Or the story of how I did it and why I think you can too
Well hello, for all those of you wanting learning English fast, today I am going to tell how I’ve managed to learn English in less than four months, with only the internet as a tool. I did not pay a dime. Looking back on it now , I sometimes get shocked my old self did that actually, but enough talking, let’s dive into the subject.
I have never been good at English.
As a French speaking bilingual since I was 3 (not a native though), god knows English was a very pointy thorn in both of my sides. All through primary school up until high school, English featured in the curriculum. Still, it wouldn’t stick, oh how it didn’t. I started each year gaping at words like “pineapples” and “purple” wondering where I have seen those and what they meant! I knew the basics: pronouns, some verbs (eat, drink. sleep ,the usual), and some colours. Forget about most fruits and colours though. Needless to say, I wasn’t the brightest apple. That continued to be the case up until the summer of my second year of high school.
The Beginning
It all started with reading English fanfictions, believe it or not. If you know me (you obviously don’t but you get the gist), I LOVE reading. I can spend my whole day doing just that. I can’t for the life of me sit through a 1h movie ,but I can read and read and read. The more I read, the more I noticed that lots of good fanfiction (the good old times!) and articles were in English. My common sense said that I would waste my time trying to read them because I didn’t understand the language. However, I just plunged. I can’t explain the state I was in, I just wanted to read them so bad ,so I did. Never mind the fact that I couldn’t understand 90% of what it contained.
Checking a dictionary for every word quickly proved to be boring ,but how could I understand anything without one? To resolve that dilemma, I did two things:
· I asked myself what is the most important part of a sentence? I came up with two answers: verbs and pronouns. I already knew pronouns, that left verbs.
· I started trying to focus on the context and emotions behind sentences, instead of the usual translate-memorize method.#
From there on, I decided that I would only search verbs in the dictionary ,and focus on emotions.
Let’s take an example:
You made me trust you and betrayed me. How dare you stand there and act all innocent ,you scum!
Is it obvious I really love drama? Anyway, the above sentence was obviously way too advanced for my old self. I started by identifying the verbs, which are “made”, “trust”, “betrayed” “stand” and “act”. A quick google search later, I was able to roughly understand their meaning. From there, I went back to the sentence they were put in ,and reread it with my new understanding .
Then, I just moved on
I didn’t understand how they were really conjugated or what “scum” meant, but I could understand that it was an insult, and I could understand that the above sentence was a person screaming at another for betraying them. That was enough for me at that moment, I just moved on to the next sentence.
I would do the above every day. I’ d pick a fanfiction that interested me and apply the same method. Very soon, I’d started noticing the same words and verbs being used again and again. Among them, colours and fruits, so I’d look them up. Within one month, and I couldn’t tell you how it happened in detail because I did not realise it myself, I could understand the typical paragraph in English without the use of any dictionary. I was happy as a mouse in a cheese-fest. Afterwards, I found myself moving on to fitness/health articles , while keeping my expectations low. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could understand most of what was written !
Before I was even aware of it, 3 months had gone by and school started again. A month later, and I took my first English test of the year.
I got 20/20.
I remember finding it so easy and then get shook because I’d ask myself how little old me managed to do that. Soon enough, my entourage noticed my new skill, and they all kept asking me how I did it. When I would tell them, they almost always looked at me crazy and say something along the lines of
“Girl, who the hell learns English in 3 months? Unless they’re a genius, and we damn well know you’re not",
to which I’d usually answer
“I don’t even know, damn I did that”.
To be honest, I really didn’t know how I did it at the time because I was really invested in it. It started out as a means to an end ,but somewhere along the way, it turned into an end in itself. It wasn’t until I really thought about it that I was able to tell why and how I did it.
It’s been seven years now, and I’d say my English is bloody blimming good as the Brits would say.
CONCLUSION
I am writing this post to help all the people who were like my old self learn take the steps to learning English( or any language they may fancy) , and take the initiative towards their personal goals.
- · Just Start
- · Learn As You Go
- · Be Consistent
The above is the best advice I can offer from my own personal experience. I am not saying that the above will work exactly the same way it did with me. However, I strongly believe the foundation is where it’s at. Build your understanding of sentences by focusing on the most important blocs: pronouns, verbs, tenses. Your grammar and vocabulary will increase before you even realize it it.
Translating-memorizing has never worked with me, and I suspect it is the case for millions of people around the world. I want to say to all those people:
Just Start Reading in The Language You Want To Learn As soon As Possible
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