Many people in the Hyderabad city are scared to learn the English language as they feel that learning English is very complex, painful and stressful.
They say that “English seekhne se zyaada hamaali ka kaam aasaan hain” (lifting weights is much easier than learning English) in their typical Hyderabadi slang.
This is a common attitude in all the people who have tried the spoken English institutes in Hyderabad. The reason – they didn’t have the right experience or direction to learn English. Thanks to schools and English training institutes in the Hyderabad city, which focus only on complex grammatical concepts and vocabulary.
How to go about the learning process?
You may ask if memorizing the concepts is not the way, then what is the right approach towards learning English.
To learn English easily and quickly, it is most important to take the right direction. It is not about burying your nose in text books, dictionaries, grammar books or newspapers. This makes one feel that learning English is difficult. Remember, learning and improving a language is not burdening yourself with unrealistic goals. No one learns batting when someone is bowling at 140 kmph. Neither do cricket coaches teach youngsters batting by bowling Yorkers or bouncers. It causes pain and destroys any interest because of the failure.
You need to start slowly and follow a step by step procedure to learn English properly. In order to learn English, you need to be comfortable and connected with the language. In simpler words, entertainment is key to learn and improve English quickly. Reading comics, jokes, small stories, playing games, makes learning English enjoyable, without enjoyment in learning English it is like forcibly stuffing an unpleasant dish into your mouth.
Start with comics
Reading comics is an easy and entertaining way of improving English. Comics provide a wonderful entertainment and education besides improving your language skills. Comics are light and easy-to-understand. The sentence structures used in comics are simple. As they use visual images to convey meaning, they are easier to follow.
The vocabulary used in comics can be understood from both pictures and the context, so you need not waste your time looking up the meaning of difficult words in a dictionary. You can understand 60% of the story by pictures and you will be eager to know the remaining 40%. In this way, you will gain interest whereas in newspapers or other grammar books, you will lose interest.
Comics provide a basis for speaking and writing English for starters as they use common vocabulary in context, illustrate idioms and expressions, teach verbs and other parts of speech as examples of connected speech. They also enhance creative thinking abilities, instill culture and values.
Where can I get comics
All daily newspapers carry comic strips. Check English newspapers every day and read comics. You can find more comic strips in Sunday’s newspapers. Even business magazines provide comic strips. Comics are also available in the form of comic books.
You can find many interesting comics such as Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield, Wizard of Id, Heathcliff, Archie etc. Though all comics may not be humorous, there are wide variety of genres in such as The Phantom (adventure), Superman and Batman (action) etc. We can also learn many things from comics such as management from Dilbert. Indian comic books such as Amar Chitra Kathas and Panchatantra carry a wealth of information about the Indian history, tradition and culture. Read comics that match to your age and gradually move to the higher levels as you grow older.
How long should I do comics
We know that this question is lingering in your mind since you were reading the above paragraphs. Don’t think about ending even before you start reading them! Don’t rush through. Read comics till you have explored every alternative. Once you have mastered the comics, you can take jokes.
Keep on reading comics till the time you can read jokes and entertain yourself. If you are not able to entertain yourself with jokes, it is most likely you need to improve your reading better. So read more comics and keep entertaining yourself.
Once you have completed illustrated stories/comics and then are able to enjoy reading English jokes. Then move on to short stories. Here you have a variety of options – you can do entertainment or informational or inspirational. Try reading small stories, particularly from kids’ books such as The Golden Goose, The Fox and the Crow, The Ant and the Cricket, The Fox and the Grapes, The Tortoise and the Hare. You can also read fun stories such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels, Rip Van Winkle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Malgudi Days etc.
Reader’s Digest could be both inspirational and informational. Reading magazines/newspaper of your interest could be another step to learn English while having fun.
The other entertaining medium is games. Try to solve English language games such as word puzzles, crosswords, jumbled words, word games and others. You can find them in daily newspapers. They work in two ways, one is to aide in learning English and the other is to check your progress in learning.
Remember, if you miss out on this aspect (entertainment), it will be very difficult for you to pick up the language. Learning a language through entertainment makes the whole learning experience memorable and painless.