Manek, an engineering graduate from Bhopal,
said that the following practices helped him when he was learning English:
1. The first
thing I would do after getting up every morning was read the newspaper,
front to back. It doesn’t matter which newspaper you subscribe to, as long as
it is a major English-language paper, such as The Hindu, The Times of India,
Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, etc. While different people have
different opinions on the quality of each paper, they are all more or less
equally useful in getting to learn the language. It is also not necessary to
read every page and article; it is time-consuming and, sometimes, boring.
However, you should most definitely look for articles that interest you.
2. I bought a pocket
dictionary. They are cheap, compact and useful. There were many words I
came across on a day-to-day basis that I did not know, and carrying a pocket
dictionary everywhere allowed me to look up these words immediately so that the
matter would not slip off my mind later.
3. Once
learned, I also made a conscious effort to use the words in conversation.
This instilled the words in my head and I was able to draw on them whenever
required.
4. I convinced
some of my friends to come together and form something of a ‘study group’;
we were all interested in learning English, and I figured it would make it
easier and more fun for us to do it together. We met twice a week in the
evening and discussed the words and phrases we had come across, suggested
articles, magazines, and books to each other, etc.
5. Another
thing my group of friends and I kept in mind was the importance of talking
only in English, whenever possible. During our weekly meetings, not a word
of Hindi (the only other language any of us spoke) was uttered. This sort of
commitment is absolutely necessary if you want to develop fluency.
6. A couple of
weeks into my learning experience, a friend talked about the issue of language
of thoughts during one of our meetings. This, too, is an interesting aspect
of one’s linguistic foundations: what language do you think in? I realised that
I thought in Hindi, and thus whenever I spoke in English, I was, in a way,
translating in my head. This made the entire process slower and more laborious.
So I decided to start making a conscious effort to think in English. When I
spoke in Hindi, I was often trying to figure out beforehand what the phrase
would be in English before I said it. This takes some getting used to, but soon
you will find it becoming a second nature; the phrases will come faster
and easier then.
7. I made it a
point to pick up at least one English book a month. I cannot stress the
importance of this enough; books introduce you to the possibilities of the language,
expose you to the various ways in which words can be manipulated and played
around with. Your vocabulary of words, phrases, colloquialisms, etc. will
increase sharply this way. Also, reading develops thinking, i.e., as you read,
you automatically begin to think more in the language that your reading
material is written in.
8. Every night
I would watch an English news channel (NDTV, Headlines Today, CNN-IBN,
etc.) for at least half an hour. The news anchors and reporters generally speak
very crisp and proper English. It is also useful to watch English TV shows.
9. My friends
and I would rent the DVD of an English movie every week, and watch it
with the subtitles on. This way, you can always make out what the actors are
saying, and the context of the movie helps you understand what unfamiliar
phrases might mean.
10. I developed the habit of paying
close attention whenever I was within listening distance of a conversation in
English. This may seem like eavesdropping, but when someone is speaking loud
enough in public for others to hear him or her, it is unlikely that anything
very personal is being discussed. At least, I defended my practice with that
rationale, because it helped me pick up common phrases on a daily basis
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