
Ask HN: How did you become fluent in English? - dustinty
I am learning English. My communication skills are not good. How can I improve and become fluent in English?
======
bayindirh
First of all read a lot. Read local communities like Reddit, HN (here),
slashdot, etc. This will make you familiar with the daily language.

Second, listen a lot. Watch movies with original sound and English subtitles.
Try to understand, try to make sense of it. If you listen English songs, try
to listen a little more attentive.

Then write a lot. Try to take your notes in English. Comment your code in
English. Try to comment more into stories or forums around the world.

These three will sharpen you in daily English. You'll become more familiar.
Becoming fluent becomes after becoming familiar. As everyone said, also read
books, novels in English and take notes, however some books' vocabulary may be
drastically different from others (e.g., Both Hyperion Cantos and Ready Player
One are SciFi novels, but latter one has a much more accessible English than
the former).

Last but not the least, don't focus on your progress. You'll advance
inevitably. Just continue doing so, and you'll find yourself much more
improved after some time. Fluency is best when it comes with time, and when
it's built step by step, it becomes permanent.

~~~
robocat
Mimicking is the critical skill for spoken English.

I bet you have ugly flaws in your spoken English, although I also bet that
your written English is better than many brought up speaking English.

I often deal with tourists, and I detect serious flaws in their speaking as a
result of their learning to read and write first (transliteration is a problem
too). Common ways of teaching English in schools are deeply flawed IMHO.

Babies and children learn by listening, talking, _mimicking_ , and some
correction.

The best late learners of speaking English that I have met, have been those
that interact by talking and mimicking, with very little (if any)
reading/writing. My favourite was a young Japanese guy that had worked in East
London and Australia, and his accent would switch between perfect Cockney and
perfect Ocker depending upon where he had learnt a phrase!

Personally, my Spanish only really improved when I had a Spanish speaking
girlfriend that didn't want to speak English with me.

Obviously if you mostly interact in English by writing, it doesn't matter.

But if you want to work in a country, you will usually be judged quite
negatively if you have a strong accent.

Also clearly not everyone can find a way to talk with native speakers.

Learning by listening to movies and mimicking songs including _accent_ of the
singer helps a lot and is fun. (e.g. in my experience Spaniards typically have
horrific English due to dubbing films into Spanish, while Portuguese often are
way better at English).

Ideally limit reading and limit learning grammar/spelling until after you have
a good grasp of the language. That's how all native speakers have done it.

~~~
el_cid
Sorry but I disagree. Limit reading and limit learning grammar/spelling?

~~~
FabHK
That might be more apropos for learning Chinese (where premature focus on
reading/writing can distract from actually learning the (spoken) language). I
think in learning English, reading will help, because the sound/spelling
correspondence is sufficient (even though English arguably has the worst
orthography after the logographic ones).

~~~
robocat
> because the sound/spelling correspondence is sufficient

I strongly disagree.

Firstly on listening to tourists, some of the worst pronunciation mistakes I
hear are because they have learnt the spelling: you can hear mistakes that can
only occur if you know the spelling (or are due to use a "general" voicing
rule).

This shows up clearly when you are in another country and you tell someone a
word for something and they repeat it back to you perfectly. However they
often then ask for the spelling, and after you tell them the spelling, their
pronunciation changes to something incorrect. Ouch.

Speakers with English as a mother tongue on seeing an unfamiliar word will ask
how to pronounce it rather than making educated guesses at how to say it
because _any_ rule is often broken, and we learn not to trust our guesses. In
fact someone who is well read but mispronounces words (intuited from spelling)
is often laughed at.

One further problem that well spoken English is a sign of a good education,
and it is often used to judge social status. In a professional job, correct
speech helps one a lot. On the flip side you hear tradesman avoid using
"correct" speech because they don't want to associate themselves with "suits"
(or it is a group identity thing: I am not a ethanographer!).

The result of the above is that most people find it rude to have their speech
or spelling corrected because of the implicit "I am better than you". Which
means it is difficult to find anyone that will correct your mistakes because
most people are polite. The exception is children: they love to correct adults
and they often don't mind repeatably correcting pronunciation errors.

Note I think that a child that speaks English learns "rules" for sounding
words primely to help identify the spelling of words they already know how to
say. A learner may guess at a spelling, but the spelling is then corrected by
the teacher.

~~~
irq11
You are _really_ overgeneralizing your personal experience. I’m a native
English speaker too, and I guess pronunciations all the time. I’d argue that
it’s part of the skill of English fluency.

Stop discouraging people by telling them that your way is the only way.

------
simonebrunozzi
I grew up in Italy. Among EU countries, Italians have one of the worst English
accent and vocabulary, because Italian TV "dubs" every single movie and TV
show ever invented. In fact, you often hear that "Italian dubbers (e.g. voice
over actors) are the best in the world".

In my teenage years, my father gave me an amazing present: for two summers, he
paid to send me to study English in Scotland once, and in Sussex once. I did
learn some English, but most importantly I associated English with "ability to
travel and see the world".

My English was quite good for Italian standards, and quite bad in general,
until I got to age 18. I then decided I wanted to learn English really well.
My resolution became to watch movies only in English, and to read only in
English, for years. It worked.

Finally, in 2003, I won a fellowship to study for one semester at UC Irvine.
When I came back, my English was at a very good level.

From 2008 onwards, I worked for US companies (Amazon, VMware), and have been
living in San Francisco since 2012.

Looking back, I believe it was "hard" for me to make these decisions and put
the effort in, compared to my peers. I was also fortunate to have a family
that supported me and loved me dearly.

When I go back to my home town (Assisi, in Umbria, Italy), I always think
about this. Ah, life. Sliding doors. Decisions. Etc.

~~~
mikejharrison
I'm English. A couple of years ago I started learning Italian by listening to
podcasts (Coffee Break Italian) and reading children's books. I then travelled
to Assisi to try it out for the first time. The locals were fantastic, they
slowed down and spoke very clearly. It's a beautiful place.

I agree though, travelling and learning about new places in another language
is awesome, it unlocks so much, and really encourages you to learn.

~~~
FearNotDaniel
> they slowed down and spoke very clearly

I wish Austrians were the same... unfortunately most folks here tend to switch
between fast German with a thick local dialect, or talking back to me in
English, neither of which helps me to actually improve my German...

~~~
robocat
If a foreigner came to my country and asked me to speak to them with an accent
from another country, I would be insulted.

If living in a region or a country I like to learn the local dialect.

Although I admit that leads to general laughter later e.g. when I spoke
Spanish in Seville people laughed at my hick Cuban accent, and then in Madrid
they laughed at my hick Andalusian accent!

However I think trying to learn accents helps you a lot later with your spoken
language ability... I have seen how strongly some regional people negatively
react to a "correct" Spanish Madrileño accent (seen as very
snobby/uptight/unfriendly). I had fun the other day taking to a Chilean: I
could hear some parts of the accent which were reminiscent of Sevilla, so I
could mimic some of the Chilean accent and not sound like a twat (and we had
an awesome discussion about it too).

------
anonytrary
I'm a native speaker, but one of my roommates didn't know much English when I
met him. After about a year, he was 70% fluent in English. Coming to America
and making friends is pivotal in learning English.

Firstly, be immersed in the culture of the language you're trying to learn.
It's easier to learn English if everyone around you speaks it. The social
pressure to learn it will trump your own motivation. You will be motivated to
learn English if you want to interact with people.

Secondly, work with native speakers on a project that has nothing to do with
learning English. Find something you find interesting and find native speakers
with similar interests. We worked on a side project, and he was learning
English and programming at the same time. We were doing something fun, and it
helped him pick up the language faster.

Finally, watch English comedies with your native English friends, ask them to
put on subtitles. We watched Silicon Valley (HBO) and he started to get the
jokes pretty quickly. It helps to have a sense of humor. If you're new to
English, your English friends will find some of your sentences funny, and
that's a _good_ thing. Laugh with them and learn more.

------
raitom
To improve my english I listened to a lot of Country and Rap music. This way I
kinda learn a lot of slang words and expression.

First job in the states my coworkers weren’t really talkative. I used to go to
a stripclub during the weekends. Trust me your brain will be more than
motivated to learn english when you need to talk to half nudes girls haha.

~~~
maybeiambatman
By far the most unique take on learning English

------
yzmtf2008
TV shows. I watched so much TV shows that when I first came to the United
States, a taxi driver claimed that I had a "New York accent". Shows like
Seinfeld are especially good, because they also help you get comfortable with
american culture, which is an important part of communication.

It probably helps that I do rubber duck debugging[0] a lot :)

[0]: [https://rubberduckdebugging.com/](https://rubberduckdebugging.com/)

~~~
imd23
I can’t emphasize this more. The first show I watched without subtitles (CC)
was Dr House. I watched 6 seasons and it was painful as hell but after
watching 100s of episodes it starts becoming easier.

Also, I would write every single word I did not understand and google it.

------
danmaz74
After reading many answers, I'll add one step I didn't see fully stressed:
after getting used to read and listen to English, find a way to start
_speaking_ it. You can't become fluent without actually speaking it.

For me, what did the trick was actually going to a advanced spoken English
course where I lived (I was already very proficient with written English):
what we were doing most of the time was just discussing things in English,
with the supervision and help of our teacher. Among my best "investments".

Today, you could probably find something online, but I'm not sure if it would
be as useful.

~~~
Strom
Regular speaking is definitely important. I'll add a related advanced tactic.
Switch your inner monologue language to English. So whenever you're thinking
with the help of language, do it in English. This will go a long way towards
making your verbal speaking faster and more natural, because you'll no longer
be doing quick translations in your head.

To be more precise, at least for me, this thinking language system seems to be
heavily influenced by learning. I've been doing most of my thinking in English
for the last decade or so, and most of the things I've learned during this
time are stored in my head in English. [1] However my earlier life lessons are
still in my memories in my original native tounge. This is interesting because
I started learning English more than 25 years ago, but even things I consumed
in English got translated and stored in memory in my native language.

\--

[1] Of course there are more factors in play than just thinking in English.
I've also been better than ever in English and English media makes up for a
larger percentage than ever in my total consumed media. I'm sure all of these
and more have played a role, in addition to changing my inner dialogue
language, in storing my memories in English now.

------
rapfaria
10 years ago I joined college and didn't know a thing about English. Somebody
pranked the whole class in the first day, by coming, writing their credentials
on the board in Japanese and speaking in English. I thought to myself, I'm so
behind.

Pirated a web design book some time later and tried very hard to learn it. I
still remember learning the word "rather" from context instead of translating
it.

After that, I made my 'world' in English. Movies, books, everything.
Discovered HN by that time, and watched Two and A Half Men repeatedly with
friends, over and over and over. I'm sure that repetition helped a lot.

Forcing yourself to speak in English can also help (xbox party chat for
example), specially when I kept asking myself, do I really know English or am
I just a fraud? Will I be able keep a conversation when the time for it comes?

I know a bunch of people that learned English but never passed that point
where you can 'get' things in English. So, it's worth doing it by yourself.
Being one of the very few in the theater getting the meaning of a joke, that
subtitles did not translate well, is great.

------
jimmies
People's expectation of what is considered "fluent" is very different and many
different approaches can work. Regardless of where you are, there are things
that you can do.

I am Vietnamese and studied English as a second language at 10 years old. I
have been living in the US for the last 10 years -- 1/3 of my life. I have
very little problems communicating in English now, but I want to give you a
glimpse of how confident I am with my English. I used to know a professional
interpreter who is not a native speaker either but has got an excellent grip
on English. He interpreted for a couple of US presidents on their diplomatic
trips. He often commented on my Facebook that my English is shit when I had
Facebook. He would poke fun at my misspellings and grammatical errors. I still
write, listen, and speak like a machine.

If I remember it correctly, the translator fiend's advice to everyone was
always that to read lots of books. His advice to learn to speak English was to
go out and talk to the English expats. Many long for a friend, and you might
learn a thing or two on the way. He did that when he was 20. I think those are
a solid advice.

For me, it was a little bit different. I think a big part of it is that I had
an itch to do it. When I was younger, I learned English by reading MSDN + VB
manuals because I needed to code. Then for a couple of years in HS, I lead an
indie translation project to translate a couple of Harry Potter books to
Vietnamese. My schedule was totally fucked up in the summer when the books
came out: Sleep in until noon, then at night just translate 1/4 of a chapter
or so, or proofread other people's translations until 6 AM. After that
project, I wouldn't care if my English is not good anymore, I knew I've dealt
with enough shit to not be intimidated by English.

But in general, I think what works best is that you have to have a use for it.
If you don't have a use for it, your work doesn't depend on it, then you need
to have a hobby in which your English skill is needed to get the work done.
Maybe you can make an impact or two along the way. It's just like to learn a
new programming language or paradigm.

Like now, I'm a professional HN commentator, and it requires some serious
English skill, don't you see ;-)?

------
euske
I tend to think that learning a language is like dieting; it's not a one-time
action and there's no end to it. It's a lifetime commitment.

That's said, being fluent is often not as important as being well spoken. I've
seen many native English speakers who don't seem to understand what they're
talking about even by themselves, while I've seen some non-native speakers who
has minor pronunciation or grammatical problems but are very good at choosing
right words and making a point. I'd rather want that kind of skill.

------
firexcy
I’m a Chinese speaker and also on my way advancing English skills. What I
learned from my past experience is that don’t distinguish between good and bad
sources of contents. Enjoy nonsensical shouts and murmurs in YouTube, Reddit,
or other communities. At first I tried a lot to follow recommandations on _Top
X_ lists, only to find myself quitting frequently on the half-way because
either I lost interest or they were too far from daily English I can learn for
practical usage. Now my opinion is that there’re always gold and craps in
contents of a certain language, and since languages were invented first for
daily communications, which by nature are full of nonsense and improvisation,
“crappy” contents are always far more than well-composed ones, but it’s from
these craps that you know what daily interactions sound/look like, and get the
bonus of less likely getting bored.

Of course it’s always helpful to keep certain doses of more “serious”
contents. I always enjoy the challenge of reading longforms from _The New
Yorker_ (forgive me if you don’t think that a challenge, but from my point of
view as a non-native speaker the vocabulary thereof is quite a challenge) or
non-fiction books. You’ll feel improved in both skill and intellect aspects if
you can persist.

------
m_sahaf
On my first year of college at home (Saudi Arabia), we had what they call
orientation year which consists of intensive English and math courses. I
talked to our English instructor asking him if I could stop by his office
everyday during his office hours for a casual chat to improve my
conversational English, and he kindly agreed. I spent a semester doing that,
and picked up his Scottish accent along the way :D

The following year I travelled to the US for school. My first year in the US
had minor improvement in my English fluency because I was mostly hanging out
with a group of Saudis. Later that year I learned about a local group started
by an ESL teacher called English Conversation Club. They have multiple groups
during the week of US Americans hosting meetings at their houses, inviting
internationals for casual conversations, playing games, and making friends to
improve the conversational English and learn about the different cultures.
They also hold parties throughout the year for the different holidays (e.g.
4th of July, Christmas, etc.). At the time, they had 3 different group meeting
during the week, and I went to all of them. I also took time to reflect on the
conversations on my way back from the meetings (noting misspeeches, word-
choice, etc.).

During that time, I learn that the on-campus speech clinic offers accent
reduction services, and they offer 50% discount for students. I took those
sessions for 9 months until the therapist decided that I have reached an
acceptable level.

These were the major players in improving my fluency, in addition to reading,
writing, and paying attention to conversations in movies and TV shows.

------
sunstone
Some people, though very few, can become native English speakers on their own.
The people that can divide into two distinct camps, musicians and heavy movie
watchers (English movies of course).

Musicians by training are talented listeners and heavy movie watchers, whether
talented listeners are not, get exposed to so much real sounding English that
they can't help but to learn it subconsciously if in no other way.

Typical adult listeners no longer here sounds as they are but map sounds of
foreign languages into the sounds their brain already knows. This lack of
accuracy in listening is the primary impediment to become fluent in a
language.

~~~
brooklyn_ashey
Musician here. I completely agree. But I think anyone can do this. We
musicians transcribe solos of jazz players- not because we want to play like
them, but because we want the feel in our vocaulary-- because we want to hear
and understand better. Every musician I know learns languages easily and many
are good at immitating accents and word choice. This is exactly what we do
when we improvise in the style of... Mozart or whoever. It works!

------
remir
Like a lot of people here, I learned English by reading articles online and
books in subjects that interested me as well as watching TV shows/movies with
English subtitles.

What helped me was to avoid translating every sentences to my native language,
but instead watch for patterns in the language and fill in the blanks. When I
did not know or understand a word, I'd look it up in the dictionary or Google.

I recently spoke with a native speaker and I saw that my vocabulary could
still improve, but overall it went well. If you speak with anglophones, tell
them to not be afraid to tell you when you make mistakes. Practice is key.

------
juzffoo
If you make your learning less like "learning" you will have great chance of
learning anything new. Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing (not necessarily
in any order) are key to improving your language skills. Pick few subjects
that you are reasonably excited about. Movies, Technology, Fashion, Current
Affairs, Religion, Music, Designing... basically anything that do not bore you
and spend some time finding channels that talk/write about these. Make sure
you are able to spend at least a decent amount of time everyday
watching/listening/reading about those.

I had very poor English language speaking skills even after I completed my
college. I took it as a challenge and made sure I spent at least 15 minutes
every day listening English news (I live in India and this was some 20 years
ago, so the options were very limited back then) Read English news papers for
about 30 minutes, and always noted down new words and their meaning and kept
referring to those when I wasn't preoccupied anything else.. .those notes used
to stay with me for few days before I threw those away for newer ones. Also,
moving to Bangalore helped me a lot because, many of my new friends didn't
share my mother tongue so English was our primary communication medium.
Thinking about it, it was kinda boring to be honest, I dont know if i will do
the same for learning any other language, but I was really motivated to learn
English back then so that probably kept me going.

------
lucb1e
By doing. Try to write, read, speak and listen to large volumes of English.
I've written blog posts, chatted a lot with people in games (mainly text,
sometimes voice), talked English at every opportunity (e.g. I'd seek out non-
Dutch people in class and do projects with them), wrote elaborate answers on
the security stackexchange website, listened to audio books, etc.

I didn't have good experiences with apps that try to gamify the process like
Duolingo, but that might have been because I used it in semi-corner cases: in
English I wanted to go from mediocre to advanced, and for German I already
knew Dutch so most of it was super basic and didn't really help me.

I've also looked for other hacks to get better at a language, but the thing
that really helps is just by doing. I guess audio books are sort of a hack,
because you don't have to be very actively busy with it: you can put an audio
book on while doing laundry, dishes, driving/walking/biking, falling asleep,
etc. And it teaches you vocabulary (most unfamiliar words are clear from
context), correct word use (including proverbs/sayings), and pronunciation.
Unfortunately, I noticed later that I don't know how to spell those words, but
that's just a minor issue (easy to look up when needed). I still encounter
words randomly and think to myself "oh _that 's_ how it's written! I just read
this sentence fluently but I never read this word before".

~~~
tphan
As a native English speaker, sometimes I'll read a word but since I've never
heard that word read out loud, when somebody finally says it, my mind explodes
because it sounds different to how I pronounced it in my mind.

------
pipio21
Traveling.

It is one thing to study English in a country that does not speak it, and a
completely different thing when you need it to survive. Being surrounded by
people speaking English(French, German,Chinese) and feeling totally stupid as
you can not even communicate the basic means you have to learn or have to
learn.

I recommend "fluent forever" book and Gabriel Wyner stuff in general to learn
as fast as possible. ALWAYS START BY PRONUNTIATION,like kids do, or else you
will have to unlearn what you learned badly.

In order to polish it, I joined Toastmasters.

------
jjude
I studied in Tamil medium. When I entered college, I could not speak a
sentence in English. Here are the things that helped me.

1\. Read Bible cover to cover many time with a Tamil Bible side-by-side. I
didn't understand many of the words / phrases. Still I kept reading as long as
I understood the meaning.

2\. In college we met every evening for prayer. I started sharing messages for
few minutes. I made lot (a lot) of mistakes, but my friends helped me improve.
Lot of folks made fun of me, but I still kept going because two of close
friends kept encouraging me.

3\. Watched Friends series with sub-titles. I didn't understand many of the
dialogues because I lacked context. Still I would memorize sentences and
repeat to myself.

4\. Started writing a blog[ _]. The one I have currently is 2nd or 3rd one. In
the first blog, I wrote primarily about what I knew well - SQL, Vantive etc.
So the content was there, I had to only find ways to express it. Even now, I
write about what I know or what I learn, so that makes it easier to blog.

_ : [https://jjude.com](https://jjude.com)

5\. When I read articles or books, I note down the sentences or phrases I
like. I store them in Evernote and re-visit them often. I try to use them in
some daily usage.

Next month I will deliver a keynote speech in Azure global bootcamp in my city
(Chandigarh). From not able to speak a sentence in English to this, has been a
long journey of frustration, encouragement, and satisfaction.

Good luck.

~~~
chrstphrknwtn
Reading the bible to learn English does not seem like a good idea. The English
of the bible is not common everyday English that will be most useful for
communicating with others today.

Watching films or television in English, with subtitles in your native
language is good advice.

~~~
stordoff
Even if you learn old English from that (rather than using a modern English
translation), it'd still give you a good base (grammar etc.) for then
understanding modern English. It might lead to learning a slightly odd/old
variation of English, and might not be the most efficient route, but I can see
it being effective for being able to understand English.

~~~
Natsu
For someone not from a Western culture, it will also help them understand a
lot of cultural references that won't make much sense otherwise, like "seeing
the handwriting on the wall."

~~~
jogjayr
> "seeing the handwriting on the wall."

I've known that phrase for...I don't even know how long. But I only learned
yesterday that its origin was Biblical. I love how Dan Carlin says "mene mene
tekel upharsin" and wanted to read more about it, and made that happy
discovery.

~~~
Natsu
Ahh, but actually the 'u' at the start of the 4th word is how they wrote 'and'
so it's not clear it would've been written on the wall :)

Yeah, there are a _lot_ of things like that which people have forgotten the
origins of...

------
emmett
This blogger, 8 years ago, wrote an excellent blog post detailing his method
for improving his English: [http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/01/koreans-
english-acqui...](http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/01/koreans-english-
acquisition-and-best.html?m=1)

Warning: it’s not an easy solution, just an effective one. The main idea is
“memorize more” and “practice more”. Judging by his blog posts, it seems to
work.

------
shurcooL
To answer the question in title, I came to Canada and lived here for the last
20~ years. Since day one, I always opted to try to use English (rather than my
first language) whenever possible. It was hardest at first, but the more I did
it, the easier it became.

------
faster
When I started learning French, a native speaker told me to exaggerate the
sounds. It turns out that I was softening the sounds that are uniquely French
because I lacked confidence in my spoken French.

I imagine that the same thing would work for learning to speak English with
less of an accent.

That obviously doesn't help you learn the language, but I found that it helped
me to speak better (or at least more confidently), so I spoke more. More
practice is definitely helpful.

~~~
evincarofautumn
Yeah, I totally agree about exaggeration, but I think it can also have a
positive impact on learning the language. A big issue I see with non-native
speakers of languages I know is that they stick to the comfortable sounds of
their native language, approximating the foreign sounds instead of trying to
really imitate them. If you haven’t done it before, it feels ridiculous to try
to put on what feels like such an exaggerated “fake” accent. But what you’re
doing is getting a handle on the phonetics, which increases your ability to
_recognise_ and _distinguish_ those sounds when listening, and be easier to
understand when speaking. It also helps you cope with phonetic variations and
different accents, which may at first sound _totally_ different from the
“standard” language you learned—but if you understand the phonemes as a native
speaker thinks about them, your comprehension will be much more resilient and
adaptable.

------
thecodeboy
I'm Indian. I became fluent in English watching Cartoon Network when I was
around 6 years old.

I remember watching The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Dexter's Laboratory,
Powerpuff Girls, etc. Thanks a lot cartoons!

~~~
saurabh
+1

------
merraksh
Record yourself while reading a random page from a book and then listen to the
recording. When I did, I found a few defects and managed to fix them, though
it took some time.

------
lloeki
Personal anecdote from which you may be able to pick a thing or two: back in
the day RPGs were not translated. I stumbled upon Chrono Trigger and found the
game amazing but could barely understand anything beyond the basics. I sucked
it up and got a paperback dictionary. Mid game I was barely referring to it,
and by the "end" of it (several dozens of hours, possibly hundred; got 10 of
the 14 or so endings) things were treading along nicely.

I followed up with Day of the Tentacle for which the complete Full Talkie was
only in English (the French one had only partial voice over in English) and
since it was so hot at the time to listen to voices in games I really wanted
to get that experience, so again, I went for it. It was much more involved as
DotT relies on wittiness and humor a lot, so that was definitely a step up. By
the end of it I was really getting good at listening instead of just reading
the English subs.

From then on I got lots and lots of exposure from movies and TV shows because
I began to catch how flawed or lacking some of the French dubs were for the
stuff I watched.

The missing part was speaking, and for this I happened to be repeatedly tasked
with preparing and presenting some stuff in English class. The key points
being: "repeatedly", like, a lot (once a week for three years) and "preparing"
which really helps in progressing (you can't realistically be expected to wing
it at talking if you only were doing "passive" activities like reading and
listening) because I had to both write and rehearse presenting beforehand,
which are both "active" tasks.

The "fluent" part then comes out as the sum of all this experience.

(Also, at some point I switched all of my OS/software/phone to English. Little
tidbits like this mean I was faced with English every single days for the most
trivial things, so that it just becomes second nature)

(Also also, getting involved in online communities, but not lurking:
interacting instead, stepping right outside the comfort zone.)

------
FelipeCortez
Playing videogames, asking my parents the words I didn't know

Talking to people I met on a stick figure Flash animation portal using Google
Translate (this was ~12 years ago so I was constantly made fun of but learned
a lot!)

Watching films at first with Portuguese subtitles, then with English
subtitles, then with no subtitles.

Reading books in English.

At this point I could read pretty well, write decently, but my pronunciation
was terrible.

Before university my parents sent me to Vancouver for a month to have English
lessons. Pronunciation and listening improved a lot!

During university I did a year abroad in Birmingham, UK. Talking to people
with strong accents during the first week was tough, but got easy after that.

My English is noticeably not very good, but I'm pretty happy with it
considering I had no more than a month of real lessons.

------
jobigoud
When you are brainstorming with yourself, during your commute, shower or
whatever, do it aloud and in English. This helped me think in English and
increased the speed at which I was able to turn a thought into a proper
sentence, bypassing translation.

------
maxxxxx
One thing I did when I came to the US was to have no pride and to invite and
even insist on people correcting my English. This can be really annoying and
often embarrassing but I think it stopped a lot of mistakes really early
before they became a habit. I see a lot of people who have been here for a
long time making really bad mistakes and nobody tells them. In general
Americans are very hesitant to give direct criticism so it takes a while to
find people who are willing to play that role.

I had a lot of problems understanding people for a while and there watching
movies and listening to radio helped.

------
jacquesm
\- school (grade school, high school)

\- Hollywood (movies in NL are as a rule subtitled)

\- Reading (the public library, second hand bookstores, the internet)

\- Work (An American Bank, working all over the planet)

\- Running an online business

\- Living in Canada for a number of years

\- Writing (blogging, HN)

Each of those contributed in some way, it is _still_ not perfect. It likely
never will be, there is no substitute for being born in an English speaking
country but at the same time there are many people that are born in such a
country that have the most horrible accents or that couldn't spell if their
lives depended on it.

Language mastery is never done, it just keeps getting better at an ever
reducing rate.

------
fnordian_slip
It is easier to learn when you are not fully aware that you are "studying", at
least that is the case for me.

Consuming different kinds of media like books, audiobooks, video games and
movies in English can help a lot with that without too much effort. Combine
that with joining some English-language forums in which you actively
participate, and you have a relatively cheap way of improving your language
skills.

If you have the means, add travel into the mix and try to immerse yourself in
the language and culture for as long as you can afford while avoiding people
who speak your language.

------
hollander
Best thing to do is travel, or language vacation. I've done a language holiday
in Spain, learning Spanish, and that worked really well. I only did two weeks,
but got a basic understanding of Spanish, in a beautiful old town - Salamanca.
You can do the same with English. I bet you can go to London, Sydney, New York
and many other places to learn English. You have to do this in a country or
city where the main language is English of course. You don't want to do this
in Paris or Barcelona.

I did morning study and afternoon free, but you could do much more if you
wanted, like 6 or 8 hours daily, and even private classes. Besides that we had
to do homework, and that could take two hours or more, so be aware of that.
Two weeks is a minimum to learn anything, but if you have the money go for at
least three or four weeks. Then you set something in motion.

We could stay with local families or in an appartment with other students.
With a local family you'll learn a lot more, especially if they don't speak
any other language. If you prefer to stay in an appartment, ask for an
appartment without people who speak your language. The tendency is to go speak
the easiest language, and you're not there to do that.

Have fun! Do all the tours etc. Avoid people who speak your language.

------
lottin
1\. Learn the basics

2\. Read _a lot_ (preferably books) in order to acquire a large vocabulary

Most people stop here, but if you want to be able to communicate orally you
still need to

3\. Study English phonetics and dialects

4\. Get as much exposure to spoken English as you possibly can (by listening
to radio programmes, podcasts, watching TV, and so on)

5\. Talk a lot (talking to yourself works too, if you don't have anyone else)

Notice that this is a years-long endeavour which takes a lot of time and
effort, but in my experience it's definitely worth it.

------
teolandon
I'm Greek, been living in the US for the past 4 years of my life. I had two
very large spikes in my English knowledge during my life.

First one was when I actually started taking English classes that were good.
That was in my private middle/high-school. In a lot of countries public
education does not care enough about English and a lot of classes are half-
assed. Another option for this would be private afternoon lessons. This really
helped me understand the grammar, syntax, put effort in learning new essential
vocabulary.

The second big spike occurred when I got into the IB program at my high
school, and all classes were taught in English. Any professor interactions
were also usually in English. The whole atmosphere created by this encouraged
me and a lot of my friends to start talking in English to each other on a
daily basis, which really helped with talking, and making the language feel
way more natural. This is also when I started "thinking" in English regularly.

But I feel like the most important thing was the constant consumption of
English content. I read a lot of books in English, and underlined any words I
didn't know, looked them up later (kind of a tangent, but for some reason I
found Greek writing to be very corny, while English writing/poetry seemed way
cooler in my eyes. So that helped a lot). I watched a lot of YouTube, pirated
movies without subtitles, and played a lot of games that were in English. That
constant exposure and willingness to learn the language was probably the
biggest factor, but I'm unsure of how good my English would be today if I
hadn't started serious English lessons or didn't have friends that I would
speak English to.

------
wink
Probably not helpful, but here's how it went for me

I think I started out pretty well from school and my mom videotaping some
"learn english show" on TV when I was a kid - but once I got my first computer
and had to read stuff about problems online in English.. well that helped a
lot. I've also been on IRC for like 17 years now, reading and writing at least
50% in English. Reading books in English is really good once you can make
enough sense of it (not so useful if you have to look up all the words - but I
still did that for a while). Children's books for age ~10-12 are really good
for this imho, they're usually not so complicated and can still have
meaningful content (think more Harry Potter, less Teletubbies).

The final "wow, this helps a lot" was working in a company where the official
language was English and thus using it for hours, daily, and we also had some
folks with bad/non-existant German skills. I was lucky to sit next to a native
speaker for a while who also shared a lot of my interests, so we were talking
a lot about.. stuff in downtimes.

------
yodsanklai
English is everywhere, so it's very easy to consume English media to improve
your vocabulary and comprehension skills. As for speaking (for me, that was -
and still is - the hardest part), I'd try to find native speakers to
communicate with. If you live in a big city, there are probably foreign
students teaching English. You can also find a remote tutor on italki.com.

------
WheelsAtLarge
I became fluent by practicing the language. Reading is not enough. Writing is
not enough. Memorizing is not enough.

I struggled to learn English until the day I started speaking it to get my
thoughts across. I had gotten to the point of understanding most of the
everyday conversations but it wasn't until I started speaking it that my
fluency skyrocketed. I was easily speaking it within 6 months and was fluent
within a year after.

So my suggestion to you, from a former mono-language speaker, is to start to
speak the language ASAP. I know it's embarrassing but there is no other way.

Additionally, listen to audio and video programs with a dictionary in hand.
Grammar and languages structure aids will help but by using them as your
primary tools they will only slow your progress.

Duolingo is great simply because it keeps you going and it helps you practice
but it's slow and you'll never be fluent.

Also, the reason most foreign language class teaching is ultimately a waste is
that most people forget what they learn because they don't speak it as a way
to communicate.

So, speak it, speak it...

~~~
Coincoin
I can attest to that. I'm perfectly fluent reading English, yet my spoken
English is so bad I just can't finish a sentence without fumbling and taking
detours.

Like any language, you need to immerse yourself in it.

------
progval
Chatting on IRC with other developers, reading technical documentations, and
watching series in English (first with subtitles, then without).

I also started reading fiction in English recently. I have an e-reader with a
builtin dictionary, that's very helpful.

It gave me the necessary skills in my everyday life (reading, writing,
listening), but I have an horrible French accent when speaking.

------
schoen
There are some online services where you can find a language exchange partner
(to help practice each other's native languages). This is useful if you don't
want to pay for professional classes. You can meet periodically by video chat
and help each other practice.

Practice or study with native speakers is valuable because native speakers
have a "native speaker intuition" to quickly and confidently resolve
uncertainties about how to say things. On the other hand, if people haven't
studied linguistics or language teaching, they might not be able to _explain_
why they say things a certain way (because we all know and use rules in our
native languages that we've never thought about consciously and never tried to
explain). So you shouldn't assume that native speakers will always be able to
give you helpful explanations of why they chose one way of saying something
over another.

------
jorgemf
The best way is to have a girl/boyfriend that only speaks english. The second
best way is to move to a country where they speak english and avoid people who
is not native. So basically the way to becoming fluent in english is to use it
as much as you can. Movies, books also help, but for communication you need to
talk a lot.

------
JeanMarcS
My wife and I decided to move to Ireland this summer. Once you’re there, you
have no choice, and must talk. We have prepared out 8yo kids with a year of
english lessons and they are excited to move there.

What I mean is, if you have the opportunity, go to an english speaking
country. When you have no choice, your english will improve automatically

------
techsin101
English isn't my native language. I'll tell you my high school story.

There were some kids who started to speak perfectly in 2 years. And then some
who even 10 years later still struggle. And probably have mental problems due
to it.

People who didn't have family here mostly interested with strangers, who all
spoke English. They became fluent.

People who had family here spoke English only in context of school in limited
sentences. They struggle even after college.

People who did worst were who had family here, and were only friends with
people from their own country. Most didn't go to college.

People who were in ESL did worse than people in regular English. Mostly they
had less opportunities to speak their native language and didn't learn bad
grammar rules. Most grammar rules are broken at some point.

Learning to speak by reading is a crime in first place.

Doctor consoles patient. I've many consoles.

ESL student who learned from reading could die before realizing the
distinction.

------
aviaro
I've been trying to become fluent for over 12 months, having been passively
exposed to this language for over 9 years. I'd say that mastering English
beyond intermediate level is extremely difficult.

You have to be constantly aware of what you are saying. Also, you need this
kind of loopback that allows you to detect your mistakes and learn from them.
This is a difficult skill which requires practicing.

You also need to have a social and communicative personality, so if you are
introvert than you are less likely to master a language. I am focusing on
speaking, because it is the most important aspect of any language.

As others said, when encoutering a new word you should check the pronunciation
and commit it to your memory. This in turn allows you to practice your inner
voice while reading. If you don't do that, then after some time you will
reinforce your accent.

------
Tharkun
Mostly learnt English online. Bulletin boards. IRC. Reading sci-fi & fantasy.
Watching movies. Talking to oodles of internet friends on ICQ and the phone.
By the time I was old enough for the compulsory English classes at school --
14? -- I was fluent.

English was my third language, currently working on my fifth (Japanese), so I
guess I've got some experience when it comes to this. Best advice I can give
you is this: read a lot & listen a lot. So basically books and movies. The
English version of a book/movie you like is a good starting point. Lord of the
Rings is my weapon of choice. I've read it in four languages. I know the
story. I know Tolkien's style. So reading it in a different language is
_great_ for brushing up on that language.

------
mbroncano
One of the most remarkable obstacles when trying to shave off any accent or
just trying to hone in your grammar skills is lack of understanding of the
language learning process by most native English speakers, as most of them can
only speak their own language, if so.

Best advise I can give is, move to a country where English is broadly spoken
(Scandinavian countries come to mind) and work in one of many English-speaking
companies there. It'll be much easier to shake off at least most of the
grammar mistakes (ESL speakers are actually rather proud of their grammar
skills) and hopefully also soften any regional accent. As a bonus, you might
also catch some other language basic skills. In the EU, NL and BE (Brussels
area) are also good choices.

------
brooklyn_ashey
Watch the same movie in English with the subtitles on. Pick some characters'
speeches to memorize. Do this until you truly can do this in the voice of
whichever actor interests you right now. I mean until you can do it on your
own without the movie going. You will start to get a feel for the larger
chunks and idioms, not to mention therhythms and melodies of it. I'd say we
speak as much in rhythm and melody as we do in word choice. I'm a native
speaker of American English, and I have trouble understanding David Tennant
sometimes because of his chunking, melodies and rhythms- so different from
American English. One has to get flexible with these. Regionally, just within
the United States it can be tricky.

------
zkirill
I spent whole days reading Tolkien outloud while sitting on the balcony. At
the time I did not know the meaning of many of the words but knew how to
pronounce them. I avoided reaching for the dictionary so as to not interrupt
the flow of my speech.

------
apexalpha
Besides the other posts about simply comsuming as much English I'd like to
offer my tip that helped me a lot:

In England there is (/ was?) a tradition of making middle and high school
students read increasingly more difficult books throughout ages 11 - 18. There
are entire book series written with this concept in mind. These are excellent
to pick up.

Harry Potter is a good example of this: the first Harry Potter book was
written for 11/12 year olds and the books become longer and more mature with
every next book.

Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban was the first book I've ever read in
English when I was 14 or so and since then I always try to read books in
English if the original is.

------
anotheryou
Turn everything you can to english: software, movies, google, books etc.

Get a browser plugin for quick translations of words you don't know.

Jump in the water and use english. Sadly this can be the easiest and the
hardest part because it requires the right circumstances.

------
emilfihlman
Am a Finn.

For vocabulary and grammar: playing Runescape. I translated every single word
separately using a translator because Google Translate is shit.

Pronunciation? You have to speak. I played videogames and talked to people
online.

E: Also movies and series with subtitles!

------
Markoff
computer games for vocabulary, TV shows and movies for phrases, Simpsons and
Friends are particularly good

in the end it doesn't really matter if you speak perfect English, most of the
English users are not native English speakers and everyone makes mistakes,
it's better to communicate with mistakes than being afraid to use language at
all

i worked in China with tons of different nationalities with varying levels of
English and we could always understand each other, only people who care about
grammar are grammar nazis online who are most likely not speaking any foreign
language and not own even passport

------
chamakits
For me it was playing a lot of text heavy RPG games, and watching a lot of TV
in English. This was the best way to immerse myself without necessarily having
someone to actually speak with.

I imagine variations of that today may include YouTube or podcasts.

Also, there will be plenty of times you come across a word you don’t
recognize. Look it up. What’s that weird phrase? Type it up in google as close
as you can. You’ll likely come across it.

It takes time, but you’ll get it. Also, don’t be afraid to speak it with
others. You’ll get asked “what” here and there that’s fine.

------
asafira
I know this is probably not the answer you are looking for, but I wanted to
chip in nonetheless: English is my 3rd language, but I was more-or-less forced
to learn it once I started school in Kindergarten. So, I learned during my
first two years or so in school =).

Also, note that while being fluent in English helps communication a ton, it is
far from sufficient to mean you are a good communicator. If you are interested
in more details on how to get better at communication in general (not just
becoming fluent in English), let me know.

------
borplk
I also second the suggestion of things like movies, podcasts, books, etc...

I think you have to find a "cheat" that immerses you in English as a SECONDARY
side effect.

For example find a TV show that you like to watch and understand then sit
through it with English subtitles so you can see what you are hearing in
written form. As you get better you can turn off the subtitles.

I think the methods that focus on language learning as the primary objective
are not successful after you learn the basics. Perhaps because they are too
boring or some other reason.

------
funkaster
There are some good comments here, but I'm curious if there's any reason you
can't take lessons? I would recommend going to your local British Council (or
the American equivalent, forgot the name) and try to get classes there. If for
whatever reason you can't (too expensive, you live in a place with limited
access), then you have lots of good comments here, but IMH(and somewhat
biased)O if you want to get a good, professional level of English, you can't
avoid classes.

------
lozf
I agree with the advice of listening to Films and TV, but would also suggest
British radio. BBC radio streams are available internationally - the stations
Radio 4 and 4 Extra are speech heavy and you can probably just put it on in
the background whist doing other things around the house.

[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4](https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4)

[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra](https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra)

------
raarts
The Dutch are known for their proficiency in English. Why is that? All foreign
TV shows are broadcasted with original sound, and subtitled (except those for
young children).

~~~
ascorbic
Also Dutch is probably the major language that's most closely related to
English.

~~~
raarts
Supposedly Frisian is linguistically closest to English, but Dutch is second
yes. Others following close are Danish, Swedish and German.

~~~
ascorbic
Hence why I said "major" language. Scots is very closely related too, among
languages without an army.

------
binarysolo
Other than taking classes while in school...

Watched a bunch of American cartoons/shows, then grew to computer games where
I had to translate words used in text-heavy RPGs.

Read a ton of great historical novels about military history since I got into
strategy games like Europa Universalis.

Attended language clubs to talk to fluent English speakers. Then went abroad
for music camp, took a ton of sample SAT tests till I aced them, then managed
to get into college in the States.

------
Gonzih
Read a lot to build up your vocabulary. Then after vocabulary is there you can
start consuming multimedia content in English (movies/tv-series). You can
start with subtitles if it helps at first. At some point need in subtitles
will just go away. And then just try to talk as much as you can in English.
Listen to how native speakers contstruct sentences, try to replicate that on
the fly in your speech.

------
HenryBemis
Many-many-many books (with a dictionary by me) and reading for hours and
hours. I grew up at a time there was no internet, just books. I was lucky
enough to have plenty of english books close to me.

Then while in Uni (in the UK) I would (actually) read the
physics/maths/electronics books cover to cover (with a dictionary by me).

After the 00's it was many-many-many english-speaking movies and series
without subtitles.

------
pcmaffey
I made a game that may help with vocab - www.esoterica.io. Would be curious to
hear if helpful (peter at 3eyes.studio).

Fluency in language (and all things) comes down to practice. Converse as much
as possible in English. And when you can’t find someone to talk with, read
read read. Anything and everything, from message boards to magazines to books
and more books. It doesn’t matter what about. Just diversify.

------
hemantv
As other have already suggested Read. Even if you don't fully understand just
read and look up word in paper dictionary. This way you slowly start to build
your mental map.

Second is view movies with subtitle even if you don't fully understand them.

You can get lot farther.

Also how about using
[https://www.cambly.com/english?lang=en](https://www.cambly.com/english?lang=en)

------
soneca
I improved my Listening watching American movies and tv shows with English
subtitles first, then no subtitles later (subtitles in your native language
will do more harm than good).

My communication skills in English improved A LOT by being very active at
Hacker News. It is written communication skills specifically, but they
translate well to oral communication I think.

------
louwrentius
Dutch people learn English because it's such an important part of our
education. Most people under 50 will speak English at a decent level.

Also, all our foreign movies and TV shows are subtitled, not dubbed, that is
also important.

For me, early on I understood that English is the language of the computer
world. So that makes learning English a necessity.

~~~
jacquesm
> Most people under 50 will speak English at a decent level.

Most people, period.

In fact the Dutch speak English so well that it is hard for an English
speaking foreigner to learn Dutch because everybody will automatically switch
to English at the first sign of foreignness.

~~~
FabHK
Not only English... they frequently speak German, French, etc. well, too. Thus
it's virtually impossible for outsiders to learn Dutch :-) A veritable
shibboleth.

------
Zolomon
I played an online text-based roleplaying game that was in English[1].
Grammar, vocabulary and idiomatic expressions flew through the roof, but
pronunciation could have used some live action.

[1]
[http://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/](http://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/)

------
tomcooks
Get a native anglophone partner and go live with them, force them and yourself
to speak in English exclusively, especially when you argue or when you do
errands together.

This forces you to simplify concepts to get your point straight at first, then
pushes you to ampliate your vocabulary.

Learned Portuguese in 1 year this way.

------
herogreen
My advice to improve one's oral comprehension: there are great podcasts on the
BBC radio 4 website. Find a topic that interests you (maths, science,
sociology, fictions...) and start listening to it. You may no understand
everything but you will soon see that the context helps a lot.

------
haseeb1431
Daily 2-3 articles of reading of papers e.g. guardian, ny times, science
journals reading the IELTS prep material Speaking a lot English with friends
Vocabulary practice by installing google dictionary in chrome while reading
Movies with subtitles followed by without subtitles

------
iamyi
When I came to US, we had the cheapest cable plan, and it has the C-SPAN
channel. Very boring but there were no commercial interruptions. So I just
followed the speakers loudly with the subtitle turned on. I thought it worked
very well years later.

------
mahesh288
As a non native speaker, continuous effort to read everything in english and
watch english movies helped to improve. If possible, try people facing job in
service industry for year or two and it can help you a lot as practice ground.

------
harveylord
Watching motion pictures in the original English with or without English
subtitles.

------
gpvos
Listen to the BBC World Service (radio). Watch English Youtube videos with
English subtitles (preferably not autogenerated). Read, both fiction and non-
fiction. Take any chance available to write or speak it.

------
hunvreus
TV shows (mostly Friends) and movies, first with subtitles and then without.
Also, singing in English.

Between these three, I acquired the day to day vocabulary, pronunciation and
rhythm of the language.

Works for other languages too.

------
felipemesquita
I think I’ve learned the most from listening to podcasts. I would recommend
Hello Internet for the conversational nature of their “two dudes talking”
genre and the show’s impecable audio quality.

------
justAlittleCom
Game of thrones + linguistic meetings (things like "go talk english
afterwork", you'll find one in every big city in the world, of if you dont,
organize one!)

------
k__
I was very bad at it at school (I'm from Germany).

Somehow I got better later by watching and reading everything in English on
the Internet.

Documentation, movies, blogs, tv shows, forums etc.

------
arnaudsm
A friend of mine got almost fluent in Chinese in a single month, just by
downloading a chinese dating app.

Chatting with girls motivated him so much, it was an hilarious process.

------
AnnoyingSwede
Mtv, series, movies and programming literature, but i guess that depends on
how you define "fluent", i still mess up a lot in English.

------
weishigoname
if you want to learn foreign language, make it into your daily routine, you
don't need to spend much time, just about 10-20 minutes a day, which help you
to refresh your brain, build your foreign language conscious.

like your native language, this practice need to be consistent.

another important thing is try to learn culture, which can help to understand
the way how they think.

------
ryanmarsh
Our ‘terps in Iraq all said (to a person) watching American movies with
subtitles was the best help for them to attain fluency.

Best of luck.

------
flarg
By dating. Date English native speakers and you'll learn the subtle and
contradictory parts of the language.

------
ThomPete
Put a post-it-note on every item in your room with the english word.

Then:

Speak speak speak, write write write, read read read, watch watch watch.

------
proyb
Watch YouTube video and pickup some public speaking skills including learning
how to debate.

TED.com is my favourite channels.

------
bor0
World of Warcraft with TeamSpeak/Ventrillo. However I have stopped playing it
almost a decade ago.

------
Bromskloss
Reading on the Internet to learn about mathematics, physics, computers, and
such things.

------
scooter_de
Get a girlfrind from the UK, USA, Canada or Australia. That has worked best
for me.

------
roro5678
The day I decided to watch series and films in VO ( with subtitles in english
too )

------
aurelianito
By watching Sony entertainment television and playing VGA planets.

------
adamnemecek
Play online games with English speaking teammates.

------
devteambravo
Runescape + McGuyver/A-team reruns

------
ww520
Watch lots of TV, shows, and news.

------
mettamage
Being born Dutch there are many advantages into learning it. I don't think I
could've not learned English while being brought up in the circumstances that
I was. However, having said that. I think a lot of native speakers could see
all kinds of phrasing mistakes. Last year I learned that I secretly translate
Dutch to English without knowing it. It's either that or my Dutch and English
are really intertwined.

1\. Subtitled videos from the day you are born. And when I was young, cartoons
were subtitled as well, now they're dubbed and that doesn't help.

2\. Digital games do not have a Dutch option in most cases. Other often used
languages are: French, German, Spanish and English. What are you going to
choose? I suppose the language that people speak during those subtitled
movies: English!

3\. The Dutch internet is not the biggest place and clearly lacks information.
Want more information? Learn English. My gateway drug was when Dragonball Z
was on air and I was 12. The Dutch websites were 6 months behind the English
websites. I read all the spoilers, I loved it.

4\. Being part of an international community helps such as HN. I did that for
several communities, but this is not a seperate principle per se, it is a
consequence of #3.

5\. We had English at school! However, that helped just as much as French and
German, i.e. not really.

6\. Compared to American accounts that I read, Dutch people take quite a bit
of vacation, at least once per year. The family I was raised in definitely did
that and Europe is so small that if you goo 200 miles / 320 kilometers in the
right direction you are in another country or you passed several countries
already. Can't speak the main language? Speak English, because most countries
are influenced by good ol' Hollywood.

7\. What nailed it for me was tertiary education. Studying computer science
meant that some teachers would ask if they could speak in English. In some
cases, I even asked the teacher to do that. I'd rather listen to pretty good
English compared to horrible Dutch, and who cares about Dutch anyway in the
global economy?

(I know it sounds rude but the difference between some teachers their English
and Dutch was really big, you clearly could notice that they didn't learn the
language after years of living here. Moreover, they didn't care, and I
couldn't blame them. Their teaching dramatically improved and imposing those
teachers to speak Dutch by university management was obligatory in a legal
sense. It was also silly.)

7+. This effect was even stronger in my master degrees, since they have
English as the main language. I was so happy with how many international
people were in my classes.

8\. Oh, realizing that I am a part of the world that knows a language that is
more or less useless outside of my own country (yea, Flanders, former colonies
and 16 million traveling Dutchies but whatever, they all speak English as
well).

9\. Last but not least: the Dutch language is related to English which makes
learning easier.

Edit: and then I went on.

10\. Being in a relationship with an English native speaker, who happens to be
Dutch ethnically (and learned Dutch from her parents). It taught me a lot more
nuance regarding emotional words. I thought I knew English but the intuitive
cultural nuance is not something I learn by only living in The Netherlands.
I'd need to live in a native English speaking country for that.

11\. Picking for a style: I choose Californian American English. It's not that
my accent sound like it, but when in doubt to pick a formal style that is my
style. Most talks and online seminars that I watched came from that placed and
influenced me when I was 16 to 17.

12\. Asking teachers if I can write my essays in English, in my bachelor
degree. I do this for 2 reasons: 1. I learn English better. 2. I noticed some
teachers were worse in English than me, so when they graded me, I had the
language advantage.

13\. When I was very young and on vacation I wasn't very shy to adults. I
would have conversations with them and if I didn't know a word I'd run back to
my parents to ask and then run back to the conversation.

14\. I wanted to learn English.

15\. Being young helps, I was 7.

\-- For a Dutch person, I think my story is quite common.

