Non-native English speakers,

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How long did it take you to learn English? Was it difficult?

[Bala Perdida]

I learned English at about 4 years old. My sister taught me. I was in ELD till about when I was 9 although they had me in that parallel to regular class. And my ELD check ups became less frequent with the years. I guess I just sort of spoke English at some point. Just sort of walked into it, since I spoke Spanish like a 4 year old anyways it was basically like learning new words. I've been thinking of learning something else but I don't know what.

[Thirsty Crow]

How long did it take you to learn English? Was it difficult?
It's hard to say how long it took. I started learning the language at 8 years of age and then at 10 we got it as a primary school subject.
All in all I'd say that by high school I learned the basics well.

[Guardia Rossa]

3 years, I was young and teaching system was very fun.
In public school however I didn't learn anything.

Quite easy to learn given the anglicized culture of the brazilian middle class.

[Tim Cornelis]

What is 'learn'? I started picking up English through TV, computer, starting from a very young age (4-6 maybe?). I could have a simple conversation in English at age 12, understand normal conversations, instructions, and song lyrics (the words I didn't understand I could infer their meaning from context). I started reading English literature during puberty. Around age 16, I could speak it well. I attained full 'mastery and proficiency' around age 18-19 I'm guessing. I scored 'mastery and proficiency' on an official test at age 20. But even now, I'm frequently picking up new words. Some recent words I've learned, vicar, awning, chuffed, charcoal, and pekish (I keep a list) (oh and keep tabs, not keep taps, thanks to TFU).

I think 'mastery and proficiency' is higher than native English speakers, because I recall reading an article that said something like "'x, y, z' if you know these words you probably speak better English than the average American", and those weren't particularly difficult words as I recall. So if you're asking this to gauge how long it would take for you to learn a foreign language, then it wouldn't really take you 8 or 10 years. And of course, diminishing returns. I'm still learning, but in the last 5 years I've probably learnt less than the 2 years before that.

[Thirsty Crow]

What is 'learn'?
The first part of it is to be able to formulate grammatical sentences and utterances. The second part is relative fluency in speech and writing which is something more encompassing than grammatical ability.

The extent of being familiar with a host of lexical items isn't the best gauge for proficiency I think. Of course we pick up all sorts of words along the way, but that's due to our inherently limited vocabularies which form through social interaction (reading about, I dunno, sailing is also such a social interaction). Knowing what X, Y and Z mean surely doesn't imply "speaking better English" than the average American. It does imply something about general knowledge of the world though, but the key here is that a non-native speaker was introduced to sources in English as primary ones, most reliable ones or in any way most easily accessible ones, for one reason or another.

One could say that consistently recognizing double negatives as error does imply speaking better English than the average American (assuming "the average" American either uses double negatives consistently, on occasion or doesn't recognize it as ungrammatical).

[Tim Cornelis]

I found the article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/06/vocabulary-test-results-us_n_2249647.html

[Thirsty Crow]

I skimmed through the text and I didn't notice a link between second language learning and kids' problems with the scope of the vocabulary as determined by some test at school. The conclusion points in that direction:


Darling said the results underscore a need for more emphasis on making sure kids learn vocabulary at home.

It's a general education problem. Anyway, I don't think the scope of the vocabulary is that significant when talking about learning English as a second language. Basically, fluent (I know, this is kind of "subjective" insofar as it depends on response time in communicative interaction) and fully grammatical performance are the criteria I'd say are most important.

There's also this notion of teaching vocabulary in the text. I'm not sure if that even makes sense when it comes to education in the primary language as it's not a separate subject to be taught. Rather, you have children read and listen about all sorts of things and while they're at it, also make sure they don't pass over words they're not familiar with in silence.

[A.J.]

I tend to "code switch" between English and Scots. Like when I when talk to someone of the same background(working class Scots) as myself I speak Scots but when I talk to someone of alien ethnic or class origin I switch to plain English.

[Invader Zim]

What is 'learn'? I started picking up English through TV, computer, starting from a very young age (4-6 maybe?). I could have a simple conversation in English at age 12, understand normal conversations, instructions, and song lyrics (the words I didn't understand I could infer their meaning from context). I started reading English literature during puberty. Around age 16, I could speak it well. I attained full 'mastery and proficiency' around age 18-19 I'm guessing. I scored 'mastery and proficiency' on an official test at age 20. But even now, I'm frequently picking up new words. Some recent words I've learned, vicar, awning, chuffed, charcoal, and pekish (I keep a list) (oh and keep tabs, not keep taps, thanks to TFU).

I think 'mastery and proficiency' is higher than native English speakers, because I recall reading an article that said something like "'x, y, z' if you know these words you probably speak better English than the average American", and those weren't particularly difficult words as I recall. So if you're asking this to gauge how long it would take for you to learn a foreign language, then it wouldn't really take you 8 or 10 years. And of course, diminishing returns. I'm still learning, but in the last 5 years I've probably learnt less than the 2 years before that.

You're non-native? I would never have guessed.

[Redistribute the Rep]

Another question: how common is it for someone to know English in your country? It seems like in some places like Sweden and the Netherlands everybody can speak it

[Redistribute the Rep]

I've been thinking of learning something else but I don't know what.

Well if you're looking for a recommendation, I've had a lot of fun learning Russian the past few years. It's useful in some situations. And it's pretty easy to find entertaining ways to practice it using vk, on which there are many activity groups and pirated movies in Russian. Also one of the largest torrenting sites is in Russian

[Guardia Rossa]

I'm from Brazil. English is unnoficial language of the bourgeois and the middle class that like to pretend "Bourgeoiseness".

[Crux]

I suppose I learnt most of my English outside of school, technically. Except for shows for the youngest children Sweden's never had a big culture of dubbing so through movies, video games, tv etc I picked up quite a bit. Of course having it as a subject in school helped but if that's all I had I woudn't even be nearly fluent now. Also I had a lot of online friends fairly early on so casual conversation really does help keep up the fluency. I mean for comparison I did Spanish in school for 3-4 years and...uh. I can order beer?