(Оффтоп)
You ever heard a word 'irregardless'?
As for me, watching TV shows in English is very, I mean
VERY helpful. It helps me not only with listening. When I watch some shows like 'Friends' I catch some phrases. For example, 'I beg you, pardon?' from Twin Peaks sounded really interesting for me. But, surely, you should do it right. If you watch it with subtitles you should control yourself and try not to read subtitles. I'd like to share a web-site ororo.tv, check it, very useful.
Same for reading. In Switzerland, I bought Dan Brown's book 'Digital Fortress'. It was sorta hard to read, because there are a lot of words, which are not important for understanding. And sometimes I find myself 'reading words', not reading a book. It happens even in Russian, but much rarely. There is a good way to make reading book in English easier. You read, for instance, a paragraph in English, and then re-read it in Russian. Now I read Bible, using this method.
I used to talk with my English teacher from Switzerland, who is British, and, I say, his messages look just the way I was taught to write it. Btw, he wrote a book 'Slum schools' about his volunteering time in India. He worked there as a teacher.
Тут еще говорят по английски?