u/Fit-Excitement819

Hey everyone!

I'm an ESL speaker in kind of a weird spot. I've put in probably 5k-10k+ hours of English (TL) input over the years, if my native language wasn't strictly necessary, I just consumed it in English. YouTube, Reddit, technical books, movies, all that. But have barely spoken it out loud. I have good comprehension, reading and writing feel natural and I can produce it fine in text. The last real gap is literally just speaking. Not pronunciation or vocabulary, more like the melody and rhythm of it, how your voice flows and connects thoughts naturally over longer stretches instead of it feeling choppy sentence by sentence.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? Did shadowing or just forcing yourself to speak help close that gap quickly or was it a slow process? Any tips appreciated!

Hey everyone!

I never really learned how to cook and I want to change that. I want to start making my own meals instead of depending on whatever food is available to me.

I'm looking for any resources that could help like YouTube channels, websites, beginner recipes, etc. I'm starting from absolute zero so I want to get the basics down first, but I'd also love to eventually get to a point where cooking feels natural and I can make a decent variety of meals. I also don't have an oven, so recipes that work without one would be ideal.

Thanks in advance!