By dating. Date English native speakers and you'll learn the subtle and contradictory parts of the language.
Ask HN: How did you become fluent in English?
81–90 of 187 posts
Re: Ask HN: How did you become fluent in English?
#82The 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).
Also Dutch is probably the major language that's most closely related to English.
Supposedly Frisian is linguistically closest to English, but Dutch is second yes. Others following close are Danish, Swedish and German.
Re: Ask HN: How did you become fluent in English?
#83[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How did you become fluent in English?
#84As 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
Re: Ask HN: How did you become fluent in English?
#85Reading on the Internet to learn about mathematics, physics, computers, and such things.
Re: Ask HN: How did you become fluent in English?
#86When 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.
Re: Ask HN: How did you become fluent in English?
#87A 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.
Re: Ask HN: How did you become fluent in English?
#88World of Warcraft with TeamSpeak/Ventrillo. However I have stopped playing it almost a decade ago.
Re: Ask HN: How did you become fluent in English?
#89TV 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/
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Re: Ask HN: How did you become fluent in English?
#90I 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...