Just out of curiosity

[DepressionsAHo]

Where did you non native English speakers learn to speak English? I'm looking at @RM5998 and @21Neberg especially
Both of you speak it beautifully so I'm just curious
But also the rest of you? I'm learning Arabic at uni but I'm not even close to fluent

 

[Alchemist]

The basics on kindergartem, then learned with games and music, then about a year or so of intermediate level English school and lastly on College.

 

[not_a_robot]

Their use of American slang cracks me up because I try hear it in my head with their accents.

 

[Darkhaven]

School and videogames and movies.
My primary language originated from Latin.

 

[DepressionsAHo]

School and videogames and movies.
My primary language is Latin origined.

See that's so interesting. I used to live in Dubai And a lot of people learned English from Siri.

 

[Oblivion Lover]

It just occured naturally to me when I was a kid, thanks to my interest in videogames, my liking for school and my isolation from the outside world. You have a lot of time to learn things on your own when you barely go outside.
English has always been very important to me, as I consider it to be superior to portuguese. Every time I search for something in Google or I write down my thoughts it's always in english, and it is so engrained in my mind that I sometimes replace words in my language that I can't remember because of my memory problems with english words by accident. I still feel like I've got a lot to learn, though. For example, I still don't know when to use A or AN and when to use On, In or At. There are also some mistakes with english expressions (took me a while to learn that "make-do" is not gramatically incorrect) and some general difficulties with communication itself no matter the language due to my aphasia.

 

[262653]

School taught me nothing useful. I've begun to learn English intensively since I started translating reddit content, when I found suicide subreddit... I think it was SS, a week before it got banhammered... Month of War, 2018. And some wiki articles because Russian wiki page isn't rich enough with info, let alone Ukrainian. I use tenses intuitively and only bother with dictionaries and google translator. I also find watching movies with English audio and subtitles to be very helpful. And enjoyable. But I'm not even fluent in my native language and I struggle with finding proper words for every one.

Oh, and reading a book at both languages and alternating between them is very helpful too because the localizer has already dealt with most nuances of translation.

*And Russian turned out to have surprisingly more words with Latin and Ancient Greek background then I imagined, so these both promote each other in a way.

 

[RM5998]

Where did you non native English speakers learn to speak English? I'm looking at @RM5998 and @21Neberg especially
Both of you speak it beautifully so I'm just curious
But also the rest of you? I'm learning Arabic at uni but I'm not even close to fluent

For me, I grew up reading English. It's essentially the language I learnt the most, because books in English were cheaper and more widely available, especially to my father in his position as a designer for D.K. and the Times group. The early internet was pretty much English based as well, and since I rarely talked to my classmates, I never built up the same level of comfort with Hindi. As for Bengali, my mother tongue, I just... Built up the habit of speaking in English, and my parents were fine with it.

Their use of American slang cracks me up because I try hear it in my head with their accents.

Funnily enough, I don't have an accent at all... At least when I'm speaking normally. The IGCSE curriculum in India tends to encourage it teachers to teach their students Standard English, which is apparently supposed to be entirely accentless. I've somehow acquired the habit of speaking in a Scottish accent when I'm exasperated. No idea why.

 

[pole]

Where did you non native English speakers learn to speak English? I'm looking at @RM5998 and @21Neberg especially
Both of you speak it beautifully so I'm just curious
But also the rest of you? I'm learning Arabic at uni but I'm not even close to fluent

Arabics such a beautiful language ugh. Im fucking arab, and i wish i could speak it.

 

[quiet35]

I began to study English in school, didn't get much out of the lessons. In high school I began to listen to shortwave radio broadcasts by Radio Canada International, The Voice Of America, BBC World Service and other stations. It was a magical feeling itself to listen to someone talking through the half of the world, and it heated up my interest in English as well. And those programs were the only way I could listen to native English pronunciation (either American and British), and I tried hard to mimic the pronunciation.
Another big reason to learn English was playing computer games like Transport Tycoon Deluxe, SimCity etc.
Then lessons in the university. Didn't give much either by themselves, but encouraged me to write some essays which had somewhat improved my English skill.
Of course, the need to read programming languages documentation also contributed a lot. And English forums, and interest in listening to air traffic controller communications with pilots, and reading the last 3 books of The Wheel of Time series (because they hadn't been published in Russian) ... Those books, by the way, were so difficult to understand. When I made a decision to read them in original I thought that I have a decent skill in English and will have no problem understanding the texts, but the first few pages showed me that I greatly overestimated my skill. I pushed through anyway, looking at a dictionary for every other word :) and this was indeed a great exercise.
I learned from my learning experience that motivation is the main. You can learn pretty much anything to certain degree if you try hard enough.

So a lot of things motivated me to learns English. The main however was an irrational love to the language and how it sounds.

 

[Midnight]

Videogames,movies and the internet.

 

[DepressionsAHo]

Videogames,movies and the internet.

Hmm haha. So if I watch enough movies in Arabic, I can begin to understand the words. If you don't mind me asking, how old were you and how long did it take?

I began to study English in school, didn't get much out of the lessons. In high school I began to listen to shortwave radio broadcasts by Radio Canada International, The Voice Of America, BBC World Service and other stations. It was a magical feeling itself to listen to someone talking through the half of the world, and it heated up my interest in English as well. And those programs were the only way I could listen to native English pronunciation (either American and British), and I tried hard to mimic the pronunciation.
Another big reason to learn English was playing computer games like Transport Tycoon Deluxe, SimCity etc.
Then lessons in the university. Didn't give much either by themselves, but encouraged me to write some essays which had somewhat improved my English skill.
Of course, the need to read programming languages documentation also contributed a lot. And English forums, and interest in listening to air traffic controller communications with pilots, and reading the last 3 books of The Wheel of Time series (because they hadn't been published in Russian) ... Those books, by the way, were so difficult to understand. When I made a decision to read them in original I thought that I have a decent skill in English and will have no problem understanding the texts, but the first few pages showed me that I greatly overestimated my skill. I pushed through anyway, looking at a dictionary for every other word :) and this was indeed a great exercise.
I learned from my learning experience that motivation is the main. You can learn pretty much anything to certain degree if you try hard enough.

So a lot of things motivated me to learns English. The main however was an irrational love to the language and how it sounds.

How old were you when you first began speaking it?

 

[Midnight]

Hmm haha. So if I watch enough movies in Arabic, I can begin to understand the words. If you don't mind me asking, how old were you and how long did it take?

Started in my early teens and basically up until now (early 30's) I still pick up some words here and there but the majority of what i learned in the first 5-10 years was more than enough to engage in conversation. I was only taught a tiny bit of french at school and obviously my native language. I wasn't a great student to be honest.

Being a member of multiple US based forums also really helped with understanding and writing english. I guess all 3 of the things i mentioned had an equally important part in learning the language.

Even though i hated studying i recently started learning romanian on an app (duolingo) wouldn't call it fun but it's an easier way (for me at least) to learn a language. Having it on your phone also helps and if you put in like 15-30mins a day you actually learn quite fast. I was amazed by the fact that for once i didn't hate "studying". If anyone from my family knew i started learning a language they'd be baffled (yes i hated school with a passion) there's a reason behind it but not going offtopic right now.

 

[Jean Améry]

Watching American TV shows and movies ('films' in civilized English, lol), the internet, reading American and English literature, my ex-girlfriend. Taking classes at school was only marginally useful.

Immersing oneself in any language is the best way to learn it. Not through artifical, clean-cut lesson plans consisting of vocabulary and grammar.

With that in mind: does anyone know of a French language suicide forum? I urgently need to brush up on my French.

 

[21Neberg]

Where did you non native English speakers learn to speak English? I'm looking at @RM5998 and @21Neberg especially
Both of you speak it beautifully so I'm just curious
But also the rest of you? I'm learning Arabic at uni but I'm not even close to fluent

I'm having a shitty day but you mentioning me in particular really cheered me up, thanks so much! I learned English like everyone else in school, but I remember that I found it quite easy even when I got my first lessons when I was 10 years old. I think I picked up a lot of words and such by browsing the internet as a little kid.

 

[quiet35]

How old were you when you first began speaking it?

About 12.

 

[DepressionsAHo]

Started in my early teens and basically up until now (early 30's) I still pick up some words here and there but the majority of what i learned in the first 5-10 years was more than enough to engage in conversation. I was only taught a tiny bit of french at school and obviously my native language. I wasn't a great student to be honest.

Being a member of multiple US based forums also really helped with understanding and writing english. I guess all 3 of the things i mentioned had an equally important part in learning the language.

Even though i hated studying i recently started learning romanian on an app (duolingo) wouldn't call it fun but it's an easier way (for me at least) to learn a language. Having it on your phone also helps and if you put in like 15-30mins a day you actually learn quite fast. I was amazed by the fact that for once i didn't hate "studying". If anyone from my family knew i started learning a language they'd be baffled (yes i hated school with a passion) there's a reason behind it but not going offtopic right now.

Ok! I'll check that app out.

 

[Tortured_empath]

Arabics such a beautiful language ugh. Im fucking arab, and i wish i could speak it.

يوما ما يا أخي

 

[pole]

يوما ما يا أخي

I cant read or speak it. Im literally an idiot lol

 

[TiredHorse]

and reading the last 3 books of The Wheel of Time series (because they hadn't been published in Russian)

Holy Cats...! I write High Fantasy, like Wheel Of Time, and I can assure you that if you can read that fiction genre in English, you are doing very, very well. Fantasy writers pretty much all delight in using obscure, antiquated language and unconventional syntax --as well as interspersing it with made-up languages of their own-- so that you were able to learn English partially by reading High Fantasy is mind-blowing.

Kudos to you! I am very impressed.

 

[Asta]

Where's the failure in not speaking a language?! Most people only speak one...

 

[quiet35]

Kudos to you! I am very impressed.

Well, thanks so much for the kind words. I certainly do not deserve that. I should have made it clear that it was more like an exercise than reading. I understood roughly 70-80% of the texts. Later, when an amateur translation had become available, I reread those books and was wondering about details that I missed.
I mentioned those books because I think this was the best exercise in English for my entire life.

 

[Lifetimepunishment]

Should non native speaker avoid the American slang?

 

[DepressionsAHo]

Should non native speaker avoid the American slang?

Do you boo boo

 

[Lifetimepunishment]

Do you boo boo

Hhh what

 

[DepressionsAHo]

You

Hhh what

You can use American slang if you want lol
That's what I was saying. I don't think anybody except in your home country would care or give you an extra look

 

[DepressionsAHo]

I cant read or speak it. Im literally an idiot lol

He said one day my brother but it's it's in his dialect. Brother in formal Arabic is akh or اخ sister would be awkht اخت the alif (ا) makes an aww sound (in this case) the خ makes a a harsh khh sound kind of like a hissing cat and the ت makes a t sound
That's your first lesson lol
I'm answering now cause I'm bored

How you would say what he wrote is you-ma ma ya khee

 

[azucaramargo]

Where did you non native English speakers learn to speak English? I'm looking at @RM5998 and @21Neberg especially
Both of you speak it beautifully so I'm just curious
But also the rest of you? I'm learning Arabic at uni but I'm not even close to fluent

I know, right? We've got some smarties on this forum! I'm a native English speaker & I don't think i'll ever be as eloquent as @RM5998.

Good on you for studying Arabic. Keep at it, please; it's a marketable language.