Study To Improve

How to improve your English

Surprise; English is my second language. Okay, maybe not a surprise. I still make mistakes and even though I speak English fluently, I still have to work hard to broaden my vocabulary and improve my language skills.

During high school I followed English, French and German as foreign languages. I sucked at the, not going to lie. I’d never expected to do something with languages as a degree or career later on in life, but here we are… I dropped French and German as soon as I could but I stuck with English, it being compulsory and the on language I actually enjoyed. Still I got bad grades on vocabulary tests and my speaking wasn’t great either.

After high school it somehow become a lot easier for me to learn English. Maybe because the pressure of “having” to learn it was gone or maybe my interests developed. I focused on it more and suddenly I become pretty good at it. I felt good enough to move to England and study an English and Creative Writing degree at an English university. Well, I didn’t feel ready, but I don’t think anyone ever feels ready to make such big life changes. I’m nowhere near perfect but university is going great, I know my weaknesses and I work on them to improve them every single day.

If you, like me, struggle with learning a new language, here are some of my tips that helped me get to the level I am at now:

1. Read a lot

Even though I never enjoyed reading during high school, I did fell in love with it when I started reading more in English. I started reading because I wanted to expand my vocabulary, but ended up enjoying the stories so much that I am now following a literature degree. Why reading is so important for language learning? Because you learn new words in a context rather than loose words in a list. It makes it easier to understand and remember. (While reading don’t try to google translate every single word you’re not familiar with straight away as it will take away the fun in reading. Underline these words or write them down on a separate piece of paper to look them up after a page of two, three.)

2. Keep a vocabulary journal

I have a specific notebook filled with English words and their meaning (sometimes with Dutch translation when I struggle to remember them properly). Every time I stumble across a new

The cons of being bilingual

1. I mix up the languages

One that might be slightly obvious, but it happens a lot! I switch between English and Dutch all the time, every single day. When I speak to my friends and family I obviously speak in Dutch, but when I go to class, go shopping or talk to my friends, I speak English. I do not have to translate every English word in my mind to Dutch anymore, I think in English and I think in Dutch but sometimes the “switch” doesn’t switch over quick enough and I speak Dutch when I want to speak English and vice versa. My boyfriend noticed that when I get scared or stressed I automatically get into the “Dutch-zone”, where I automatically speak Dutch. When he tickles me (which I absolutely hate) I shout “Nee, nee, nee, nee!” instead of “No, no, no, no!”. I guess it is and will always be my first language, my safety zone, but it’s funny how it works like that!

2. I forget which one’s which

This might sound very funny but sometimes, when I’m tired or not paying attention, I do not hear what’s English and what’s Dutch. Let me give you an example to explain it a bit better, cause I know it might sound a bit strange. The other day I was in Starbucks before my shift at the bar and wasn’t fully paying attention to what was happening around me. I heard people talk and it suddenly hit me that they were speaking in a language that I was incredibly familiar with. Were they speaking Dutch? But no, it was English. I think English has become so natural to me that I confuse it with Dutch because I’m so familiar with it now. You’d be surprised how often this has happened to me. (I love it with I’m right and they are actually Dutch tourists in Manchester!)

3. I’m forgetting my first language…

Because I live and study in England, English has become the language I use most in everyday life. I only speak Dutch on Whatsapp with my friends and Skype with my family and it makes it a bit hard to remember all those Dutch words… So much effort, right… When I call my parents I

How to learn Japanese

I am studying Japanese! Yes, the language that seems so difficult associated with anime and sushi. On top of my normal English and Creative Writing degree course I take extra Japanese classes as my university provides them and I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to learn Japanese from a Japanese teacher. I’ve been trying to learn it outside of a classroom by myself but a classroom environment motivates me to keep up my studies. In this post I’ll share some of my tips and tricks I use to learn Japanese that might be handy for you too! I will soon write a post about what resources I use and the way I use my notebooks to study this language so keep an eye out for those.

1. Pick the right resources

If you, like me, learn Japanese in a classroom this might be fairly easy because the books provided in class will be your main resource. If you are studying on your own it’s best to stick with one or two main resources at a time. You don’t want to get confused and teach yourself something the wrong way. In class we use “Japanese for busy people” but my teacher recommended “Genki” too. She told me that if I want to continue taking Japanese classes next semester (which I do!) I should start thinking about getting a Genki book during the summer to keep up my knowledge. Apps, too, can be very helpful while learning Japanese. Think of Duolingo, Memrise or HelloTalk. I’ll write a whole post about these in the very near future!

2. Get more than one notebook

For my language studies I always have more than one notebook. Usually I use three, which is how many I use for Japanese too. One to create a vocabulary journal. Every single new word I learn I write down. It’s a way of practicing the new vocabulary but also a way of tracking your