Question above is pretty blunt but was doing a study for a college course and came across that stat. How is that possible? My high school sucked but I was well equipped even with that sub standard level of education for college. Obviously income is a thing but to think 1 out of 5 American adults is categorized as illiterate is…astounding. Now poor media literacy I get, but not this. Edit: this was from a department of education report from 2022. Just incase people are curious where that comes from. It does also specify as literate in English so maybe not as grim as I thought.
Very interesting read! I’m from Germany and taught myself English. I’m currently at a C1/B2 level (it’s a European standard I think?) and consider myself good enough to move through English speaking countries independently just fine.
I’m basically studying English every day by reading and watching YouTube exclusively in English. Love it!
It’s a shame that many people don’t bother honing their language skills.
Didn’t you have English classes at school? I have also significantly improved my English through English media such as reddit, youtube, movies, books etc. But I don’t know if I would have been able to do that without learning basic English at school.
Yes, I did attend English classes at school. English was my major for all of my time at school and the classes have definitely helped me throughout all of this.
However, refining and honing are most certainly my own doing. If it wasn’t for the fact that I regularly consumed English media, I never would’ve gotten this good at it.
That’s really impressive, I do wish I took learning another language more seriously when I was younger. Everyonce Ina while I try to dig back into it but lose motivation for one reason or another.
What did you find to be the most helpful starting out?
With English, finding the motivation is easy, since pretty much all media, be it movies or games, is in English. I learned the basics in school, but most of my vocabulary is from games.
I have been thinking of learning fourth language, but it’s hard to find a good enough reason for it. Maybe I should just change games to appropriate language? At least it would improve replayability, since 90% of the plot would be missed.
For a start, consume exclusively English (or whatever other language you might want to learn) media! Try to minimize consuming media in your native language and focus only on the language that you’d like to learn.
English is one of the more beginner-friendly languages to learn and should be a breeze for you to master if you regularly consume English media, such as YouTube, TV-shows, books and, most importantly for me, games!
Do this and you’ll significantly improve your English skills in a year to a few years. Happy studyin‘ ❤️🫘
Thanks for the pointers! For context, English is my only language, but the premise applied to other languages is the same, so thanks!