4 ms·

"I would unlikely have learned english unless it had been taught at school" You could as well play a lot of video games in English and dabbling in programming.

"I would unlikely have learned english unless it had been taught at school" You could as well play a lot of video games in English and dabbling in programming. That's how I learned. Everybody who relied on school for learning English - still barely understand it.

saint_fiasco 10y ago
I don't know why this is being downvoted. Teaching a language to students with mixed levels of previous knowledge and motivation is extremely hard. The schools I went to could never manage it. I learned English from Japanese videogames that had been translated to English by Ted Woolsey.
- oarsinsync 10y ago
  > I learned English from Japanese videogames <intentional snip> Did you set us up the bomb?
  - saint_fiasco 10y ago
    What you say !! I remember having an interesting discussion with my Spanglish-speaking friends about whether "All your base" was supposed to mean "your entire base" or "each and every one of your bases". My Engrish-speaking friend could immediately tell that the second interpretation was the correct one.
lukewrites 10y ago
Out of curiosity, does this mean that you didn't have any English lessons in school? I ask because in the field of Second Language Acquisition there's a pretty strong consensus that the optimal path to language learning involves a combination of classroom instruction augmented by interaction with (reading, listening) & use of (speaking, writing) the language. I've spent most of my career as a language teacher, and the typical successful learner is one who isn't necessarily a language nerd, but almost always is someone who does some heavy lifting in the target language outside of class. I love students that have a goal for language use because they help me to target my instruction to bits of language that will be immediately useful to them. (One of the best jobs I had was teaching English to software developenow here I am.rs; as I researched the language they needed, I started to learn programming and )
- guard-of-terra 10y ago
  I did have some, they began slightly later than I've got hold of a PC. I do think that some school lessons contributed their share. I just don't think that sitting behind a desk for two hours per week, for ten years, is necessary or desired. After a few years I did not need much "training wheels" and could continue to increase proficiency regardless.
  - lukewrites 10y ago
    > After a few years I did not need much "training wheels" and could continue to increase proficiency regardless. Every teacher's dream outcome. Congratulations! :)

saint_fiasco 10y ago

I don't know why this is being downvoted. Teaching a language to students with mixed levels of previous knowledge and motivation is extremely hard. The schools I went to could never manage it. I learned English from Japanese videogames that had been translated to English by Ted Woolsey.

oarsinsync 10y ago
> I learned English from Japanese videogames <intentional snip> Did you set us up the bomb?
- saint_fiasco 10y ago
  What you say !! I remember having an interesting discussion with my Spanglish-speaking friends about whether "All your base" was supposed to mean "your entire base" or "each and every one of your bases". My Engrish-speaking friend could immediately tell that the second interpretation was the correct one.

lukewrites 10y ago

Out of curiosity, does this mean that you didn't have any English lessons in school? I ask because in the field of Second Language Acquisition there's a pretty strong consensus that the optimal path to language learning involves a combination of classroom instruction augmented by interaction with (reading, listening) & use of (speaking, writing) the language. I've spent most of my career as a language teacher, and the typical successful learner is one who isn't necessarily a language nerd, but almost always is someone who does some heavy lifting in the target language outside of class. I love students that have a goal for language use because they help me to target my instruction to bits of language that will be immediately useful to them. (One of the best jobs I had was teaching English to software developenow here I am.rs; as I researched the language they needed, I started to learn programming and )

guard-of-terra 10y ago
I did have some, they began slightly later than I've got hold of a PC. I do think that some school lessons contributed their share. I just don't think that sitting behind a desk for two hours per week, for ten years, is necessary or desired. After a few years I did not need much "training wheels" and could continue to increase proficiency regardless.
- lukewrites 10y ago
  > After a few years I did not need much "training wheels" and could continue to increase proficiency regardless. Every teacher's dream outcome. Congratulations! :)