English
Ten years of studying English and I still couldn't follow a single episode. Here's what finally worked.
Start: Introduction →Start here
- Introduction
Who I am, how I studied English wrong for years, and why I wrote these notes.
- How I taught myself English
The whole route I took, start to finish.
- The first 30 days
Exactly what I did in the first month, week by week.
- The four pieces
The one frame I use to check whether my study week is missing something.
Skills
- Listening every day
How I listen, what difficulty I aim for, and what I do when progress stalls.
- When you know the words but can't hear them
Why a sentence made of familiar words still slips past, and how I trained my ear.
- Reading in English
How I got through a lot of pages without burning out on dictionary lookups.
- Vocabulary & Anki
How I remember words through real sentences, and the two times I nearly quit Anki.
- Collocations
Why I stopped learning one word at a time and started learning chunks.
- Speaking English
Why I waited a long time before practising speaking, and how I practised.
- Writing in English
Why I practised writing before speaking, and the three-step loop I use.
Tools
- Setting up Ddict
The lookup tool I use daily — double-click a word, get the meaning, never leave the page.
- Monolingual dictionaries
When I dropped Vietnamese definitions, and how to switch without the shock.
Resources
- The resources I use
The tools and sources I actually use — not a list padded out for length.
- Comprehensible input
How I pick material at the right difficulty, and how I make it easier when it isn't.
- How many words is enough
The numbers that told me where I stood, and which words are worth the effort.
- Measuring level and progress
How I know where I am without sitting an exam, and why I stopped trusting how it feels.
- What I read
Where the ideas on this site came from, and what I actually took from each one.
- Frequently asked questions
The questions I get most often, answered briefly.