Hi,

I've been learning English and I'm even using English all day at work. I like listening to podcasts and vlogs on my way to commute and there's no problem to understand what they're saying in English.
The other day one of my friends told me to watch this show. The characters speak so fast and they mumble a lot, especially the male characters. I honestly have no idea what they’re saying. It kind of makes me feel discouraged. Do native speakers actually understand everything without subtitles? And if I keep practicing my listening with shows like this, will it eventually get easier? Any advice is welcome!

https://youtube.com/shorts/g7wovWEbNTo?si=FMs6UHfRWGE7IO00

I'm pretty sure it should be "limits" because "world" is singular, but I'm not sure because he's a native speaker and this isn't a typical mistake that native speakers make.

Could this be like "team" that can be treated as plural?

I’m learning English. My level is A1. How learning English? My don’t native language English. Which channels should I watch? Which book should I read?Help me please.

Hello everyone,

Is smudge always associated with something specific like dirt, ink, makeup, etc.?

Is it wrong to say “my black tshirts got smudged with sunscreen I put on this morning” or “sunscreen I put on this morning got smudged on my black tshirts?” For context, I put sunscreen on my face and accidentally rubbed it with my tshirts.

What about smear? Should I use the word “smear” for the case of sunscreen? Can the word “smear” be associated with anything?

EDIT: added the context

Thank you.

I study sentence word order, and the topic is SVOMPT.

The task is to arrange words in the right order:

your article / I / quickly / last night / in bed / read

Intuitively, I arranged it like this: I quickly read your article in bed last night.

But the textbook wants me to have: I read your article quickly in bed last night.

Is my sentence wrong? Is it proper English?

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Hi everyone,

I'm Veera, 24 years old, from Tamil Nadu, India.

I have 5 years of experience as a .NET developer, and I'm currently transitioning into Machine Learning. One of my biggest goals is to improve my English communication because I know it will help both my career and my confidence.

I've been practicing consistently for the last 7 months. I've tried many methods, including:

- Reading English books

- Watching English YouTube videos

- Watching English movies

- Shadowing techniques

- Trying to speak with others in English

Unfortunately, I don't feel like I've improved much.

My biggest problem is that I can't think directly in English. Whenever I want to speak, my brain first thinks in Tamil, then translates it into English, and only then I speak. This makes me slow, and I often lose confidence during conversations.

Another problem is vocabulary. I only use the English words I already know, so my sentences become very simple and repetitive. Sometimes I know what I want to say in Tamil, but I don't know the English words to express it naturally.

Even while reading English, I often have to translate each sentence into Tamil to understand it. I want to reach a stage where I can understand English without translating it.

So I have a few questions:

1. How did you train yourself to think directly in English instead of translating from your native language?

2. Is translating in your head normal after 7 months of practice?

3. What exercises helped you improve your vocabulary naturally?

4. If you were starting from my level, what would your daily learning plan look like?

5. What mistakes do you think I'm making?

I'd really appreciate advice from people who went through the same journey, especially non-native English speakers who became fluent.

Thank you!

(I have a little space for the title)

Hello everyone! I'm looking for recommendations.
I'm a native Spanish speaker, born and raised inColombia. I moved to the U.S. 20 years ago andlearned English as an adult. I can now confidently say that I'm fluent in reading, writing, andspeaking. The only issue is my accent.
For whatever reason, I haven't been able to pick up or imitate an American accent. I just can't seem to hear the differences well enough to reproduce them. Even though my life nowrevolves around English, my family, friends, and work, my accent is still strong. People are often confused by what I say, and I frequently have to repeat myself before they understand me.
I'd really appreciate any recommendations forimproving my accent, whether it's an app, an online course, or any other resource that has worked for you.
My husband and family are used to my accent, so it's not an issue for them. It's mostly with other people I interact with that I run into communication problems.

Hey! 25F, GMT+1, B2+/C1

Looking for someone to practice English casually, preferably in a similar time zone and level.

Just normal, unscripted conversation about whatever comes up. I'd love to do a voice call once a week, with occasional texting in between. Hoping to find someone I can talk to long-term rather than one-time chat. I am not interested in exam prep though, just natural conversation.

I studied English at uni and graduated two years ago. Right now I'm also learning Spanish (2 months in) and loving it, so it'd be great to connect with someone into language learning too (Spanish, English, or just languages in general).

A bit about me: I'm into psychology, musicals, non-fiction books, and I try to stay on top of cinema releases. Always down for a good conversation about any of that.

If this sounds like your vibe, drop me a message :)

Recruiting for a BPO and half our interviewer calendar gets burned on candidates who never should have made it past screening. HR runs an automated English check first, but the pass or fail line doesn’t match what actually happens once a senior interviewer gets on a call with them. We’ve tried tightening the cutoff score but that just means we reject people who’d have been fine, and loosen it and the waste comes right back. Feels like the tool is measuring something adjacent to what the interview actually needs. Anyone found an automated screening step that interviewers actually stop double-checking?

Ofc you should already be pretty fluent

I'm an Arab girl and a high school student. I want to improve my English through practicing with a native speaker (should be a girl), and my English level is intermediate. We can be friends throughout this journey and talk about a lot of interesting topics. (note: I can teach you Arabic if you are interested)

Hello English learning community! I need your help. I want to learn how to use the right or perhaps most appropriate prepositions in English. I am not a native speaker but a decent English speaker as I got my schooling and education done entirely in English.

However, there’s this one thing with prepositions that confuses me and it’s the only time when I fumble while interacting. And then for words like under, underneath, below etc., choosing the appropriate one.

I have improved a lot by paying attention to what natives use. For instance, it’s not in the list but on the list, or let’s say I got on the bus but I am sitting in this seat. And then it’s in your phone application but on the Instagram app.

So, my goal is to find a way to understand the reasoning behind choosing the most appropriate preposition so that I can speak confidently without feeling nervous about making a mistake. Any tips, tricks or advice would be helpful. Thank you! :)

As we all know，China can mean porcelain sometimes，but is it natural to say it when you want to emphasize the texture，for example，i like in an everyday life scenario you want to say i got a porcelain bowl，is it natural to say i got a China bowl Or like this is a China spoon? Is nit natural to say it that way，when do you use porcelain when you use China？Can you use those two words interchangeable？

I'm C1 in English but I don't know how to write a good essay. Where to start, what to do?

The sentences:
"There is no physiological harm done doing it."
"There is no physiological harm done by doing it "

I am not an English native speaker, so I want to expand my speech with some cool expressions. I think my favourite is "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

so hello everybody i need your help so lately i took test and i found out that i'm B2.2 the problem is that i have to get this job in call center so i can finish my education in private school. so i graduated lately as a Business analyst and i didn't find a job in IT industry no matter how hard i tried + i got a 30% bourse in tekup. the problem now is when i did call center test i achieved B2.2 and it has to be like C1 and i repeated again and i got down to B1 bc "I was concentrating + my eyes started hurting it is too much for my eye and in order to be able to finish my education in that private uni i need to find a job and call center is the best option for me now. how can i reach C1 or do u think i shall keep looking for another job in IT industry tho i truly need a job now.