I personally attribute very little of my English learning to formal learning. And even less to speaking English. My history as I understand it: I watched TV sho

I personally attribute very little of my English learning to formal learning. And even less to speaking English. My history as I understand it: I watched TV shows, played games, watched movies. Eventually I would write to other people on the Internet. I guess I was fourteen. Note that I made the jump to writing (“talking”) to people about something I was interested in (music) instead of seeking out English communication for its own sake. Only as an adult in a very International setting (a local sport with many foreigners) did I discover that I sucked at speaking the language. But getting good at speaking it then only took tens of hours at the most. Then it would feel as effortless as writing it. I’m trying to learn a language now (after failing to learn another language ten years ago) and I’m taking a similar approach: exposure to lots of input (cf. “output” like writing/talking) and trying to remember words with retrieval practices like flashcards. It will be hundreds of hours until I try to speak anything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Input_hypothesis