When I first came to US, I felt like a deaf and dumb. Although I had been learned English for many years already, I only learned it from text book and I didn’t communicate with others in English back in my home country at all. I did realize the real world is totally different than the text book. Then I started to look for the resources to improve my language skill. One of the church closed to my apartment offered free Spoken English classes to the foreigners. Basically, you just went there twice a week and talk to someone to learn the language and the culture on a one-on-one basis. The people you talked to is the volunteers from the church. I found it was very efficient. Because the people you talked to are very nice and he/she would correct you when you made mistake. Since he/she knows you just came to US, he/she would talk slowly and clearly. He/she would also introduce you some American cultures. Most of them are old people and they are super nice to you so that you don’t have any pressure at all when you talk to them. Some of us even became good friends at the end. Another thing I did was watching TV including shows and movies. I watch them again and again until I understood most of them. I started with some cartoon show. Because it is for kids, the characters speak really clear. I am still listening news channel on my way home and work now to practice my listening.