Post by trunklayer on Jun 22, 2016 18:51:12 GMT
I'd like to share with everyone a method that really helped me improve my English. The method is quite simple:
First, look at your favorite books and check whether any of them are translations from English to your native language (i. e. whether any of the books you really like was originally written in English).
If you find such a book - try to get an original audiobook version. If non of your favorite books were translated from English - try to get the English translation audiobook version.
After that, listen to this audiobook. This way you kill two birds with one stone:
a) Reading your favorite book in a different language feels like reading it for the first time again (at least that's how I felt about it); especially, if English is it's original language. That means you can relive all the feelings you had when you were reading this book.
b) As you've already read this book in your native language, you already know the plot, so even if you don't understand some words, you can guess their meanings by the context (which, by the way, is a very important skill - no matter how many words you know, there's always a possibility to encounter a word you've never heard before, so it's very important to be able to guess it's meaning by the context). Of course, you are always welcome to check the dictionary afterwards, but the point is you can listen to whole chapters without looking into dicionary, because you've already read this book.
Naturally, every person is unique and a method that workes great for one person, can turn out to be not so good for another. But at least in my case this method was really helpful. Before I started using it, all I could do was read some English texts, constantly looking into the dictionary. Listening to English speech or talking to native speakers was very hard for me. But now, while my English is still very far from being perfect, I can nevertheless freely talk to English speaking people and watch English video.
By the way, theoretically, this method should be applicable to any foreign language, including Japanese. But as it requires to have at least basic minimal knowledge of the language you are studying, I still haven't learned enough to try using it with Japanese. I'm really looking forward to it though.
If any of you are a non-native English speaker like me and happen to know another useful method, I would be much obliged if you share it in this thread.
First, look at your favorite books and check whether any of them are translations from English to your native language (i. e. whether any of the books you really like was originally written in English).
If you find such a book - try to get an original audiobook version. If non of your favorite books were translated from English - try to get the English translation audiobook version.
After that, listen to this audiobook. This way you kill two birds with one stone:
a) Reading your favorite book in a different language feels like reading it for the first time again (at least that's how I felt about it); especially, if English is it's original language. That means you can relive all the feelings you had when you were reading this book.
b) As you've already read this book in your native language, you already know the plot, so even if you don't understand some words, you can guess their meanings by the context (which, by the way, is a very important skill - no matter how many words you know, there's always a possibility to encounter a word you've never heard before, so it's very important to be able to guess it's meaning by the context). Of course, you are always welcome to check the dictionary afterwards, but the point is you can listen to whole chapters without looking into dicionary, because you've already read this book.
Naturally, every person is unique and a method that workes great for one person, can turn out to be not so good for another. But at least in my case this method was really helpful. Before I started using it, all I could do was read some English texts, constantly looking into the dictionary. Listening to English speech or talking to native speakers was very hard for me. But now, while my English is still very far from being perfect, I can nevertheless freely talk to English speaking people and watch English video.
By the way, theoretically, this method should be applicable to any foreign language, including Japanese. But as it requires to have at least basic minimal knowledge of the language you are studying, I still haven't learned enough to try using it with Japanese. I'm really looking forward to it though.
If any of you are a non-native English speaker like me and happen to know another useful method, I would be much obliged if you share it in this thread.