Difference between revisions of "Improve Your English"
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| − | + | There are many reasons why people from all over the world might need to improve their English: for business, for pleasure or because they have gone to live in an English speaking country. It's easy to feel like your English skills are at a standstill -- and it's all easy to get around that too! With a little diligence, you can be talking like a near-native in no time. | |
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== Steps == | == Steps == | ||
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#[[Learn|Figure out how YOU learn]]. Everyone has their own learning style. Some people learn with their hands, some with their eyes, some with their ears, and some are a combination of the three. Your best friend may be able to recite English poetry after hearing it once when you need to see it to understand. Once you figure out how ''you'' learn, you can cater your studying habits to your abilities. | #[[Learn|Figure out how YOU learn]]. Everyone has their own learning style. Some people learn with their hands, some with their eyes, some with their ears, and some are a combination of the three. Your best friend may be able to recite English poetry after hearing it once when you need to see it to understand. Once you figure out how ''you'' learn, you can cater your studying habits to your abilities. | ||
#*And what's more, you can stop wasting time on methods that don't work for you. If your teacher talks and talks and you remember nothing, you can start taking notes. If you're reading a book and can't remember a thing, you can start reading it aloud to yourself. There's ways around everything! | #*And what's more, you can stop wasting time on methods that don't work for you. If your teacher talks and talks and you remember nothing, you can start taking notes. If you're reading a book and can't remember a thing, you can start reading it aloud to yourself. There's ways around everything! | ||
| − | #Learn root words, prefixes, and suffixes. Even English speakers could stand to learn root words! Since there are so many words in this dang language (around 750,000 in certain methods of counting<ref>http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/how-many-words-are-there-in-the-english-language</ref> -- way more than other comparable languages), learning root words can help cut you to the chase. When you see it, if you know the root word, you may not even have to look it up! | + | #Learn root words, prefixes, and suffixes. Even English speakers could stand to learn root words! Since there are so many words in this dang language (around 750,000 in certain methods of counting<ref name="rf15347">http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/how-many-words-are-there-in-the-english-language</ref> -- way more than other comparable languages), learning root words can help cut you to the chase. When you see it, if you know the root word, you may not even have to look it up! |
#*Let's say you run into the sentence, "It was an acephaleous society." You're thinking, "Uhh...what the heck?!" But back up. Think about it for a second. You know that "a-" means without: ''amoral'', ''asexual'', ''asymmetrical''. You know that "cephal" means "head": ''encephalitis'', ''encephalogram''. And you know that "-ous" marks an adjective: ambitious, delicious, glamorous. All of a sudden you know that that means, "It was a society without a head, without a leader." Boom! Who needs a dictionary? Not you. | #*Let's say you run into the sentence, "It was an acephaleous society." You're thinking, "Uhh...what the heck?!" But back up. Think about it for a second. You know that "a-" means without: ''amoral'', ''asexual'', ''asymmetrical''. You know that "cephal" means "head": ''encephalitis'', ''encephalogram''. And you know that "-ous" marks an adjective: ambitious, delicious, glamorous. All of a sudden you know that that means, "It was a society without a head, without a leader." Boom! Who needs a dictionary? Not you. | ||
#Read English language newspapers. Some newspapers use more complex language than others, so choose the right one for you. Remember that you can start with the headlines and then progress to reading the articles as you gain confidence. You can go at your own pace and pick the articles that are interesting. At least read the comics! | #Read English language newspapers. Some newspapers use more complex language than others, so choose the right one for you. Remember that you can start with the headlines and then progress to reading the articles as you gain confidence. You can go at your own pace and pick the articles that are interesting. At least read the comics! | ||
