Learning English: films, books, dictionaries

Many of us study 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 for himself: someone is moving 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 quickly and effectively learn a language yourself. At the language school you will be offered several targeted programs: from “speaking skills of a business person” to “targeted delivery of TOEFL”. What new things do I want to offer? We will talk about “background” language learning. The goal of my post is to share with you the language learning methods I used. I will try to show the concept as a whole, which each of you can integrate into your own way of knowing the language.

Introduction

About 5 years ago, when I entered the Faculty of Physics, I realized: "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. I am now 22 years old, I know English at B2-C1 level (according to the European assessment system ). I find the widest application of the language in my life: getting acquainted with foreign articles from sources, viewing electronic lectures of leading universities in the world, reading scientific literature on dissertation topics, talking with foreigners as part of the CouchSurfing project, helping those who wish to learn Russian on Skype and even learning Spanish - on English sites.

Language Learning Methods

I studied English for a long time, periodically, in my free time, in classes at the university (3 semesters of a non-core program), while I did not attend a single paid course. The first step is, of course, to realize that you need a language and that you need to spend time on it. I remember where I started - stupidly watch films in English with English subtitles.

Watching movies in the original language

How to do it right? I absolutely stupidly took and watched the top movies with imdb and did not understand anything. Each new phrase or a long word - I climbed into the dictionary, watched the translation, and paused the film. After 15 minutes, you get bored and watch the rest of the movie like a blockhead. The main tip is that the content you want to watch in English should be effective. You should understand the main part of the spoken words (written if you watch the subtitles), and the meaning of the new words should be understood from the context or visualized in the film. I’ll highlight four categories to start with:

1. films that you watched a lot in Russian and understand what it is about
2. video tutorials from a professional environment - where words are found daily at work
3. films with simple language and clear pronunciation (Disney cartoons, classic "My Fair Lady", for example)
4. serials. The peculiarity of the series is that language learning is cumulative. You will recognize the heroes, their characteristic words and actions that you meet in the future. Spoken language is well pumped and your understanding of grammar is disfigured). I recommend starting with the series Friends. It’s very difficult to watch the house - the rich language itself, as well as the terminology of CPR, MRI and Multiple Sclerosis in each series. Although if you are studying as a doctor, then try. Judging by the name, the habrayuzer should like the IT Crowd series, thanks for the tip of AndreyDmitriev .

upd Q: It is very difficult for me to perceive films in English. Is it okay if I don't understand much at the beginning? Or should I postpone watching in English?

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

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

Here's another good service for students - puzzle-english.com section "TV shows" is just right for those who want to abandon Russian voice acting and Russian subtitles as quickly as possible. [ alfa ]

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

Immersion in the English environment

Since everyone who reads this post has a computer, or at least a browser - here is my advice to you - put the English language of the interface everywhere. The English operating system not only allows you to learn the language - but also make a more competent request in Google and find the answer to the question on the English forum. About 3 years ago I moved to English Windows, all operations remain familiar, all shortcuts are recognized, 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 a visualization of objects. You can enjoy original videos and beautiful developer fonts. I remember the rapture 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, and they are easier to download and Russify. Another paragraph on how interesting and useful to google in "bourgeois". The main part of the content on the Internet is in a global language, and, moreover, it is not only a matter of quantity - but also of quality. Read the wiki page in Russian - look in English. There can easily be an answer to your question or some more expressive picture. Read the translation on the Habré - take a look at the original,

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

About Internet Resources

Now about interactive training - about Web resources. I spent a lot of time studying the language using special sites. I probably have not seen many sites, so I’ll only tell you about my experience, maybe you know analogues or 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 run it over several workouts. You can learn words from the glossary, but then the associative context is lost, which you can get by watching a lecture or reading a joke. One inconvenience for the student - there the developers want money, but I always felt sorry, so I learned 10 words a day for how many meatballs were enough.
2. busuu - Learn languages ​​for free online. I love this service, although it is truncated for poor students. Here again, the meaning is in learning new words, but themed lessons are collected. Words from one group are well remembered, can occur in dialogs and complement each other. And here you can find an interlocutor and speak with him in English. Ask him for skype and talk separately. Now I study Spanish on this service, and all the explanations are in English. It turns out!
3. English Grammar Exercises . The Germans approached the compilation of tests, it is convenient to solve them online and see the answers and explanations. According to the rules, you can just google any sites - I can’t advise more. I recommend Murphy's book, by the way, about books.
4. Applications for mobile devices. I at one time 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 commonly used English words with pictures and pronunciation in four types of training (memorization, dictation, test and self-spelling), divided into dictionaries: Elementary, Pre-intermediate, Intermediate and Upper Intermediate.

Language learning books and just books

Here in this thread I am a big layman. I practically did not use paper tools to study. The reason is simple - inconvenient. The keys to the test need to be seen at the end of the book, the rules are not interactive and are not painted in different colors (which facilitates perception). English Grammar in Use Online Raymond Murphy. The purpose of this manual is an independent study of the grammar of the English language, on thematic exercises. The book is well structured by unit, in each unit there are rules and wonderful exercises.

I also leafed through some university books / textbooks as part of classes at the university. In principle, if you study individually, without being distracted by the group and at the end of the lesson discuss issues / tests with the teacher - a very effective training. And sat on a pair - and tightened his tongue.

In the section on books, we can mention that the main source of learning new words is reading. Reading fiction will help you learn the language very well. We at school still read O'Henry's stories and answer questions at the end of the story. Take note of this approach.

upd 5 kopeks from EvgeshaS :

For myself, I find it useful to read fiction, having at hand a Russian translation. Sometimes it happens that although you know the meanings of all words, the meaning of the phrase remains incomprehensible - and then the Russian translation helps a lot. When reading, I look in the dictionary all unfamiliar words, even when I guess about their meaning. When a lot of words, this, of course, annoying, but the further, the easier. Sometimes it’s useful once again to look into the dictionary to see how the word is read correctly. I select literature according to my interests, mainly classics. It is important that the interest in the book outweighs the inconvenience associated with the need to sometimes peek into the dictionary. Many times I came across the fact that difficult phrases incomprehensible to me are also absent in translation. :)

And I’ll add not for the sake of advertising, but for the good of the cause. There is such a wonderful bookstore where you can buy great books at reasonable prices. For example, Wordsworth publishing books cost 100-200 rubles.

upd Podcasts

Quite rightly noticed in the comments [ goldena ] about the usefulness of podcasts - recordings of radio releases. They are well received, usually thematic, and they will perfectly teach you the language when traveling. I found for myself one very interesting podcast of two English professors in Japan: one from England, the other from the USA. Each 20-minute issue is dedicated to a specific topic and has interesting sections. I well remember the “Both sides of the Pond” section, and the especially comedic “Ancient Japanese English Study Secret”. I listened to them with rapture, I very highly recommend it. Called simply, Bob and Rob Show . In the [ EvgeshaS ] comments, you are also invited 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 are translating, and what result you want to get, you should choose the dictionary correctly. I will designate those that I use for you.

1. ABBYY Lingvo . A very functional dictionary, which helps not only to learn the translation of a word, but also to see turns and phrases with this word, idioms. An ideal tool for finding beautiful turns that will diversify your English essay. After looking at a couple of contextual examples, the word is very easy to remember. Lingvo is also available as a PC program, I recommend it as an offline dictionary. And on the lingua website periodically published interesting news about the etymology of phrases and phrases, such as “to take a rain ticket”. Yes, this dictionary is also unique in that you can cram various thematic dictionaries into it, for different languages. Personally, I have enough of the standard kit.
2. Multitran . I discovered it about a year ago, when I came to the environment of translators. The service is able to deftly translate entire turns, copes with technical and scientific literature. As well as in lingua, many revolutions and subtleties of application. Many languages, I know for sure that German translators adore him.
3. Dictionary . This is a huge explanatory dictionary of the English language. If you have not found a suitable translation anywhere, then you are in this dictionary. Very detailed, with examples, synonyms and antonyms, the only negative is the interpretation in English, get used to it.
4. UrbanDictionary . A specific dictionary that you should look into if you are interested in the meaning of slang, curses or vague obscure expressions (quote from the series, for example). You will inevitably come across such words while watching TV shows (in colloquial speech). The great thing about this service is that it is created by the users themselves, the translation is eliminated by the number of thumbs up (+1). And you go and see, today there are some interesting words of the day!
5. Google translate . If you need to qualitatively evaluate 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, translating the sentence by sentence manually (while replacing the Google version).
6. Browser plugins. When you start to read a lot in English, you will regularly meet new words, to climb into the dictionary because of which you do not really want to, and so everything is clear. Nevertheless, if you double-click to quickly see the meaning of a word, then why not. Chrome has an extension for this - the Google dictionary. Its functionality is wider, but it’s worth it because of the double click. ABBYY Lingvo desktop applications have a similar feature, and probably somewhere else. Solve this problem for yourself.
7. Comment by EvgeshaS . There is such a useful list - Barron's GRE wordlist , containing a little less than 5000 words (there is an abridged version of 1500 words, but it is not so interesting). Almost any word unknown to me is on this list. The conclusion is obvious. Of course, learning words from a list is not very effective, but I can’t say that it’s completely useless. I made a listing of myself for myself - and in the transport I just go through all the unknown words with Lingvo, looking at the translation and examples of use. 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, you can start to learn conversation by correspondence in IM, skype, chat, forums. You will begin to form language constructions, something will be deposited in the head, then it will pop up in the conversation. During correspondence, there is enough time for you to think over the phrase, but you don’t want to go into the dictionary (delay the interlocutor) - you will look for a replacement for your word, speak descriptively. this, in my opinion, is also useful. Start generating your thoughts in English: memorize turns, sentences, typical phrases. I started to write my pearls simply as statuses on fb, twitter. (VKontakte looks wild, friends may not understand). Write yourself recommendations in English, make an English resume, learn to introduce yourself and talk about your hobbies. You know this well in your native language, it will be easier to adapt to another.

Penpals 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’ll 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, or travel a lot, or sign up for volunteer translators in Sochi 2014, as I did.

Conclusion

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