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| Pic credit Daniel Grill from GettyImages |
Since there is a considerable urge to learn English these days, here I put down part 2 of my experience. Read part 1 here.
My thirst for English language was 2 fold. I wanted to speak fluently, and I wanted to read many books. Around 1996, speaking in public was a nightmare for me. This was just after Ordinary Level exams. My parents had sent me to few teachers to build my foundation. I am indebted to my parents and teachers for that.
With a foundation in place, I searched for institutes and teachers to fine-tune. I talked to peers who also sought those avenues. I found many methods, but they could not satisfy my thirst. I saw a huge gap in them. There was no sustainability of learning. Those methods were inclined towards passing an exam or help fulfilling a short-term assignments.
I decided to start with my self. My vocabulary was a mess. So I focused on words. I started from dictionary. I wrote words extracted from the dictionary. Then I tried memorizing them. It did not click. Words were just words. I could not relate to the “meaning”, hence my vocabulary did not pick up. I was getting anxious and nothing seems to cater for my thirst. Suddenly something hit my mind. “ What if I tried words and grammar in parallel, rather than attacking words alone?” Then I made it interesting. The practice I mention below is very practical, worked for me and around dozen others who took my cue.
Ingredients:
1. A newspaper
2. A dictionary
3. A 40-page notebook
4. A pen
5. Your Patience (a lot of them)
DAY 1:
1 ) Take the newspaper and turn to your favourite section. For me it was sports.
2 ) Pick an article to read.
3 ) Read it aloud, for the first time.
4 ) Read it for the second time with pen in your hand. Underline all (I REPEAT - all) words that you don’t know or vaguely know.
5 ) Take the notebook and write all the words as a list one by one.
6 ) Refer the dictionary for all the words (I REPEAT - all) and write the definition in front of each word. Now you have all the words with their definition on a notebook, yet you are not familiar with them, still.
7 ) This is the most important step. The step that will find the “meaning” of what you did up to now. Read the article for the third time. Refer the notebook when you come across the underline words, if you still not sure about it. Repeat the reading until you are familiar with all unknown words.
8 ) Cut and paste the article on the notebook.
DAY 2:
9 ) Take the notebook and read the article. When you come across the underlined words, try to recall the meaning. If you’re still not sure, refer the notebook.
10 ) Take a fresh article of your choice, and repeat steps 1-8.
DAY 3:
11 ) Read the pasted articles. Then repeat steps 1-8
The beauty of this method is that you don’t memorise words or study grammar. You only read your favourite articles. Over time you see the application of difficult words. You become friendly with words and grammar.
Technically speaking, this method installs the words and grammar in your mind, NOT copy/paste words which is found in conventional methods.
Even now, from time to time, I practice this way, because learning is till you die, It never stops. Happy Learning!
