In America you can learn English without spending a cent
Practically in every city you can find English courses designed for foreigners. What is remarkable, many of these courses (at least in California) are free.
Of course, if someone wants to master English perfectly, to use the language on par with Americans, free courses alone won't suffice. And no super-expensive courses that people decide to take in adulthood will help either. Language must be learned from childhood, live for many years in an English-speaking environment, and only then can the line between native speech and English, or rather American, be erased.
But in the US there are millions of people who need the language to get a job, it is also needed for everyday communication, so as not to faint when someone addresses you on the street, to pick up the home phone without fear (according to some observations, the hardest to understand speech is on the phone). And many need it simply to better understand their own young children, who chat easily in English and die laughing at how exactly mom pronounces the word 'vegetables'.
As a rule, 'English as a second language' courses are organized based on schools or colleges. Announcements that classes are open appear on the websites of educational institutions – often a brochure informing about this can be found simply in your own mailbox. Students of schools and colleges know in advance when the fall or spring season starts. They bring their moms, dads, grandparents here.
Yes, special classes are created for the elderly, they are more comfortable learning unfamiliar words among their peers, who certainly won't giggle if you make a mistake. And it is very hard not to giggle, because it is even impossible to imagine how bizarre the English language becomes in the mouths of people of different nationalities! For example, people from Korea, Thailand, Philippines, India, Ethiopia physically cannot pronounce a number of sounds, it takes enormous effort for them to handle all the modifications of the same sound 'a', for instance.
Each of the newly-made 'students' first takes a test and receives a notification about which level group they get into – from beginner to advanced. Choosing a day for classes is easy – you can study even five days a week, even two, it all depends on desire and amount of free time. I, honestly, could not believe my ears and eyes: daily English (the lesson lasts three hours with a short break) for free. Where else can you find that?
Of course, many people come, but the intake, testing, the classes themselves are organized so competently that you don't feel any crowding, elbowing, or nervousness. Everything is quiet, calm, and friendly. It must be said that the adult students try very hard, raise their hand when they want to answer, do homework, and blush with pleasure when they are praised. These people really lack communication in English, lack ordinary conversations on various topics, because they communicate only with their own and only in their native language. And they themselves understand what a dead-end path that is.
What is curious, from lesson to lesson progress is evident. My 'classmate', a Japanese woman who spoke complete gibberish at the first lesson, by the third lesson began to pronounce some sounds correctly, and I saw how she tried. It is absolutely obvious that all these students did not come here for A's or for a certificate that they will receive at the end of the course. The main motive is the desire to stop being an 'odd one out' and start speaking with America in one language.
Classes are taught both by professional school and college teachers and by volunteers – ordinary people who feel a reserve of unspent teaching inclinations. They do not receive a penny for their work and come here simply out of goodwill. 'I am here to help you' – this is the phrase that teachers say several times during the lesson, and it helps people, initially tense, to relax.
As for our compatriots, they are for some reason a minority in the courses. But those who do attend classes demonstrate quite passable English. True, teachers say that the main problem of advanced people from former Soviet countries is that they were taught British English, not American. But that is quickly corrected.