I used movies for the pronunciation and listening comprehension and read the subtitles additionally in order to get an idea of the spelling. I also tried to sing songs in order to learn the pronunciation. Do you think that this makes sense ? I think, I have a horrible and very obvious German accent but I´m not sure about that.
I think that I remember basic grammar from school and tried to use it together with my vocabulary in fan fiction. I thought that it might be a good idea to write short stories based on material that gives me a role model or template for the usage of the language. So far, I still make a lot of mistakes when writing and I’m far from sounding like an author. I don´t know whether I’ll ever get past that point at all. I also tried essays, but again, if nobody is interested in reading them, it´s not helpful for me.
I read books and wrote down new words, but I’m not really sure whether it makes sense to learn those, because they might be not useful in everyday English or be only important in the context of the story. And motivation is another big point, I won’t read a book, if I find it boring or not interesting at all. I like SCiFi , so I read “Fahrenheit 451”, “Brave new world” and “Do androids dream of electric sheep” and some Star Trek novels. I tried an English crime novel, but didn´t like it much. The same goes for a magazine directed at language learners called “Spotlight”. I wasn´t interested in the articles about travelling or English speaking countries like Australia or Wales. Sorry guys. I´m not a racist, but there are things, that I´m just not into.
I admit, I´m not good at spelling, therefore I use the word spellchecker, when writing. And I´m a little afraid of experimenting with new expression and phrases that I picked up somewhere , because I might use them wrong.
So what else could I try ?