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So someone just asked me how exactly I managed to teach myself English. And I figured I was too lazy to type it again next time someone asks, and hey, maybe it would entertain people, so here's the story. XD
Hi,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bluefate! ♥
When I was in high school, I sucked at english; I could say "my name is Asuka" (my name isn't really Asuka. XD) and "I like cheese". Well, maybe a little more than that, like very basic grammar rules, but I couldn't keep them in mind more than a few seconds. Not that I wanted to, because I had the same teacher for four years and he was pretty much just wasting time until retirement. And then I ended up with a slave-driver teacher who wanted us to be EXCELLENT, but I didn't have any bases to follow her mad rhythm on, so I just stopped trying. She was a good teacher, I just couldn't follow. I didn't have a lot of vocabulary either... I mean, seriously, my average was maybe 20, 25% and that was on good days.
... and then I got into Yuyu Hakusho and was walloped over the head by the obvious sexual tension between Hiei and Kurama. Alas! the French yaoi fandom didn't have much more than a handful of stories to read. So I got my parents to buy me a pocket-sized english/french dictionary (still have it ♥ in fact it's hiding under my keyboard) and started reading one-shots. At first I ran to my dictionary every two words, and I had to puzzle out the grammar; I even had to translate it on paper because I wouldn't remember the beginning of a sentence before I got to the end. XD;;; Eventually, though, some words started to stick and I didn't need to run for the dictionary quite so often. Besides, there's only so many times I could see cock in a sex scene before I figured out it didn't mean rooster.
So in the end, that's how I learned, by total immersion. Goes to show that learning depends a lot on proper motivation. I mean, good grades? Who cares. But HAWT KURAMAxHIEI YAOI LEMON is serious business. XD (also... Reading lemons in the living room with my family standing behind me, none the wiser? PRICELESS.)
I never learned my list of irregular verbs by heart; I just read fic and read more fic until some spelling or some other started feeling right to me. Most of the time I can't say WHY I chose a word and not another; I really couldn't tell you anything about the underlying grammar rules, I just think it's what sounds right -- and sometimes I still get it wrong. There's still a lot of my English vocabulary that I can't translate into French without a dictionary, because I learned to use it from context. And sometimes it lead to funny mix-ups when I misunderstood. Also, pop culture and references to current TV shows took a while to get... but hey. I used to read three books a week; now I read about that much, except in fanfics. Couldn't stay at the same crappy level all my life. XD
So that's the story of how Internet taught me English.
Hi,
bluefate! ♥When I was in high school, I sucked at english; I could say "my name is Asuka" (my name isn't really Asuka. XD) and "I like cheese". Well, maybe a little more than that, like very basic grammar rules, but I couldn't keep them in mind more than a few seconds. Not that I wanted to, because I had the same teacher for four years and he was pretty much just wasting time until retirement. And then I ended up with a slave-driver teacher who wanted us to be EXCELLENT, but I didn't have any bases to follow her mad rhythm on, so I just stopped trying. She was a good teacher, I just couldn't follow. I didn't have a lot of vocabulary either... I mean, seriously, my average was maybe 20, 25% and that was on good days.
... and then I got into Yuyu Hakusho and was walloped over the head by the obvious sexual tension between Hiei and Kurama. Alas! the French yaoi fandom didn't have much more than a handful of stories to read. So I got my parents to buy me a pocket-sized english/french dictionary (still have it ♥ in fact it's hiding under my keyboard) and started reading one-shots. At first I ran to my dictionary every two words, and I had to puzzle out the grammar; I even had to translate it on paper because I wouldn't remember the beginning of a sentence before I got to the end. XD;;; Eventually, though, some words started to stick and I didn't need to run for the dictionary quite so often. Besides, there's only so many times I could see cock in a sex scene before I figured out it didn't mean rooster.
So in the end, that's how I learned, by total immersion. Goes to show that learning depends a lot on proper motivation. I mean, good grades? Who cares. But HAWT KURAMAxHIEI YAOI LEMON is serious business. XD (also... Reading lemons in the living room with my family standing behind me, none the wiser? PRICELESS.)
I never learned my list of irregular verbs by heart; I just read fic and read more fic until some spelling or some other started feeling right to me. Most of the time I can't say WHY I chose a word and not another; I really couldn't tell you anything about the underlying grammar rules, I just think it's what sounds right -- and sometimes I still get it wrong. There's still a lot of my English vocabulary that I can't translate into French without a dictionary, because I learned to use it from context. And sometimes it lead to funny mix-ups when I misunderstood. Also, pop culture and references to current TV shows took a while to get... but hey. I used to read three books a week; now I read about that much, except in fanfics. Couldn't stay at the same crappy level all my life. XD
So that's the story of how Internet taught me English.
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