
Anita P. answered 12/16/21
Anita, ESL and English professor, journalist, photographer, hiker
If you can combine an immersion experience---live in a native English-speaking country--and working with a tutor on writing, reading, and pronunciation, you will learn smoothly and quickly.
This was my experience with Finnish--yes, Finnish, one of the most difficult languages on earth!--and I achieved near-fluency in just two years.
I won't say it was easy. I became a strong speaker out of necessity (not many spoke English in Finland then); and I was a journalist, so I really needed to understand Finnish. I will confess that I almost cried when I looked at the front page of the Helsingin Sanomat, the main newspaper, the very first time.
I was a pretty slow reader. I was a timid writer of Finnish because it has 17 cases! But the ability to converse with friends and family, to interview famous people, even, that was a reward, and the most important part of my fluency.
You can have the same experience with English if you take classes at the same time that you find lots of people with whom to speak to in English. Also: Watch movies with subtitles (either direction, from your language to English, or vice versa). Movies were one of the best motivators I found, and the pictures said so much.
Even a trip to the grocery store can be a fantastic free lesson: You must choose the correct foods, read the ingredients, count your money and give the correct amount to the cashier. Then, a reward: a good meal! And you'll learn about the culture of food and drink in whichever part of th English-speaking world you land.