Learn Your English Grammar First

[GingerCat]

One of the things I remember distinctly from learning French in high school was my teacher talking about English grammar. A lot of people don't realize how important knowing grammar in your own language is to actually learning a new one. If you don't understand parts of speech, it's nearly impossible to get your head around them in another language, even if they are not formulated the same way in English.

Thankfully, I have always found English grammar fun and interesting, so that part of learning a foreign language was not so difficult for me. But for others, this can be quite a tricky thing. I actually would recommend brushing up on English grammar before starting a foreign language if you are at all unsure of the rules.

[hades_leae]

About one year ago I decided to start studying grammar in English all over again because I wasn't raised in a way as far as my speech to be proper. I use many words that I wouldn't consider appropriate English grammar.

Although I did take English in school, it was nothing like actually learning English. We learned many other things that had nothing to do with the English language which was very misleading. 

I believe it really is important to understand everything in regards to ones own native language as you said.

[gracerph]

I once heard someone say that you have to love your native tongue first before you could ever love another language. I do agree to some extent but I however am amenable to being better at English than my own native tongue which is Filipino. I guess it also depends on how you were raised and what language orientation you have been accustomed to. In my case, I'm more comfortable using the English language than the Filipino language.

I have come to realize though that for someone to be able to learn other languages aside from English, one has to really be well versed with the English language first because it is a universal language which is spoken in most, if not all parts of the world. If one already knows the basics in English including grammar, it could mean that he/she is ready to learn another foreign language.