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by w-m
1287 days ago
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Thanks for teaching me the word garrulous! For years in my teens and twenties I built my English vocabulary slowly, by looking up any word I didn’t know while browsing the internet. Looking up 15 words every day adds up, even if you don’t have a system for memorizing them. But there too have I reached a plateau. I remember taking a test that tries to gauge the size of your vocabulary fairly recently (it was linked and discussed on HN IIRC), and being somewhat disappointed that I, in my mid-30s, rank like a native ~15 year old. I’d like to express myself in more sophisticated ways, like an adult would, but the look-up method is at an end there. Hardly ever do I need to look up a single word when reading tech content, which is what I consume the most. So for me it would take an effort to seek out such material, that pushes my vocab bounds. Kudos to you for getting active, it’s not that low of a hurdle to get started on! (Corrections welcome) |
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East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, for example. Or collections of Sherlock Holmes stories. Or Asimov's Foundation series (skip the last couple of books!). Or Night Watch by Terry Pratchett. Or Parliament of Whores by P.J. O'Rourke.
Or go through lists of famous opening lines of novels and maybe pick up a novel that you really like the beginning of ("It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife", "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times [...]", "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen", etc.).
It doesn't matter what it is, as long as the writing is good and you like reading it.
(And don't bother looking everything up. It shouldn't be necessary and it makes the reading process dull.)
Another option is to watch TV.
Watch something you never used to watch before, such as Grand Designs or Would I Lie To You (start with the clip "I accidentally bought a horse" on the "WILTY? Nope!" channel as it has fantastic subtitles... which you WILL need). Or maybe A Bit of Fry & Laurie, for example the sketches about language and the sketch with the pretentious tourists (it's on youtube as "A Bit of Fry and Laurie S02E04 Czech"). Or Jimmy Carr hosting I Literally Just Told You (season 1 episode 2 -- the others are not as good). Or Carr hosting The Big Fat Quiz of the Year/Decade/etc or 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
A third option is radio/podcasts.
The Unbelievable Truth (hosted by David Mitchell), for example. Or In Our Time (hosted by Melvyn Bragg) -- start with some of the older ones as Bragg is no longer as sharp or as clear in his speech as he used to be just five years ago.