Learn English through Stories

I WENT TO LONDON

Hi I'm Paul. I want to share my successful

story of learning English and how I
became fluent and confident in speaking.

My journey began in high school with an

English teacher named Henry from
England. At that time, my English was not
very good, but I always looked forward to
his classes because I really wanted to improve my English. Henry told us
interesting stories about the history of England and the United Kingdom which
sparked my interest in history and my desire to visit the United Kingdom someday.

After Henry returned to England, we kept in touch via email. I dedicated myself to
learning English every day by practicing reading and writing. Gradually, my reading
and writing skills improved. Even though I was good at reading and writing,
speaking and listening were hard for me. After finishing university, I decided to take
an English language course in London. On my very first day, I felt excited but also
nervous. It was a struggle to understand others when they spoke, mainly due to
my poor listening skills. Additionally, my poor pronunciation made it difficult for
people to understand me, so I often had to write down what I wanted to say. One
day, I visited Henry at his home. He lived with his wife and their 2-year-old son -
George. While telling Henry about my problems with English, little George who
was watching cartoons came to Henry and tried to say something about the
cartoon but Henry couldn't understand him. As George was just learning to speak,
Henry joined George to watch the cartoon and after understanding what George
was trying to say. He taught George by telling George to repeat after him until
George said the words correctly. This moment gave me hope for improving my
own English skills. I just realized that when it comes to learning any language, you
should start by listening and imitating how native speakers talk just as
children do when learning to speak. Once we can correctly imitate their
pronunciation, we understand them better and they understand us too.

I began practicing English by mimicking people in movies and TV shows. I listened

to them carefully and repeated words until I could say them correctly and clearly,
then I moved on to short sentences. Later, I tried longer sentences. Within 3
months, my pronunciation had improved a lot. After a year, my English accent
sounded almost like I was from England. Since then, I have spoken English fluently
and confidently, sometimes I even dream in English. People I met often thought I
was born and raised in England, and they were impressed when I told them about
my learning journey.

So what I want to tell you is that learning English isn't too hard if you know the right
ways to practice. The key is to listen carefully and repeat after the speaker. You
need to listen a lot and practice speaking by mimicking native speakers. Start with
clear pronunciation of words then move to short sentences and finally to
longer ones. Practice until you can speak without having to think first.

***
1. After reading the text, what do you learn from Paul’s English learning
journey?
2. According to you, how will you improve your speaking skills from
today?