Make English Part of Your Everyday Life

Even if you are not living in an English speaking country, English is everywhere. Building fluency is an essential part of improving as a language learner. A few hours of class per week is simply not enough to really get a student thinking in English. One of the best things that can be done to help with this is to find a source of English that fits into your everyday life. Think about your interests and make one of them English.

Do you enjoy watching films and television? So many of these things are produced in English and then translated into your language. Hollywood films are released all over the world at the same time in hundreds of different languages. The problem is what gets lost in translation. The dub artists that translate films hardly ever manage to maintain the same feel as the original actors. Is Johnny Depp still Johnny Depp when his voice has been changed? How much of the original language is lost or changed while being translated? There is no need to settle for substandard translations when you can watch the original version in English. Change the language settings on your TV to original voice. It will be rewarding and excellent for your language skills.

Many students prefer reading to watching TV and films. If this is your case then why not pick up the next novel you want in English? Almost all major bookshops have foreign language sections and hundreds of popular books are available. There are even more options for people who have e-books. Hundreds of older, classic literature is available for free because it is no longer under copyright law. Check out Project Gutenberg. Its a website that offers all these books without paying a penny. It won't put any harmful viruses or malware on your computer either.

Maybe you don't have time to read or watch TV and films. No problem. You could download some English music, radio or pod-casts. There are a lot of excellent sources for getting free or cheap audio on the internet. Everything can be put on your mobile, MP3 player or good old reliable CD.

Finally, almost everyone has a smart phone and tablets like the iPad are becoming more and more popular. There are thousands of applications that are available in English. One of my favourites is TuneIn Radio, which gives you access to live radio from anywhere in the world directly to your phone or tablet. Then there are news programs like Flipboard, Zite, BBC News and more. There are games, restaurant review apps, cooking apps, music discovery apps, video apps, health apps and basically anything else that you can imagine all available in English.

So what's stopping you? Find something you enjoy and do it in English. You won't regret it.