Have you ever heard that immersion is the most effective way to learn a language? Immersion means you travel to a place where the target language is spoken, so that you are surrounded by the language. Thanks to the Internet, you can have some immersion-like experiences without ever leaving your home.
Here are five ways to sneak English into your life:
- Watch TV shows, movies, or the news in English. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t understand exactly what is going on in a TV show. Listening to the English audio while reading subtitles is a great place to start. Gain everything you can from watching TV in English by pausing, rewinding, and re-listening to sections until you understand them. You can write down new vocabulary or phrases to define and study later.
- Listen to music in English. Turn listening to music into English practice by listening to a song a couple of times and recognizing which words you understand. Then, read the lyrics and define any main words you don’t know. Learning the lyrics to a song and singing along, even if you don’t understand every single word you’re singing, is a fun way to practice.
- Read books or articles in English. When reading, try not to focus on understanding every single word, but rather understanding the main idea. If you find understanding the main idea of a story difficult, you can start by reading stories that you already know. As always, if you learn new vocabulary words, add them to a list.
- Change your phone settings to English. This is a great way to learn new, often random, vocabulary. Since you will be looking at the application names in English daily (not to mention using the applications in English), you will be learning new vocabulary without seeking it out.
- Find a friend who speaks the language you’re trying to learn. Nowadays, there are apps which connect you to other learners and native speakers. Through these apps, you can practice your writing and speaking skills and make friends along the way! We recommend the Tandem app.
- Which of these activities do you find helpful?
