How I became a near-native speaker of English — my English journey (part 1)

In this series, I’m going to take you through my English language journey and tell you how I went from a teen who was a good speaker, to a fluent near-native speaker of English.

Everyone who starts learning English hopes to be as fluent as a native speaker, hopes to speak English without an accent, and hopes to have the vocabulary of a native speaker.

The road, however, is not simple, and without clear directions, it’s impossible to go from beginner to near-native.

As an English teacher, I hope to share some of the things I’ve done to go from a simple English speaker to a near-native English speaker. Now, I know that I can’t compare to an actual native speaker because I wasn’t raised in an English-speaking country. Still, I do believe that some of the things I’ve done over the years have drastically improved my English language proficiency.

Is near-native the goal?

Before I start sharing my journey, I need to clarify something: becoming a native speaker shouldn’t be your goal (and is impossible). I understand that being as fluent as a native speaker and speaking with near-native pronunciation is a very nice aim, but it shouldn’t be the goal of your language learning journey.