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Improving...
#1
Hi guys,

What steps would you take to improve your vocabulary , and improve your literature , love books but sometimes find it difficult to understand , quite a shy person as well find it hard to put my points across in discussions can't find the right words so to speak .

I would really love to be able to read Shakespeare and understand it's full meanings , I feel like I'm insulting the 'Great man' when I try and read his work and have no idea what I am reading . Anyway thanks for reading any advice would be appreciated

Johnnyboy xx
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#2
Maybe you can try 'books-on-tape' or books that you can download and put in
your iPod or Mp3 player?

Sometimes people learn faster by hearing instead of reading. I remember back then
when I couldn't understand the point of the story, or if the information doesn't want
to sink in, I would read the book out loud to myself. And after awhile, I didn't even
have to do that anymore..

I hope this helps :]
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#3
johnnyboy Wrote:Hi guys,

What steps would you take to improve your vocabulary , and improve your literature , love books but sometimes find it difficult to understand , quite a shy person as well find it hard to put my points across in discussions can't find the right words so to speak .

I would really love to be able to read Shakespeare and understand it's full meanings , I feel like I'm insulting the 'Great man' when I try and read his work and have no idea what I am reading . Anyway thanks for reading any advice would be appreciated

Johnnyboy xx

I think the best way is to "use the language". Reading, writing, talking... In books don't choose the longest novel/classic/most famous bestseller just because "everyone else has read it" or "I should read this", choose the book YOU find interesting. There is also no rules you HAVE to finish every book. Reading should be something you enjoy and not something you have to force yourself. - Did I mention that I'm a librarian...

Then writing. Maybe you could write a little journal, stories etc? It would be even better if someone could read your text through. Writing is in my opinion one of the best ways to increase your vocabulary.

And last but not least, the talking. This is of course something not so easy if you are shy, but maybe you could first practice this in one on one talks instead of group talks? I know my vocabulary and English have improved the most by talking (but this is also because I'm not native English speaker). Also, don't be afraid of making mistakes, we all make those Smile

I hope this helps a little Smile
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#4
Some Shakespeare is harder than the rest--and most of it is probably best watched as a play or movie first.

Try this: First read the synopsis on Wiki. Let's take Much Ado About Nothing as an example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Much_Ado_About_Nothing

After you get acquainted with the main characters and the story line, go watch the movie.

After you really feel comfortable with the whole story try and read the book.

Alternatively, you can search the internet for Shakespeare's sonnets, which are shorter and easier to follow. Good luck. Enjoy.


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#5
There are lots of things you could be doing, but I'll try and mention a few that haven't been mentioned.
A)
Try one of those "Word a Day" things, like a word-a-day website... or word-a-day toilet paper (it actually exists) xD

B)
Whenever you hear a word you don't know/understand, make a point of looking it up.

C)
Where Shakespeare is concerned, you can get annotated versions, or "modern" translations.
Many of which have a side-by-side format so you can compare the language.

D)
Purchase a thesaurus. Then, when the mood strikes, try thinking of a word, and then as many similar words as you can...
Then look it up and compare what you came up with, with what is there.

Just a few thoughts Smile
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#6
Lol...after growing up hearing Jamaicans and Trinidadians talk...all the time, everything else is easy! Rofl

Actually, personally, I am a fan of deep thought and Philosophy and while never being taught how to interpret or "make sense" of convoluted rhetorics or even Anecdotes in some works synonymous with Shakespearean era, I find it came easily and I only attribute this to the fact that I often times when I was very young, would lay in my bed and would think about Death, Trees, Ghosts...you know, stuff any other 10 year old boy thinks about Smile .

But not only that, but I always thought or tried to figure out the "Hows" and "Why's" of everything. Hence my deep thinking I suppose, as it lead me to ask questions like "I wonder how they made up words?" and "How and why did people Genetically seperate and were we ever the same?"

So this may have led me to have a Proclivity for Interpretive Speech, attributed to our lovely Shakespeare.

I believe a good tip would be to actually read his work, but for every word you do not understand, write down, try to interpret what it can, may and seems to mean and then actually find the correct meaning and to see if you're right.

Memory plays an integral Role as well, as many words are incorporated into other ones and give a word either a new meaning or a combined meaning and this often confuses people. So a word you may have seen before, but is in another word, or used in conjunction with it, can actually be deciphered, just by knowing what that word itself means. Similar to Latin Root, infact of which is also a very useful tool I've taught myself to make use of.

For instance, Parallelogram is exactly what it looks like, Parallel. It literally means Parallel Lines, of which it depicts perfectly.

And for another example, a favourite Shakespearean Quote of mine, that I believe in highly is ;
A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.
William Shakespeare

It is what it states, however, as interpretive writing, it can imply many things, and to me and possibly many others, it translates to;

Be Modest.

As in both instances, they were both conceited, but in different ways, but both ways were foolish.

It's really simple if you look at it for what it is sometimes, even with seemingly deeper messages, as really, words are but a form of clothes for which they are different but are in essence still clothes Smile - see? That basically means shit stays the same Wink .
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#7
An interesting topic. I need to improve my baaaad english too.
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#8
Crossword puzzles, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and general writing, a story, a work paper, a school paper, all help, as far as the classic's old english is a bit differant, and harder to understand, James
[Image: images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcRz-Six7p24KDjrx1F_V...A&usqp=CAU]
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#9
The internet. It's so awesome that a lot of sites that define words will even PRONOUNCE them for you! I've found that incredibly helpful as I learned many words through reading and was pronouncing them wrong for years before someone let me know.
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#10
Pix Wrote:The internet. It's so awesome that a lot of sites that define words will even PRONOUNCE them for you! I've found that incredibly helpful as I learned many words through reading and was pronouncing them wrong for years before someone let me know.

Aw Pixie :p , das de easy way :/ . Make it haad for them alittle bit Sheep tehe

Loveya
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