Languages

Q: How long have you been learning English? A: About twelve years now, on and off, though I'd say the last three or four are when it actually started sticking. School English didn't do much for me — it was mostly grammar drills — and it was only once I started using it for things I actually cared about, like reading and watching things without subtitles, that it clicked. Q: Do you speak any other languages? A: A bit of French, though it's fairly rusty at this point — enough to order food and get mildly insulted by a waiter without fully understanding why. I studied it for a couple of years at school but never used it seriously afterwards, so it's sitting somewhere in the back of my head, half-forgotten. Q: Which skill do you find hardest? A: Speaking, without a doubt, mainly because there's no time to think. With writing or reading you can pause, reconsider, look something up — speaking just happens, and if the word doesn't come, you either work around it clumsily or you freeze. I've gotten more comfortable with that discomfort over time, but it's still the one I have to actively work at. Q: How do you practise speaking? A: Mostly by talking to myself, honestly, which sounds a bit mad but works — narrating what I'm doing, arguing both sides of something in my head. Beyond that I try to find native speakers to talk to online rather than relying purely on apps, because apps don't correct the small, natural mistakes that actually give you away as a learner.