How did you learn to speak English?

[keac]

Tapastic is an English-speaking community. But, this doesn't mean that only native English speakers could only understand the language.

We've seen a lot of non-native English speakers who speaks the language. So this proves that not only native English speakers can speak the language

I'm Filipino, and English is our second official language, so it's already an academic major subject in school. But, even if I can speak the language, I don't use it for casual talk, I don't use it at home. Instead, I only use English when needed. I can't start casual talk in full English, either :/

I wonder why I always got my English Grades higher than my native language XD

However, for others who learned speaking in English , then how did you do it? How did you start doing it?

[AffectedMind]

I was learning English in school. I think it was 6 or 8 years, but I was also learning a lot by myself. Games, songs, watching youtubers, it really helped me a lot + my boyfriend is teaching me. Being active on forums helps too. If you write a lot in English you learn things as well.

[Mharz]

Since school here teaches English from elementary to college, I'm pretty fluent as well. Though I get nervous when speaking English orally. I'm fine if it's in written from.

[AnnaLandin]

I'm Swedish, and I learned English partly through school - it's one of the three most important core-subjects (the others being Swedish and Math) and in my school, we started lessons in it in 2nd grade (so, when we're about 8) - and partly through watching tv and movies. We don't usually dub imported tv-shows - well, except for the ones specifically for kids - so there's a LOT of English-language programming on tv.

Also, I started playing video games early on, and that meant I had to practise my English-skills, or I couldn't progress in the game - I got a LOT of practise out of Final Fantasy IX, for example.

I've always been good at languages in general, and English in particular. Aside from the stuff already mentioned, I read a lot of books in English (yes hi I read Moby Dick in English twice because it was fun), I listen to a lot of English-language podcasts, I do 90% of my online interactions in English, etc., etc. I feel fairly confident both in terms of writing and speaking. I mean, I do have a bit of an accent because that kind of thing is hard to get rid of, but I am confident enough that I don't have to pause and look for words.

Weird fact: I write in UK English, but my spoken English sounds more American. It's because we learned the UK spelling of things in school, but most of our imported tv-shows are American.

[WednesdayAsh]

Friends.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

oh yea i lived in Canada for 2 years XD

[getsuart]

At school and in video games. They saved my life for giving me 50% of my vocabulary.
Then being on forums helped. I translated a lot of sentences to understand what members said! But it worked out pretty well.

But I know what you mean: when you don't use for anything else than internet, casual talk can become a problem. I used to do some hangouts recently, trying to talk english with native speakers. It is fun and nice, though I must say some accents are giving me troubles to understand. XD
Try to find some with artists you like, and if it is allowed to speak, you can start chatting!

[Silerna]

Gaming....alot of gaming..and then..high school.

[WarkDatch]

i learned 97% of my english on the internet.

i used the internet in a young age, and since everything is in english, i would search what would a word mean, then i slowly learned english by the time passes by, i'm still doing it to this day

the downside is my grammar can be confusing most of the times

[keac]

@EmmM, wait, does that mean you didn't learn English in school?

[keac]

@AnnaLandin, I already noticed that you're using UK English from the start XD.

[blop]

I first learn German in middle school so I only start to learn English in 8th grade when I was about 13. In France you can choose two foreign languages in middle school, you start one in 6th grade and the other in 8th grade (usually you can choose between German, English and Spanish, and sometimes Italian).
I was actually super bad at English until I stopped learning it at school xD I really made progress while watching TV series and reading websites in English, then when I felt more confident I started to read fantasy or sci fi books that I liked in English. My accent is still not very good though, cause I read and write more than I speak it.

[igneriss]

I had English in school. I also had extra English classes since I was a kid till the end of highschool. Also the Internet- I wanted to understand what am I doing on sites like neopets, dA or gaia : D and it was a must to communicate with people there. Chatting with people online really helped a lot!

[zetina]

I'm not a native speaker and usually this surprises people because my English is damn near perfect. I usually go around helping actual native speakers choose their words and correct their spelling >u>;;
It's hard to say why/how this happened. It's been a very gradual process. I know we had English in pre-school but all I can remember from those classes was being taught what "cup", "fork" etc meant. It seemed like I would occasionally ask about the language to my mom and brother but idr what the situations or specifics were - but I know I was super tiny at the time and didn't know anything. As time went on, in elementary school eventually we had English lessons. I'm not sure if that was the main factor or not. However, there were also video games and those were in English too. Then, also Cartoon Network.

Most of all - the internet. I learned the most by talking a lot on the internet, I think. The more I read, the more words and expressions I learned. In tandem with movies, shows and such it got me really feeling the language. And, such media is usually from America... As such, my accent is more like that... Even though we're taught British English at school haha~

I learned Russian this way too. Because of reasons. And I'm confident I could pick up proper Japanese too at this rate - 10 years of listening to fictional teens screaming about getting stronger will teach you a phrase or too, heh.

@AnnaLandin omg dude yeah you need to know English to play an RPG! that was FF8 for me tho. i still remember asking my brother to translate the dialogue for me :'D i also remember the way i pronounced "business" (it was smth like buh-sy-ness). oh man, so nostalgic. im so happy FF9 is finally getting a PC version~

[AnnaLandin]

@AnnaLandin omg dude yeah you need to know English to play an RPG! that was FF8 for me tho. i still remember asking my brother to translate the dialogue for me :'D i also remember the way i pronounced "business" (it was smth like buh-sy-ness). oh man, so nostalgic. im so happy FF9 is finally getting a PC version~

Oh man, the first time I said "abbreviation" out loud, I was laughed at! I think I said something like "ah-ber-i-a-vay-tion". I was 12! XD Also, "uncertainty" is an unexpectedly difficult word to just guess the pronunciation of.

And yessss! FF9 coming for PC, IoS and Andriod! I've already got it - both in the old PS1 version (played my first copy till it broke, bought another one, lost it, bought a third) and for PSN, but I'm super-happy to see it made available for non-Playstation owners! It's my favourite videogame ever.

[Chopythes]

I too, am Swedish and English has been and still is, a core course in School.
Started learning it when I was around 7-8 years old (second class, and ended my English classes when I was 18.)
I've NEVER learned the American English, it has always been the UK English that I've been thought.

Aaand... I thought English was a trash language 8D I couldn't understand why I had to learn that language at ALL, it was so boring. (I've always been bad at languages and math and reading and whatnot hah unless I thought I could use this.)

But... I've been using the internet daily since I moved out of home at 18 and I found deviantArt which was an American site.
I'm still learning English, there's so much I don't know about grammar and what not, but I've almost learned the essential stuff from American movies (as Sweden kindly likes to import and subtitle it).
And I realised that I had become better at English a few years later, like MUCH better than I was at school, so I began to read English books and thus, improving my skills as well.

And a funny note: When I visited the London Eye to get some tickets to said attraction, the sales person asked me if I was from Scotland, which I do take to my pride! :D
(It... could mean that my English is pretty messy but HEY 8D)

However as a Swede, we're surrounded by English all the time, even on the food packages it's written in UK English! English is everywhere. I kid you not.

[zetina]

Ah, that does sound like a European reading =v= I don't remember any other pronunciation hiccups I've had... At some point, you just kind of pick up on the patterns and become able to read words you haven't heard out loud. Then again, maybe I just forgot I'd heard it before at those times...

3 COPIES! I have one... But since we don't have a PS1 and my PS2 is "cracked", I had to settle for emulator to play it. I'm really looking forward to being able to show support for it tho ;v; It's one of my fave games too! //cries about Vivi//

[el_fury]

English is my first language, but when I was trying to keep up with my Japanese, getting pen pals was helpful! Ideally, find someone who is trying to learn your language too, so you can both correct each other and improve.

Also, props to all of you for learning this insane language.

[koopaconan]

I've studied some English in school. And then, the pop culture, the Internet and my personal interests makes the rest!

And I'm from Spain, and here we dub everything. I literally can't remember ANYTHING -movie, tv show, whatever...- without the dub. I really envy those countries with the no-dub tradition: They're better to start learning the language since childhood.

Fun fact: I've got a degree in computer science (basically I'm a tech guy) and since I rarelly use english in "casual conversations", my "tech english" is much better than my "casual english".

Also, sometimes I made some stupid grammar mistakes, but people usually tell me that I'm good enough to express myself properly xD

[SethJH]

American English is also my first language (having a class on it every year while in school). Interestingly enough, where I live, many American English news anchors and reporters come here for speech training because it is considered the "Standard Accent".

However, I'm trying to learn French, German, and Russian. I recently downloaded an app called Duolingo which has been really helpful in teaching me the basics of French. I've been studying Russian the longest, but finding good free educational materials seems to be hard and I don't know anybody personally who speaks it natively. I can only pronounce the alphabet and I have a very basic vocabulary. That is a disappointing thing about living in the midwestern US-- everybody is encouraged to speak only English and therefore you don't get any exposure to different ways of speaking.

[blop]

Haha here in France everything is dubbed too on TV, hopefully I live in Paris where most of the theaters have subtitled movies and not dubbed, but outside of Paris it's harder to find.