from attending these so-called educational classes - besides language, were some phone numbers which ironically enough, none of them worked out as a relationship anyway! :)


However I learned what I know by using a very simple translator, you selected the word and the its translation would pop up on the screen.
With that in hand, I read some pretty interesting books. It was rather tiresome at the beginning, reading and understanding one sentence could take up to ten minutes whiich easily bores most people, but then reading paragraphs took about the same time, and in no time I could read a whole book without using the translator that much anymore, since most of the meaning's guessable through the context anyway.

But the whole vocabulary I learned this way was stored in this part of the memory called "passive memory". I could understand pretty much everything, but I couldn't verbalize any sentences whatsoever. That was the case until I moved to Canada and that's where the magic of non-linearity revealed itself to me!

The first day I couldn't formulate one single proper sentence, but in less than a few days, every word that I've had ever learned magically found its way into my speech and working memory (active-memory), and before I knew I could speak English rather fluently!

[Ouroboros]

[Fiona]

My story is that when I was abt 3 yrs old, spending time with my cousins in UK and there was no possible way to communicate with each other as they grew up there n didn't know even one single Persian word !!The most messed up situation when we were fighting on nothing...Big headache! this was my first motivation to learn English as I've started attending English classes prior to learn how to write and read Persian...made me confused when I stepped in the 1st grade coz I wondered how to write whether in Persian alphabets or in latin ones.