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Ask HN: How did you become fluent in English?

• felipemesquita 9y ago
  I think I’ve learned the most from listening to podcasts. I would recommend Hello Internet for the conversational nature of their “two dudes talking” genre and the show’s impecable audio quality.
• jjude 9y ago
  I studied in Tamil medium. When I entered college, I could not speak a sentence in English. Here are the things that helped me. 1. Read Bible cover to cover many time with a Tamil Bible side-by-side. I didn't understand many of the words / phrases. Still I kept reading as long as I understood the meaning. 2. In college we met every evening for prayer. I started sharing messages for few minutes. I made lot (a lot) of mistakes, but my friends helped me improve. Lot of folks made fun of me, but I still kept going because two of close friends kept encouraging me. 3. Watched Friends series with sub-titles. I didn't understand many of the dialogues because I lacked context. Still I would memorize sentences and repeat to myself. 4. Started writing a blog[]. The one I have currently is 2nd or 3rd one. In the first blog, I wrote primarily about what I knew well - SQL, Vantive etc. So the content was there, I had to only find ways to express it. Even now, I write about what I know or what I learn, so that makes it easier to blog. : https://jjude.com https://jjude.com 5. When I read articles or books, I note down the sentences or phrases I like. I store them in Evernote and re-visit them often. I try to use them in some daily usage. Next month I will deliver a keynote speech in Azure global bootcamp in my city (Chandigarh). From not able to speak a sentence in English to this, has been a long journey of frustration, encouragement, and satisfaction. Good luck.
  • chrstphrknwtn 9y ago
    Reading the bible to learn English does not seem like a good idea. The English of the bible is not common everyday English that will be most useful for communicating with others today. Watching films or television in English, with subtitles in your native language is good advice.
    • SimonDont 9y ago
      Interesting feedback, but the deed is already done. Also it worked well for him. Thus, I assume any method would be met with your derision. Not to mention there are natural english versions of the Bible, so you are casting that one.
    • deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    • tphan 9y ago
      Most people use modern English translations of the Bible.
    • Bromskloss 9y ago
      If anything, you might learn a _cooler_ English by reading the Bible! :-)
    • stordoff 9y ago
      Even if you learn old English from that (rather than using a modern English translation), it'd still give you a good base (grammar etc.) for then understanding modern English. It might lead to learning a slightly odd/old variation of English, and might not be the most efficient route, but I can see it being effective for being able to understand English.
      • Natsu 9y ago
        For someone not from a Western culture, it will also help them understand a lot of cultural references that won't make much sense otherwise, like "seeing the handwriting on the wall."
        • jogjayr 9y ago
          > "seeing the handwriting on the wall." I've known that phrase for...I don't even know how long. But I only learned yesterday that its origin was Biblical. I love how Dan Carlin says "mene mene tekel upharsin" and wanted to read more about it, and made that happy discovery.
  • eric24234 8y ago
    Looking from your website you are obviously a religious person. But don't try to use this forum to spread your religion.
• juzffoo 9y ago
  If you make your learning less like "learning" you will have great chance of learning anything new. Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing (not necessarily in any order) are key to improving your language skills. Pick few subjects that you are reasonably excited about. Movies, Technology, Fashion, Current Affairs, Religion, Music, Designing... basically anything that do not bore you and spend some time finding channels that talk/write about these. Make sure you are able to spend at least a decent amount of time everyday watching/listening/reading about those. I had very poor English language speaking skills even after I completed my college. I took it as a challenge and made sure I spent at least 15 minutes every day listening English news (I live in India and this was some 20 years ago, so the options were very limited back then) Read English news papers for about 30 minutes, and always noted down new words and their meaning and kept referring to those when I wasn't preoccupied anything else.. .those notes used to stay with me for few days before I threw those away for newer ones. Also, moving to Bangalore helped me a lot because, many of my new friends didn't share my mother tongue so English was our primary communication medium. Thinking about it, it was kinda boring to be honest, I dont know if i will do the same for learning any other language, but I was really motivated to learn English back then so that probably kept me going.
• pcmaffey 9y ago
  I made a game that may help with vocab - www.esoterica.io. Would be curious to hear if helpful (peter at 3eyes.studio). Fluency in language (and all things) comes down to practice. Converse as much as possible in English. And when you can’t find someone to talk with, read read read. Anything and everything, from message boards to magazines to books and more books. It doesn’t matter what about. Just diversify.
• yzmtf2008 9y ago
  TV 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/ https://rubberduckdebugging.com/
  • imd23 9y ago
    I can’t emphasize this more. The first show I watched without subtitles (CC) was Dr House. I watched 6 seasons and it was painful as hell but after watching 100s of episodes it starts becoming easier. Also, I would write every single word I did not understand and google it.
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
• anotheryou 9y ago
  Turn everything you can to english: software, movies, google, books etc. Get a browser plugin for quick translations of words you don't know. Jump in the water and use english. Sadly this can be the easiest and the hardest part because it requires the right circumstances.
• proyb 9y ago
  Watch YouTube video and pickup some public speaking skills including learning how to debate. TED.com is my favourite channels.
• merraksh 9y ago
  Record yourself while reading a random page from a book and then listen to the recording. When I did, I found a few defects and managed to fix them, though it took some time.
• shurcooL 9y ago
  To answer the question in title, I came to Canada and lived here for the last 20~ years. Since day one, I always opted to try to use English (rather than my first language) whenever possible. It was hardest at first, but the more I did it, the easier it became.
• Markoff 9y ago
  computer games for vocabulary, TV shows and movies for phrases, Simpsons and Friends are particularly good in the end it doesn't really matter if you speak perfect English, most of the English users are not native English speakers and everyone makes mistakes, it's better to communicate with mistakes than being afraid to use language at all i worked in China with tons of different nationalities with varying levels of English and we could always understand each other, only people who care about grammar are grammar nazis online who are most likely not speaking any foreign language and not own even passport
• borplk 9y ago
  I also second the suggestion of things like movies, podcasts, books, etc... I think you have to find a "cheat" that immerses you in English as a SECONDARY side effect. For example find a TV show that you like to watch and understand then sit through it with English subtitles so you can see what you are hearing in written form. As you get better you can turn off the subtitles. I think the methods that focus on language learning as the primary objective are not successful after you learn the basics. Perhaps because they are too boring or some other reason.
• hollander 9y ago
  Best thing to do is travel, or language vacation. I've done a language holiday in Spain, learning Spanish, and that worked really well. I only did two weeks, but got a basic understanding of Spanish, in a beautiful old town - Salamanca. You can do the same with English. I bet you can go to London, Sydney, New York and many other places to learn English. You have to do this in a country or city where the main language is English of course. You don't want to do this in Paris or Barcelona. I did morning study and afternoon free, but you could do much more if you wanted, like 6 or 8 hours daily, and even private classes. Besides that we had to do homework, and that could take two hours or more, so be aware of that. Two weeks is a minimum to learn anything, but if you have the money go for at least three or four weeks. Then you set something in motion. We could stay with local families or in an appartment with other students. With a local family you'll learn a lot more, especially if they don't speak any other language. If you prefer to stay in an appartment, ask for an appartment without people who speak your language. The tendency is to go speak the easiest language, and you're not there to do that. Have fun! Do all the tours etc. Avoid people who speak your language.
• jimmies 9y ago
  People's expectation of what is considered "fluent" is very different and many different approaches can work. Regardless of where you are, there are things that you can do. I am Vietnamese and studied English as a second language at 10 years old. I have been living in the US for the last 10 years -- 1/3 of my life. I have very little problems communicating in English now, but I want to give you a glimpse of how confident I am with my English. I used to know a professional interpreter who is not a native speaker either but has got an excellent grip on English. He interpreted for a couple of US presidents on their diplomatic trips. He often commented on my Facebook that my English is shit when I had Facebook. He would poke fun at my misspellings and grammatical errors. I still write, listen, and speak like a machine. If I remember it correctly, the translator fiend's advice to everyone was always that to read lots of books. His advice to learn to speak English was to go out and talk to the English expats. Many long for a friend, and you might learn a thing or two on the way. He did that when he was 20. I think those are a solid advice. For me, it was a little bit different. I think a big part of it is that I had an itch to do it. When I was younger, I learned English by reading MSDN + VB manuals because I needed to code. Then for a couple of years in HS, I lead an indie translation project to translate a couple of Harry Potter books to Vietnamese. My schedule was totally fucked up in the summer when the books came out: Sleep in until noon, then at night just translate 1/4 of a chapter or so, or proofread other people's translations until 6 AM. After that project, I wouldn't care if my English is not good anymore, I knew I've dealt with enough shit to not be intimidated by English. But in general, I think what works best is that you have to have a use for it. If you don't have a use for it, your work doesn't depend on it, then you need to have a hobby in which your English skill is needed to get the work done. Maybe you can make an impact or two along the way. It's just like to learn a new programming language or paradigm. Like now, I'm a professional HN commentator, and it requires some serious English skill, don't you see ;-)?
• haseeb1431 9y ago
  Daily 2-3 articles of reading of papers e.g. guardian, ny times, science journals reading the IELTS prep material Speaking a lot English with friends Vocabulary practice by installing google dictionary in chrome while reading Movies with subtitles followed by without subtitles
• bayindirh 9y ago
  First of all read a lot. Read local communities like Reddit, HN (here), slashdot, etc. This will make you familiar with the daily language. Second, listen a lot. Watch movies with original sound and English subtitles. Try to understand, try to make sense of it. If you listen English songs, try to listen a little more attentive. Then write a lot. Try to take your notes in English. Comment your code in English. Try to comment more into stories or forums around the world. These three will sharpen you in daily English. You'll become more familiar. Becoming fluent becomes after becoming familiar. As everyone said, also read books, novels in English and take notes, however some books' vocabulary may be drastically different from others (e.g., Both Hyperion Cantos and Ready Player One are SciFi novels, but latter one has a much more accessible English than the former). Last but not the least, don't focus on your progress. You'll advance inevitably. Just continue doing so, and you'll find yourself much more improved after some time. Fluency is best when it comes with time, and when it's built step by step, it becomes permanent.
  • slx26 9y ago
    Sound advice. Also, try to get to the next step as soon as you can, while still working on the previous ones. We are surprisingly quick to adapt even when facing complicated challenges, so take advantage of that. And always do something that you like. It will keep you both motivated and focused.
    • bayindirh 9y ago
      You can do all of them at the same time after getting the initial momentum, however not overloading the cognitive capacity is important. Otherwise the process may backfire. The most important point is not forcing yourself to progress, but integrating the language in your life. A foreign language is not an achievement, but a capability (or ability), like programming in another language. You need to integrate into your life, not achieve and set aside. So not forcing is much more healthy IMHO.
  • pasbesoin 9y ago
    There's no substitute for exposure. "Learning" and memorization can help you recognize language use. But it's exposure that makes it second nature (i.e. automatic). And as far as speaking goes, remember that you're using muscles and nerve signals. Just like with any other physical activity, i.e. a sport, it's practice -- doing it -- that improves facility.
• yodsanklai 9y ago
  English is everywhere, so it's very easy to consume English media to improve your vocabulary and comprehension skills. As for speaking (for me, that was - and still is - the hardest part), I'd try to find native speakers to communicate with. If you live in a big city, there are probably foreign students teaching English. You can also find a remote tutor on italki.com.
• adamnemecek 9y ago
  Play online games with English speaking teammates.
• maxxxxx 9y ago
  One thing I did when I came to the US was to have no pride and to invite and even insist on people correcting my English. This can be really annoying and often embarrassing but I think it stopped a lot of mistakes really early before they became a habit. I see a lot of people who have been here for a long time making really bad mistakes and nobody tells them. In general Americans are very hesitant to give direct criticism so it takes a while to find people who are willing to play that role. I had a lot of problems understanding people for a while and there watching movies and listening to radio helped.
• schoen 9y ago
  There are some online services where you can find a language exchange partner (to help practice each other's native languages). This is useful if you don't want to pay for professional classes. You can meet periodically by video chat and help each other practice. Practice or study with native speakers is valuable because native speakers have a "native speaker intuition" to quickly and confidently resolve uncertainties about how to say things. On the other hand, if people haven't studied linguistics or language teaching, they might not be able to explain why they say things a certain way (because we all know and use rules in our native languages that we've never thought about consciously and never tried to explain). So you shouldn't assume that native speakers will always be able to give you helpful explanations of why they chose one way of saying something over another.
• lloeki 9y ago
  Personal anecdote from which you may be able to pick a thing or two: back in the day RPGs were not translated. I stumbled upon Chrono Trigger and found the game amazing but could barely understand anything beyond the basics. I sucked it up and got a paperback dictionary. Mid game I was barely referring to it, and by the "end" of it (several dozens of hours, possibly hundred; got 10 of the 14 or so endings) things were treading along nicely. I followed up with Day of the Tentacle for which the complete Full Talkie was only in English (the French one had only partial voice over in English) and since it was so hot at the time to listen to voices in games I really wanted to get that experience, so again, I went for it. It was much more involved as DotT relies on wittiness and humor a lot, so that was definitely a step up. By the end of it I was really getting good at listening instead of just reading the English subs. From then on I got lots and lots of exposure from movies and TV shows because I began to catch how flawed or lacking some of the French dubs were for the stuff I watched. The missing part was speaking, and for this I happened to be repeatedly tasked with preparing and presenting some stuff in English class. The key points being: "repeatedly", like, a lot (once a week for three years) and "preparing" which really helps in progressing (you can't realistically be expected to wing it at talking if you only were doing "passive" activities like reading and listening) because I had to both write and rehearse presenting beforehand, which are both "active" tasks. The "fluent" part then comes out as the sum of all this experience. (Also, at some point I switched all of my OS/software/phone to English. Little tidbits like this mean I was faced with English every single days for the most trivial things, so that it just becomes second nature) (Also also, getting involved in online communities, but not lurking: interacting instead, stepping right outside the comfort zone.)
• tomcooks 9y ago
  Get a native anglophone partner and go live with them, force them and yourself to speak in English exclusively, especially when you argue or when you do errands together. This forces you to simplify concepts to get your point straight at first, then pushes you to ampliate your vocabulary. Learned Portuguese in 1 year this way.
• herogreen 9y ago
  My advice to improve one's oral comprehension: there are great podcasts on the BBC radio 4 website. Find a topic that interests you (maths, science, sociology, fictions...) and start listening to it. You may no understand everything but you will soon see that the context helps a lot.
• danmaz74 9y ago
  After reading many answers, I'll add one step I didn't see fully stressed: after getting used to read and listen to English, find a way to start speaking it. You can't become fluent without actually speaking it. For me, what did the trick was actually going to a advanced spoken English course where I lived (I was already very proficient with written English): what we were doing most of the time was just discussing things in English, with the supervision and help of our teacher. Among my best "investments". Today, you could probably find something online, but I'm not sure if it would be as useful.
  • Strom 9y ago
    Regular speaking is definitely important. I'll add a related advanced tactic. Switch your inner monologue language to English. So whenever you're thinking with the help of language, do it in English. This will go a long way towards making your verbal speaking faster and more natural, because you'll no longer be doing quick translations in your head. To be more precise, at least for me, this thinking language system seems to be heavily influenced by learning. I've been doing most of my thinking in English for the last decade or so, and most of the things I've learned during this time are stored in my head in English. [1] However my earlier life lessons are still in my memories in my original native tounge. This is interesting because I started learning English more than 25 years ago, but even things I consumed in English got translated and stored in memory in my native language. -- [1] Of course there are more factors in play than just thinking in English. I've also been better than ever in English and English media makes up for a larger percentage than ever in my total consumed media. I'm sure all of these and more have played a role, in addition to changing my inner dialogue language, in storing my memories in English now.
• raitom 9y ago
  To improve my english I listened to a lot of Country and Rap music. This way I kinda learn a lot of slang words and expression. First job in the states my coworkers weren’t really talkative. I used to go to a stripclub during the weekends. Trust me your brain will be more than motivated to learn english when you need to talk to half nudes girls haha.
  • maybeiambatman 9y ago
    By far the most unique take on learning English
  • maxxxxx 9y ago
    I hope the strippers won't be too confused when their club is suddenly filled with foreign geeks following your example :)
  • specializeded 9y ago
    If you haven’t named this technique yet, I’d suggest “The Atlanta Method”!
  • chipuni 9y ago
    I thoroughly support this way to improve your English. Tip well.
  • Bromskloss 9y ago
    > This way I kinda learn a lot of slang words and expression. Then I bet you know the difference between a violin and a fiddle. A violin has strings; a fiddle has strangs.
• wink 9y ago
  Probably not helpful, but here's how it went for me I think I started out pretty well from school and my mom videotaping some "learn english show" on TV when I was a kid - but once I got my first computer and had to read stuff about problems online in English.. well that helped a lot. I've also been on IRC for like 17 years now, reading and writing at least 50% in English. Reading books in English is really good once you can make enough sense of it (not so useful if you have to look up all the words - but I still did that for a while). Children's books for age ~10-12 are really good for this imho, they're usually not so complicated and can still have meaningful content (think more Harry Potter, less Teletubbies). The final "wow, this helps a lot" was working in a company where the official language was English and thus using it for hours, daily, and we also had some folks with bad/non-existant German skills. I was lucky to sit next to a native speaker for a while who also shared a lot of my interests, so we were talking a lot about.. stuff in downtimes.
• ww520 9y ago
  Watch lots of TV, shows, and news.
• emilfihlman 9y ago
  Am a Finn. For vocabulary and grammar: playing Runescape. I translated every single word separately using a translator because Google Translate is shit. Pronunciation? You have to speak. I played videogames and talked to people online. E: Also movies and series with subtitles!
• Zolomon 9y ago
  I played an online text-based roleplaying game that was in English[1]. Grammar, vocabulary and idiomatic expressions flew through the roof, but pronunciation could have used some live action. [1] http://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/ http://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/
• JeanMarcS 9y ago
  My wife and I decided to move to Ireland this summer. Once you’re there, you have no choice, and must talk. We have prepared out 8yo kids with a year of english lessons and they are excited to move there. What I mean is, if you have the opportunity, go to an english speaking country. When you have no choice, your english will improve automatically
• roro5678 9y ago
  The day I decided to watch series and films in VO ( with subtitles in english too )
• remir 9y ago
  Like a lot of people here, I learned English by reading articles online and books in subjects that interested me as well as watching TV shows/movies with English subtitles. What helped me was to avoid translating every sentences to my native language, but instead watch for patterns in the language and fill in the blanks. When I did not know or understand a word, I'd look it up in the dictionary or Google. I recently spoke with a native speaker and I saw that my vocabulary could still improve, but overall it went well. If you speak with anglophones, tell them to not be afraid to tell you when you make mistakes. Practice is key.
• binarysolo 9y ago
  Other than taking classes while in school... Watched a bunch of American cartoons/shows, then grew to computer games where I had to translate words used in text-heavy RPGs. Read a ton of great historical novels about military history since I got into strategy games like Europa Universalis. Attended language clubs to talk to fluent English speakers. Then went abroad for music camp, took a ton of sample SAT tests till I aced them, then managed to get into college in the States.
• simonebrunozzi 9y ago
  I grew up in Italy. Among EU countries, Italians have one of the worst English accent and vocabulary, because Italian TV "dubs" every single movie and TV show ever invented. In fact, you often hear that "Italian dubbers (e.g. voice over actors) are the best in the world". In my teenage years, my father gave me an amazing present: for two summers, he paid to send me to study English in Scotland once, and in Sussex once. I did learn some English, but most importantly I associated English with "ability to travel and see the world". My English was quite good for Italian standards, and quite bad in general, until I got to age 18. I then decided I wanted to learn English really well. My resolution became to watch movies only in English, and to read only in English, for years. It worked. Finally, in 2003, I won a fellowship to study for one semester at UC Irvine. When I came back, my English was at a very good level. From 2008 onwards, I worked for US companies (Amazon, VMware), and have been living in San Francisco since 2012. Looking back, I believe it was "hard" for me to make these decisions and put the effort in, compared to my peers. I was also fortunate to have a family that supported me and loved me dearly. When I go back to my home town (Assisi, in Umbria, Italy), I always think about this. Ah, life. Sliding doors. Decisions. Etc.
  • mikejharrison 9y ago
    I'm English. A couple of years ago I started learning Italian by listening to podcasts (Coffee Break Italian) and reading children's books. I then travelled to Assisi to try it out for the first time. The locals were fantastic, they slowed down and spoke very clearly. It's a beautiful place. I agree though, travelling and learning about new places in another language is awesome, it unlocks so much, and really encourages you to learn.
    • FearNotDaniel 9y ago
      > they slowed down and spoke very clearly I wish Austrians were the same... unfortunately most folks here tend to switch between fast German with a thick local dialect, or talking back to me in English, neither of which helps me to actually improve my German...
      • 9y ago
• k__ 9y ago
  I was very bad at it at school (I'm from Germany). Somehow I got better later by watching and reading everything in English on the Internet. Documentation, movies, blogs, tv shows, forums etc.
• hunvreus 9y ago
  TV shows (mostly Friends) and movies, first with subtitles and then without. Also, singing in English. Between these three, I acquired the day to day vocabulary, pronunciation and rhythm of the language. Works for other languages too.
• emmett 9y ago
  This blogger, 8 years ago, wrote an excellent blog post detailing his method for improving his English: http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/01/koreans-english-acquisition-and-best.html?m=1 http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/01/koreans-english-acqui... Warning: it’s not an easy solution, just an effective one. The main idea is “memorize more” and “practice more”. Judging by his blog posts, it seems to work.
• jobigoud 9y ago
  When you are brainstorming with yourself, during your commute, shower or whatever, do it aloud and in English. This helped me think in English and increased the speed at which I was able to turn a thought into a proper sentence, bypassing translation.
• devteambravo 9y ago
  Runescape + McGuyver/A-team reruns
• zkirill 9y ago
  I spent whole days reading Tolkien outloud while sitting on the balcony. At the time I did not know the meaning of many of the words but knew how to pronounce them. I avoided reaching for the dictionary so as to not interrupt the flow of my speech.
• justAlittleCom 9y ago
  Game of thrones + linguistic meetings (things like "go talk english afterwork", you'll find one in every big city in the world, of if you dont, organize one!)
• raarts 9y ago
  The 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).
  • ascorbic 9y ago
    Also Dutch is probably the major language that's most closely related to English.
    • raarts 9y ago
      Supposedly Frisian is linguistically closest to English, but Dutch is second yes. Others following close are Danish, Swedish and German.
      • ascorbic 9y ago
        Hence why I said "major" language. Scots is very closely related too, among languages without an army.
  • ntauthority 9y ago
    I happened to have had the luck to grow up at just the right time to have some subset of foreign children's television in NL be subtitled still - and combined with the ability to read early, ended up remarkably fluent in English at a pretty early age. I'd imagine the same goes for other people who grew up with subtitled children's television shows during this brief phase.
• ThomPete 9y ago
  Put a post-it-note on every item in your room with the english word. Then: Speak speak speak, write write write, read read read, watch watch watch.
• HenryBemis 9y ago
  Many-many-many books (with a dictionary by me) and reading for hours and hours. I grew up at a time there was no internet, just books. I was lucky enough to have plenty of english books close to me. Then while in Uni (in the UK) I would (actually) read the physics/maths/electronics books cover to cover (with a dictionary by me). After the 00's it was many-many-many english-speaking movies and series without subtitles.
• harveylord 9y ago
  Watching motion pictures in the original English with or without English subtitles.
• fnordian_slip 9y ago
  It is easier to learn when you are not fully aware that you are "studying", at least that is the case for me. Consuming different kinds of media like books, audiobooks, video games and movies in English can help a lot with that without too much effort. Combine that with joining some English-language forums in which you actively participate, and you have a relatively cheap way of improving your language skills. If you have the means, add travel into the mix and try to immerse yourself in the language and culture for as long as you can afford while avoiding people who speak your language.
• anonytrary 9y ago
  I'm a native speaker, but one of my roommates didn't know much English when I met him. After about a year, he was 70% fluent in English. Coming to America and making friends is pivotal in learning English. Firstly, be immersed in the culture of the language you're trying to learn. It's easier to learn English if everyone around you speaks it. The social pressure to learn it will trump your own motivation. You will be motivated to learn English if you want to interact with people. Secondly, work with native speakers on a project that has nothing to do with learning English. Find something you find interesting and find native speakers with similar interests. We worked on a side project, and he was learning English and programming at the same time. We were doing something fun, and it helped him pick up the language faster. Finally, watch English comedies with your native English friends, ask them to put on subtitles. We watched Silicon Valley (HBO) and he started to get the jokes pretty quickly. It helps to have a sense of humor. If you're new to English, your English friends will find some of your sentences funny, and that's a good thing. Laugh with them and learn more.
• rapfaria 9y ago
  10 years ago I joined college and didn't know a thing about English. Somebody pranked the whole class in the first day, by coming, writing their credentials on the board in Japanese and speaking in English. I thought to myself, I'm so behind. Pirated a web design book some time later and tried very hard to learn it. I still remember learning the word "rather" from context instead of translating it. After that, I made my 'world' in English. Movies, books, everything. Discovered HN by that time, and watched Two and A Half Men repeatedly with friends, over and over and over. I'm sure that repetition helped a lot. Forcing yourself to speak in English can also help (xbox party chat for example), specially when I kept asking myself, do I really know English or am I just a fraud? Will I be able keep a conversation when the time for it comes? I know a bunch of people that learned English but never passed that point where you can 'get' things in English. So, it's worth doing it by yourself. Being one of the very few in the theater getting the meaning of a joke, that subtitles did not translate well, is great.
• m_sahaf 9y ago
  On my first year of college at home (Saudi Arabia), we had what they call orientation year which consists of intensive English and math courses. I talked to our English instructor asking him if I could stop by his office everyday during his office hours for a casual chat to improve my conversational English, and he kindly agreed. I spent a semester doing that, and picked up his Scottish accent along the way :D The following year I travelled to the US for school. My first year in the US had minor improvement in my English fluency because I was mostly hanging out with a group of Saudis. Later that year I learned about a local group started by an ESL teacher called English Conversation Club. They have multiple groups during the week of US Americans hosting meetings at their houses, inviting internationals for casual conversations, playing games, and making friends to improve the conversational English and learn about the different cultures. They also hold parties throughout the year for the different holidays (e.g. 4th of July, Christmas, etc.). At the time, they had 3 different group meeting during the week, and I went to all of them. I also took time to reflect on the conversations on my way back from the meetings (noting misspeeches, word-choice, etc.). During that time, I learn that the on-campus speech clinic offers accent reduction services, and they offer 50% discount for students. I took those sessions for 9 months until the therapist decided that I have reached an acceptable level. These were the major players in improving my fluency, in addition to reading, writing, and paying attention to conversations in movies and TV shows.
• pipio21 9y ago
  Traveling. It is one thing to study English in a country that does not speak it, and a completely different thing when you need it to survive. Being surrounded by people speaking English(French, German,Chinese) and feeling totally stupid as you can not even communicate the basic means you have to learn or have to learn. I recommend "fluent forever" book and Gabriel Wyner stuff in general to learn as fast as possible. ALWAYS START BY PRONUNTIATION,like kids do, or else you will have to unlearn what you learned badly. In order to polish it, I joined Toastmasters.
• Tharkun 9y ago
  Mostly learnt English online. Bulletin boards. IRC. Reading sci-fi & fantasy. Watching movies. Talking to oodles of internet friends on ICQ and the phone. By the time I was old enough for the compulsory English classes at school -- 14? -- I was fluent. English was my third language, currently working on my fifth (Japanese), so I guess I've got some experience when it comes to this. Best advice I can give you is this: read a lot & listen a lot. So basically books and movies. The English version of a book/movie you like is a good starting point. Lord of the Rings is my weapon of choice. I've read it in four languages. I know the story. I know Tolkien's style. So reading it in a different language is great for brushing up on that language.
• sunstone 9y ago
  Some people, though very few, can become native English speakers on their own. The people that can divide into two distinct camps, musicians and heavy movie watchers (English movies of course). Musicians by training are talented listeners and heavy movie watchers, whether talented listeners are not, get exposed to so much real sounding English that they can't help but to learn it subconsciously if in no other way. Typical adult listeners no longer here sounds as they are but map sounds of foreign languages into the sounds their brain already knows. This lack of accuracy in listening is the primary impediment to become fluent in a language.
  • brooklyn_ashey 9y ago
    Musician here. I completely agree. But I think anyone can do this. We musicians transcribe solos of jazz players- not because we want to play like them, but because we want the feel in our vocaulary-- because we want to hear and understand better. Every musician I know learns languages easily and many are good at immitating accents and word choice. This is exactly what we do when we improvise in the style of... Mozart or whoever. It works!
• lucb1e 9y ago
  By doing. Try to write, read, speak and listen to large volumes of English. I've written blog posts, chatted a lot with people in games (mainly text, sometimes voice), talked English at every opportunity (e.g. I'd seek out non-Dutch people in class and do projects with them), wrote elaborate answers on the security stackexchange website, listened to audio books, etc. I didn't have good experiences with apps that try to gamify the process like Duolingo, but that might have been because I used it in semi-corner cases: in English I wanted to go from mediocre to advanced, and for German I already knew Dutch so most of it was super basic and didn't really help me. I've also looked for other hacks to get better at a language, but the thing that really helps is just by doing. I guess audio books are sort of a hack, because you don't have to be very actively busy with it: you can put an audio book on while doing laundry, dishes, driving/walking/biking, falling asleep, etc. And it teaches you vocabulary (most unfamiliar words are clear from context), correct word use (including proverbs/sayings), and pronunciation. Unfortunately, I noticed later that I don't know how to spell those words, but that's just a minor issue (easy to look up when needed). I still encounter words randomly and think to myself "oh that's how it's written! I just read this sentence fluently but I never read this word before".
  • tphan 9y ago
    As a native English speaker, sometimes I'll read a word but since I've never heard that word read out loud, when somebody finally says it, my mind explodes because it sounds different to how I pronounced it in my mind.
• asafira 9y ago
  I know this is probably not the answer you are looking for, but I wanted to chip in nonetheless: English is my 3rd language, but I was more-or-less forced to learn it once I started school in Kindergarten. So, I learned during my first two years or so in school =). Also, note that while being fluent in English helps communication a ton, it is far from sufficient to mean you are a good communicator. If you are interested in more details on how to get better at communication in general (not just becoming fluent in English), let me know.
• lottin 9y ago
  1. Learn the basics 2. Read a lot (preferably books) in order to acquire a large vocabulary Most people stop here, but if you want to be able to communicate orally you still need to 3. Study English phonetics and dialects 4. Get as much exposure to spoken English as you possibly can (by listening to radio programmes, podcasts, watching TV, and so on) 5. Talk a lot (talking to yourself works too, if you don't have anyone else) Notice that this is a years-long endeavour which takes a lot of time and effort, but in my experience it's definitely worth it.
• flarg 9y ago
  By dating. Date English native speakers and you'll learn the subtle and contradictory parts of the language.
• deleted 9y ago
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• hemantv 9y ago
  As 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 https://www.cambly.com/english?lang=en
• Bromskloss 9y ago
  Reading on the Internet to learn about mathematics, physics, computers, and such things.
• faster 9y ago
  When 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.
  • evincarofautumn 9y ago
    Yeah, I totally agree about exaggeration, but I think it can also have a positive impact on learning the language. A big issue I see with non-native speakers of languages I know is that they stick to the comfortable sounds of their native language, approximating the foreign sounds instead of trying to really imitate them. If you haven’t done it before, it feels ridiculous to try to put on what feels like such an exaggerated “fake” accent. But what you’re doing is getting a handle on the phonetics, which increases your ability to recognise and distinguish those sounds when listening, and be easier to understand when speaking. It also helps you cope with phonetic variations and different accents, which may at first sound totally different from the “standard” language you learned—but if you understand the phonemes as a native speaker thinks about them, your comprehension will be much more resilient and adaptable.
• arnaudsm 9y ago
  A 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.
• bor0 9y ago
  World of Warcraft with TeamSpeak/Ventrillo. However I have stopped playing it almost a decade ago.
• WheelsAtLarge 9y ago
  I 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...
  • Coincoin 9y ago
    I can attest to that. I'm perfectly fluent reading English, yet my spoken English is so bad I just can't finish a sentence without fumbling and taking detours. Like any language, you need to immerse yourself in it.
• soneca 9y ago
  I improved my Listening watching American movies and tv shows with English subtitles first, then no subtitles later (subtitles in your native language will do more harm than good). My communication skills in English improved A LOT by being very active at Hacker News. It is written communication skills specifically, but they translate well to oral communication I think.
• deleted 9y ago
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• louwrentius 9y ago
  Dutch people learn English because it's such an important part of our education. Most people under 50 will speak English at a decent level. Also, all our foreign movies and TV shows are subtitled, not dubbed, that is also important. For me, early on I understood that English is the language of the computer world. So that makes learning English a necessity.
  • jacquesm 9y ago
    > Most people under 50 will speak English at a decent level. Most people, period. In fact the Dutch speak English so well that it is hard for an English speaking foreigner to learn Dutch because everybody will automatically switch to English at the first sign of foreignness.
    • FabHK 9y ago
      Not only English... they frequently speak German, French, etc. well, too. Thus it's virtually impossible for outsiders to learn Dutch :-) A veritable shibboleth.
    • lambdaphagy 9y ago
      This is frustratingly accurate. When I was learning I wanted to tell people that I didn't speak English, only... halting Dutch with an American accent.
• gpvos 9y ago
  Listen to the BBC World Service (radio). Watch English Youtube videos with English subtitles (preferably not autogenerated). Read, both fiction and non-fiction. Take any chance available to write or speak it.
• lozf 9y ago
  I agree with the advice of listening to Films and TV, but would also suggest British radio. BBC radio streams are available internationally - the stations Radio 4 and 4 Extra are speech heavy and you can probably just put it on in the background whist doing other things around the house. https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra
• jorgemf 9y ago
  The best way is to have a girl/boyfriend that only speaks english. The second best way is to move to a country where they speak english and avoid people who is not native. So basically the way to becoming fluent in english is to use it as much as you can. Movies, books also help, but for communication you need to talk a lot.
• iamyi 9y ago
  When I came to US, we had the cheapest cable plan, and it has the C-SPAN channel. Very boring but there were no commercial interruptions. So I just followed the speakers loudly with the subtitle turned on. I thought it worked very well years later.
• jacquesm 9y ago
  - school (grade school, high school) - Hollywood (movies in NL are as a rule subtitled) - Reading (the public library, second hand bookstores, the internet) - Work (An American Bank, working all over the planet) - Running an online business - Living in Canada for a number of years - Writing (blogging, HN) Each of those contributed in some way, it is still not perfect. It likely never will be, there is no substitute for being born in an English speaking country but at the same time there are many people that are born in such a country that have the most horrible accents or that couldn't spell if their lives depended on it. Language mastery is never done, it just keeps getting better at an ever reducing rate.
• mbroncano 9y ago
  One of the most remarkable obstacles when trying to shave off any accent or just trying to hone in your grammar skills is lack of understanding of the language learning process by most native English speakers, as most of them can only speak their own language, if so. Best advise I can give is, move to a country where English is broadly spoken (Scandinavian countries come to mind) and work in one of many English-speaking companies there. It'll be much easier to shake off at least most of the grammar mistakes (ESL speakers are actually rather proud of their grammar skills) and hopefully also soften any regional accent. As a bonus, you might also catch some other language basic skills. In the EU, NL and BE (Brussels area) are also good choices.
• mettamage 9y ago
  Being born Dutch there are many advantages into learning it. I don't think I could've not learned English while being brought up in the circumstances that I was. However, having said that. I think a lot of native speakers could see all kinds of phrasing mistakes. Last year I learned that I secretly translate Dutch to English without knowing it. It's either that or my Dutch and English are really intertwined. 1. Subtitled videos from the day you are born. And when I was young, cartoons were subtitled as well, now they're dubbed and that doesn't help. 2. Digital games do not have a Dutch option in most cases. Other often used languages are: French, German, Spanish and English. What are you going to choose? I suppose the language that people speak during those subtitled movies: English! 3. The Dutch internet is not the biggest place and clearly lacks information. Want more information? Learn English. My gateway drug was when Dragonball Z was on air and I was 12. The Dutch websites were 6 months behind the English websites. I read all the spoilers, I loved it. 4. Being part of an international community helps such as HN. I did that for several communities, but this is not a seperate principle per se, it is a consequence of #3. 5. We had English at school! However, that helped just as much as French and German, i.e. not really. 6. Compared to American accounts that I read, Dutch people take quite a bit of vacation, at least once per year. The family I was raised in definitely did that and Europe is so small that if you goo 200 miles / 320 kilometers in the right direction you are in another country or you passed several countries already. Can't speak the main language? Speak English, because most countries are influenced by good ol' Hollywood. 7. What nailed it for me was tertiary education. Studying computer science meant that some teachers would ask if they could speak in English. In some cases, I even asked the teacher to do that. I'd rather listen to pretty good English compared to horrible Dutch, and who cares about Dutch anyway in the global economy? (I know it sounds rude but the difference between some teachers their English and Dutch was really big, you clearly could notice that they didn't learn the language after years of living here. Moreover, they didn't care, and I couldn't blame them. Their teaching dramatically improved and imposing those teachers to speak Dutch by university management was obligatory in a legal sense. It was also silly.) 7+. This effect was even stronger in my master degrees, since they have English as the main language. I was so happy with how many international people were in my classes. 8. Oh, realizing that I am a part of the world that knows a language that is more or less useless outside of my own country (yea, Flanders, former colonies and 16 million traveling Dutchies but whatever, they all speak English as well). 9. Last but not least: the Dutch language is related to English which makes learning easier. Edit: and then I went on. 10. Being in a relationship with an English native speaker, who happens to be Dutch ethnically (and learned Dutch from her parents). It taught me a lot more nuance regarding emotional words. I thought I knew English but the intuitive cultural nuance is not something I learn by only living in The Netherlands. I'd need to live in a native English speaking country for that. 11. Picking for a style: I choose Californian American English. It's not that my accent sound like it, but when in doubt to pick a formal style that is my style. Most talks and online seminars that I watched came from that placed and influenced me when I was 16 to 17. 12. Asking teachers if I can write my essays in English, in my bachelor degree. I do this for 2 reasons: 1. I learn English better. 2. I noticed some teachers were worse in English than me, so when they graded me, I had the language advantage. 13. When I was very young and on vacation I wasn't very shy to adults. I would have conversations with them and if I didn't know a word I'd run back to my parents to ask and then run back to the conversation. 14. I wanted to learn English. 15. Being young helps, I was 7. -- For a Dutch person, I think my story is quite common.
• progval 9y ago
  Chatting on IRC with other developers, reading technical documentations, and watching series in English (first with subtitles, then without). I also started reading fiction in English recently. I have an e-reader with a builtin dictionary, that's very helpful. It gave me the necessary skills in my everyday life (reading, writing, listening), but I have an horrible French accent when speaking.
• chamakits 9y ago
  For me it was playing a lot of text heavy RPG games, and watching a lot of TV in English. This was the best way to immerse myself without necessarily having someone to actually speak with. I imagine variations of that today may include YouTube or podcasts. Also, there will be plenty of times you come across a word you don’t recognize. Look it up. What’s that weird phrase? Type it up in google as close as you can. You’ll likely come across it. It takes time, but you’ll get it. Also, don’t be afraid to speak it with others. You’ll get asked “what” here and there that’s fine.
• FelipeCortez 9y ago
  Playing videogames, asking my parents the words I didn't know Talking to people I met on a stick figure Flash animation portal using Google Translate (this was ~12 years ago so I was constantly made fun of but learned a lot!) Watching films at first with Portuguese subtitles, then with English subtitles, then with no subtitles. Reading books in English. At this point I could read pretty well, write decently, but my pronunciation was terrible. Before university my parents sent me to Vancouver for a month to have English lessons. Pronunciation and listening improved a lot! During university I did a year abroad in Birmingham, UK. Talking to people with strong accents during the first week was tough, but got easy after that. My English is noticeably not very good, but I'm pretty happy with it considering I had no more than a month of real lessons.
• Gonzih 9y ago
  Read a lot to build up your vocabulary. Then after vocabulary is there you can start consuming multimedia content in English (movies/tv-series). You can start with subtitles if it helps at first. At some point need in subtitles will just go away. And then just try to talk as much as you can in English. Listen to how native speakers contstruct sentences, try to replicate that on the fly in your speech.
• euske 9y ago
  I tend to think that learning a language is like dieting; it's not a one-time action and there's no end to it. It's a lifetime commitment. That's said, being fluent is often not as important as being well spoken. I've seen many native English speakers who don't seem to understand what they're talking about even by themselves, while I've seen some non-native speakers who has minor pronunciation or grammatical problems but are very good at choosing right words and making a point. I'd rather want that kind of skill.
• ryanmarsh 9y ago
  Our ‘terps in Iraq all said (to a person) watching American movies with subtitles was the best help for them to attain fluency. Best of luck.
• brooklyn_ashey 9y ago
  Watch the same movie in English with the subtitles on. Pick some characters' speeches to memorize. Do this until you truly can do this in the voice of whichever actor interests you right now. I mean until you can do it on your own without the movie going. You will start to get a feel for the larger chunks and idioms, not to mention therhythms and melodies of it. I'd say we speak as much in rhythm and melody as we do in word choice. I'm a native speaker of American English, and I have trouble understanding David Tennant sometimes because of his chunking, melodies and rhythms- so different from American English. One has to get flexible with these. Regionally, just within the United States it can be tricky.
• weishigoname 9y ago
  if you want to learn foreign language, make it into your daily routine, you don't need to spend much time, just about 10-20 minutes a day, which help you to refresh your brain, build your foreign language conscious. like your native language, this practice need to be consistent. another important thing is try to learn culture, which can help to understand the way how they think.
• teolandon 9y ago
  I'm Greek, been living in the US for the past 4 years of my life. I had two very large spikes in my English knowledge during my life. First one was when I actually started taking English classes that were good. That was in my private middle/high-school. In a lot of countries public education does not care enough about English and a lot of classes are half-assed. Another option for this would be private afternoon lessons. This really helped me understand the grammar, syntax, put effort in learning new essential vocabulary. The second big spike occurred when I got into the IB program at my high school, and all classes were taught in English. Any professor interactions were also usually in English. The whole atmosphere created by this encouraged me and a lot of my friends to start talking in English to each other on a daily basis, which really helped with talking, and making the language feel way more natural. This is also when I started "thinking" in English regularly. But I feel like the most important thing was the constant consumption of English content. I read a lot of books in English, and underlined any words I didn't know, looked them up later (kind of a tangent, but for some reason I found Greek writing to be very corny, while English writing/poetry seemed way cooler in my eyes. So that helped a lot). I watched a lot of YouTube, pirated movies without subtitles, and played a lot of games that were in English. That constant exposure and willingness to learn the language was probably the biggest factor, but I'm unsure of how good my English would be today if I hadn't started serious English lessons or didn't have friends that I would speak English to.
• aurelianito 9y ago
  By watching Sony entertainment television and playing VGA planets.
• firexcy 9y ago
  I’m a Chinese speaker and also on my way advancing English skills. What I learned from my past experience is that don’t distinguish between good and bad sources of contents. Enjoy nonsensical shouts and murmurs in YouTube, Reddit, or other communities. At first I tried a lot to follow recommandations on Top X lists, only to find myself quitting frequently on the half-way because either I lost interest or they were too far from daily English I can learn for practical usage. Now my opinion is that there’re always gold and craps in contents of a certain language, and since languages were invented first for daily communications, which by nature are full of nonsense and improvisation, “crappy” contents are always far more than well-composed ones, but it’s from these craps that you know what daily interactions sound/look like, and get the bonus of less likely getting bored. Of course it’s always helpful to keep certain doses of more “serious” contents. I always enjoy the challenge of reading longforms from The New Yorker (forgive me if you don’t think that a challenge, but from my point of view as a non-native speaker the vocabulary thereof is quite a challenge) or non-fiction books. You’ll feel improved in both skill and intellect aspects if you can persist.
• funkaster 9y ago
  There are some good comments here, but I'm curious if there's any reason you can't take lessons? I would recommend going to your local British Council (or the American equivalent, forgot the name) and try to get classes there. If for whatever reason you can't (too expensive, you live in a place with limited access), then you have lots of good comments here, but IMH(and somewhat biased)O if you want to get a good, professional level of English, you can't avoid classes.
• thecodeboy 9y ago
  I'm Indian. I became fluent in English watching Cartoon Network when I was around 6 years old. I remember watching The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, etc. Thanks a lot cartoons!
  • saurabh 9y ago
    +1
• scooter_de 9y ago
  Get a girlfrind from the UK, USA, Canada or Australia. That has worked best for me.
• techsin101 9y ago
  English isn't my native language. I'll tell you my high school story. There were some kids who started to speak perfectly in 2 years. And then some who even 10 years later still struggle. And probably have mental problems due to it. People who didn't have family here mostly interested with strangers, who all spoke English. They became fluent. People who had family here spoke English only in context of school in limited sentences. They struggle even after college. People who did worst were who had family here, and were only friends with people from their own country. Most didn't go to college. People who were in ESL did worse than people in regular English. Mostly they had less opportunities to speak their native language and didn't learn bad grammar rules. Most grammar rules are broken at some point. Learning to speak by reading is a crime in first place. Doctor consoles patient. I've many consoles. ESL student who learned from reading could die before realizing the distinction.
• apexalpha 9y ago
  Besides the other posts about simply comsuming as much English I'd like to offer my tip that helped me a lot: In England there is (/ was?) a tradition of making middle and high school students read increasingly more difficult books throughout ages 11 - 18. There are entire book series written with this concept in mind. These are excellent to pick up. Harry Potter is a good example of this: the first Harry Potter book was written for 11/12 year olds and the books become longer and more mature with every next book. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban was the first book I've ever read in English when I was 14 or so and since then I always try to read books in English if the original is.
• aviaro 9y ago
  I've been trying to become fluent for over 12 months, having been passively exposed to this language for over 9 years. I'd say that mastering English beyond intermediate level is extremely difficult. You have to be constantly aware of what you are saying. Also, you need this kind of loopback that allows you to detect your mistakes and learn from them. This is a difficult skill which requires practicing. You also need to have a social and communicative personality, so if you are introvert than you are less likely to master a language. I am focusing on speaking, because it is the most important aspect of any language. As others said, when encoutering a new word you should check the pronunciation and commit it to your memory. This in turn allows you to practice your inner voice while reading. If you don't do that, then after some time you will reinforce your accent.
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• AnnoyingSwede 8y ago
  Mtv, series, movies and programming literature, but i guess that depends on how you define "fluent", i still mess up a lot in English.
• mahesh288 8y ago
  As a non native speaker, continuous effort to read everything in english and watch english movies helped to improve. If possible, try people facing job in service industry for year or two and it can help you a lot as practice ground.