On my learning English

English is my third language, and I learnt English (Latin really) alphabets in the First Form (now sixth standard/grade). I had a hard time. Then I asked a paternal uncle of mine for help; he was an English professor and a Shakespeare scholar. He had a wonderful theory about language learning. He told me, initially just ignore grammar in the classes (that is, just do enough work to pass), but be a voracious reader of GOOD English literature. He cautioned me that it would be a tough row to hoe and frustrating, but would pay off in the long run. The most complex human task ever done by a baby is learning a language, and every child learns language with virtually no help from anybody. He said It matters that whatever I read is high class (otherwise this answer would contain expletives and other bad language). Then he gave me his copy of AJ Cronin’s “The Citadel” to start reading; imagine reading a novel when all you know are just the alphabets and a few words. The dictionary became my best friend and has remained so till now. And he threw his personal library at my disposal. It was the most fascinating experience spending time discussing English with him. In fact I got into trouble with my parents because I was spending more time at his home than at mine.

I learnt the language by repeating patterns of great phrases, clauses, sentences from whatever I had read. I sailed through school, college, graduate school, published quite a bit in my domains of interest. I came back to English grammar after my PhD when I did some work on statistical linguistics. Now a dozen or so books on English grammar are permanently on my desk.