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I like to read Harry Potter in various languages - works great for learning to read well. Also, I created a website where you can practice vocabulary and verb

by mdemare 16y ago

I like to read Harry Potter in various languages - works great for learning to read well. Also, I created a website where you can practice vocabulary and verb conjugations: http://inglua.com http://inglua.com

cdr 16y ago
You're definitely not alone - "read your favorite (series of) book(s)" is an old trick.
- Natsu 16y ago
  That's a great idea, because you already know the story, so you can sort of figure out the words you don't know due to your knowledge of the story.
- alexsb92 16y ago
  This also works if you pickup a series halfway through, having read the first half in your native language, and then finishing it in the new language. I've done this with Harry Potter. Before moving to Canada at 14, I read the first 4 in Romanian and the 5th and/or 6th in English. Since many of the terms were found in previous books, or since i knew them from the movies (example quidditch which the translators decided to translate. Still not sure how they got with the Romanian term from quidditch)
marquis 16y ago
I just spent 30 minutes on your advanced section of your website, I like how it gets competitive with strangers, very compelling!
maw 16y ago
Reading a book you've already read is definitely a good idea. Seeing the grammatical forms you might have heard, and even tried to use, written out (and well-edited!) was for me immensely helpful. It also helps that you already know what happened: if you don't understand a passage, no big deal. Just skip over it. It beats checking the dictionary many times per page. There's some truth to the notion that you can figure out what words mean from context, but it's often not possible. However, if a word is used over and over, as many important to the text you're reading are, you might get enough context to work out what they mean. If you can't, then reach for a dictionary.
denzil 16y ago
I tried something similar recently. I am learning Japanese and so I dumped audio track from anime to my mp3 player. It seems to help with understanding the language. And it was fun to guess what is going if I haven't seen the series for long time.

by mdemare 16y ago

cdr 16y ago

You're definitely not alone - "read your favorite (series of) book(s)" is an old trick.

Natsu 16y ago
That's a great idea, because you already know the story, so you can sort of figure out the words you don't know due to your knowledge of the story.
alexsb92 16y ago
This also works if you pickup a series halfway through, having read the first half in your native language, and then finishing it in the new language. I've done this with Harry Potter. Before moving to Canada at 14, I read the first 4 in Romanian and the 5th and/or 6th in English. Since many of the terms were found in previous books, or since i knew them from the movies (example quidditch which the translators decided to translate. Still not sure how they got with the Romanian term from quidditch)

marquis 16y ago

I just spent 30 minutes on your advanced section of your website, I like how it gets competitive with strangers, very compelling!

maw 16y ago

Reading a book you've already read is definitely a good idea. Seeing the grammatical forms you might have heard, and even tried to use, written out (and well-edited!) was for me immensely helpful. It also helps that you already know what happened: if you don't understand a passage, no big deal. Just skip over it. It beats checking the dictionary many times per page. There's some truth to the notion that you can figure out what words mean from context, but it's often not possible. However, if a word is used over and over, as many important to the text you're reading are, you might get enough context to work out what they mean. If you can't, then reach for a dictionary.

denzil 16y ago

I tried something similar recently. I am learning Japanese and so I dumped audio track from anime to my mp3 player. It seems to help with understanding the language. And it was fun to guess what is going if I haven't seen the series for long time.