6 Steps To Improve Your English

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

If you feel like English is an important language and you need to improve yourself in terms of writing/speaking, feel free to proceed until the last sentence. To those who have difficulty reading in English, don’t worry I’m writing everything in the simplest and most direct form I could. To those who just cannot stand reading long texts (or just lazy), man I wish I could just draw and publish a mind-map but pretty sure it’s not the allowed format for this website. To those who’re already excellent in English, you can just grab some popcorn and scroll through.

I’m not sure if I’m qualified to write this since I’m not that good myself, there are areas in which I need to improve as well. And I’m not in the literary arts field or medical field, I’m actually somewhere along the engineering field. Nonetheless, I felt obliged to post this based on the comments that I’ve received from my previous post.

Without further ado, here are the several things that I did and still doing to reach my current level of proficiency, without attending any English tuition.

1. Start young.

I started when I was a kid, in primary school. Both speaking and reading. All thanks to my parents with their strict ‘typical Asian’ parenting methods. I grew up reading English story books because I was only allowed to buy English ones or none at all. It felt forceful at first but as years passed I’m pretty much used to that. It has become an involuntary act for me to buy English books nowadays. What did I read back then? I started with Enid Blyton, a lot of Enid Blyton. And encyclopedias (I mostly just gaped at the pictures though lol).

In terms of speaking, I enrolled in story-telling and public speaking competitions at school. I guess, somehow, you just don’t feel as shy when you’re a kid. And the support I get from teachers and friends helped me a lot.

What I’m trying to point out is that it is easier to learn the language when you’re still young, with a much active mind and stronger determination. ‘Strike the iron while it’s still hot’, there is an equivalent Malay proverb on this. Besides, when you’re young/still in school, you can always rely on your English teacher to help you so don’t waste that opportunity.

2. Read.

If you want to be good at writing, read. Read everything be it novels, newspapers, articles or magazines. I cannot stress this enough. Find a genre that tickles your fancy so that you’ll find it hard to put it down and that will motivate you to finish the whole book. When you read, you increase your vocabulary. You improve yourself grammatically. When you read a lot, at some extent you’ll be able to recognize your own grammatical errors just by the sound of the sentences. For instance, whenever I read ’When people ignore you, it’s hurt’ it just sounded wrong. The grammatically correct one would be ‘It hurts’. Although ‘it’s hurt’ is also grammatically correct when you’re looking at it in a differently structured sentence.

What I always did when I stumbled upon new words I could not understand while reading was highlighting the word and jotting down the meaning of it by referring to the dictionary or fret not, you can just easily use Google nowadays. Then, in my future writings, I’ll make sure to include that particular word in so that I would not forget its meaning. Back then in high school, I used to keep a small list of ‘bombastic’ words in my pencil case just so I can apply them in my essays, whenever necessary.

However, I know there are those who cannot even stand reading a long word text, let alone books of 500-pages. No need to worry. If you feel like graphics and colorful pictures help you understand or capture your attention better, you can always read comics or online Mangas (Japanese comics) translated into English. The translations are usually properly structured and grammatically correct.

If your financial does not allow you to buy English books (mostly more costly than the Malay ones), binge buy from the Big Bad Wolf sale or any other book sale. You can get 10 books for RM100 (or cheaper) which is a great deal as compared to Rm40/book.

3. Write.

Write anywhere. Just not on walls because that is vandalism unless you’re like a legit graffiti artist or something. If you’re still in school, you should really do those essays your English teachers gave to you, no matter how much you hated them. Believe me, when you’re in University/college/working, no one will be there to check and correct your essays for you (probably unless you’re a literary art/TESL/the likes student). The most perfect time to practice your writing skills with proper supervision will be when you’re still in school. Of course you can still write when you’re in college or already a working adult. However, you have to constantly check on your mistakes on your own/with the help of Google/the help of a friend.

What I did to be good at writing was always completing my essays in school so that my English teacher could highlight any errors (grammatical, usage of words/spelling errors). I also wrote and still writing in my so-called diary, using both English and Malay. I write in my personal blog. Sometimes, I update my status on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in English just for fun. For the books I’ve read, I’ll write a review for each, occasionally, on my Goodreads account (if you have one, do share it in the comment section so that we can be friends).

4. Speak.

In terms of pronounciations, use Google Translate whenever you stumble upon unknown words. To speak confidently, all you need is A LOT of practice, especially if your communicative skills/stage fright is severe. Everyone have stage frights including myself. The severity of it can be minimized by pushing yourself to speak in front of others. You can try the debate club or attending public speaking classes to enhance your confidence. If you need to speak or do a presentation in front of your classmates, just imagine yourself speaking to them in a casual way like you always did.

All you have to do is speak the language. Speak with the people or with Siri (if you happen to use an Iphone). Find a family member or friends who are willing to speak with you. Of course it is quite difficult to find friends who will speak English with you. That is exactly the reason why you need to mingle yourself among positive people who’ll help you grow. Whenever people start a conversation with you in English, always TRY to reply/continue in English as well. If you’re unable/embarrassed to start an English conversation then the least you could do is to reply it.

Another thing I always involuntarily do is using English whenever I call for call centres. For instance, when I’m ordering McDonalds or KFC and whenever I need assistance from Maxis/banks regarding my bills etc. Does not matter how bad or good your English is, as long as it is understandable then you can try this on your own. By the way, only do this when you really need assistance regarding their respective service, please don’t make a prank call.

5. Listen/watch.

I’m pretty sure everyone does this. Listen to English songs and watch films/TV series. It is easier for you to grasp the correct pronounciation when you listen to songs. You can always mimic phrases from films or TV series such as ‘You know nothing, Jon Snow’ (Game of Thrones) to ‘Say Ross, when you picture Phoebe living on the street, is she surrounded by the entire cast of Annie?’ (FRIENDS) etc. Or you can sing along to Two Door Cinema Club’s Eat That Up It’s Good For You. By mimicking, you help yourself to be better at pronounciations and daily conversations as well. Besides, songs and films are entertaining so you don’t get bored easily and it’s a fun learning process.

6. Be adamant.

Be adamant against the unnecessary bashings by negative people. Look at their criticisms as an encouragement to be better. People always learn from mistakes anyway so don’t let yourself be easily demotivated by your errors because they’ll help you grow. Nobody have the right to dictate your success except yourself. Ignore all those people who undermine your effort. Work towards improvement and take it one step at a time towards the top. You’ll reach there someday.

I’m not saying that these methods will be effective for everyone simply because each person have different level of capabilities and adaptability when it comes to learning. I’m just writing to share what I did and hopefully, readers can gain some beneficial inputs from this. Like always, you don’t have to believe every single word I’ve written in this post, you just have to believe in yourself. *brofist*

By the way, these tips can also be applied when it comes to learning ANY language, not just English. If any of you readers have any
other tips to add, do share in the comment section.

Thank you and I wish you all the best!

Assalamualaikum.

– K.A.S

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