Learning English with AI: I made more progress in 3 months than 16 years at schools

I grew up in the countryside with limited education resources. I only started learning English from 6th grade, and even then, listening practice was rare. When the teacher played audio for us, the tape was often too noisy to make out more than a few words.

Naturally, my English remained poor. By the time I entered university, I still struggled. Later, in the workplace, I had little exposure to foreign languages and gradually forgot what little I had learned. I tried taking courses at private centers, but I could not keep up or understand the lessons.

The way English is taught in Vietnam can be rigid, focused on formulas like subject, verb, object, without explaining why. I was often too afraid to ask questions, because when I did, I got vague answers. For example, I always wondered: What exactly is the role of "to be"? Why does English need it when Vietnamese does not? Or, why must the subject and the verb match?

A woman studies using ChatGPT on her phone. Illustration photo by Pexels/Shantanu Kumar

Everything became clear to me when I discovered AI tools, especially ChatGPT. I began asking the questions I dared not ask before. I would paste a paragraph or a short dialogue into the chat, and the AI would break it down for me, highlighting vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure.

It explained that "to be" acts as a bridge between the subject and its description—who or what they are, what condition they are in, or where they are. For instance: I am a student. It is cold. She is at home. That simple explanation helped everything click.

When I needed help with pronunciation, I used AI for transcriptions. As the tools improved, some even allowed me to have spoken conversations. From mumbling my way through sentences, I reached a point where AI could clearly understand me, and talk back like a real conversation partner.

By daring to ask and interact regularly, my English improved dramatically. In just three months, I made more progress than I had in the past 16 years.

I believe that for anyone learning a foreign language, AI can be an incredibly effective teacher, as long as you're willing to ask questions and learn actively.