The only way to become fluent is by listening to and reading material that you can mostly understand, over and over again. And that is good news, because you can easily do that using podcasts like this one.
Creating the habit of actively listening to English every day (to audios that you can mostly understand) is the one and only thing you need to do.
Honestly, that’s the single most important thing I could ever tell you.
They don’t.
Seriously, under the same circumstances, they don’t. Adults learn faster than children.
So why do immigrant kids learn the new language faster than their parents? A number of reasons: they’re exposed to the language in school every day, they actually want to learn, they aren’t ashamed to make mistakes, and the vocabulary they use is very simple. You can (and will) become fluent faster than children do if you feed your brain the English input that it needs!
In real life, conversations don’t have levels. The “test” is whether you were able to communicate – or not. Every conversation, every paragraph, and every sentence are all at different levels. Natives don’t think about that when they are speaking – and neither should you!
No. But please don’t tell my mother.
Not at all! Once you acquire English, you’ll be able to understand and communicate easily with English speakers from across the globe! I actually recommend listening to English spoken in various accents. This will help to train your brain and to recognize that different accents are still speaking the same language.
Because studying grammar rules is a waste of time. If your goal is to become fluent (i.e. acquire English), then you don’t need to study grammar at all. Think about it – all native English speakers are fluent in English for years before they ever start school. They already speak fluent English before they learn any rules… so obviously the rules didn’t help them become fluent in English. Don’t waste time studying grammar. Use those minutes to listen to English that is slightly beyond your current level, and you’ll automatically absorb everything you need. You’ll know what sounds right – and what sounds wrong – without ever memorizing any boring grammar rules.