At what age did you start learning English?

[Medza]

For me it was in primary school when I was 7, and I was also attending extra curricular lessons after school. But neither was very helpful in preparing me for living in England. I found that the best way to learn the language is just go to the country in which it's spoken. You will get so immersed into it and you will be completely surrounded from all side and you can just absorb it all in, rather than learn things bit at a time. I remember when I was taking lessons there was a lot of emphasis on proper pronunciation or use of tense. If you would ask an Englishman what a 'simple present' is they would look at you blankly, because those things are not taught here unless you specifically choose to study English. I found that it's more important to be able to comfortably talk to people rather than worry too much about getting the specifics right. But anyway, at what age did you start learning English, and how did it go? Did it benefit you?

[BWL]

I started learning English when I was around 5 years old. It is a compulsory subject in kindergartens in Malaysia and almost all children will learn at least some English in their kindergarten years. I think we are fortunate to be exposed to the language at such an early age.

The differences I see between Malaysia and neighboring Thailand are huge. In Thailand, students learn English in elementary school but the syllabus is very basic and really of no practical use. As a result most Thai students never master English unlike Malaysians who use it as a second language. Early and concise education is the key.

[Medza]

I started learning English when I was around 5 years old. It is a compulsory subject in kindergartens in Malaysia and almost all children will learn at least some English in their kindergarten years. I think we are fortunate to be exposed to the language at such an early age.

The differences I see between Malaysia and neighboring Thailand are huge. In Thailand, students learn English in elementary school but the syllabus is very basic and really of no practical use. As a result most Thai students never master English unlike Malaysians who use it as a second language. Early and concise education is the key.

I've always been quite amazed how people from certain countries can just pick up English so well. I have quite a lot of friends in Sweden that have never spoken to a native English speaker, and yet they speak better English than a lot of natives. It's great to see that some countries are really going above and beyond with learning foreign languages.

[Anderson]

I was very young when I was introduced to english, it hasd basicallty become sedcond nature to me, alsmot native.

[NatureSun]

I started learning it at about age 3. It's taught here in nursery classes so pretty much everyone here learn it from then.

It's good that we have this system here learning the global language from such a tender age.

[Netra]

I started at a very young age of 5. English is not my native language but as I mentioned in another thread, my folks made sure that I become fluent in it. I started by reading comics and then shifted to some good books. As I grew up, I got into a good school that taught English very well and I didn't have any problems after that. Moreover, I tend to speak English a lot even with my friends here and that helps too.

[pcgamer]

I started learning English when I was 17. Yeah, I didn't know anything about English up until 2008. I have come a long way since then. It feels great to be able to communicate with others from all around the world. Slowly but surely, it's becoming a less of a hassle to speak and wrote in English.

[Guest akasha24]

I am originally from Hungary but I moved to England when I was about 4. I lived there for nearly 9 years. I started learning English at age 5 when I went to school. It wasn't easy and a lot of kids made fun of how I speak but I did learn quite quickly. I guess it's easier to learn languages when we are young. I was also blessed with a good ear and talent to be able to learn languages quickly, so I guess I am lucky

[SpiralArchitect]

Probably when I was 4 or 5. English is after all compulsory as a part of our education here in India in most urban schools. I don't think I gained any sort of control over the language until I was at least 12 or 13 but yeah I started studying at slowly and steadily from kindergarten onwards.

[veenux]

I was about 8 years old. In most elementary schools in Germany, they start teaching English in the 3rd grade.

I never got really good at it though, until I started to play the guitar at the age of 14 and watched english guitar lessons on Youtube all day 

That's what really got me started. Now I watch nearly every movie and TV series in english, I just can't enjoy the german dubs anymore.

[ghanashyam]

I am from India and those years English was not considered such an important language. I think when I was in 9th standard, the English was taught as a language. The lessons were primary only, contained few words and making of simple sentences. It was in the college years, where English was medium of instructions, that I really started learning the language seriously. The higher educations books in India are all in English only and admittedly English become more important than even the national language Hindi.

[mareebaybay]

I've known English all my life, it is my native language. English was a language that came to me at a very young age, because it was spoken to me when I was a child. I think English is one of the easiest languages to learn.

[pandandesign]

I started learning English when I was in elementary school, when I was about 7 years old. The school where I went required students to learn basic English such as vocabularies, sentence structures, grammar, and speaking skills. Although English wasn't my native language, but it was the language I cannot live without.

[Bonyi]

I started learning English at the age of two at home but started learning it in school at the age of six. You know there is no end to learning. Even till date I'm still learning everyday.

[Baburra]

I started learning English as far back as I remember. When my parents read storybooks to me, they were always in English, and by the time I started school, all the subjects were in English and we only had one or two subjects focusing on our native language.

[kniera]

I started learning English when I was 17. Yeah, I didn't know anything about English up until 2008. I have come a long way since then. It feels great to be able to communicate with others from all around the world. Slowly but surely, it's becoming a less of a hassle to speak and wrote in English.

Sorry I feel really bad for doing this, but it is write instead of wrote, it had to be done.

[add7]

I started when I was around 9 years old and it was one the best decisions in my life. Because I started so early, I got a great feel for the language and I can write and speak it just as well (sometimes even better) than my primary language.

[Petar Petrov]

I started learning English when I was 10. That is the age that I moved to America. I did not know any English and had to go to school. I had no idea what was going on when I was in school because I could not understand. Eventually the teacher helped me with the alphabet at first. Then I started picking up on other things and then eventually I could speak English.  It took me about two years from scratch.

[PeterPen]

I started learning English aged 10, at school.

But I find that the best way to learn English is to dive into the language, to read books, watch movies and listen to music.

Of course, reading the lyrics to my favorite songs helped.

When I learn a language, I am like a sponge. All I have to do is read stuff that I am interested in, or watch movies, documentaries in that language, and very soon I am able to think in that language.

My method of learning new languages has always been intuitive. I never memorize words, I seldom use the dictionary.

If I read a book and I encounter the word "broom" 8 times, the 9th time I know what it means and it stays in my head forever. Reading has helped me a lot.

It does not even matter if I don't understand every word. It is like a puzzle. Intuition will fill in the blanks.

[delusional]

I started learning English by watching TV at the age of 8. We had to learn English at school from the age of 12.

If I compare the knowledge of English between countries that dub their TV shows (France, Germany, ...) and countries that don't, the countries that don't dub their TV shows have a far more better knowledge of English.

[myreallife85]

I started it at Grade school. I liked learning English since I was a little kid. It was like a hobby to me. I did really well from back then. I still want to learn more and explore more about it. It's the main language anyway, so it is a must to do well at it.

[rackindos]

I started in early elementary. However, I went to a school with a US curriculum, so I was able to turn out to become a near-native level speaker. Too bad my mother tongue suffered as a result, though.

[Andrei Punte]

Well, in school is started studying English at the age of ten, but I began learning it a lot earlier. I remember that I used to watch movies in English and my grandmother would read the subtitles for me (I couldn't read that fast yet) so that's when I probably started learning it.

[sidney]

I started learning English when I was in pre-school, as soon as I can understand and speak my native language, since English is widely spoken over here, and even English tv shows and movies are part of our local media, so it's easy to be completely immersed in the language.

[Bonyi]

Well I started learning English quite early since it is the main language spoken in my country. I started at the age of two.