Magazines as a Language-Learning Aid

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Magazines, I have found, are a wonderful aid to help you improve, maintain or brush up on your language skills. Being published in general only once per month they are not so ‘date-reliant’ as newspapers and their content revolves around a particular topic. So no matter if you are interested in fashion, science or architecture you should be able to have your pick from a variety of magazines in the language your learn or are fluent in. A quick read through Vogue or Architectural Digest for example should provide you with the following:

• New words to add to your vocabulary. You not only will learn new words, but you will see them used in context, which will make it easier for you to remember them and use them correctly.
• The most up to date specialist terms in the scope of a particular topic. We all know how difficult it can be at times to find specialist terminology whereas magazines contain terms used and accepted by the people who work in the area. 
• An improved cultural understanding of the nation which language you are learning or maintaining.

Above all, magazines are fun to read. They present their articles interestingly and in a fresh enticing language. So you will not only be reading about the latest fashions, a new scientific discovery or a brand new tendency in architecture, but you will also be improving your language skills and learning about what’s up and coming in the respective country or how its people address certain topics. Another plus of magazines is that they contain articles and pieces written by different authors. As such in a short matter of time you will encounter diverse expressive means, different ways to communicate information and the most up to date vocabulary, all used and written by native speakers.

This is why every time I go to Spain I stock up on magazines. They may be a bit heavy on the way back but they help me maintain my Spanish in a crisp and up to date condition while at the same time give me a rather good idea who is who in Spanish life.

A few tips how to approach reading magazines for best language learning results:

• Pick a magazine in the topic you are interested in or in the professional area you work in. British, Spanish, French, Italian and German magazines are easy to come by anywhere in Europe and in large cities, like London and Paris you can easily find publications in Chinese, Arabic and more languages. You can also visit a foreign language library in your town or check the websites of the respective magazines to see if they sell subscriptions in your country (be prepared to pay a bit more than the regular subscription due to higher deliver charges).
• Pick an article that interests you and read it in small chunks. Try to understand each new word in the context of the small chunk, after which make a note of it on a piece of paper. Upon finishing the article, you should have a list with new words. Look them up in your dictionary. Then read the article again comparing your initial in-context understanding to the dictionary meaning of the new words.
• Read the captions of the photographs and if you have the time even the advertisements. They will help you link new terms with the visual image hence facilitating your understanding and helping you memorize the term.

Reading magazines should not replace the reading of books in the language that interests you. Still they are a powerful language-learning aid which, like in a time capsule, presents you with the expressive means, the vocabulary and the cultural context of this month and this year.

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