Read Up!

So far, I've already given you tips about choosing the right English teacher, improving pronunciation and so on. Now, I'd like to get you to do serious work.

I hope you're still hanging around by now. For most people, this would be one of the most difficult things to do: read. Yes, you heard it right. It's time to work - and work hard at that. But then, the first thing you might need to do is, change your attitude.

When I was younger, I would see people deeply immersed in reading a thick book. I thought to myself: How boring! Why would I read such a thick book when the only things I could see are words. I'd be better off watching a movie and seeing real people, real situations. But, being curious, I thought, I'd want to try reading thick novels like those people. At least, I would be able to see for myself just how boring it could be.

So I did, and I struggled to finish the first 5 pages of the novel. But when I wanted to quit, I told myself if those people can read the whole novel, then at least I should read half. So, I stuck with it. By the 6th page, I was glued. Of course, part of the reason is that the author writes very well, making things more exciting. But aside from that, I discovered the joy of reading and the importance of focusing.

Funny how the thought of trying out something boring actually taught me two important things: 1. reading is important & fun; and 2. focus is necessary in achieving most of your goals in life.

Reading is quite challenging, comparing to just listening to MP3 or watching a movie. When you read, you are forced to be more imaginative and to use your senses more. You have to imagine what the characters in a picture-less book look like. You have to imagine how they speak, how they act and walk. You get to imagine what kind of place they live in, hear them speaking, feel their emotions and touch them. Reading is very intimate. When you watch a movie, you see the characters living their lives and you just watching. But when you read, you can stay with the characters and live where they are. Even if you keep quiet, you are there.

Tell me, does this seem boring? At the end of the day, I became more addicted to reading than those bookworms I criticized at first. I would try to memorize the new words so that I wouldn't have to look them up from the dictionary again and again. Man, I'm too lazy to do that. In effect, I was able to practice my memory without noticing it. I enjoyed living in a different place, different time, different culture, and being deeply immersed. I was having fun.

The bonus: I got even better than my English teacher. I would notice some of her grammatical mistakes and would think to myself how they can be fixed. My classmates started asking me about weird words and calling me 'walking dictionary.' I would go on to join English quiz bees and writing contests. Boy, they must think I'm a nerd and a very boring person. Well, I thought that about other people too. But you know what, they ask the 'nerd' for help.

Is reading hard work? Not if you're enjoying it. So why not make up your mind to enjoy it? So what if they call you the 'nerd.' It's the nerd whom people ask for help.

1st Question

Hello everyone!

Today, one of our readers sent in a question. Let's see what he posted:

Question: Hello Sarah 先生
May I ask?
What do you recomend or　what is important?　for beginner　to study English？
Vocabulary, grammar, conversation？

Answer: Thank you very much for asking! You know you're always welcome here.

I think it's important first to know basic or simple words. As we know, language is symbol. The words & letters (alphabet) represent an idea. The word mother, when we analyze it, is just a combination of the letters 'm-o-t-h-e-r.' But English speakers have chosen to use that word to mean the person who has given birth to us and takes care of us. So before we study the structure or the form (grammar), we need to know the basic words that make up the language to help us study more complicated topics.

Without knowing the words, we wouldn't be able to tell which is the subject, the verb or the predicate. And essentially, those elements (subject, verb, predicate) are parts of grammar.

Let's take, for example, the case of a baby. The baby doesn't understand anything at first. Do you think it's reasonable if we immediately teach him the grammar? We couldn't tell the baby: "Oh baby, in constructing sentences, you have to include the subject, verb and predicate. The subject has to agree with the verb." Oh no!

In the natural order of things, the baby first learns the basic words that he often hears. Most babies learn to speak 'Papa' or 'Mama.' These words mean or represent something and the human brain learns it faster. Only when the brain learns to attach a meaning to the word, is it ok for it to move on to more difficult tasks, one of which is grammar. So this means that we need to memorize or remember simple words first.

Grammar and conversation can be studied at the same time. But ideally, grammar should be studied ahead. Because if we went straight to conversation, we might be able to speak, but the grammar might end up wrong. And, I think it's very hard to correct a mistake if you are already used to it.

So, try to study simple grammar first, and then be brave enough to practice speaking. As much as possible, try to talk to someone who has good command of English because if you hear grammatically incorrect sentences, you'll learn them. And, as I've said before, it's better to learn the correct things at first than to correct mistakes later when you are already used to them.

Did I answer your question? I hope it helped. Just keep the questions coming...