The word itself was a mistery, but I understood what it meant: it meant that my game would start. 

Then different words emerged like “player”, “jump”. I didn’t even know that those weird words are from English, nor did my father and mother, since they had just finished elementary school each. In rural Brazil in the 80s, it was common for parents to take kids out of school after they learned how to read and do some basic math.

My next contact with English besides games and random words in marketing media was in school in the 6th grade. I was 11 years old, and we were learning the basic grammar. My console this time was a PS1 that I still miss. I played a lot of games like Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories, Crash Bandicoot, Megaman Legends, and more. In school, I learned what those words I was seeing repeated times meant, but I still wasn’t able to comprehend phrases, even the shortest of them.

Something schools are not good at is teaching you how to learn things. The education in Brazil is terrible; teachers just read the teaching books out loud while we write down what they are saying. Then they give us exercises based on that. If the class is more complex, like Math or Physics, then we receive a general explanation and that was it. It was all about memorization; it was never about actually understanding. This same principle also applies to English; they just wanted us to remember grammar rules and the translation of some words. Yeah, you’re not expected to learn the language at all.

But to be fair to the teachers, I know it must be really hard to try to teach a bunch of uninterested kids, which about half of them had a messed-up life. The chattering never stops, and they have to literally scream all day long to the kids to be quiet, so finding a general way to handle the situation is easier. Teachers in Brazil are living through hell daily.

In the 7th grade, I got interested in learning English, but by being a kid, I thought that I just needed to learn the translation of all the words and all grammar rules, and that was it. So, my mom bought me a good dictionary and an English book. I read the entire book multiple times, learned an astonishing amount of rules and conjugations, and I was reading the dictionary as well and was trying to memorize the words. I don’t need to say that I failed miserably, and besides literal translations of written phrases that didn’t make sense, I wasn’t able to comprehend anything. I also got into music. I was listening to Nirvana almost daily, and I didn’t understand anything, but it was enough for me to look for the lyrics, and that helped a bit. 

In school, we were still trying to learn “verb to be”. Around this time, my parents got divorced, and my life became a mess. I stopped learning English at home.

It was many years later, when I was 19, that I decided to actually learn English. It was also the first time that I learned that each one of us has a way of learning properly and that different subjects require different methodologies. So I made the first search on Google that changed my life: “how to learn English”. I discovered that the “how” is really important, and this became my question whenever I wanted to learn something new: “How to learn x thing”.

I don’t remember exactly where, but I read in a blog post from some random guy that for you to learn a language, you must understand it in your head without translating and that reading and listening were different skills that I need to learn separately. He also said that you need immersion, you need to keep watching and reading non-stop and eventually you would understand that language because our brains are wired to that, it is how babies learn languages and that is also how adults learn.

I took the challenge, made a plan that was simple: keep watching a tv show with English subtitles on then with it of. So I started watching Friends non stop 4 to 6 hours per day after work. The same episode over and over again I looked like a maniac doing that. It took me only 3 months and I was already understanding half of it and that sensation felt amazing.

8 months later, I was understanding almost everything from the show and what I didn’t understand, I got the gist of it. I also was reading daily, reading became far easier and it was my forte. My reading was way better, I was already reading news only in English. Around this time I also read somewhere about how to practice immersion in a way that everything around you is in English, so I did just that. My phone, PC, books I read, everything was in English. My job also helped a lot, since documentations are always in English. So at this point I trusted the plan and kept doing everything I could in English. TBH I only understood 60% of the content but it was enough to make progress daily.

Fast forward some years, I was 25 and English was second nature for me. Everything new I learned was in English as well, it became a little bit troublesome because at this point there were words I knew in English that I didn’t know in my mother language. I trusted the process and I was successful but still haven’t spoken with anyone in English, I didn’t even write anything in English. So my comprehension was at an all-time high, I could understand anything but I couldn’t speak nor write. I was also afraid of doing so because people would laugh at my weird accent or my grammar mistakes while writing.

It took me until I was 28 to start taking conversation lessons on Cambly. I was anxious during my first lesson with a teacher, but it went surprisingly well. The teacher created a relaxed and worry-free environment, which made all the difference. I still remember how great it felt afterward. I had spoken a different language with another person, and we both understood each other! It was an amazing experience.

By my 10th lesson, I was already speaking with confidence. The teachers gave me plenty of valuable tips, one of which really stuck with me: not to worry about people laughing at me or making grammar mistakes. They encouraged me to keep speaking and practicing, assuring me that with time and persistence, I would continue to improve.

At this point, I feel like I’ve already reached the level I aimed for. I understand that language learning is a constant, never-ending process, and I still have a lot to improve, you can see that just by reading this post, as it contains grammar mistakes and unnatural expressions that a native speaker would never use.

Still, I can’t fully describe how much English has changed my life for the better. It felt like a new door opened, revealing an entirely new world to explore. Whether it was learning about electronics, gardening, programming languages, or other topics, everything felt more enjoyable in English because of the abundance of high-quality content available. At times, it was even overwhelming.

You know, I’m kind of a nerd, and I’ve been into anime since I was 14. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but my interest in anime and manga is what motivates me to learn Japanese. Yeah. So last year I searched “How to learn Japanese” and I found the AJATT blog (All Japanese All the Time) and his method of learning felt alluring because it kind of describes what I was already doing in English. I also learned about Anki and flashcards and about Stephen Krashen and his studies towards language learning.

So, I’m currently learning Japanese. I started in the middle of 2024. One of the challenges with Japanese is its three writing systems. Two of them, Hiragana and Katakana, are relatively simple with only about 71 characters combined. But then there’s Kanji, a whole different beast with over 3,000 characters (technically ideograms). Words are formed by combining these systems, which adds to the complexity.

The grammar itself is fairly straightforward, but the different levels of politeness are a real challenge. Depending on whether you’re speaking politely, humbly, or casually, it can feel like you’re learning a completely different language each time!

This is my current plan.

I am also immersing myself in Japanese while doing all of this daily. Thank god there is a plethora of good content in Japanese. I hope to reach an intermediate level by the end of 2025, and I am excited.