Everyone seems so good at English so I wondered how many people learned it to such proficiency and how many are just natives

  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 month ago

    German here.

    Basically 80-90% of my media consumption is in English.
    I search (mostly) in English, read documentation in English and document my own stuff in a mix of English and German (we call this Denglisch in Germany (compound of (D)eutsch+Englisch)

  • gerryflap@feddit.nl
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    1 month ago

    I’m Dutch, but due to the large amount of English content I never really had an issue with English. While I struggled with German and Fr*nch, I never had to pay attention or study for English lessons. I just did what felt natural and ignored the homework etc. Not that I’m a great English speaker or anything, my vocabulary is sometimes a bit limited which makes me have to search for the right words to use. But when watching or reading I can follow pretty much anything. I also sometimes feel like I’m more resilient to accents than native English speakers, maybe because we get exposed to British and American English and therefore kinda learn a more generalized representation of the language? Idk, maybe that’s not a thing

    • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      A bit of the same boat (minus the 3rd lang. Am only bilingual).
      My struggle is primarily switching and mainting the speed but also the vocabulary at hand. And I feel more pressured while talking than writing.

  • limerod@reddthat.com
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    1 month ago

    I had to learn English from a young age because it was the primary language used from kindergarten to high school, and even in college.

    I improved my comprehension by reading articles and online discussion forums, as well as by watching movies, series, broadcasts, and YouTube videos.

  • Angel Mountain@feddit.nl
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    1 month ago

    Dutch, we don’t dub our movies (luckily) and prefer easy trading over valueing our own language. My biggest problem is finding an accent that fits me. Should I go for posh British, 'Murican, or Dutch “steenkolen Engels”?

  • monovergent@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    English is my second-ish language, but perhaps I have an unfair advantage for this question since I spent nearly all of my childhood in the US and started learning English at age 5.

    It wouldn’t be outwardly noticeable, but the remaining non-native element for me would be the alphabet. I learned the English alphabet well before learning English itself, so the sounds of the individual letters are in my mind still part of my first language. In other words, whenever I recite the alphabet or spell words out loud letter-by-letter, it feels as though I am switching back to my first language.

  • communism@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    English is my third language, but I read a lot of English books as a kid and spent a lot of time in English-speaking circles. I don’t feel disadvantaged compared to a native speaker as I’m fluent and have been speaking English for a long time.

  • Anna@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    English is my 4th language. I mostly use it online and in professional settings.

  • ѕєχυαℓ ρσℓутσρє@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 month ago

    I don’t know how good my English is, but it’s my third language. Bengali and Hindi are my first two. I speak a couple more languages closely related to these (e.g. Urdu, Punjabi, Assamese, Odia, Sanskrit etc. Also been trying to learn French). But I can’t read or write in them.

    I learnt English from two sources. My reading and writing abilities mostly come from school. I had some pretty good teachers, who encouraged reading newspapers to learn English. At least in my case, it really helped.

    When it comes to speaking and understanding spoken English (with all its irregularities due to accents and whatnot), watching movies and cartoons helped. I used to download and watch all kinds of movies during high school, possibly some that I shouldn’t have watched at that age. My love for movies is basically what made me somewhat competent in the spoken aspect of English. (It also got me into piracy, and ultimately into FOSS, so I guess I owe a lot to the great directors whose movies were hard to find legally lol.)