

Ask HN: How to buy English skills in two week? - micmicky

Money cannot buy everything, but I got saved some money that I want to spend to get out of mediocre english skills. I am in this state for last 20 years. My english has not improved much in this period. I cannot&#x2F;should not live rest of my life wishing to have a good english skills to communicate my ideas.<p>I am not good at persistence and consistency which are key to become good at anything you want to be. I am highly paid software engineer and I reached to this position by pure luck and talent. Now time has come that the talent alone is not enough. I want to achieve more and first step is to remove my inability to write&#x2F;read&#x2F;speak english fluently.<p>I know the best method people recommend is to read as many books as possible to become good at it. I have tried buying books and reading first few pages before forgetting about reading them again. I get impatient because of my slow speed and lack of vocabulary. The books of kids are not that interesting to keep me engage. My symptoms are close to ADHD but I have not consulted a doctor for that. For speaking its best to be among among natives but unfortunately wherever I work its all expats.<p>I got some money saved on which I want to spend in two full weeks to learn English.
I am thinking of taking leave from my office and pursuing to learn all about English in those two weeks. But I don&#x27;t know what will be the medium to learn extensively in those two weeks. Please suggest me what can I do in those two weeks? Can I hire some professional that can spend full two weeks with me?
Or should I go into field and work in an environment (i.e. restaurant?) for two weeks that that will force me to speak with natives and learn from them?<p>I am thinking of posting a job description on different job portals to hire someone that can help in this regard. What should be criteria to hire someone for this purpose and what schedule we should be following in those two weeks (8 hours a day)?<p>I live in Seattle area.
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partisan
Post a gig on Craigslist for a native English speaker who is pursuing or has
pursued a degree in English Arts or something similar. Pay them for 4 hours a
day ($20 an hour should be sufficient for a college student on summer break)
and have it be conversational. Spend the rest of your time watching English
language learning videos on YouTube and repeating along with the video.

The only thing that will help you is discipline so you have just work on it at
all times. I, for example, have bad posture. I realize it sometimes and so I
sit up straight, but I am not disciplined enough to do it all of the time so I
have not improved enough.

Hope that helps.

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theophrastus
These have been good folks to my students in the past (however it's been
awhile):
[http://seattlelanguages.com/private.php](http://seattlelanguages.com/private.php)

call them up. talk to them (perhaps in your native language). see if you like
what they say. however i've no idea what anyone might accomplish in just two
weeks. furthermore, if the text of your question is a sample of your own
english abilities, i'd say you might be wasting your concern relative to the
average english capabilities in the technical world in general.

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mahringer_a
You can't buy skills, you can only nurture them. To do so, engage in
conversations: Go to discussion clubs, book clubs, meetups etc. Talk and
mostly listen! It's not a matter of money, it's a matter of dedication!

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melling
Language exchange? What's your native language? Several years ago I found
someone on Craigslist to exchange an hour of English for an hour of Spanish.
We did this for several months. You can find several people to keep it
interesting.

~~~
micmicky
I speak Urdu and never found someone wanting to learn it.

~~~
melling
Go to a not so loud bar, have a beer, and talk to people.

