Since you don't like reading, have you tried audio-books? It's weird at first, but I got used to them pretty quickly. And you can listen to them everywhere, even when it's impossible to read (like walking around, driving). Doesn't work for difficult text though, which partially defeats the purpose. But listening to Vonnegut or Dostoevsky still beats American talk radio (and yes, NPR is just a talk radio station, no more sophisticated than the rest of them).

Aside from reading novels, the second most important source of my (albeit still limited, compared to what your ambitions seem to be) English vocabulary was, surprisingly, conversing on Internet forums. Particularly forums about philosophy and literature. Of course, there's not much point in spending all day debating morons about day to day politics, or for that matter any subject that adds no new words to your vocabulary. The goal here is to find people who are better at English than you are, to converse with.

As long as you have the discipline to stick to topics you like, and only engage the people you can learn from, online forums can in fact be a magnificent means of combining input with output.

Last edited by Stansfield123 (2013 February 06, 3:41 pm)

I forgot to mention that I also listen to audiobooks, sorry.
These days, I don't have the attention span for audiobooks. I fall asleep each time I listen to one and then I have to listen to the whole thing again--ugh. Watching crime dramas also does that to me, which is why I've switched to comedy/ fantasy.

During my hardcore AEATT phase, I ended up sleeping through 12 hours of a book by Charles Dickens.

During this phase, I didn't listen to music at all. Music isn't really "pure" language. Some words are mispronounced for stylistic effects, and I didn't want to be exposed to anything that would be deleterious to my English. I did watch talk shows, but that's another story. My understanding of *colloquial* English is really good, thanks to Ricki Lake and Jerry Springer.


By the way, NPR isn't just "another talk show". I've watched enough "trash" (but oh-so-entertaining) TV to be able to make the difference between good, standard English, and slang that should only be used with really close friends.
NPR deals with a lot of interesting topics such as science, technology and economy.

I also have a really weird way of grading myself when it comes to listening hours. Right now, I tolerate music because I'm good enough at spotting non-standard pronunciations, but I won't count one hour of music as a full hour of listening.

Anyway, I raked in close to 8 hours today, which I haven't been able to do in AGES, so I'm really happy. I wish I found a way to deal with my vocabulary troubles though.

Try to sleep more.
Spread out your work throughout the week/day.
Take 5-10 minute breaks.

Stress makes it more difficult to remember what you learn. Relaxation will certainly get you out of your plateau. Try to find a way to be more efficient, while finding a way to relax.

I use timeboxing to get through the horrible book I have to read for my paper. I love phonetics, but this book is *so* dry. I did AEATT before reading AJATT so I'm not one of those crazy proponents of the "method", just someone who learns best through osmosis. I'll try anything if I think it can help me learn English.
I've been on antidepressants and anxiety meds for years. I'm already much better, but I can't stand pressure.

Since my second Kindle will finally get delivered tomorrow, I'll probably read The Hunger Games or Harry Potter/ The Lord of the Rings in both French and English at the same time. Or maybe CHERUB. I don't know yet.

I'll also go to the library and get some vocabulary books. I've been going to the library a lot, but the one I go to only caters to the needs of the locals, so it doesn't have any books in English.

Oh, and I read/ listened to tons of "productivity/ motivation" books a few years ago. I jumped on every possible bandwagon, including The Secret and Wicca spells for good fortune. Like I said, I'll do anything.

I'll try to aim for 60-100 flashcards a day (less when I'm swamped with work).
I'm bad with reps so I'll have to find a way to deal with that.

As someone also on antidepressants and anxiety meds (and psychotics for sleep);I understand your issues with stress.

Despite what is marketed towards us consumers choice is not always the best option.
To give an example (one I do not suggest following): I went "off" my meds for four days, for various reasons. Four very long days. By the end I had a very clear idea of what I actually wanted and not just the meds. Also relating to a few other Japanese study things.

It's funny in a way how desperation can bring about clarity in desire. And how acute your focus can be while suffering; how imminent the present is. So many little distractions seemed entirely undesirable. Maybe that is a here nor there. Though... 

It sounds like you do a lot of work in your target language,
but how much do you play in your target language?

Honestly, I think if you're having difficulty reading fiction, you need to read fiction. Your written English is quite good, so I'm assuming that you just have difficulty understanding what's in fiction as opposed to the non-fiction you've been reading and listening to. Fiction often has very different vocabulary and style to it compared to non-fiction, so that's why I'm suggesting this.

If you're taking anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medications, that might be having an effect as well. When I was taking them, I did really poorly at school work or concentrating on anything I didn't care to do. It sounds like you actually need them, but they can screw around with your brain in unexpected ways, just so you know.

I know you don't really like it, but Anki could really help you with vocabulary (there is a mobile app, if you have a mobile device). It's much more organized than using regular flash cards. But I understand why you don't like it, I much prefer paper to a computer screen, but Anki works better for me, so I use it.

@uisukii
I don't really suggest dropping such medication cold turkey. When I dropped my final medication (which wasn't an anti-depressant, but lithium. All the others I weened off of under supervision), I couldn't think straight at all. I barely remember it. Apparently, this isn't uncommon for anti-depressants and the like either.

Your free to experiment, but just know that it can throw you on your ass if you just drop medication like that. Less than optimal progression is far better than no progression at all.

mel685 wrote:

I forgot to mention that I also listen to audiobooks, sorry.
These days, I don't have the attention span for audiobooks. I fall asleep each time I listen to one and then I have to listen to the whole thing again--ugh. Watching crime dramas also does that to me, which is why I've switched to comedy/ fantasy.

During my hardcore AEATT phase, I ended up sleeping through 12 hours of a book by Charles Dickens.

I also have a really weird way of grading myself when it comes to listening hours. Right now, I tolerate music because I'm good enough at spotting non-standard pronunciations, but I won't count one hour of music as a full hour of listening.

Anyway, I raked in close to 8 hours today, which I haven't been able to do in AGES, so I'm really happy. I wish I found a way to deal with my vocabulary troubles though.

As nadiatims suggests, you could try adding vocab lists. These are way more efficient than trying to learn solely through rote memory. Writing words out in a list as you learn the words makes the context more concrete. If there are any difficult words, you could use flashcards to review them, after the list is done. Using both flashcards and vocab lists would ease your vocabulary troubles

Nadiatims, who found the flaschard system inefficient, began using vocabulary lists to learn words.
http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/Nadiatims_method.

Anyone else have suggestions on how to learn vocabulary without anki ?

Last edited by Aspiring (2013 February 06, 8:36 pm)

Wow, thank you so much for all the answers. I didn't think so many people would be interested in my thread.
I still consider myself a beginner and that's why I've come here for help.

How much time do you spend having fun in your target language?

I used to watch a lot of cool DVDs and TV shows, but lately I haven't had the time to do that. I listen to a lot of American music (mainly rap) but I've gotten tired of listening to my favorite songs. I "banned" French from my life 5 years ago but stuff happened and I've been watching more and more French TV. I've also been reading manga in French, but that's because I have an aversion for online Jap/Eng scanlations.

That being said, it's not such a big deal since I average 3-6 hours of listening (to various things in English) every day.
Oh, and now that Koh-Lanta is over, I should be able to get that number up.

I used to play a couple of Korean MMORPG a lot (10 hours+ a day). I played on English-speaking servers so obviously I learned a lot of (not-so-useful) vocabulary like "scimitar". I don't even know how to say this word in my native language (not that it really matters ).
I stopped playing such games because I got bored of them.

I love English, but I'm tired of not understanding "basic" words. My new Kindle didn't get delivered this morning, so I'll probably have to wait till tomorrow to do some parallel reading.
I'm not that interested in listening to the books/ shadowing the books at the same time because listening comprehension and pronunciation practice aren't my main goals.

I had lofty goals, but now it seems like I can't make any progress. I wanted to have a native-like command of American English. I think I need help finding new goals that are mainly centered around vocabulary and comprehension.

I read the last 3 volumes of Harry Potter in English 7 years ago. I didn't understand much, but I enjoyed them anyway. I feel like reading them in English kind of ruined the experience for me because at the time I didn't even know what a wand was...

Last edited by mel685 (2013 February 07, 6:29 am)

I think I can answer that one :p. You'd be amazed at what incredible expectations people have from English learners. English is also much more vocab-heavy than other languages and so commonly studied that having a level where you 'get by' gets about as much respect as not knowing it at all.  Since OP is majoring in philology the expectations are even higher... though tbh some of the university teachers I have often make mistakes. And yes, I judge them :p.

EDIT: My computer has a mind of its own tonight and it won't let me connect to the internet or post here. Let's try again...

Wow, OP, getting through the last three HP books is pretty impressive!  Just wondering what you mean by "not understanding" basic words?

Thank you
There's a lot I didn't understand though. Sometimes I was like "What the heck is happening now?". I have a high tolerance for "foreign gibberish" but I need to understand English better if I want to get good grades and to become fluent.
Sometimes I feel like some words/ sentences are impossible to understand. Descriptions are horrible.


Phrasal verbs and descriptions of action scenes have always stumped me. I know most of the colloquial phrasal verbs, but none of the "good" ones that are used in literature.

I'm currently studying words that describe sounds (click, clink, bang, blast, bellow and all that good stuff). I have eight pages of them to learn and I think I'll go crazy before page four.

Today, I didn't get to study vocabulary since I tried to get some reading done for my research paper.

My Kindle did get delivered eventually so I'm downloading books in French to complete my ebook collection (I need the text to be bilingual).

Last edited by mel685 (2013 February 07, 4:15 pm)

mel685 wrote:

There's a lot I didn't understand though. Sometimes I was like "What the heck is happening now?". I have a high tolerance for "foreign gibberish" but I need to understand English better if I want to get good grades and to become fluent.
Sometimes I feel like some words/ sentences are impossible to understand. Descriptions are horrible.


Phrasal verbs and descriptions of action scenes have always stumped me. I know most of the colloquial phrasal verbs, but none of the "good" ones that are used in literature.

I'm currently studying words that describe sounds (click, clink, bang, blast, bellow and all that good stuff). I have eight pages of them to learn and I think I'll go crazy before page four.

I'm a fast and fluent reader of English but some of Rowling's action scenes went by me in bit of a blur, too - that is, I wasn't left with a clear picture in my head of the scene.  So this may have more to do with the fit between her writing style and the way you and I "read" and then "see" things than with your grip on English ;-) .   (I loved the HP series, but Rowling isn't my favorite writer when it comes to writing *style*.  She is also notoriously fond of adverbs .... )

I hear your frustration with all those onomatopoeic words.  I've got "Japanese the Manga Way" and am struggling with the fact that I'm going to have to learn how all these things "sound" in another language - because a noise sounds like it sounds, right?  Cows make the same cow sounds anywhere, don't they?   My cat speaks Japanese already, yeah?  But no, Warrigal, it looks like native phoneme experience changes the way this experience gets written down, too.

Last edited by warrigal (2013 February 07, 4:59 pm)

Dear god, I wish I could write as well as you do. Are you sure you don't have too high expectations?

I can't say I know a more efficient way to quickly acquire a more extensive vocabulary other than SRS. If you wan't to acquire an extensive vocabulary in a short time frame there aren't better options. Reading is a better way but takes a lot more time. You could try to read a few short stories instead of whole novels though. I'm pretty sure authors tend to repeat a certain kind of vocabulary or sentence structure, so reading shorter works by different authors -- perhaps even different genres -- may be more efficient. It won't be as fast as SRS, but you'll gain a deeper understanding of the concepts.

Defining a concept is hard. I'd have a hard time defining words in my own language, and I think most people are like me. When I don't know a word -- which is quite rare nowadays -- I just keep going. I don't bother looking it up in the dictionary. It's either relevant to the plot in which case it'll be described or talked about later on and I can get a feel of its meaning, or it isn't, in which case I didn't lose much by not understanding that part of the sentence.

If you're not in a hurry just keep reading or listening to whatever it is that you like.

I'm curious: mind telling what is your native language, what and where are you studying?

mel685 wrote:

I still can't read Harry Potter comfortably, even if I can read most newspapers pretty easily.

You may wish to push your newspaper sights higher. British 'broadsheet' papers would definetly improve your English reading skills (The Independent, The Times, The Guardian). Not really sure which American papers compare (New York Times?)

Last edited by RawToast (2013 February 08, 8:29 am)

^I do not really know much about NPR, but in respect to "pretentious English and good English", I'd make the comment that in the way you have described "pretentious" in this manner is in the same manner as the characterization of the people you are referring to as using such style of speech.

All specialized and/or technical English language is by nature "pretentious" in that there are certain assumed pretentious of knowledge demanded of the audience in order to understand the text, speech, etc. being conveyed. All topics have pretensions the respective subjects are to be aware of in order to follow.

You also might want to define what "good English" is, as at current all you've done is conveyed your opinion on what you think is "good English", by means of indirect reference. Such an act is by its very nature, insinuating certain agreed upon understandings from who you are speaking to and is, as defined, pretentious.

They use big words with barely any idea of what they mean, to convey platitudes.

What are "big words" and how do you know the speakers have "barely any idea of what they mean". "pretentious" and "platitudes" are words which certain English speaking adults may call "big", while other English speaking adults may not. Labeling words as "big" insinuates pretensions of what is considered also small, and correct size words. Something which is a common phenomenon which varies between levels of literacy groupings, vocabulary sizes and specific jargon interest groups.

Your post appears to have a lot of pretensions about what constitutes valued use of the English language and what does not. Have you heard of the Dunning–Kruger effect?