Learn English: movies, books, dictionaries

Many of us are studying English, because in the field of IT most of the documentation, forums and simply useful information is presented in a universal language - English. And everyone finds his own approach to learning: someone goes towards his goal gradually, systematically, someone more expressively and selectively. In fact, on the Internet, you will find more than 9000 methods on how to effectively and quickly learn a language yourself. In the language school, you will be offered several target programs: from the “speaking skills of a business person” to the “targeted delivery of TOEFL”. So what do I want to offer new? We will talk about the "background" language learning. The purpose of my post is to share with you the ways of learning the language that I used. I will try to show the concept as a whole, which each of you can integrate into your own way of learning a language.

Introduction

About 5 years ago, when I entered the Faculty of Physics, I understood: “Learning English is promising for many reasons.” Then I thought about tourism, about communicating with foreigners, about the need for a language for career growth in any field. Now I am 22 years old, I know English at B2-C1 level (according to the European rating system ). I find the widest use of the language in my life: acquaintance with foreign articles from sources, viewing electronic lectures of leading universities in the world, reading scientific literature on the dissertation topics, communicating with foreigners in the framework of the CouchSurfing project, helping people to learn Russian on Skype and even learning Spanish - on English-language sites.

Ways to learn a language

I studied English for quite a long time, periodically, in my spare time, in classes at the university (3 semesters of non-core programs), and I did not attend a single paid course. The first thing you need to do, of course, is to realize that you need a language and that you need to spend time on it. I remember what I started with - stupidly watching movies in English with English subtitles.

Watching movies in the original language

How to do it right? I absolutely stupidly took and watched top films with imdb and did not understand anything. Each new phrase or a long word - I climbed into the dictionary, watched the translation, and the film put on pause. After 15 minutes, bored and watch the rest of the movie like a dummy. The main advice is that the content you want to watch in English should be effective. You must understand the main part of the spoken words (written if you watch the subtitles), and the meaning of the new words must be clear from the context or visualized in the film. I will highlight four categories with which you can start:

1. movies that you watched a lot in Russian and understand what it is about
2. video tutorials from a professional environment - where words are met daily at work
3. movies with simple language and clear pronunciation (Disney cartoons, classic “My Fair Lady”, for example)
4. TV series. The feature of the series is that language learning is accumulative here. You will recognize the characters, their characteristic words and deeds, which you meet in the future. The spoken language is well pumped and your understanding of grammar is spoiled. I recommend to start with the series "Friends". House is very difficult to watch - a rich language in itself, so also the terminology of CPR, MRI and Multiple Sclerosis in each series. Although if you are studying for a doctor - then try. Judging by the name, habrayusers should like the IT Crowd series, thanks for the AndreyDmitriev tip.

upd Q: I find it very difficult to perceive films in English. Is this normal if I understand little in the beginning? Or should I wait to view in English?

You have to force yourself to look exactly in English, if you don’t understand anything, look with Russian subtitles, but in English. In general, forbid yourself to watch movies with Russian voice acting, look for subtitles. The brain gradually gets used to the foreign language, it takes time to form new neural connections. Then, at some point, you suddenly begin to distinguish foreign speech. [ Tabke ]

Watching films in English forms a language center in your brain - you learn to distinguish words and pronounce them. You get more pleasure from the original speech and jokes of your favorite characters. TV shows we all watch often, why not do it for the benefit of English?

Here's another good service for learners - puzzle-english.com the “serials” section is just for those who want to abandon the Russian voice acting and Russian subtitles as quickly as possible. [ alfa ]

About the merits of our [ Bernodot ] "Series" better than long descriptions will tell this short promo video:

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Immersion in English Wednesday

Since everyone who reads this post has a computer, or at least a browser, this is my advice - put the English interface language everywhere. The English operating system not only allows you to learn the language - but also make a more competent query in Google and find the answer to the question on the English-language forum. About 3 years ago I moved to English Windows, all operations remain familiar, all labels are recognizable, but you are learning new words that you meet instead of the usual “Recycle Bin” or “Control Panel”.

Computer games are intuitive in English, they have visualization of objects. You can enjoy original videos and beautiful developer fonts. I remember with what ecstasy I played in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. And you know, the original atmosphere of the game perfectly contributes to this. Since then I play all the games in English, they are easier to download and do not need to be Russified. Another paragraph is about how interesting and useful it is to google on "bourgeois". The main part of the content on the Internet is in a global language, and, moreover, it’s not just about quantity but also about quality. Read the page on the wiki in Russian - look at English. There could easily be an answer to your question or some more expressive picture. Read the translation in Habré - take a look at the original, because you already know what the article is about and can remember a few new words.

In general, the principle is simple: if you have thoroughly mastered something in Russian, go to English and learn associatively.

About Internet resources

Now about interactive learning - about web resources. I spent a lot of time studying the language with the help of special sites. I, certainly, have not met many sites, therefore I will tell only about my experience, maybe you know analogs or even interesting projects. (write yourself know where)

1. LinguaLeo - English online. Just a super resource for pumping vocabulary. You watch popular lectures, read interesting stories, listen to your favorite music. As soon as you meet a new word, add it to the dictionary and chase it away at several trainings. You can learn the words from the glossary, but then the associative context is lost, which you can get by watching a lecture or reading an anecdote. One inconvenience for a student is that developers want money there, but I always felt sorry, so I taught 10 words a day for how long the meatballs were enough.
2. busuu - Learn languages ​​for free online. I love this service, although it is stripped down for poor students. Here again, the meaning in the study of new words, but the lessons are collected thematic. Words from one group are well remembered, can occur in dialogs and complement each other. And here you can find an interlocutor and talk to him in English. Ask Skype for it - and communicate separately. Now I am learning Spanish on this service, and all explanations are in English. It turns out!
3. English Grammar Exercises . The Germans approached the compilation of tests well, they are convenient to solve online and see the answers and explanations. According to the rules, you can simply google all sorts of sites - I can not advise more. I recommend the book Murphy, by the way, about books.
4. Mobile applications. At one time I practically did not use any special applications and therefore I will simply suggest that you independently deal with this source. This includes the convenient EngCards program, which uses the 3,500 most frequently used English words with pictures and pronunciation in four types of training (memorization, dictation, quiz and independent writing), divided into dictionaries: Elementary, Pre-intermediate, Intermediate and Upper Intermediate.

Books on language learning and just books

Here in this thread I'm a big layman. I practically did not use paper means for studying. The reason is simple - uncomfortable. The keys to the test need to look at the end of the book, the rules are not interactive and not painted in different colors (which facilitates perception). English Grammar in Use Online by Raymond Murphy. The purpose of this manual - an independent study of English grammar, on thematic exercises. The book is well structured in units, each unit has rules and wonderful exercises.

I also flipped through some university books / textbooks as part of university classes. In principle, if you do it individually, without being distracted by the group and at the end of the class discussing the questions / tests with the teacher is a very effective training. And sat on a pair - and pulled his tongue.

In the section on books, we can mention that the main source of learning new words is reading. Reading fiction is great to help you in learning a language. We are still in school, all read the stories of O'Henry and answer questions at the end of the story. Take this approach to note.

upd 5 kopecks from EvgeshaS :

For myself I find it useful to read fiction, having a Russian translation at hand. Sometimes it happens that although the meanings of all the words are known, the meaning of the phrase remains unclear - and then the Russian translation helps a lot. When reading, I look in the dictionary for all unfamiliar words, even when I guess their meaning. When a lot of words, it is, of course, annoying, but the farther, the easier. Sometimes it is useful to once again look into the dictionary to see how the word is correctly read. I select literature by interests, mainly classics. It is important that the interest in the book outweighs the inconvenience associated with the need to sometimes pry into the dictionary. Many times I came across the fact that the difficult phrases that I did not understand were also missing in the translation. :)

And add not for the sake of advertising, but for the benefit of the case. There is such a wonderful bookstore where you can buy excellent books at reasonable prices. For example, books by Wordsworth publishers cost 100-200 rubles.

upd podcasts

Quite rightly noted in the comments [ goldena ] about the usefulness of podcasts - recordings of radio releases. They are well perceived, as a rule, thematic, and they will wonderfully teach you language on trips. I found one very interesting podcast by two professors of English in Japan: one from England, the other from the USA. Each 20-minute issue is devoted to a specific topic and has interesting sections. I remember well the section “Both sides of the Pond”, and especially the comical “Ancient Japanese English Study Secret”. I listened to them with gusto, very very highly recommend. Called simply, Bob and Rob Show . In the comments [ EvgeshaS ] you are also offered to listen to the BBC podcasts, CNN news.

About dictionaries

I want to know the meaning of the word - there is no better way than to get into the dictionary. And depending on what word you translate, and what result you want to get, you should correctly choose a dictionary. I will mark for you those that I use.

1. ABBYY Lingvo . Very functional dictionary that helps not only learn the translation of a word, but also look at the momentum and phrases with this word, idioms. The ideal tool for finding beautiful turns that diversify your English-language essay. Looking at a couple of contextual examples - the word is very easily remembered. Lingvo is in the form of a program for the PC, I recommend as an offline dictionary. And on the lingua site periodically interesting news is published about the etymology of phrases and phrases, like “to take a rain ticket”. Yes, this dictionary is also unique in that it is possible to add various thematic dictionaries to it, for different languages. Personally, I have enough standard kit.
2. Multitran . I discovered for myself about a year ago, when I got into the translator’s environment. Service is able to deftly translate whole traction, copes with technical and scientific literature. As in the lingua, many turns and subtleties of use. Many languages, I know for sure that German translators adore him.
3. Dictionary . This is a huge dictionary of English. If you have not found a suitable translation anywhere, then this is for you in this dictionary. Very detailed, with examples, synonyms and antonyms, the only negative is the interpretation in English, get used to it.
4. UrbanDictionary . Specific vocabulary, which is worth a look, if you are interested in the meaning of slang, expletives or bright incomprehensible expressions (quote from the series, for example). You will inevitably meet with these words, watching TV shows (colloquially). The greatness of this service is that it is created by the users themselves, the translation is eliminated by the number of fingers up (thumbs up, +1). And you go and see, there today are some interesting words of the day!
5. GoogleTranslate . If you need to qualitatively assess the meaning of a paragraph, then it is better not to find a place. In addition, this quick translation can be used as a draft by translating sentence by sentence manually (at the same time replacing the Google version).
6. Browser Plugins. When you start to read a lot in English you will regularly meet new words, go into the dictionary because of which you don’t really want to, and everything is clear. However, if you double-click to quickly see the meaning of a word, then why not. Chrome has an extension for this - Google dictionary. Its functionality is wider, but I have it because of the double click. A similar feature is in desktop applications ABBYY Lingvo, and, probably, somewhere else. Solve this problem for yourself.
7. Comment from evgeshaS . There is such a useful list - Barron's GRE wordlist , containing just under 5000 words (there is an abbreviated version of 1500 words, but it is not so interesting). Almost any word unknown to me is in this list. The conclusion is obvious. Of course, learning the words on the list is not very effective, but I cannot say that it is completely useless. For myself, I made a listing of the list - and in the transport I simply go through all the unknown words with Lingvo, looking at the translation and examples of usage. All the words, of course, I do not remember, but something in my head is postponed. I drive this list in circles.

Learning to speak

In fact, learning to talk can begin with the correspondence in IM, Skype, chat rooms, forums. You will begin to form language constructs, something will be deposited in your head, then it will pop up in the conversation. When you correspond, you have enough time to think over the phrase, but you don’t want to go into the dictionary (you are delaying the interlocutor) - you will look for a replacement for your word, speak descriptively. this, in my opinion, is also useful. Begin to generate your thoughts in English: memorize turns, sentence constructions, typical phrases. I started to write my pearls just as statuses in fb, twitter. (vkontakte looks wild, friends may not understand). Write yourself recommendations in English, make an English resume, learn to represent yourself and talk about your hobbies. You know this well in your own language, it will be easier to adapt to another.

Pen Pals are your helpers. They also want to learn the language, communicate in English and share their impressions. Such people can be found on language learning services, such as busuu or interpals . Perhaps, I note that learning to speak and pronounce beautiful meaningful and complete phrases is an impossible task for “background” training. Either look for like-minded people and get together in groups to talk, either travel a lot or join volunteer translators for Sochi 2014, as I did.

Conclusion

I do not have the practice of teaching language and even translation, so treat my post with a fair amount of criticism. I just talked about how you can effectively learn the language, introducing it into your daily life. I managed to learn the language at a fairly good level without any courses, just on my own interest and enthusiasm. I hope that some of my tips / sections will help to take a different look at learning the language, push something, teach something.