5 Writing Tips for Non-Native Speakers
How I improved my English to be able to write stories in a foreign language
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The best language for content on the internet is English. There are 370 million native English speakers and as it is the global language a high percentage of non-native speakers can also understand it. According to this list, a total of 1.268 billion people speak English as their first or second language, which ranks first in the total number of speakers. Therefore it is the best way to reach the highest number of people. But how can you get your English to a high enough level to be able to write engaging and interesting stories without hundreds of grammatical errors? I don’t think I am close to a native speaker’s level yet, but I feel confident enough to post content on the internet consistently. Here are a few ways how I improved my English skills to do it.
0. School
A lot of people learn English as their second language in school. A few years ago it has even been pushed to the elementary school level here in Germany. Therefore I am going to include school on this list. School is a good way to learn the basics of a language, but unless you are a very dedicated and diligent learner, it is difficult to get to a higher level from just school alone. The best way to pick up a language is to use it, which is why I can communicate fluently in English, but I remember absolutely nothing about Latin from school.
1. Watch Movies and Series in English
Early in my school career, I was really bad at English. I didn’t care much about writing an analysis of a play by Shakespeare. However, at some point, I started to watch movies and series in English. The first one that I can remember watching was Hannah Montana, which I would consider a children’s, maybe a teen’s tv series. But that’s actually perfect. Actors speak very clearly, don’t use a lot of difficult words, and rarely have hard to understand accents. My grades improved and I even remember that I used the phrase “getting back at someone” in class, which my teacher didn’t know and had to look up. These days, I almost exclusively watch Youtube and Netflix in English. It also improves the watching experience, because even for a big market like Germany, the…
