Reading in a second language

[Hailey]

Are there people reading in their second language? I'm from China and I find books in English not very easy to read. So I'd like to ask about your reading process. Do you often check for vocab or just run by them quickly? If you don't look into unknown words often, how do you accrue words and does it bother you not to understand things at times?

[Grumpz]

I started with looking up everything I didn't know, and I would recommend that as well. By doing that you progress faster (only my opinion) and get to a state in which you don't have to translate in your head anymore, it's like reading a book in your first language. Took me a few years and dedication, tho. ;)

It might be harder for you because my languages use the same alphabet. :D

[Yannick]

I speak Dutch but I prefer to read in English. I do have my phone next to me to look up a word here and there. A E-reader / Kindle is awesome in this case because you can literally click on the words and have the definition and use directly available. But I sometimes ignore words just to be able to read on. But you learn a lot by looking up the words of course. Sometimes you even learn what they mean by context alone.

[Hailey]

Marleeen wrote: "I started with looking up everything I didn't know, and I would recommend that as well. By doing that you progress faster (only my opinion) and get to a state in which you don't have to translate i..."

Fatanstic that you progressed so much :). What's your native language and what are you currently reading? So do you generally read fast and know basically every word now? How large is your vocabulary? I have a vocab of around 15,000 as tested by test your vocab.com, so you can understand that I encounter a lot of stuff I don't know. BTW, I'm now on the Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese.

[Hailey]

Yannick wrote: "I speak Dutch but I prefer to read in English. I do have my phone next to me to look up a word here and there. A E-reader / Kindle is awesome in this case because you can literally click on the wor..."

Yes, you're absolutely right. My approach is that I check a word if I run into it for quite a few times. But I still feel that I missed something by not checking some important words.

[❃A.J❃]

It's not possible to look up literally every word. That way, you'll only be reading the dictionary instead of the novel. In my opinion, you should read books with simple and easy language.
English is my second language too but I'm very fluent in it after years of practice.
If you are not interested in working on your english through other means, then you can keep reading books and I'm sure it will improve. Occasionally, you can look up words. :)

[angeline]

my first language is greek but i mostly read in english bc thats what i prefer. i dont rly check vocab and all that stuff bc i started learning english when i was like 7 and im almost 18 now so im pretty fluent

[Katharina]

I started reading english with books i've already read in my native language and after some time it got easier and I can now read english books without any problems.

[Laura ‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾]

If I ever come across a word I don’t know I usually look it up. Sometimes I feel lazy to search it, but I remind myself that it’s a great way to expand my own dictionary. And then I usually try to make an example sentence using that word if it’s hard for me to understand right away☺️

[Olalla]

I normally understand the meaning of the words even though I don’t know what the word means, and I read for fun so I never look it up unless I don’t understand what is happening ( but right now that never happens to me because I read more in English than in Spanish )

[anna]

when i was learning english, i would read books that were written in the perspective of mentally disabled people or people on the autism spectrum. those often have simple words, non-complex sentences, and lack complicated metaphors. it worked rlly well for me bc i could read "grown up" books with popular words i already knew

[Hailey]

anna wrote: "when i was learning english, i would read books that were written in the perspective of mentally disabled people or people on the autism spectrum. those often have simple words, non-complex sentenc..."

Very interesting approach. Are those good books?

[Luffy Sempai]

I would read on a tablet or phone, or better an e-reader like Kobo, Hisense, or Kindle. There are dictionary options available literally at your beck and call.

There are a lot of Chinese tablets that will translate for you :)