how I learned english
people always ask me how I learned english, even those whose first language is english
I've finally got a place to write it down!
passion of exploring minecraftโ
I shouldn't have to explain what minecraft is, right?
first, I'll admit that I was a very fortunate child, being able to find the passion for things at a young age
passion is basically a luxury these days, since people get smartphones when they're very young, and often get addicted to consuming low quality content endlessly, without outputting and thinking
I was not one of them
since the days I was using the library computers because we didn't have internet at home, I've been fascinated by the infinite coolness of minecraft, thanks to youtube, and the internet
I would watch chinese minecraft youtubers play puzzle maps and modded adventures, dig through the minecraft wiki to find out how it works, day after day, nonstop
one day, I stumbled upon the modded mcpe playthroughs in the english world
had to find a download link, right? ๐
that's when I started remembering and combining different keywords, to find the download links hidden inside google and youtube
it was running way better on my zte phone than on the shitty pc, so that kept me motivated to learn and play it even more
I had no idea what each keywords meant exactly in chinese, but I knew what kind of data and chinese words I would get by typing those keywords inside the search box, and pressing enter, don't forget to press enter!
over time, I've developed associations of those snaky letters, a, b, and c's, with their chinese meanings, with the help of google translate, google search, and youtube
furthermore, after learning to use the BlockLauncher which supported running javascript in the game for extra features
I would find mcpe script tutorials in both languages, following them absolutely blindly, making simple scripts that added tools, foods, and simple blocks to the game, and making chinese translations of some cooler scripts
through the passion of learning new things, exploring the infinite block game, and the endless help from google search and youtube, and most importantly, the internet, I've learned to write and read it
that's basically how I've always been learning english exactly through this day
I for sure used my dad's work pc before starting to use the library's, but I can't remember exactly if we had internet when I started using his pc, maybe we did have, but it was cancelled because we didn't need it, otherwise I wouldn't even know the internet existed
I used to pirate, but now I've supported mojang by buying the android version and 3 java accounts
Just pirate it. If you still like it when you can afford it in the future, buy it then. Also don't forget to feel bad. ;)
continuous improvementโ
after begging for getting a better pc with gtx 1060, I've started playing real modded minecraft in full english
ๆ่จข's 1.4.7 modded playthrough helped me tremendously in understanding some of the most common words inside modded minecraft
our middle school science teacher loved me so much because I was funny and was the only person in the class that knew those common english element names, like iron, gold, carbon, magnesium, tin, lead, etc...
of course, every modded minecraft player knows them ๐
then I started playing chinese smp servers, I would write simple farming scripts in a new scripting language
don't cheat! unless you're learning to code!
eventually, I joined an english smp, because I just loved meeting and talking to people on the other side of the world so much, yeah, and I built giant farms here
being able to talk to people in real english opened up a whole new world for me, it wasn't easy, I took minutes to make up a sentence, scrambling the only few words in my brain back and forth from and to google translate, it was very rewarding though, no words can describe how much I loved doing it
hell, I've only gotten the hang of the difference between then and than, after like 2 years of english immersion, probably even longer!
the compromises of self learningโ
undoubtedly, self learning has its trade offs, depending on the way you learn
my way was called language immersion, I wasn't focused on remembering the parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective...), and the sentence structures, or so called, the grammar
to this day, I still can't correctly explain them, nor can I translate english to chinese with ease like other people do, and I constantly make mistakes when coming up with more complicated sentences
it was completely unsystematic, and I can really only recall the most common words I've used when I write or speak, and speaking is basically something I've never done, I'm terrible at it
I really only learned because I had tons of input and output
but the reason it gave me the infinite joy and kept me motivated was because, I was only focused on mimicking how people speak, how people combine words, what certain combination of words feels like, while only understanding the bare minimum of their meanings in my native language
not having to memorize the meanings, memorize the grammar, or get high grades, made it so much fun to learn
everyone should try it, schools should teach it
lots of my early journey with arduino and c++ programming were omitted, this post only serves to document the way I learned english
what were the most rewarding parts of your language learning journey?
do you prefer the structured education? or passion driven self learning?