General Discussion

Despite the fact that my native language is nothing like English (different roots), it was really easy. I discovered an Estonian flash game site when I was 6, it was the only site we were allowed to use at kindergarten computer. Majority of the games were in English as they were brought from various other flash game sites, and I didn't understand a single word. I wanted nothing more than to understand this language that was seemingly everywhere. I also loved watching English cartoon channels but those were even harder to understand. I watched Cartoon Network and Disney without understanding a single word. It was a years-long process but it's entirely worth it.

We started having English classes in grade 3 I believe, and the first two or so years were actually difficult for me, I remember especially struggling with furniture.

But as time went by, English classes became totally useless as I was way ahead of whatever they were teaching, which is a shame because I tried taking English at the highest level (C2) and it was too difficult... yet 12th grade was too easy. I need an in-between level but I don't know where to look :(

In school. They didn’t let me speak my own language there, and living in a neighborhood with not many kids of my own ethnicity, I never really got the chance to speak my first language. It colonized my language center. Oops.

Honestly, that’s regretful about my English-learning journey. I was always way ahead of everyone else anyway because I loved reading, so the ardent demand that I only use english in order to boost my learning of it was a waste. I have to relearn my own language as if a foreigner, which feels disgraceful.

[quote name="@mariss" date="2023-01-24 19:18:01" ] @/Xionahri i just learned that squirrel comes from a greek word! it’s such a tricky word to pronounce.. that i wonder if english speakers can even say it right? [/quote] As a native English speaker stalking this thread because I'm 1.) trying to learn German and want to know what the process looks like, and 2.) writing OCs who are multilingual, it's pronounced either "skwer-uhl" or "skweer-uhl" depending on if you're American or European (and maybe Canadian? don't remember). Of course, if the original Greek word sounds like neither of those, then you could still say no, we don't say it correctly lmao Also just wanted to say that if I didn't know better, I would think pretty much everyone in this thread is a native speaker. Maybe someday I'll get there with German :,) (minus the accent of course)

I didn't have internet access until 2020 but I sure had a lot of TV.. glares angrily at Thomas the Tank Engine
I won't give any more context

I will note that although many people have English as their second language here, since I was a kid who was more fluent in English than my native language it made everything much harder since people here either prefer the main language more or bully people who spoke more English

@DeathbyPixelz one thing you can take from this thread is that media consumption is extremely important when learning a language :)

Since you're also learning German, I recommend German musicals since they have vast vocabulary and songs are easier to remember

@DoctorLena Ah thank you, I'll look into those :D

[quote name="DeathbyPixelz" date="2023-02-25 13:11:20" ] [quote name="@mariss" date="2023-01-24 19:18:01" ] @/Xionahri i just learned that squirrel comes from a greek word! it’s such a tricky word to pronounce.. that i wonder if english speakers can even say it right? [/quote] As a native English speaker stalking this thread because I'm 1.) trying to learn German and want to know what the process looks like, and 2.) writing OCs who are multilingual, it's pronounced either "skwer-uhl" or "skweer-uhl" depending on if you're American or European (and maybe Canadian? don't remember). Of course, if the original Greek word sounds like neither of those, then you could still say no, we don't say it correctly lmao Also just wanted to say that if I didn't know better, I would think pretty much everyone in this thread is a native speaker. Maybe someday I'll get there with German :,) (minus the accent of course) [/quote] I'm a native speaker lurking here too, and seconding this. Many L2 speakers of English are very competent, much more so than anglos speaking their L2s [emoji=obelisk laughing size=1] My boyfriend & girlfriend are both L2 speakers, but their accents are so natural sounding I didn't realize it until they told me. If my French or Russian is ever that good, I could die happy! English orthography is a bit of a mess, though. If you ever feel self-conscious about your spelling, just ask the nearest native speaker for their laundry list of words they can't spell for the life of them. Mine are necessary and immediate (which I usually can't even get close enough for spell check to help me).

Native Slovak speaker here.
English classes at elementary school were way too boring and our teacher struggled to teach us something. We started having English classes when I was around 9 or 10 years old (don´t remember the exact year) I didn´t really know how to speak and write properly but I slowly learned.
First I started by playing "hidden objects" games on PC. There were words of those objects written in English and I clearly remember looking into the dictionary, searching for the words, and trying to translate them. Those were fun times xD
After that, I started watching movies in English with subs and then without subs. Now I´m out of College and I´m still practicing by reading books and listening to podcasts, and I´m even writing books in English :)