I saw this meme a while ago and couldn’t stop laughing.

It was surprisingly accurate…

Well, almost.

My learning journey actually went in a slightly different order:

Reading → Listening → Speaking → Writing.

And here’s why.

When people talk about learning English, they often talk about exams, vocabulary lists, or grammar.

I don’t.

We’re talking about a human language, not a programming language.

I have never studied abroad or worked overseas. Yet today, I can comfortably discuss distributed systems, payment architecture, or career choices with native English speakers during technical interviews.

That wasn’t something I imagined a few years ago.

Why Learn English?

For me, the answer has always been simple:

Because I need to use it.

As a software engineer, almost everything valuable is written in English.

• Documentation
• RFCs
• Research papers
• GitHub discussions
• Stack Overflow
• Technical blogs

Chinese resources certainly exist, but they’re often incomplete, outdated, or translated poorly.

So my first stage was simply reading.

I wasn’t learning English for English’s sake.

I was learning it because I wanted to understand technology.

English was a tool.

Reading Became Listening

After a while, reading wasn’t enough.

I started watching conference talks, algorithm explanations, and online bootcamps.

I have to say this:

Indian engineers are amazing at explaining algorithms.

Their accents weren’t always easy for me at first, but their explanations were incredibly clear.

Without realizing it, I had entered the second stage:

Listening.

Then an entirely new world opened.

Podcasts.

Long-form conversations.

People thinking out loud.

Shows like Lex Fridman, Joe Rogan, and many others introduced me to discussions that I would never have encountered otherwise.

At first, I understood maybe 30% of what people were saying.

Sometimes even less.

Especially when the topic was unfamiliar.

But that’s okay.

If you keep feeding your brain enough meaningful input, one day you’ll suddenly notice that everything sounds much clearer than before.

There is actually a theory behind this called Comprehensible Input, proposed by linguist Stephen Krashen Wiki Link.

The idea is surprisingly simple:

You don’t need to understand everything.

You just need enough understanding to keep moving forward.

Then Came Speaking

I didn’t even realize I had reached the next stage.

Speaking.

Honestly, jumping straight into technical interviews with native speakers was probably not the smartest learning strategy.

But that’s exactly what I did.

Surprisingly, it worked.

I still remember two interviewers, Rada and Raj. (Thank you guys, God bless you)

One of them said,

“I really enjoyed this conversation with you.”

Another said,

“No, your English is good.”

Maybe those comments meant nothing special to them.

Maybe they say similar things to many candidates.

I don’t know.

But they meant a lot to me.

They were proof that all those hours of reading, listening, and struggling were actually paying off.

I remember thinking:

Damn… maybe I’m actually doing okay.

I’m Not Trying to Sound Like a Public Speaker

One thing I’ve realized is that I’m not trying to become the kind of person who gives TED Talks.

There are people with incredible English.

They speak with perfect pronunciation.

They choose every word precisely.

They have an enormous vocabulary.

They’re articulate, persuasive, and eloquent.

I genuinely admire them.

But that’s not my goal—at least not for now.

My goal is much simpler.

I want to communicate ideas.

If I can explain a distributed system, discuss payment architecture, or simply have an interesting conversation with another engineer, then my English has already done its job.

Native Speakers Are Smarter Than We Think

Here’s an observation I’ve had.

Chinese is my native language.

Sometimes I meet foreigners on the street who speak only a little Chinese.

Their grammar isn’t perfect.

Their pronunciation isn’t perfect.

Sometimes they even use the wrong words.

But surprisingly…

I almost always understand what they’re mean.

My brain automatically fills in the missing pieces.

I don’t consciously think about it.

It just happens.

I believe native English speakers do exactly the same thing.

They’re not sitting there counting grammar mistakes.

They’re trying to understand the message.

Communication is naturally collaborative.

Both sides are constantly filling in the gaps.

That realization made me much less afraid of making mistakes.

And honestly, I don’t think I’m a “very limited English speaker” anymore.

I simply have a limited vocabulary in some areas.

Those are two completely different things.

Language Comes Before Grammar

Another reason I’m not obsessed with grammar is my own experience.

Besides Mandarin, I can also speak three other Chinese languages that are used only by relatively small communities.

None of us ever attended grammar classes.

Nobody explained sentence structures.

Nobody taught verb tenses.

We simply grew up hearing the language and speaking it every day.

Grammar came after communication.

Not before.

That experience completely changed how I think about language learning.

Grammar is useful.

It helps you become more accurate.

But grammar isn’t where language begins.

Language begins when people want to understand each other.

After all, humans spoke languages for thousands of years before anyone started writing grammar books.

Language Is More Than a Tool

Originally, English was just a tool for my work.

Now it has become something much bigger.

It lets me understand how people in different countries think.

How they work.

How they solve problems.

How they argue.

How they tell stories.

Most importantly, I can access those ideas directly instead of relying on someone else to translate—and sometimes unintentionally distort—them.

Translation is useful.

But translation is interpretation.

Sometimes important meanings disappear completely.

A funny example from the tech industry is the word robust.

It often gets translated into 鲁棒性.

Technically correct?

Sure.

Does anyone outside engineering naturally understand that word?

Probably not.

The original English word feels much more intuitive than its translated version.

Now I’m Learning Spanish

Yo hablo poco español

These days I’m learning Spanish.

Not because I need it for work.

Simply because it looks fun.

When I think about Spanish, I imagine vibrant cultures.

Music.

Football.

People singing and dancing.

Even the language itself sounds alive.

Rolling the r is surprisingly satisfying once you start practicing.

Maybe my imagination isn’t completely accurate.

But that’s okay.

Learning another language also means discovering another way of seeing the world.

So… How?

Looking back, my journey has been surprisingly simple.

Reading → Listening → Speaking → Writing

Reading gave me knowledge.

Listening trained my ears.

Speaking built my confidence.

Writing forces me to organize my thoughts.

Which is exactly why I’m writing this post.

If I could give only one piece of advice, it would be this:

Find something you genuinely enjoy, then consume it in your target language.

Programming.

Video games.

Music.

Football.

Photography.

Cooking.

Anything.

If you’re interested in it, you’ll naturally spend more time with it.

Language isn’t something you memorize.

It’s something you use.

Use it.

That’s the whole secret.

Language in the AI Era

One final thought.

This is just my personal opinion.

I believe natural human language—especially English—has become more valuable than ever in the age of LLMs and AI.

Not less.

For software engineers, AI can already generate code, explain APIs, summarize papers, and even help design systems.

The bottleneck is increasingly no longer writing code.

It’s communicating clearly.

Can you describe a problem precisely?

Can you explain your requirements?

Can you challenge the AI’s answers?

Can you judge whether the output actually makes sense?

Those are language skills.

And because today’s frontier AI models are primarily trained and developed in English, English naturally becomes the language with the richest ecosystem—documentation, discussions, research papers, open-source projects, and prompt engineering examples.

For non-native English speakers like me, learning English today isn’t just about talking to people.

It’s also about collaborating with AI.

Maybe I’m wrong.

Maybe five or ten years from now, AI will remove most language barriers completely.

I would actually be happy if that happens.

But today, I still believe English gives me access to more knowledge, better tools, and more opportunities.

So I’ll keep learning.

Looking back, I don’t think I was “learning English.”

I was using English to learn everything else.

Somewhere along the way, without realizing it, English itself became one of my strengths.

And perhaps that’s how the most valuable skills are built—not through short-term intensive study, but through years of being quietly useful.

You are not reading this post, you are acquiring this post.