The following was my advise to a friend on building good English language skills. I will let you decide how much of that is worthwhile.
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Dear Jane Doe, First, I want to tell you that I am not sure if I was a better writer in English than you are after the first few years of my life in the U.S. So don’t think you are any less gifted in language than I am. Second, you got it right. You have to have the right mindset. If I may, I will tell you that how far you get in life really is dependant on how well you communicate. My many years of professional life have time and time again enforced that basic understanding. To be successful in life, professional or otherwise, communication skills are of paramount importance. You have to be convinced of that. Third, be confident. It’s generally believed that the Chinese language is one of the most difficult languages spoken. You have already conquered that! Having achieved that feat leaves you very little reason why you can’t have a firm grip on English. Fourth, I can share with you what I did initially for language improvement. · I made a habit of listening to the talk show radio for about 3-4 hrs a day. For the same amount of time spent, the return from radio is many-fold over from TV from a comprehension stand point. The reason is very simple: when listening to the radio you are getting information from audio signals only with no visual stimuli. In addition to comprehension training, radio is far more information rich compared to TV. · My American accent training started with listening to the radio. With some work, you will pick up the American pronunciation. I would also suggest you make a tape of a radio program or conversations of your American co-workers or friends. Imitate their pronunciation word by word. There are no shortcuts that I know of. · I have always had a subion of magazines such as U.S. News and World Report, and The Business Week. Depending on your vocabulary, you can start from U.S. News (newspaper, written in mostly street language) or others in more formal styles. You may want to go to the library, browse through the Periodicals section, and decide what newspaper or magazine is the right one for you. Pick one, stick to it. Read 1 hr a day or however much time you have to spare. Keep a dictionary handy. When you see a new word, look it up and circle it in the magazine or newspaper. So at the end of your reading session, go back and review your new words. Don’t try to go for quantity. Comb through your passage. If you can go through only one page a day, that is fine. · When reading, I tried to analyze sentence structures. After finishing reading a sentence, I asked myself to re-construct it and compared what I did with the original. · I received my training in writing mainly through scientific writing. But I am sure you can find a lot of good books on how to organize and structure your article to make it clear and concise. Edit your work first. Then ask somebody who you think is a good writer to critique your work. Also, community colleges typically offer classes on writing. · I met my husband (a native speaker) after I had been here for 2.5 yrs. He was an integral part of my language training. So now you have my “secrets.” It’s like anything, if you want to do it well, give it your 100% effort. If my recipe sounds overwhelming to you, take small steps and don’t be discouraged. Hard work always pays off. My best wishes! Francine | 
Should be dependent.
Having achieved that feat leaves you very little reason why you can’t have a firm grip on English.
Having achieved that feat leaves you very little reason that you would not have a firm grip on English.
The suggestions you made are all good and helpful.
One muggle