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Books arrived!! | ||
Tags: Book | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6709 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes  Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 1 of 26 29 August 2006 at 6:39am | IP Logged | ||
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Yay! Eleven of my new books arrived from Hungary today. I'm so excited. One of them wasn't what I thought it was (it was more a picture book with a single word on each page and lots of pictures LOL - I thought it was a very simple storybook - but it still has its use!), but the others are great.
My question is, how do you guys approach reading your books? Obviously, my vocab is still fairly low - so I'll be looking up a lot of words - but what do you do to ensure you remember them? Do you write them down? Make a flash card? Or just note them and look for them further into the book? How much do you aim to read per day? How do you stop from getting frustrated? Please let me know of your approach. I'd like to start tonight!!! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cbashara Senior Member United States adventuresinspanish. Joined 7120 days ago 186 posts - 188 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 26 29 August 2006 at 9:49am | IP Logged | ||
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It's always so exciting to get new books!! I love it! Anyway, I think most people here will recommend making some flashcards with all of the words that you don't know and studying them later. I did not used to do this as I'm not a huge fan of flashcards. I find them a bit tedious and with a toddler to chase after I don't really have a lot of spare time. However, I've recently made more of an effort with them and I have to admit (grudgingly) they really do make a difference.
Good luck and enjoy your books! Chandra 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ishikawa Minoru Diglot Newbie Portugal Joined 6752 days ago 31 posts - 33 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 26 29 August 2006 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | ||
The little picturebook aside,I don't think buying books in bulk is a very sensible idea;unless you happen to have plenty of time to read and enough patience to do so. I'm saying this because I often find myself tempted to do the same thing and read several books at the same time.I just find myself getting frustrated because I don't have time/patience to read them all. So,my advice is read a book at a time,at a steady,maintainable pace and it'll work out. As for the words,I suggest you try to figure out their meaning before looking them up,then write them down and review later.Look at them once,make an effort to memorize it and later write them down again from memory. You could use a flashcard program.Most are free and work moderately well. Hope this helps and have fun. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7006 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 26 29 August 2006 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I read with a little notebook and pen beside me. When I don't know a particular word, I try and figure it out from from context. However, regardless of whether I can determine what the word is or not, I write it down and check with a dictionary afterwards. I don't usually have much time to read so I can only manage four or five pages in one go, although there are still plenty of words that crop up. The fun comes in trying to remember them afterwards!
By the way, I also love it when I get a consignment of new books. The smell alone is motivation enough to open them and start reading them! EDIT: I actually think that it's better to buy books in bulk, mainly because it's cheaper, but I think that it can also serve as a motivational tool. Edited by patuco on 29 August 2006 at 3:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6709 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 5 of 26 29 August 2006 at 4:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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:) When the cost of shipping books from Hungary to Australia is high, I am all for buying in bulk!! I deliberately chose the books in graduation - starting from very simple, up to the more difficult ones.
I too, as patuco mentioned, see it as motivation. And I LOVE the smell of books too!! So it seems a notebook and a flashcard system is the way to go... thanks for the input so far. I hope to hear any other ideas that people have too! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| unzum Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom soyouwanttolearnalan Joined 6905 days ago 371 posts - 478 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 26 29 August 2006 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I used to read every French book with a little set of flashcards next to me. I'd find a word I didn't know (about every 5 words), I'd look it up in the dictionary and write it on a flashcard.
I've noticed a lot of people seem to like this method (especially Barry Farber, who recommends doing this when you're an absolute beginner) but I really don't find it useful at all. It's really demotivating and also really really boring. If you want to read foreign literature for fun, this is no way to do, since you'll probably get through 3 pages in half an hour. Anyway, the way I normally approach reading books is to forget about the dictionary and just read it, figuring out meanings of unknown words from context. If there's a word I don't understand that keeps cropping up loads I'll write it down and look it up in the dictionary a bit later. I can maybe get through 30 pages reading this way before I have to stop. Even if you don't make a million flashcards I think you still learn a lot of words, just from context or exposure. Happy reading! P.S. The comments above are just things I've picked up in training to be an English (EFL) teacher, we normally discourage the students from looking up every word they don't understand in a dictionary or reading in great detail. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7094 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 7 of 26 30 August 2006 at 2:16am | IP Logged | ||
Ditto. I've also binned the flashcard approach and I now do exactly the same thing. It's the only way I've found that keeps the reading enjoyable - which for me is the point. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6709 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 8 of 26 30 August 2006 at 5:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Again, thanks for the suggestions and comments guys. I spoke to my Hungarian friend and she has set me a 'task'. By the end of the week, I have to have read one of the books. I have to give it to her and tell her what the story was about. Then she will read it and tell me if I was right.
unzum & Andy E - my friend told me to do basically as you do - to just read, not stop and try to know every word, just get the general idea of the book. My problem is that sometimes I have absolutely no clue what it says and I HAVE to use the dictionary or I'm lost. I WANT to be able to read it and just get the general idea, but when I'm only picking up roughly 50% of the words, how can I do that?? EDIT: Sometimes I'm only getting 30-40% of the words on a page Edited by Katie on 30 August 2006 at 6:04am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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