When you were a kid, was your English class full?
Did you have 1 billion classmates?
Because according to Señor Google, that’s how many people are learning English.
Does that mean next year we’ll have one billion more English speakers?
Probably not.
Because about 999 million are sitting in classrooms.
They’ll read grammar rules and learn that English is confusing.
Their teacher will correct their speaking in front of their friends and they’ll learn English is stressful.
They’ll memorize and quickly forget and learn that their brain doesn’t work.
They’ll learn a lot.
But they probably won’t learn to speak English.
What a pity.
In my travels, I meet a lot of fluent speakers.
I always ask, How did you learn to speak?
The answers are usually, “I studied abroad”… “I watched Friends every day”… “I had an Australian boyfriend”… “I read X-Men and Spiderman comic books”…
What do they have in common?
Daily English.
Enjoyable English.