Choose some non-fiction read including newspapers
Reading them will make sure your language vocabulary is varied as you won't find, for example, a lot of popular science terms in fiction books. Well, not in that concentration anyway.
Tricks
You might want to choose articles and/or books which will educate you for your particular needs, be it your career or hobby.
Career
Once upon a time education path was simple - school, university and happy ever after. Today you have to be your own sat nav to get the job you want to have as when you were at uni this kind of job might not have even existed!
And education is becoming more and more accessible via MOOCs. And if, for example, you decide that to get to your next destination you need some accounting knowledge then you stop over at Coursera and pack your bag with this intangible asset before continuing your journey.
Even if you prefer a more clear and straight way in your career and love your current job, you will still need to keep upgrading your knowledge before you realise that you are way behind your more nimble and agile colleagues. For example, if you are in marketing may be it's time to throw in some new digital marketing tricks to shake things up?
But all work and no play...
Hobby
If you are like me and are crazy about cooking then you can discover new recipes in the language you are learning. With learning English, BBC good food is a fab resource which we used while putting together our ready vocBlocks "5 A Day".
And if you love cooking and are learning Italian...Good luck with that diet of yours! By the way to boost your Italian or any other language vocabulary just copy the existing vocBlocks with fruit and veg names, add Italian or any other language translation from the built in dictionaries, record sound if you need it and you are good to go.
News
For Top Gear fans out there...Keep an eye on the news not to miss the next episode! It is coming back! But you probably know already if you read papers. So, why not reading them in the language you are learning? It’s so easy with news websites (e.g. BBC, CNN) ) and newspapers available online. Obviously domestic news will not be fully covered but you can always split your news reading time between two languages and read on international affairs in the language you are learning.
One more bonus from this kind of read is that you will always have what to talk about with your foreign friend(s). Or you might just discuss a movie you have recently seen. But this will be the topic of our next tip. Don’t miss it!
In the meantime feel free to share your experience of reading non-fiction in the comments below.
You might also like other tips and tricks:
Tip 1. Choose a good and fun study book
Tip 2. Get a good self study grammar book
Tip 3. Get some fiction books you would love to read
Tip 5. Choose some movies, TV series and comedy shows you would love to watch
Tip 6. Get some of your favourite songs with lyrics
Tip 7. Connect with someone who has good level of your target language, native speaker ideally
Pressed for time and cannot read it all? Check out our slides with these tips and tricks.
No comments:
Post a Comment