How did I happen here? I have never written an article on Italki. A couple of months ago I signed up here and started to find a talking buddy. But for a long time no one happened. But it was broken at last. I acquired some new friends here. Some of them are active some of them passive, but I start to feel I become a member of a new community. And why shouldn't I try to write? I have written hundreds of articles, but – of course – in my native language. What happens if I start to practice writing as well? I guess, nothing bad. So... I don't really remember when I started to deal with English. I was probably a small child. I started a language course when I was about 12, but I wasn't too motivated so I left it. And after that a lot of years went until I met again with English. Simply put, I didn't need for it. Of course, as an active musician and singer I had to learn and perform some American songs. I did it that I don't know the language at all. I tried to pronounce the words as I heard the original songs. I was reading the lyrics and meantime practiced the pronunciation. Some years went and I tried to learn a plenty of other things, so I need for understanding English. It was about 2007 when I started to take the first real English lessons. But for many years this knowledge was passive. I hardly understood, and used Google Translate to understand articles and tutorials. Another more years went and I stopped learning. I always felt I would never be able to learn it. And a couple of months ago everything changed. One of my friends invited me to spend my holiday in Netherlands. That vacation changed my life, so to speak… After I got home I decided that I'm gonna polish up my passive English and start to turn my knowledge active. It happened 105 days ago. And this is the result. What happened exactly in this 105 days? I'll tell you the next time.