English As a Second Language

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All things for those who use the English language but still there's a lot to learn.

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What exactly should I learn? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 years ago by lemmyuser2@lemmy.ml to c/english_esl@lemmy.ml

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For the past 2 years, I've been "learning" English. Well, in my case, learning English is not something I planned to do at first. I don't even know I was "learning". I just watched a bunch of youtube videos, and the next thing I know I can speak a little English. But now that I have a little bit knowledge of the English language, I want to actually learn it. Not just by watching random YouTube videos. I have watched and tried different ways to learn like for example flashcards, watch movies, read books, speaking to myself, etc. But I feel like I am not improving. When I speak to other people in English, I feel like I'm not as good as I think I would. So, now I'm frustrated, thinking about how to learn and ACTUALLY improve.

What are your thoughts about this?

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[–] kimjong_ill@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 years ago

if you are getting bored you may be using materials that are the wrong level. you should be consuming material where you understand most of it but there are some words you don't know. what are you interested in? not english-wise but in general? if you like for example literature you could read some classics. or if you like murder mysteries you could watch tv shows about it.

your written english is quite good which makes me suspect that perhaps you are too much in your head about it. i know that when not speaking my native language the hardest thing for me is organic sentence formation. when i am speaking a different language i have trouble forming sentences without thinking about what i am going to say and making sure the grammar is right before hand, etc. it may help to think about it this way: when we speak our native language we make mistakes sometimes, right? everyone does. sometimes you say the wrong word or don't have the right grammar. so it's okay to make mistakes.

do you play any games? if you do, there are a lot of one-player games in english. also you could try playing an online game but that can be a mixed bag