How to improve my English

I have been kinda learning English for 11 years but, about a year or so ago I truly started my conscious learning of this interesting and hard to pronounce language. So many friends from my hometown always tell me how do I feel when I speak in English or if it was difficult to learn. Usually, I just laugh and answer them that it is something that everybody can do if they really dedicate time to study it and practice it. Practicing the speaking is the most important and essential exercise for the development of our skills, and at the same time, it will help us to improve our grammatic and amply our vocabulary with new words.However, I recommend them to not try to translate every word or phrase that they are trying to say in Spanish because it will lead to a very bad confusion and desperation if we do not find the exact word and maybe it could generate us a lack of confidence. The second most important part of improving our English is listening to other people or watching movies in English with subtitles, we have to train our ears to hear different words and sounds in order to learn the pronunciation and understand people better. Reading could be a good source for some people but for me, it only helps me to learn new words and I only can use them when I am writing down things but not when I talk. And finally, the last but not least way to improve is being persistent and consistent, with those two qualities you will get whatever you want in life.