Start Here to Improve Your English

It's true for English and other foreign languages, but the most important factor seems to be exposure. Some people, even after living in America for decades, can't speak English properly, while some native Korean speakers, without ever having studied abroad, can converse fluently with native speakers.

In my case, I speak Korean 100% of the time at home and church, but communicate primarily in English otherwise. Online, the language I use depends on who I'm talking to; it's mainly Korean, English, and Japanese. Today, I want to talk about English, and I improved my skills in a slightly unusual way.

Many people say they learn English by shadowing while watching American dramas, but I've never been a fan of movies or dramas. I'm not a Netflix subscriber and I don't use OnDemandKorea, which is popular among Koreans in the US.

Instead, I was able to improve my inadequate English skills through adult education classes. Even though I studied English in Korea, my English was terrible when I first arrived in the US; I couldn't even say things like, "I feel dizzy," or "Please give me a cup."

Then I got a smartphone, and one day it occurred to me to try using it in English. Since I could read Korean easily, I didn't need to use it in Korean. So, I immediately changed the language settings to English, a habit that continues to this day.

The same is true for my computer. As soon as Windows 10 was released in 2015, I finally got my own PC, and I set it up in English from the start, and I still use English for Windows 11. So, when I have questions or need to solve something, I search in English and get answers in English.

And now, it's the age of artificial intelligence. Before, I would have Googled things, but now I ask Copilot, Windows' AI. It answers most of my questions correctly. (Even Bible study questions!) If I ask in Korean, it answers in Korean, but its knowledge of Korea seems limited, so it often suggests visiting relevant websites instead of providing direct answers. This is a drawback for Korean users.

Anyway, living in the US, I've experienced and judged that the US is still far ahead in the IT field. I feel that the AI field, in particular, is constantly evolving and improving year by year.

So, my conclusion is that if you want to improve your English, change the system language of your smartphone and computer to English right now. For example, if you want to know how to categorize photos by tags on your Galaxy phone, instead of Googling it, ask AI in detail in English. You'll get a precise answer in English. This will improve your reading comprehension and naturally enhance your writing skills.