How I learned English

When I was in high school I was rather bad in English. In fact my grades were the worst of all my subjects and I was actually better in Latin!

However, during my penultimate year in high school I made one single decision that raised by my level of English proficiency from poor to high fluency. What was this one big thing that literally changed my life?

I started to read the English Wikipedia. Yes, that's right I decided to read Wikpedia.

Until that time, around 2007, I used to read the Dutch edition of Wikipedia a lot - it was by far my favorite site as a teenager. However, on the Dutch Wikipedia the articles tended to be a bit short and had way fewer articles than the English Wikipedia.

My thirst for knowledge, though, was (and still is) essentially unsatiable. So I turned to that handy feature of Wikipedia other languages and clicked on English. Since I had already read the Dutch version, I knew the gist of what was written in the English one.

Unwittingly I had figured out the very essence of Stephan Krashen's principle of comprehensible input at the age of 17.

When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released in the summer of 2007, I went on to buy my copy on the very day of its international release and I spent the next 36 hours reading. It was the first full sized book I read from cover to cover in English.

The Truth of English fluency among the Dutch

You probably already know, that we Dutchies are among the best speakers of English as a foreign or second language. That is definitely not because our "excelent" school system - English class at Dutch schools is actually pretty bad.

We learn English to a rather high level, because we around surrounded with English on 24/7 base in the Netherlands. If we put on the radio - most lyrics are in English (even Dutch musicians mostly sing in English), when we put on the TV - many series are either from the US or the UK and we do not dubb them. And in this day and age, we watch YouTube all the time.

Don't believe me?

My older brother used to suck in English at school, just like me. However, once he dropped out of high school, he spent most of his time watching Friends all day. Literally. Nowadays, he is able to follow English at an academic level.

Raeding will help you to master Dutch quickly

Reading in a foreign language is one of the key method famous linguist Stephan Krashen suggests to acquire a high degree of fluency. By reading your brain will absorb the finer rules of grammar, the subtle use of idiomatic expressions and the nuances indicated by synonyms.

Perhaps you are not yet ready to read a full size book in Dutch. But don't worry!

Just start small. Begin reading short texts - perhaps an article on Wikipedia on a subject you like or are studying, maybe an interesting blog post. And make it your habit to read one Dutch text each day.

From there you can slowly build up your Dutch reading practise.