How I Read a Book a Week and Improve My English Through Reading | Tips to Become Advanced in English

hello guys and welcome back to my youtube channel  as you can see i'm in a completely different place  

right now to be honest i'm in a different  country i'm not in russia i'm in mexico in  

mexico city honestly i really like this apartment  i really like the colors like look at this pretty  

pink wall behind me and obviously i have a cactus  here so yeah this apartment is really mexican but  

today guys we're gonna be talking about reading  and about how books can help you improve your  

english in just a matter of months so guys as you  probably know i'm this kind of person who prefers  

electronic books so i have this e-reader and i  always carry it with me it's small it's compact  

and this is just something i use honestly it  doesn't even matter if you feel like you prefer  

real paper books then you know just go for it just  read paper books but i just want to share what i  

like to use when i read so i want to start this  video by answering this one question that i get  

asked a lot which book is the best for english  learners guys to be honest there is no right  

answer because there's just so so many great books  out there but i can give you three tips here that  

can help you pick up a book that might become your  next favorite one first of all you should pick a  

book that interests you this is like the most  important thing if you feel like this book is  

boring don't read it guys i know for a  lot of people it's a very obvious tip but  

sometimes i get stuck in this kind of like rut  of reading something that i don't really enjoy  

reading like maybe a book that a friend  recommended to me or like a book that has  

been really popular right now like and everyone  is talking about it right you are entitled to  

your own opinions right if you don't like this  book just toss it it's not your favorite one  

move on to the next one next tip is you should  try to read something that you can't understand  

if you feel like this book is a little bit too  hard for you when you read you have to stop  

like every five seconds because you don't know a  word it means that it's too hard for you so you  

shouldn't choose this book and my next tip here  is try to pick a book that is very specific to how  

you use english because for a lot of us we  just need english for work for example right  

and if you want to improve your business english  maybe you should pick up like a business journal  

or subscribe to a newsletter for example or if you  just want to learn english for fun then you should  

pick another kind of literature but i feel like  here i gotta mention one thing i highly recommend  

graded readers and i have a video on my channel  where i talked about them a lot we discussed  

created readers with ali and ali richards actually  has his own collection of great readers now let's  

move on to talking about two different types of  reading so the first step is intensive reading  

intensive reading is when you read to learn new  vocabulary to learn new grammar so for example  

you see a sentence you see some of the words you  don't know you will highlight them you will make  

sure you know their meaning you will check the  meaning in the dictionary maybe you will save the  

words maybe you will write them down or even like  if you see like a good grammar structure you will  

try to remember it this is intensive reading and  we also have extensive reading extensive reading  

is practically when you read for fun when you  don't stop to look up a word when you just read  

and enjoy the process and i feel like the method  that helped me to learn english faster and then to  

gradually start reading faster is combining those  two methods so you should read extensively but try  

to highlight new words or new grammar structures  that you want to memorize if you're like me and  

you're using a kindle or like any e-reader  there's like a highlighting option there or  

if you're using like your phone or your ipad you  can also highlight words and grammar structures  

there as well here when you're highlighting you  don't need to look anything up you know just  

highlight the phrases for example you're reading  a sentence and there is a word you don't know just  

highlight it that's it the second thing you should  do is keep on reading for example you have a goal  

you need to read this page or you need to finish  this chapter so keep on reading don't stop and the  

third step here is once you finish this chapter  or this page only then can you go back and look  

up all the unknown words all the new words all the  new grammar structures and so here like a bonus  

tip you can do that i think is going to help a lot  of you guys but also requires a bit more work if  

you're ready for it is importing all of those new  words and grammar structures and even sentences  

into a spaced repetition app this way you'll be  able to create digital flash cards and this is  

exactly what we need because the space repetition  technique helps you to memorize new words faster  

and in a more efficient way the best example  here is the app on key i use this application  

for a very long time when i first started to learn  chinese and right now that i'm learning spanish  

i'm starting to use it again because it's  just so beneficial on these like first  

steps towards your language journey now let me  just talk about the books in general and where  

you can actually find great recommendations so the  website that i absolutely love is called goodreads  

they have a great collection of books they're like  rated you know people give them reviews and i also  

really love their choice awards so choice awards  is practically a place where you can see all the  

best books of a certain year for example right now  you can see like the best books of 2021 and guys  

to be honest i've already read a lot of the books  on that list because i just use goodreads all the  

time for book recommendations and another thing  that i love about them is that it's a community of  

book lovers so you can leave reviews you can chat  with other people just like a perfect place for  

bookworms and now let me just recommend a couple  of books for you if you're just starting to tap  

into this reading world and are not sure yet if  you actually like reading or if your english is  

good enough to read a real book so the first  book that i would like to recommend is called  

charlotte's web it's a very very famous children's  book but the language there is really easy you  

know i guess in a lot of children's books the  language is often pretty weird and especially for  

non-native speakers it might be really challenging  but it's not true about this book something that's  

also really great is that this book is part of  the national curriculum and you can be sure that  

this book might come up in conversations and a  lot of native speakers in general have read this  

book as kids the second book that i would like to  recommend is called the house on the mango street  

one thing that i can say about this book is that  it's an extremely interesting read you can feel  

all the emotions that the protagonist feels and  i feel like this just brings you closer to the  

writer the sentences in this book are generally  really short and although there are certain words  

and phrases that you might not know this book is  still a really good read because you're learning  

more about the new culture and i don't know like  a great book in general i highly highly recommend  

it next book that might be a little bit more  difficult is 13 reasons why first of all this book  

is a little bit sad and depressing so if you're  ready for this kind of read this book will not  

disappoint you this book also deals with a lot of  pretty heavy issues so if you're planning on going  

on vacation and reading this book there maybe it's  not the best choice but i love this book again  

because the sentences are pretty short and the  vocabulary is not that hard and also because this  

book is on the new york times best books list the  next book is a famous classic the old man and the  

sea great thing about this book is again because  a lot of native speakers read this book before  

and this is something you can talk about with  them because it was again part of their school  

curriculum and also because it's just a really  really famous book maybe some of the sentences are  

going to be a little bit more difficult because  again it's an old classic and maybe some of  

the words are going to be pretty challenging but  again this book is short and nice and i'm sure you  

won't have a lot of trouble finishing it and the  last book i wanted to mention here is peter pan  

the reason why i included this book here is i feel  like because even if you're non-native speaker and  

if you're watching this video you are probably a  non-native speaker you have read peter pan before  

because it's just such a famous children's book i  have definitely read it in my native language when  

i was a kid and i also reread it later in life in  english so here i guess i could give you one more  

tip if you can read a book in english that  you have already read in your native language  

that would be even better because this way you're  already familiar with all the characters you're  

familiar with the plot and you already know  that you like this book right so this way  

you're setting yourself up for success and i feel  like peter pan is a great book to start with maybe  

some of you are gonna ask me about harry potter i  think even though so many people have read harry  

potter in their native languages i still think  in english it's more difficult than all the other  

books i've just mentioned here but again it's my  opinion that's what i think so yeah guys i think  

that's gonna be it for this video i really hope it  was useful again guys if you're interested in my  

mexico journey if you want to follow my life here  make sure to subscribe to my vlog channel it's  

just veronica mark my name i will be publishing  a vlog from mexico city very soon in just a few  

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pick a membership there thank you guys so much for  watching this video and i'll see you next time bye

you