Does anyone want to improve their English but don’t know how to study? I had the same problem when I was in high school. I buy a reference book with a lot of spirit, but just looking at the word book doesn’t make my words come to mind at all. Here, I will introduce the method that I found, “This makes it easy to study.”
Talk with friends in English on SNS
English conversation while looking at the letters
This is the method I started when I was in first year high school. I became friends with a friend from South Korea and frequently contacted me using MSN Messenger, which was popular at the time.
At that time, there was no cute stamp like now, and it was a conversation of only letters. However, if you have a conversation with only letters, you can read and understand the other person’s text, and you can also convey the words as a text. In other words, you can have a little more time to think than normal English conversation, so you can talk easily.
At first, I can’t understand what the other person says, and I remember having a conversation while looking up the dictionary. Also, I couldn’t speak without a dictionary to tell my partner what I was saying. However, in order to communicate smoothly, I had to write my case in a short amount of time, and I was able to gradually get used to English conversation because of the pressure.
Gradually results come out
Actually, before starting this Messenger, I had been in Australia for 2 weeks when I was in 3rd grade. At that time, there was a difference between American English and British English, and I was shocked because I didn’t really understand English. However, English conversation is not easy to improve, and I was thinking about what to do.
After a conversation with this friend in the first year of high school, I was able to talk to my host family in a one-month Canadian training session at the end of the year. In other words, thanks to chatting with this Korean friend, I was used to writing in English, which gave me some results in English conversation.
I think that this method was also successful in writing. Writing proofreading in my head makes it easier to write in English.
English conversation using SNS
If you are not good at English conversation and writing, please use SNS to talk with your friends in English.
The promise at that time is to return a reply immediately and not to use a stamp. If you postpone your reply for an hour or two, you will not study English. The pressure to respond immediately and speak immediately is also important for studying. Also, recent stamps are cute and many of them express emotions well, so if you use them, you will not study English conversation. Therefore, refrain from using stamps.
Anyone with a friend who understands these things can easily learn English conversation on SNS. You can be a foreign friend or even a Japanese friend who wants to study English. I hope you can study English conversation using familiar things.
Use DVD
Audio is in Japanese, subtitles are in English
When you watch a movie to study English, you can watch audio in English and subtitles in Japanese! Don’t you think? This is actually a big mistake.
This is because humans obtain a lot of information from their vision. In other words, if you look at the subtitles in Japanese while looking at the image, you can understand the story well even if you don’t understand English audio. Then, the attention of the English voice disappears, and even if it can not be heard at all, there is no problem in understanding the story, so I feel like I understood English somehow, and I do not understand at all However, there is no sense of incongruity.
I hope you can hear some English words! If you are thinking of it, there is no problem, but if you are aiming for an advanced level, that is not true.
Worth watching subtitles in English
When you look at subtitles in English, all the lines come into your head. If you look at subtitles, you can see English expressions that cannot be heard by just listening to them. The DVD is easy to pause, so you can learn many English words just by watching a movie while looking up unknown words and English expressions. You can also learn words more efficiently than by looking at the word book because you can learn words in a story and even learn words in a story.
Furthermore, not only movies but also dramas are valuable. In particular, TOEIC, etc. requires the acquisition of words specialized in the field, such as scientific words and biological words. You can learn words easily.
Choose a fun drama
I was obsessed with 24 and X-files when I was in high school. Therefore, I think I learned many words about terrorism and UFO that I never use in my daily life. Also, to learn English efficiently, try to choose movies and dramas that have words that you don’t understand if you don’t do some research. If you don’t need that level, but want to have fun learning English, Disney is a great choice.
Now you can watch movies and dramas on the Internet, and you can borrow DVDs at rental shops cheaply. However, if you rent a DVD, make sure you have English subtitles in advance. Some DVDs do not have English subtitles. It is written on the back of the DVD case, so it is important to check in advance.
If you don’t know the words, search it ASAP!!
It is important to look up a dictionary
If you find a word you don’t understand, look up the dictionary firmly. Since electronic dictionaries are the mainstream now, the time to look up dictionaries has also been shortened. If you don’t look up words you don’t understand, it doesn’t make sense.
English words can have many meanings in one word. Especially for those who want to be advanced, it is important to look through the meaning of all the words when you look up the dictionary, even if you don’t think it is relevant at that time.
Use the Internet
However, even if you look only at paper-based dictionaries and electronic dictionaries, you may not see many example sentences. Example sentences are also very important when learning new English expressions.
If you don’t have enough example sentences and want to see more examples, use the Internet. There are many websites with good dictionary functions on the Internet now. There are cases where example sentences are more abundant than electronic dictionaries, and now everyone has a smartphone, so you can search anywhere.
Practice makes perfect!!
What do you think. Some people may be wondering, “Is this a method that works for Eiken?” It will work! Of course, this requires studying several hours a day. Even if you watch a movie for several tens of days a day, you will not have the power to cope with Eiken Level 1 and Level 1. However, it will be much more fun to study than looking at the Eiken-specific reference book or wordbook for several hours.
Continuation is important for language learning. If you spend a lot of money or study in a way that makes you hate it, you will eventually become frustrated. Now, studying efficiently and happily using things around you can be said to be a shortcut to learning English.
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