Learn English Faster
Learning a new language can be difficult, but it's not impossible. Learning any language can be broken up into four pieces: reading, writing, listening and speaking. If you want to learn English faster, get started with Step 1 below.
Steps
Fun Techniques
- Read, read, read. One of the easiest things you can do to learn English faster is to read as much as you can. Read things all the time. This will make your vocabulary better and it will also help you learn grammar and slang.
- Read comics. An easy option, if you don't want to read children's books, is to read comic books or comics instead. You can buy many English language comic books in bookstores and online, or you can read free comics online (these are usually called webcomics).
- Read books you've read before. You can also read a book you have read before. If you already know a little bit about what happens, then you will have an easier time guessing and understanding the words.
- Read the newspaper. Newspapers are a good way to learn the basics of a language, because they usually have very good grammar and are written to be easy to understand. You can find online versions of many good English language newspapers, like the New York Times or The Guardian.
- Watch movies. Watching movies will also help you improve your English, by helping you to hear what it sounds like and also helping you to learn new words. You can start watching with subtitles on, but you will learn more with the subtitles off. Once you have a basic vocabulary, try to keep the subtitles off and focus on listening for the words you do know and guessing the words you don't know from what is happening on the screen.
- Play MMO games. MMOs are video games that you play online with other people. You can choose to play with people in English-speaking countries, which will give you the chance to talk with them and learn from them. Try playing Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, or The Elder Scrolls Online.
- Find an online pen-pal. Pen-pals are people trying to learn your language that you write letters (or emails) to and they write back. You write half of your letter in your native language so that they can practice and half in English so that you can practice. You can talk about whatever you want! There are many websites that can help you find an online pen-pal.
- Make a friend. You can also just make friends with English language speakers online and chat, email, and Skype together in order to practice your English. You can find online friends by joining fan communities or through language-learning communities like Fluentify.
- Sing songs. Learning and singing songs is another good way to make your English better. This will help you learn the sounds of English (rhymes will help your pronunciation). It will also help improve your vocabulary. Find a song you like, learn it, and learn what the lyrics mean.
Serious Study
- Take a course. English courses will help you learn the most important words and grammar and can help you make sure you're learning everything correctly. There are two main ways to take English language courses:
- Take an online course. You can take courses online. Some of these cost money and some are free. The ones that cost money may be better than the free ones but not all the time! Good examples of online programs are LiveMocha and Duolingo.
- Take a course in school. You can take a class from a local college or English language school. These cost money, but the help from the teacher will be very important and will help you learn faster than trying to learn on your own.
- Write in a journal. This will force you to practice your writing and vocabulary. It will also force you to practice making new sentences, instead of just repeating sentences you already know. You can keep a diary of your day. You should also keep a small journal where you write down new words when you hear or see them.
- Travel to an English-speaking nation. Traveling to a place where everyone speaks English will help you learn a lot faster. Take a temporary job or a study abroad course in an English-speaking country. You can also take shorter trips, but immersing yourself in the language for at least 3 months will help the most.
- Teach yourself. Of course, you can teach yourself English too. The trick to teaching yourself English fast is to make it the most important thing to you. Spend all of your free time studying and use your English as often as you can.
- Take advantage of online tools. There are many online tools for helping you to learn English faster. These range from flashcard type programs to phone apps. Try ANKI (flashcards), Memrise (flashcards and so much more), or Forvo (pronunciation guide).
- Immerse yourself. Immersion is one of the best ways to learn a language. This means that you need to study English every day, for at least 3 hours a day. One hour once a week is not enough to learn. If you can spend at least 6 hours a day hearing, writing, and speaking English, this will help you the most.
Do's and Don'ts
- Do work with small sets of words. When you are trying to learn new words, don't work from a giant list of vocabulary. Learn only a few words at a time and do not move on until you really know those words.
- Do label everything in your home. Put a label on everything in your home to help you learn those words. This will teach you to think of the image when you see the word, instead of translating everything in your head.
- Do make use of Google Images. Google image search is a great way to learn nouns (and some other types of words) in a language. Search new words in the image search tool and the pictures that show up will help you learn!
- Don't try to learn with flashcards. Generally, you should not use flashcards with only words (with the English word on one side and your word on the other). This teaches you to translate everything inside your head, making you slow to understand the English you hear. Instead, try to learn the English word with a sound or picture.
- Don't focus too much on grammar. The thing about English is that most people don't speak with perfect grammar and few people even speak with good grammar. If you spend all of your time trying to learn the grammar, you'll waste a bunch of time. Speak incorrectly: it's ok! Someone will correct you and you'll learn over time. Eventually it will sound right and you won't even have to think about it.
- Don't be afraid to try! The most important part of learning a language quickly is to just speak it. Just use your language skills as much as you can. Don't worry about being wrong or not saying something correctly. Not using your skills makes you learn so much slower. Just speak! You can do it!
Tips
- When you write something down, pause for a minute and read it out loud. Edit any obvious mistakes.
- When you find words you don't know: look them up in a dictionary, this will help your vocabulary to grow.
Warnings
- If you're going to pay for a service or course, only use a reputable one.
