How English went from my biggest professional barrier to my most used language, the unconventional method that accelerated fluency in months rather than years, and why so many founders and professionals remain limited by a problem they could solve.

Update: My current professional focus and schedule no longer allow me to take on students. Thank you to everyone who has been part of this.

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Five years ago, English was not a tool I could use. It was an obstacle I worked around.

I understood grammar. I could read slowly. I had studied the language since childhood, the way many Europeans do. But fluency, the kind where thoughts form in the language rather than translate into it, remained out of reach.

This created limits I rarely discussed. International opportunities required confidence I did not have. Pitching ideas meant first struggling with words, then struggling with ideas. Every conversation carried cognitive overhead that native speakers never consider.

The barrier was invisible to others but present in everything. And I suspect many founders and professionals reading this recognise exactly what I mean.

I decided to change this in a way that seemed almost aggressive. I bought English books far above my level. When I say books, I mean novels, non-fictions, and similar. Difficult texts I genuinely did not understand. Then I read them anyway, circling every unfamiliar word, translating each one, refusing to skip what confused me.

I changed my phone to English. My computer. Every interface I touched daily. I started speaking to myself in English, thinking in English, forcing the language into spaces where my native tongue had lived comfortably.

The method felt strange. It was not what textbooks recommend. But within months, something shifted. The translation step between thought and speech disappeared. English stopped being a foreign language I accessed and became simply a language I used.

It has stayed that way ever since. I now use English more frequently than my native language. Not because I chose to abandon one for the other, but because my work, my reading, my professional world operates in English. The barrier dissolved so completely I sometimes forget it existed.

I have been immersed in English since the age of six, but immersion alone was not enough. Reading and studying textbooks developed understanding. Participation in international projects developed practical ability. The combination created fluency that neither approach achieved alone.

This is why I now teach English to other professionals and founders facing the same barrier I once faced. Not grammar lessons from textbooks. Practical skills. Speaking, listening, the ability to present ideas clearly, to write applications and emails that communicate what you actually mean.

The founders I work with do not need to learn English from scratch. They need to cross the gap between understanding the language and using it confidently. That gap is smaller than it appears, but it requires the right approach to close.

Many professionals limit their opportunities for years because of a barrier they could resolve in months. I know because I did the same thing. The method that works is not complicated. It is simply more intensive than most people attempt.

Until next time,