To all of you native English speakers

Actually i know a shit load of people who learned basic english from the big bird and homeless green monster show since their parents couldn't even speak rudimentary english. Mostly mexicans, but also my friend Kyon.

They taught me using examples, and I just listened a lot I guess

I went to school.

Mazzy (the green homeless guy) gave me nightmares as a kid (about your daughter's age read it as years). Considering that my parents still don't know anything beside iscreamforicecream, the guy did a pretty good job I think.

Just constantly speak english to her COHERNTENTLY.
None of that, "LIK BAYBEE MAKE POOPIES? YA MAKE YER POOPIES?" She isn't a dog.
Anyways just keep talking around her amd eventually she'll pick up on it. It wont be perfect and she will figure out what youre asking with time too.

Also pointing to things and saying the name helps too, and with time and practice shell get that too. Now till shes like 5 is perfect for her learn things, the brain is especially spongy during that period.

Its a shame i wasn't introduced to a second language when i was younger, because i started speaking really early on.
Now im trying to learn Japanese for the sole purpose of finishing Saru Lock.
Only 5 outta 22 vol translated.
trying to learn on my own around school and work, took me about 4 weeks to memorize all the hiragana.
Immersion would work best i think.
Im sure id be learning alot faster if i had people around me speak it or my environment required it. ex move to japan you better learn japanese fast.
I wonder how much easier this would have been to pick up as a child.

Alright for some - I was a late bloomer in the speech department and was fascinated with cats to the point I pretended I was one, but couldn't speak properly to explain that I was well aware that I wasn't actually a cat.

Inb4BUTYOUAREONE!

Parents took me to a psychiatrist, which earned me a place into a Speech and Language class all throughout Primary school and kept getting called back to "Reading recovery" in Secondary school even though my speech, spelling and reading was at a level far above my age at that point.


My love of cats and lack of speech at the time wrecked my childhood education. The upside is I felt like a genius compared to my classmates.

Learned conversation Spanish first, then went to school and learned English there.
I should speak in Spanish more.
But I'm picking up Portuguese and German, so meh.

I mostly learned english from TV, school, and family. However, my mom decided to teach me German as a kid( since she lived in Germany for most of her life), but I can only remember a few words and can speak a few sentences.

you expect me to remember that far back. I have a hard time remembering last week

Listening to my parents speak. For advanced words, I read the dictionary to build my repertoire.

By that logic half of IB should be perma-banned.



Yeah, I only really know Mandarin, sorry!

Well, either way, it makes life learning Nihongo easier.

At home, we usually use Chinese.

MUMMY, DADDY.
Ummmm i think you just absorb what is said around you when you start to talk you say one coherent word followed by absolute jibberish and then just develop from there.

I was watching some old video footage of me as a kid and all i did was yell mummy and after that nothing but garbage followed by pointing atrandom things and more jibberish

Zeroniv, you should probably do what your parents did to you teach you English. Since you're writing in really good English I mean.

My own suggestion is to read them simple English storybooks for children and let them read along with you. And watch English kid-friendly cartoons.

For us Indonesian, writing is our strongest point for majority of the people, but when it comes to speaking English, we go through some hard times. There are many that can write better than English speaking people, but not many that can actually speak English as well as what they write.

What problems can they possibly have in speaking English if their written English is perfect? Is it the accent? I think it's natural for Indonesians to have a slight accent when speaking English. Applies to non-native English speakers from around the world too.

As long as you're grammatically correct and pronounce words clearly in speech, I think it's not a problem.

Disclaimer: I too am not a native English speaker. But I speak English a lot more than my mother tongue.

Everyone has accent, I too have an accent. A bit of Indonesian and Australian accent (according to a friend of mine).

It's more about confidence. I see most of my friends doesn't have the confidence they needed to actually speak up. They only say what is necessary. Too embarrassed, I should say.

When I say this, I'm talking generally from what I observed, this does not mean Zero or any other Indonesian on this site falls under this.