My name is Wilko and I am from northern Germany. In October, I begin to study economics at a university and until october, I want to use this time and improve my english skills. This is the reason, I registered on this board. In school, my english was not very good and at the university, a lot of textbooks from the later semesters are only in english. And later, I want a semester abroad in an english-speaking-country.
Currently, I start reading books in english and hear english podcasts.
Do you have another strategies to improve my english?
Hi Wilkow,
I am also new (well, I've been watching this forum on and off), but I am a native English speaker living in Canada and would be interested in helping you. I seek to improve my German.
From my experience, listening to podcasts or reading books are limited in their effectiveness, as they are passive means of learning a language. The reader or listener is not forced to verify if they understood the message, or to check if they can equally express the same sentences they are hearing/listening to.
I suggest that when you read or listen to English, that you make a list of words, expressions or sentence structures that you don't understand. A reasonable goal per day for this is 10.
Now that you've identified 10 things you would like to understand better in English, it is up to you to decide how you want figure out what they mean. You can ask a friend, open a dictionary (English, or English-German), look onine, etc... You're in control!
Hold onto these lists, and try to compile them into one source (i.e. a notepad document in your computer, or a notebook you carry around). This way, if you hear a word or phrase on your list again, but forgot what it means, you will at least remember that you researched it once, and can easily double-check what it means. The best part of all is that YOU become your own source of validation for understanding English.
Good Luck!
