Kick-Start Your Reading Career and Improve Your English

Growing up in a family that uses Mandarin as the main medium of our communication, English wasn’t a subject that I was too good at in school. In fact, in primary school, it was one of my not-so-good subjects and I struggled to churn out good pieces of compositions as well as to tell the difference between “choose” and “chose”. Fortunately, even till this day I don’t know how I managed to pull it off, I got an A in my Primary School Leaving Examinations, and moved on to Secondary School.

In secondary school, it was really, really important to get good grades for English, because if one failed English, no matter how good the grades for other subjects are, you would still be retained and not allowed to move on to the next class. To make matters worse, the average grades are a low B to C, which meant that for me, it was an uphill task to even pass English. 

So, I had to face the dreaded – start on my journey towards improving English.

How does one improve his/her English? It isn’t a subject where memorisation of equations, data and facts will come in handy during tests and exams. It isn’t a subject that one can crash-study for the day before exams. So how does one achieve the seemingly impossible task of getting good grades in English?

As cliche as it may sound, the only effective way to improving your English, or in fact any other language, is to READ. 

READING? The boring, unexciting task that makes your head spin? That’s what I had to offer you after all the pointless rambling about my life above?

Well, reading can be exciting, and only you can make it exciting for yourself. How to? Below are some steps hopefully will help you feel that reading is interesting, and make it into something that you actually enjoy.

1. Ask your friends who share the same mind as you what books they will recommend for you to read. This may sound lame but it actually helps alot. It will save you a lot of time from roaming around the bookstore/library aimlessly trying to find a book that interests you. Having friends that have the same interests as you to recommend you books is a good way to kick-start your reading, as you would probably like to read the same genre of books as them. 
2. Read movie/TV series tie-in books. An avid movie- / TV-watcher? You can bank in on that interest by reading books that are specially written as a tie-in for movies/TV series that you enjoy. Or, initially existing books that movies/TV series are based on. For example, the Harry Potter series, the Twilight Saga, as well as CSI and Buffy the Vampire Slayer books. The books will give you much more insight to the plot and characters, and it will aid in your understanding of the show, especially if the plot is complex or complicated.
3. Start by reading articles that interest you online. This is a good way to kick-start your reading career. The Internet is an extremely excellent source for gazillions of articles that are just a click away. If you’re interested in sports, you can always Google “how sports benefit our bodies” or “ways to improve on techniques on _________”, the _________ being the sport that you play. Mostly there will be links to other related articles on the webpage, and you will be linked to many more other topics that interest you, which will fuel your reading interest. Which is good
4. Start flippin’ those magazines and comic books! Don’t ever think that reading only includes reading 3-inch thick books. It also includes newspapers, magazines (be it fashion, sports, lifestyle, etc magazines), comic books, etc. And of course as mentioned above, online articles. Reading materials are everywhere! Make good use of that advantage. Sometimes you may claim to dislike reading, but in fact you are doing it almost everyday by reading brochures, magazines, etc. 
5. Look for books that have won awards or are best-selling ones. Well, if the books aren’t good, why are they awarded prestigious prizes such as The Man Booker Prize or sell like hot cakes? It must mean that the books are worth your time, so go read them! 

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Though improvements in a language isn’t something that can happen overnight, persistence, determination and interest in the language will help you leaps and bounds in the quest for that elusive A in English. Do not give up, and keep on reading! Start small, read books that are easily understood with simple plots and words, and gradually move on to more abstract, mature styles of writing. If I can do it, so can you! Cheers!