I stopped studying English and started using it
12th January 2026
For years, I was that student who passed English at school without really knowing English. I don’t just mean I got by; I mean I took my exams, I passed, and I moved up a year. And yet, if someone spoke to me in English, my brain would completely freeze.
I was born in Spain in 1990, so my experience of learning English at school was pretty typical for my generation: textbooks full of grammar, explanations in Spanish, written exercises, and zero – and I mean zero – real opportunities to speak. English was taught like history: something to memorise, not something to use.
I clearly remember teachers explaining English in Spanish. Nobody spoke. Nobody listened to real English, except for the occasional cassette recording. Nobody made mistakes out loud. And year after year, we left with a passing grade in our hands. Reality only hit the day I had to use English outside the classroom.
I moved to London with a clear goal: to learn English, experience something different with my wife – then my girlfriend – and play for a semi-professional football team. I knew my English was bad, but not that bad. Not being able to order food in a restaurant. Not being able to communicate with my own teammates. Not understanding jokes. Not knowing how to reply. Feeling awkward. Childish. Dependent. London doesn’t correct you gently; it just keeps talking, and you fall behind.
It was in that context that someone recommended a school on Oxford Street. I had already tried several English academies back home without success, so my expectations were low. I thought “Just another one”. And then something different happened.
From the very first minute at Callan School London, they made me speak. With very little English. With constant mistakes. With broken sentences. And they didn’t let me hide. The teachers supported me at all times but also corrected me. Every small mistake. Not to humiliate me, but to adjust, to push, to stop bad habits from settling in. There was no time to translate. I had to answer. I had to jump in. Because the brain also needs practice to react, not just to recognise rules. And that, at first, is scary.
Still, when the first lesson ended, I felt something new: real, tangible progress. Not because I had understood a grammar rule, but because I had spoken. Because I had survived.
I only spent two and a half months at Callan School London, but it was enough to change my relationship with the language. In just 10 weeks or so, I had learnt so many useful words, phrases and grammatical structures, and I had practised them, in speaking, every day. But Callan had given me something else too, something I had never felt before: I had gained fluency, confidence, and above all, ease. That feeling of “I can communicate, even if it’s not perfect.”.
I went back to Spain and, some time later, I resumed my studies with Callan – this time online – and that’s when I realised something had stayed with me. It hadn’t gone away. I stopped memorising pointless lists. I chose to learn while listening and speaking. The same way I learned Spanish as a child: by using the language.
Over time, new challenges appeared, of course. Native English-speaker friends talking to each other at full speed. Long breaks. That familiar feeling of “I’ve forgotten everything”, which you later realise isn’t true at all – my English was simply out of practice. Like a bike that’s been left in the garage for too long. At first it creaks, it’s hard to get going, and everything feels awkward. But the more you use it, the smoother the ride, and soon it’s the bike you used to know.
I began to understand that the problem wasn’t English, but distance. The longer I went without using the language, the bigger the distance felt. And the sooner I put it back into use, the less scary it became. It wasn’t about talent or memory, but about continuity. About understanding that learning a language isn’t a goal you reach once, but a relationship you need to take care of.
If you’re in the middle of the process right now, or thinking about starting again, one thing made a real difference for me: shifting my focus from learning English to using English. Instead of waiting to improve before speaking, improvement came naturally through regular use. Little by little, my confidence grew, my reactions became faster, and the language started to feel familiar.
Today, English feels natural to me. I don’t translate every sentence in my head anymore. I feel comfortable using the language, reacting in real time, and trusting my instincts when I speak. Something fundamental has changed.
And that change began in London, during my time learning with Callan. The Callan Method not only improved my English more than I could have imagined, but it also reshaped my whole relationship with the language. English is now part of how I think, how I work, and how I move through the world. English has stopped being an effort – and has become a tool.
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