Reading in a foreign language is absolutely one of the best ways to improve your vocabulary and your overall skills, since it allows you to see new words in context and to come across more refined vocabulary people normally don’t use during a conversation.
However, as a pretty experienced language learner, I think there are certain tips and techniques to keep in mind to make the most of your reading, when it comes to studying a new language.
- Don’t forget your level and start simple
First and foremost, I think that to improve your language level by reading, you have to be aware of your current skills. You have just started learning Russian? Maybe reading Crime and Punishment in the original version is not a good idea.
Stay humble, it’s ok. You’ll just feel overwhelmed and quit if you start with something out of your league. To beginners (A1, A2) I usually recommend reading comics or graphic novels because they tend to use simple syntax and you have the images to help you. For instance, when I first started learning German, I tried to read a kids’ version of Robinson Crusoe and, after trying for a few chapters, I closed the book, put it on a shelf, and never opened it again. It was simply too hard! Too many new words, too long sentences, and probably the story was not that exciting either. So I went to the book shop and I was captivated by the manga sector, even if I had never been a huge fan of it. I chose Death Note and almost finished the whole series in a couple of months. Even if I didn’t understand a word and I was too lazy to pick a dictionary, most of times I was still able to figure out its meaning thanks to the images.
Besides, when you start reading in a new language it doesn’t have to be necessarily fiction and not even a book. You can start with recipes, road signs, shampoo labels, and so on. Everything that helps you become familiar with the language and doesn’t feel too difficult. Then, you’ll know when it’s time to move on to something more challenging.
As far as I’m concerned I never read a novel before I reach a B2 level, otherwise I know I won’t enjoy it.
- Pay attention to history…
Languages evolve with time and it’s fundamental to keep it in mind. If you’re passionate about medieval literature, go for it, but remember that probably many words that you’ll find are no longer in use nowadays, so it might still be helpful to learn them if you’re interested in the evolution of the language, but not that practical if you’re looking for words you can use in your daily life. For example, if you want to go horse riding, steed is not a word that will help you that much.
Another thing to keep in mind is that pretty often historical books are no longer comprehensible even to native speakers. Being Italian, I heard several people telling me that they wanted to read Dante in the original version. Apart from wondering why someone would spontaneously read Dante (but maybe it was my traumatic experience in school to lead me to this thought), I told them that his language is hardly understandable even for Italians. I needed loads of notes and explanations to understand what he meant.
- … And geography
Same thing for geography. Languages can vary a lot from place to place and some words are only used in a specific city, sometimes even only in a specific historical period. One of my students was very passionate about Elena Ferrante and the My Brilliant Friend series (a series of books I absolutely recommend), and during our lessons, she used to ask me about some of the words she didn’t understand. But actually, I also didn’t know the meaning of many of these words, since the book is set in Naples during the ‘50s and I was born in Milan in the mid-90s. It’s happening the same to me right now that I’m reading a book set in North Carolina in the ’60s, Where the Crawdads Sing. I know that many of the words I don’t know probably are not worth learning, I just need to figure out their meaning in order to understand the text. Nothing more than that. This awareness is something you gain with time, the more your language level advances. That’s why I prefer reading novels once I’m good enough to understand the context and select the right words to learn.
- Vary the literary genres and authors
Different literary genres can teach you different shades of the language, that’s why I’d recommend varying what you read. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, recipes, newspapers, fashion magazines. Don’t exclude anything you would read in your native language. When I was learning German I used to read a scientific magazine called GEO and that gave me a pretty solid base with the scientific vocabulary. Another example is recipe books: since I love cooking I bought several of them, especially in English and so I learned many technical words like stir, peeler, sieve, whisk, and so on. The goal for me is to learn those words I would know and use in Italian even if they don’t belong to my field of interest.
Also, try to read different authors, so that you can familiarize with different styles and notice that what you thought was a trait of that specific language, was only something that specific author said all the time.
- Use an e-reader
This one is a tip for lazy people (like me). When I’m reading I mainly do it to enjoy myself and the last thing I want is to grab a dictionary every 5 minutes and look up a word. That’s why I prefer reading books in a foreign language on my Kindle. Classic paper books work fine, too, of course, but isn’t just clicking on a word to see the translation just amazing? For me it is. I purchased several bilingual dictionaries on my e-reader and that really helped me learn effortlessly a bunch of new words. I know that many people ( for instance my teachers in school) told me to use a monolingual dictionary as I get more advanced, however, I honestly prefer bilingual ones, because when I’m reading I want to understand quickly the precise meaning of a word, not just figure out what it is. I don’t want a synonym, I want the actual Italian translation (if there is one), I want to catch the right nuance.
- Don’t forget the pleasure
Reading is about pleasure, not suffering, at least for me. And learning should be about pleasure, too, regardless of the educational theories we grew up with, that wanted us to suffer and cry to learn something new. Life is already hard enough, just keep hobbies what they are: hobbies. You like reading? Great! You don’t like it? Fair enough, do something else to learn a language. You are a perfectionist and want to learn every single new word you find? My best wishes, but go for it! You are lazy and feel ok with only understanding the general meaning? Amazing.
What’s important for me, is learning at least something while enjoying yourself. Unless you are enrolled in university, you don’t have to take an exam about the new words you’ve learned.
- Review what you’ve learned
This is a tip I tried to follow many times, but it just doesn’t work for me. I still think it’s a good tip, though. To make your learning more effective, you should review your new words from time to time and try to use them. I used to do that, but now I’m pretty satisfied with my language level even if it’s not perfect and I try to remember the new words I like by using them, but when it comes to intentional reviewing I just can’t be bothered. I also think that unintentional repeated exposure to the same word will do the same, so most of the time I just look up a word once and hope to meet again in the future. As we say in Italian, Chi non muore si rivede. (If we don’t die, we’ll meet again) 🙂
- Write
Writing is definitely an amazing tool to remember new words. By actively using them in the written form, you can actually help your brain store them in the “drawer of the useful things”. Also here, you don’t have to write a book to learn a bunch of new words, WhatsApp can work perfectly fine. I learned a lot of Spanish vocabulary by texting with a friend of mine and copying what he was saying or trying to use words I had read in a book. Of course, by writing something more complex you learn something more complex, for instance, syntax or idioms. When I started this blog I was just translating articles I had already written in Italian, in the last few weeks though, I decided to write directly in English. And even if I make some mistakes, I don’t care. First thing, I’m not in school anymore, and second, I can always correct it at a later time.
- It’s ok if you don’t understand everything
When you start reading in a new language you might feel self-conscious for not understanding every word you see. But honestly, do you understand every word in your native language? I personally don’t, sometimes I need a dictionary even when I’m reading in Italian and that doesn’t mean I’m ignorant. Of course, when you read in another language this happens a lot more, the important thing to keep in mind, if you want to learn something but still enjoy your book, is to have not more than 5 new words per page, otherwise, it probably means that this book is too difficult for you and that you should keep it for later. Sometimes it’s not even a matter of bare words, it’s the structure or a specific idiom that you don’t understand. If you can’t find the translation and it doesn’t compromise the general understanding (for instance, can you still understand who the killer is without this idiom?), then it’s perfectly fine to skip it and move on. Life is like that, too. We still have to find our way without understanding a lot of things.
- It doesn’t have to be something in its original version
When I studied English in school we only read English pieces of literature. And, of course, that made sense. But honestly, I don’t think that you only have to read a book by a French author to learn French and this applies to every language. I think that reading in your target language what you’ve already read in your language can be a fantastic idea, for example. This way, you’ll probably remember what the story was about and will have a less hard time learning new words. Or maybe you want to read your favourite author in a new language? Why not! I remember that when I first started reading in English, the first book I actually finished was by a Japanese author: Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki. I noticed that pretty often Japanese authors use a simpler syntax and short sentences, and that made it easier for me to enjoy the reading.
- With every different language, you might find it easier or harder to read
When you learn more than one foreign language, you’ll probably notice that you’ll have a different experience with each one. Languages have a personality exactly like people. Besides, how close your native language is to your target language also has its influence. For example, even if English is the language I’ve studied for the longest amount of time, it was definitely the one I struggled with the most with reading. On one side, that was probably due to the huge amount of words and slang that English has, on the other side that was because it’s a bit more distant from Italian than other languages I know. In fact, with French and Spanish I could start reading novels from a very early stage of my learning: these two languages are so similar to Italian that I could understand most of the words even if I didn’t know them. With German, the story is different. German and Italian are not super close, however, I remember that once I had a decent level in German, reading came pretty easy to me, easier than English for some reason. I thought that was probably because German is a language that often has transparent meanings, that is, its words are often built together like Lego and even if you don’t understand the entire word, oftentimes you can still understand its components and figure out the meaning of the whole word. For example, Stinktier is the combination of Stink (stink) + Tier (animal), can we guess its meaning? Sure: skunk! Another example: Handschuh is the combination of Hand (hand) + Schuh (shoe). The meaning: glove. And so on.
- Stay away from books for kids or easy readers (unless you really enjoy them). Read this instead!
I know that some people like them and find them useful to learn new languages. Honestly, I can’t understand how a person who likes reading can enjoy simplified stories. Basically, they take away all the complexity and pathos of a novel leaving you with its bare and empty plot. It’s literally like reading Wikipedia for me. I never enjoyed them when I was in school and never recommended them to my students. But of course, if you like them, feel free to read them.
About kids’ books I’m pretty skeptical. On one side, I think that even if your language level might be pretty low, you’re still an adult and enjoy adult things. So unless you genuinely enjoy reading kids’ books even in your native language, I wouldn’t suggest them. On the other side, kids’ books don’t necessarily use a simpler language than books for adults. They might indeed use a simpler syntax, but they’re often full of puns and word games, that sometimes are not so easily understandable for a non-native speaker. When I tried to read Harry Potter in English, I actually had to stop because there were so many puns and magic words, that I felt I wasn’t enjoying it as I would have in my native language.
So, instead of kids’ books and simplified stories, what I recommend are bilingual books: on one page you have the original version and on the other one there’s the translation in your language. This way, without much effort, you can confront the two texts and still be able to enjoy the reading while being supported by the translation.
So, these were my tips to read in a foreign language, they were based on my personal experience as a learner and as a teacher and I hope they can be helpful also to someone else! 🙂
