#lang tips

Stick with one useful resource to study grammar and my favorite one is the Oxford Learner’s Grammar

Use Italki feature called “Notebook” and write entries about anything you want (see Pinterest for some inspo) and you’ll receive corrections by native speakers, super useful to improve your writing skills

Tandem and Hello Talk are perfect to practice your speaking, English native speakers are EVERYWHERE! Don’t be afraid and use only voice messages

To improve your pronunciation I highly recommend to check out some basic linguistic knowledge because it makes easier, this helped me a lot and I highly recommend to check @maripolyglot YouTube video about it

WORK ON YOUR VOCABULARY! Type “English vocabulary or vocab list” in the search field. You’ll thank me later~

you always see language do’s - but not some ‘non- or anti-advice’

1. grammar is important, but often only the basics. once you get past general sentence construction, future/past tenses, its often more academic than practical. (plus you can pick a lot up by simply reading and figuring out, or translating/using a dictionary).

2. similar to above - vocab is key. but, with this - look at the top 1000, 2000 or even 5000 words and get into those

3. think you can speak as well as you can in your native language. seems obvious, but we all can get very disappointed when we can’t express ourselves exactly right, or even at all. what i do, is ‘how old am i in this language?’ - i.e. am i at the level of a toddler, an 8 yr old, a 12 yr old? 

4. focus (purposefully or not) on one aspect - i.e. writing, reading, speaking, listening. remember active skills: writing/speaking VS passive skills: listening/reading. 

5. focusing on getting rid of your accent - this is nowhere near as important as correct pronunciation. they’re not the same skill.

6. direct translation while reading. in the beginning you need to do this, obviously, but don’t try and work it out word by word. sometimes by the next sentence you’ll understand by context clues (i recommend simply highlighting words that you don’t understand, then get back to it).

sunday : domingo

monday : segunda-feira

tuesday : terça-feira

wednesday : quarta-feira

thursday : quinta-feira

friday : sexta-feira

I hope you don't mind if I answer this publicly, but this is helpful, thank you!