Hi, there! How’ve you been?

Eu também escrevo alguns posts para o blog de português para brasileiros da Transparent Language e lá eu dou dicas que podem ser usadas para aprender qualquer idioma. Uma dessas dicas foi publicada semana passada e fala sobre a importância da leitura no aprendizado de idiomas.

Veja o post escrito em inglês e fico aguardando seus comentários sobre como a leitura está lhe ajudando a aprender inglês. Check it out!

Reading is fun! No? You sure? Well, reading what you don’t like or have to read (like school assignments and stuff) is boring, I know that. But in this post I’m going to show you that reading can be fun, oh yes it can!

When we’re learning a foreign language reading is one of the first skills we develop because we use a textbook and it’s easier to follow what the teacher says by reading along. Well, now you’ve come a long way, know your way around the grammar rules, feel fairly confident to talk a little but what is the think that lacks the most?

Vocabulary! That’s right, and one of the most efficient ways of learning (and acquiring) new words and expressions is by reading. Here are some benefits that reading brings:

1. It gives you vocabulary (actively and passively).
2. It shows you the right structure to be used (yeah, that thing they call grammar, remember?)
3. It makes you smarter (can’t beat that, can you?).

I’m going to tell you how I’m improving my vocabulary in French: I worked at a language school that had nearly all John Grisham’s and Stephen King’s books, in pocket books version. I’d seen the movies made of those books but I was curious to see the details they leave out at movies. So I started reading them, at my own time, writing down new words in English I didn’t know back then.

In the first chapters, the list was long but as it turns out, the more chapters I read, the smaller the list became. The stories were interesting, had that thriller-ish flavor and I was able to learn a whole bunch of new words, idioms and even some slang.

As I decided to improve my French vocabulary I resorted to reading. I bought the French version of some of Stephen King’s books, namely It and Pet’s Sematary, and I’m reading them in French, going through the same process I did with English.

Is it hard work? Oh, yes it is. But it’s worth every single minute. Do you know why? Because I’m reading what I like and I’m enjoying it, having fun, going to bed every night knowing I’ve learned at least five new words in French.

Whatever your level is, there are graded readers and easy reading texts all around so arregace suas mangas, roll up your sleeves, and show that you can master Portuguese or any other language you set out to learn.