Watching English TV shows and movies helps a lot. So does listening to English songs.
Also I find it helpful to listen to English podcasts and it helps with your listening skills. I download the podcasts to my ipod and listen to it everytime I can - during my daily commute to and from work, while working out, and in bed until I fall asleep.
And remember that learning a language you have to work on all four: reading, listening, writing, and speaking.
Speaking is just as important and you have to find someone to speak English with so you can practice.
You can opt for English training classes local or online
Check this method:
Learning English: How do I improve my English speaking skills in a very short time? - Quora
There is no shortcut to be fluent in any language, be it speaking or writing. In case of English, to improve your writing skill, see god quality of topics and try to write topics yourself, (at-least for 6 months). For speaking, it comes by practice and needs no extra effort. But don't try to change your accent too much in the beginning. In most of the cases those English training institutes teaches the students nothing special, just introduces self confidence in you. You may gain the the same by speaking with your friends in English. Ask your parents to use English at home, for 6 months (at least).
Hope this short guide helps. Cheers.
"Thinking" in English is another aspect you can work on. Usually while learning a new language we often "translate" everything we listen/read into our native language and then comprehend it. However, if you directly use English for the same "processing" not only would it save invaluable time but it will make you more comfortable with the language.
^^ Yes!! While learning a specific language, one need to forget about all other language you have already known.
'Translating' everything to mother tongue doesn't work out anywhere in any language.
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English As a Second Language
I hope none of us are native English speakers.
My personal experience says, it gets better when you interact with people. If your basics are not clear, i.e. Grammar, use of words and their forms (tense), then try getting hold of a few good English grammar books like one from Wren & Martin (High School English Grammar & Composition-By P.C. Wren & H. Martin). I can't say whether it's still under copyright or has been released into public domain, but here's a link to it.
Once you've learnt enough to use words according to their proper usage, then you can try interacting with people in English. Though, initially, it's tough to overcome your obvious hesitation, you'll gain confidence once you start talking with people in English, and with time, it'll help you gain confidence and you'll get better and much more fluent in English.
As far as joining English coaching classes is concerned, I can't say how much these are effective collectively, but, as far as I've seen as an acting HR Manager (in absence of the real one), most are actually not. The problem with the local ones are that they are not able to teach you a better English, though you'll start talking, but, most of the time, you won't be grammatically correct - most of the times due to unavailability of experiences, trained and incapable teaching faculty (Most absorb their own students as faculty). A few reputed ones, will train you speak superb English for a hefty amount, but, most of the times, you won't be able to write it down in a correct grammatical order and with correct spellings.
That reminds of an episode named English Factory from Ravish Ki Report that was being aired on NDTV about a year ago.
read anything by enid blyton. great starting point. easy english, and you get to know a bit about english lifestyle.
if you want a bit of a challenge, take up anything written in the 1900's, including mark twain, o henry, etc.
in your library, look for penguin published books, they have some of the best stuff.
protip : never ever read coffee table books. they are meant to showoff, and dont have any sort of use, other than soaking up spilled coffee.
kinda like how we imagine kama sutra to be a sex manual with graphic descriptions, but its actually an essay of sorts, minus all the sexy bits.
Read some english newspaper,watch some english movies & try to speak in english with every one .
Watch Pokemon.
Seriously, I learned my basics there.
Check out some online programs. Develop a habit and continue with it.
