Introduction
This post is a guide to how I learned English on my own, without spending a lot of money and without taking classes. I’ll show you the path I followed and that worked for me. Everyone has their own pace, but if you follow this guide consistently, you’ll learn English.
Learning a new language makes you want to give up, especially when it’s your first second language. But don’t give up — keep following this guide and you’ll see that it’s worth it.
Guide summary:
- How to get into the language — Duolingo
- Exposure — change your phone and computer’s language
- Sensory exposure — streaming services in English
- Vocabulary — read books in English
- Writing — practice with AI and Discord
- Immersion — consume everything in English
- Speaking — without fear of making mistakes
- Final tips
What does learning English mean?
First of all, let’s understand what “learning English” means. Where do you want to get? What do you want to learn it for? These kinds of questions give you direction on how to act at each step of the process.
Let’s set the goal as simply being able to communicate in English with other people, without slang and without worrying about your accent. And that’s simpler than it seems: you just need to absorb some words and understand how they connect — around 1,000 to 1,500 words. But don’t worry, you don’t need to learn them all at once or memorize anything through brute force.
1. How to get into the language
Given that the goal is to get your brain to absorb 1,500 words, let’s use a strategy so this isn’t absurdly difficult: gradual exposure to the language.
Start with the basics: learn pronouns, verbs, nouns, and numbers using Duolingo. Yes, Duolingo works. It’s slow, but that’s good — it gradually exposes you to the language, giving your brain time to absorb the content.
How to use it: 15 minutes a day for a month. Religiously. In a month you’ll already know the very basics.
2. Exposure → Repetition & Memorization
Set your phone and the computer you use casually to English (not your work one, that could slow down your productivity). This puts you in contact with the language during relaxed moments. Keep using Duolingo alongside this — passive learning happens naturally.
At first you’ll struggle a little, but in a week or two you’ll already have learned many of the words that appear in the interface. How?
Google Translate. Whenever an unfamiliar word appears, translate it. I still do this today and it was my main memorization method for a long time.
3. Exposure → Sensory
Now let’s get your brain to understand the language naturally. Set Netflix, Amazon Prime, and all your streaming services to English and watch everything with subtitles. Build that habit.
4. Intensive vocabulary learning
This is where your vocabulary goes from 8 to 80, and the strategy is simpler than you imagine: read books in English.
Pick a book you’ve already read in Portuguese and read it in English (translating word by word — boring, but it works). Your brain already knows the story, so it’ll be easier to understand the context and absorb new words. You can also pick a new book and translate the words you don’t know as you go.
Requirement before starting: if you need to translate 7 out of every 10 words, it’s still too early for books — go back to Duolingo. Start reading when you need to translate at most 4 out of every 10 words.
The numbers: 10 pages a day → 300 pages in a month → 3,650 pages in a year. That’s a lot.
Tools that make it easier:
- Kindle — translates any word with a tap
- Google Chrome — translates when you select a word in any article
What matters is building a reading habit and increasing your vocabulary day by day.
5. Writing
You can already read and understand English. Now it’s time to write.
Where to practice:
- Talk to ChatGPT, Gemini, or any AI and ask it to correct your texts
- Join the English HUB server on Discord and chat with people
6. Immersion
Dive into the language — consume everything you can in English:
- Music
- Videos and livestreams
- Podcasts
- Articles and posts
Act as if English were your first language.
7. Speaking
Speaking is the hardest part, but here’s the trick: everyone is afraid of speaking incorrectly, but the truth is that nobody cares. Just being able to put together a complete sentence in English is already impressive. When you speak, go slowly and pronounce each word carefully.
Where to practice:
- ChatGPT — has a real-time conversation feature
- English HUB on Discord — calls 24/7 to practice
8. Final tips
You should have noticed that I didn’t talk about learning grammar or becoming an expert in the language. The focus here is communication.
Throughout this entire immersion journey, your brain will naturally notice how words connect and you’ll get the hang of it. Once vocabulary stops being a problem, then it’s worth looking up basic grammar and pronunciation to refine your communication.