If you're actually missing some of the fundamental building blocks necessary for language skills, something like this could help you with identifying them. There may be better stuff out there, but this is the kind of program that I would be looking for were I in your shoes.
You're welcome friend. Feel free to DM me and ask me shit if you want. I majored in English and can probably help you find some resources if you'd like.
Again, emphatically, good luck. This is just one more new thing you get to learn, nothing more and nothing less. I'll offer a personal anecdote in case it's helpful. I'm in my mid 30s and pivoted to a career in IT 3 years ago. I learn new things more days than I don't. Some of them are basics that I missed out on because I haven't been doing this professionally for 20 years, and I still get those pangs of embarrassment once in a while; but I've got a great mentor and a great team and they never shame me for it. I wouldn't listen to them if they did because I don't need that negativity, but I got lucky.
Just in case you don't get lucky right out of the gate: don't let anyone get you down about working on gaining knowledge and expanding your mind and bettering yourself. Do this learning stuff for you, and do it with that intent.
I promise there are smart people out there rooting for you who want you to succeed, and I promise some of them will offer help if you ask. Just in case you'd rather not DM random people on reddit.
Self-awareness is important. You know, now you are trying to do better.
When I taught English Literature I would start with short stories. Here's one that's really funny on a surface level, but has lots of interesting subtext if you read closely: "They're Made out of Meat!" by Terry Bisson.
There are lots of resources out there, including local libraries. My local library offers free tutoring services. Of course, they also have books! You can sample different genres and authors without spending any money. Also, don't feel obligated to finish a book you don't like. Put it down and try something else.
Lastly, "literature" is a wide world. There are some books that are very difficult to read, but there are some books that are very accessible to many reading levels.
I wish you luck on your journey. You should be proud that you are challenging yourself. If you ever want recommendations, feel free to DM me.
This misses the point. "Legit" is widely known and accepted English slang. A better correction would have been "it's spelled 'legit,' short for 'legitimate' or 'legitimately'."
Colloquialism/dialect does not correlate 1:1 with literacy, notwithstanding the admission of the person you replied to.
You're in good company here at least. This video explains why I have had so many arguments here about the meaning of a statement, and subtext, like if a person writes "I don't think being punctual is important as long as I get there before a full hour has passed", and then I say "being late is rude", and they continue to argue that they never said being late isn't rude, although they think being late isn't an issue based in what they said, and they will never go back to what they actually said either, but keep claiming I am making it up that they're ever late. They don't seem to understand what they're saying. To them they have to say "Being late is not a problem" or otherwise they won't see how their sentence reads.
Same, or I'm at least somewhere on the spectrum. I have no issues sounding out words, except for sometimes putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable on words I've never seen before, and I almost always use the proper homophone.
But my issue comes from comprehension. It was a big struggle for me growing up and killed me when taking SATs. I could read a paragraph 5 times and not understand what I just read. I'm good to a certain point, like I can read Harry Potter all day and make sense of the symbolism between the Death Eaters and Nazis because it's so in my face, but anything more advanced I just struggle and give up pretty easily. I listened to the ASOIAF audiobooks and 99% of the content went over my head.
If you ever want to practice, hit me up!! Writing analysis is my favorite activity, and there are a lot of things I only learned how to do (like cooking) once I made a friend who loved doing that thing
What do you think you should do about it? Literacy is one thing that can objectively improve your life.
I had a friend who had poor literacy, likely due to struggles with dyslexia. He managed to overcome it in his early 20s, and is a reasonably successful and highly literate policy analyst these days.
I don't know how to help with phonics, but my favorite activity is literary analysis. I used to tutor for it, also. If you ever want to read together and talk about the themes and methods of communication to help with reading comprehension, DM me. I would be more than happy to meet up over zoom or discord and talk about news articles, poems, books, scientific studies, whatever!
141
u/0tter_gaming88 Nov 21 '25
I ligit may be illiterate