I just looked over the comments above and I felt that Don Tai’s post was a bit pessimistic. But perhaps I am interpreting “speaking like a native speaker” differently than he is. I live in the U.S., and the fact is that people in different regions of the U.S. have different accents. Similarly people in Canada, Britain, and Australia all speak with a different accent than I have. But all of them speak English which is perfectly understandable.

I have a friend here in the U.S. who grew up in Taiwan and speaks very good English. Does she have an accent? Yes, but so do I and so does everyone else. Nonetheless she is perfectly understandable; she speaks in a grammatically correct manner, and she has mastered the current colloquial expressions and slang.

I’m sure being immersed in an English-speaking country is of immeasurable value. However, I have noted that she reads voraciously, and that she does all her reading electronically as e-books. She tells me that because her e-book reader has a built-in dictionary, she can look up unfamiliar words easily, and this has really helped her to build up her vocabulary.

Best wishes to you in your efforts to master English.

Don’t worry… Do you live in China?

You must be kidding. CRI is too far away from where I live or work.

I’ve convinced myself that only by living in the country whose language you want to learn can you learn it really well. Here in China, in Beijing, I speak Chinese and only occasionally English. In the latter case, my audience must be very kind and patient.