I am not saying that I am a prophet in English nor an Arabo-English native speaker. I just want to share some points on how to learn English. These points I have used myself to improve my practical English and now I have fine skills in English that allow me to write lengthy articles (As you can see this topic), communicate, read and translate. If you really want to gain knowledge and improve your English skills then read this English even if your English is RUBBISH (e.g. I deliberately.) This article was not revised accurately after I have finished writing it, so you might find some English mistakes.
Best Wishes
Universal Love Acid . .
First of all it should be known that not everybody can grasp a knowledge in a one day, although I believe that some individuals can do it. They can learn a lot of things in one day. I believe that the human may have the ability to learn engineering principles in just 2 days. But this depends on the individual himself. Some people are ready to spend twenty four hours to learn something by their optimism and well , opposing boredom and depression. English is a language that the majority of its fundamentals can be comprehend in twenty four hours. But as the majority of the people are not willing to sit on a chair and face a book or a computer for the whole day, then I will just say you should know that learning needs time and it depends on your effort, willingness, the way you learn, your learning ability and finally if you love what you are learning or you are just forcing yourself to learn it.
To find this topic useful, you should know some basic grammars and some vocabularies. You should be patient. If you are a person who thinks that old people are not able to learn anything new, please close the window . You may find the instructions I am going to write useful INSHALLAH.
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
اللهم صل على محمد و آل محمد
اللهم أخرجني من ظلمات الوهم و أكرمني بنور الفهم ، اللهم افتح علينا أبواب رحمتك و انشر علينا خزائن علومك برحمتك يا أرحم الراحمين بحق محمد و آل محمد
آمين
By the Name of Allah the Most Merciful The Most Compassionate
Prayers of Allah be upon Muhammad and his Household
O Allah, guide us outside the darkness of illusion and honor us with the light of comprehension. O Allah, open to us the gates of your mercy and spread among us the treasuries of your knowledge. By your mercy, you are the most merciful and the most compassionate. Through Muhammad and the Household of Muhammad.
Amen
1- Knowledge is not restricted to particular places.
A lot of people think so. They think that knowledge is restricted to specific places that you should attend for the sake of knowledge. Knowledge can be gained whenever the teacher is present. If there is an Arabic person who works as an English teacher then he can help you other than saying that you should travel to west to learn English or being instructed by a native speaker to master the language. This is totally rubbish. I have traveled to west, I have been to institutes where native speakers were teachers of the English language and I know the truth that if I have not worked to improve my English, then neither traveling to west nor enrolling in an institute will be useful. Now you are reading an article and you can find a lot of English mistakes and therefore say to yourself “traveling to west or enrolling in an institute would not make me immune in English language if I am not working to develop my English” and even if you have never been to west and you spend days learning English from Arab people, I guarantee you those who are studying the language in the west or English institutes won’t be stronger than you in the language.
2- English plus Interests.
A basic rule you can apply on everything learnable: Knowledge + Love = Easy learning + Productivity. It is easy to memorize poems because of its beauty. If you love football you will find yourself getting involved in a lot of discussions about football within friends, in university, cafes, even in mosques. If music attracts you, then you might be a person who cannot drive a car, doing university assignments or chat with friends unless music is on. My advice to you is to use your interests to make learning English more attractive. If you love football read English articles about football, read footballers biographies. Follow the football news which are presented in English. If you are fond of Songs go and read about your favorite band. Read about the instruments they use. Go and read their songs lyrics, why not memorize them. If you love cooking, fashion, etc go and read about it, hear about it, write about or speak about it.
I have been attracted to many things during the 21 years I have been living. I was attracted to Songs when I was 16 years old until I became 17. I used to listen to rap songs at the beginning but then I changed to Rock and Metal. Whenever I hear some words I remember from which song did I learn it. I memorized some of the songs rhymes and I still can remember them. However, I am no longer listening to music as I consider it forbidden and I believe that there are many sources that allow you to learn English other than listening to songs . When I became 17 I started intervening in English discussions about social affairs, politics, society and religion through Paltalk. This had a strong impact on the way I pronounce words, the way I arrange them and their selection. I spoke about such things because they were my interest. I am very fond of discussing matters about religions, creeds, notions in economy, politics and religion. They are still my interest. Two years back I started listening to Shia Islamic lectures which can be found easily in the web. I wrote many posts in Shiachat forum. I followed my interests. As for video games. I liked Metal gear solid which improved my linguistic and mental abilities.
I was also interested, and still interested, in graphic design. I had to read lots of English tutorial to learn how to use Photoshop, design websites and using Flash (Western artists usually share their knowledge unlike the rubbish Arab artists who keep the knowledge for themselves. Therefore, English tutorials were widespread on the net). Currently I am still interested in intellectual discussions, but I am also fond of reading books about self help, fiction and wealth. I will write about books later in this article.
3- English as a part of your life.
Interests are parts of your life. This is one. But there are other parts of your life. If you are a university student you are ought to read textbooks, make researches, participate in English and listen for a professor speaking in English for a whole day. English is a guest in your life, would you accept it as a guest and serve it? If you are a house maid you may prepare food for your food in Ramadan ;p you may face a difficulty in dealing with your children (May be, I hope not). You should have a position in life you should have a role and by that you can improve your English.
If you are a student who does not know how to study, then you can go to google.com and make a search about learning strategies (e.g. time management, how to take notes in lecture, how to memorize formulas.. etc) and you will find lots of articles about learning skills and learning strategies and trust me they will be very useful. If you want to cook something unusual and new, then read an English cooking recipe. If your wife is pregnant, then read articles or books about pregnancy, health or read about children as preparation to be a father . If you are going to get married then read about Females/Males and how to take responsibility, how to act with your family members and how to financially support your family members (In addition to the religious reading J ). However, If you could not find an intended article in English and you found it in Arabic (or your language), then just translate it into English.
Whenever I get sick, I go and read about the diseases that have caught me. I read about tonsillitis which used to catch me annually. I read about bones when my wrist was broken. I read about allergies when my skin started to get spotted when I ate mixed Mango, Caramel and egg!. I read about snoring when one of my friends told me that I used to snore a lot while sleeping (The article was very useful , all I had to do was not to sleep on my back). And as a fulltime university student, I specify a time to read university text books usually IF I did not understand what the HELL the lecturer was saying in the class, if I hate the topic I am reading, I just try to find a possible way to make it fun and motivate myself to continue reading.
4- KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
The first verse which was revealed to the prophet of Islam (Prayers of Allah are upon him & his household) was “Read in the name of your Lord Who created.” (096.001). It is a divine order to seek knowledge and I cannot go through all of the religious scriptures and quote statements about knowledge as this article is not specified for such purpose. But the human sensibility agrees that Knowledge is power. with knowledge we are sitting on chairs, playing bowling, playing football. With knowledge we speak and with knowledge we touch. “Mathematicians won the war.” It was the opening words in the movie The Beautiful Mind. I am not speaking about Mathematics but please realize how the developed countries admit that Mathematicians were the true winners in the World War II. knowledge gives you money, time (yes time), friends, wife, house, clothes, legs and tongue. Knowledge gives you these things even if you cannot see them. Kumayl bin Zeyad narrated:
“Once Imam Ali (Peace be upon him) put his hand in my hand and took me to the grave-yard. When he passed through it and left the city behind, he heaved a sigh and said “Kumayl, these hearts are containers of the secrets of knowledge and wisdom and the best container is the one which can hold the most and what it holds, it can preserve and protect in the best way. Therefore, remember carefully what I am telling you. Remember that there are three kinds of people: one kind is of those learned people who are highly versed in the ethics of truth and philosophy of religion, second is the kind of those who are acquiring the above knowledge and the third is that class of people who are uneducated. They follow every pretender and accept every slogan, they have neither acquired any knowledge nor have they secured any support of firm and rational convictions. Remember, Kumayl, knowledge is better than wealth because it protects you while you have to guard wealth. It decreases if you keep on spending it but the more you make use of knowledge the more it increases. What you get through wealth dis- appears as soon as wealth disappears but what you achieve through knowledge will remain even after you.
O Kumayl ! Knowledge is power and it can command obedience. A man of knowledge during his lifetime can make people obey and follow him and he is praised and venerated after his death. Remember that knowledge is a ruler and wealth is its subject.
O Kumayl ! Those who amass wealth, though alive, are dead to realities of life, and those who achieve know- ledge, will remain alive through their knowledge and wisdom even after their death, though their faces may disappear from the community of living beings, yet their ideas, the knowledge which they had left behind and their memory, will remain in the minds of people…”.
So decide from know, to read at least 3 pages from an English book or an article every day. All you have to do is to use Google or any search engine as the internet is a large electronic universe and not just restricted to facebook and Email groups. Read about health, wealth, religion, science. These words are enough for this part.
5- Share your knowledge.
“ Teach the people your knowledge, and learn other people knowledge. And by that, you will become a master in your knowledge, and you shall have learned what you have not been knowing” Our Holy Imam Al Hassan (Peace be upon him) said. Thanks Allah, I apply this rule in my life and I ask Allah to keep this grace on me. I have realized its truth. Those who act as if they do not know anything and who do not share their knowledge will end up forgetting their knowledge. The only way to master your knowledge is through repeating it and share it with other individuals. These words are enough for this part J.
6- Books!
If you want to buy a book then please make a perfect selection. Do not just buy anything. If you buy a boring book, then you will be repelled from reading and you might hate or fear learning anything in general. Try to do searches on which book to buy. Ask people who do you think are book readers to help you (This what I usually do J). If you are in the book store and you want to buy a book, then read the back cover, read the introduction and read parts of the chapters in the book to have a general idea about the book and see if the book can be understood.
When you read try to read with an average speed, neither too slow nor too fast. If you read too fast, you will not understand anything. However, you will notice that by the time you will be able to read quickly. If you read slowly, I assure you that you will not understand anything at all. Moreover, If you find a word that you do not understand while reading, do not stop reading to look for that word In the dictionary. Just put a sign next to the word to look for it in the dictionary later and continue reading. Otherwise, you will interrupt your reading continuously.
Try to set a time a day for reading. furthermore, do not be ashamed from reading in public places (e.g. if your mother, sister or wife are shopping. Instead of being sick of waiting, bring a book and read it.)
The first story I started reading was called The Mortal Engine. I could not understand everything in the story and I could not understand every word. However, by the time my English really improved. Even my reading speed highly improved. Now, Thanks to Allah, I am able to read lots of things.
7- Listening.
As for listening, It is recommend to listen for news, podcasts or watch movies. I highly recommend you (especially if you are Muslim) to listen for Shia Islamic lectures such as Sayed Ammar Nakshwani or Sayed Mahdi Al Modarrsi (If you are interested, as some people does not like religion).
8- Writing & Speaking.
Learning how to write or speak are not as easy as listening or reading. In writing and speaking you are the producer of the thought, you are the one who is going to share his thought and intellect instead of being a receiver. The more you read and listen the more active will be your writing and speaking because by reading and listening you would learn more words, how to arrange them and when to use them. You will learn how to pronounce and how to spell.
Writing and speaking are great tools for leadership, to have a part in this world, to export your intellect, to affect people and to show what you have. “The value of each individual is what he/she can achieve” Imam Ali (Peace be upon him) said.
I practiced my writing in forums, such as Shia chat. I intervened in lots of Shia vs Shia discussions and I had the opportunity to translate narrations to use them as an argument during discussions.
As for Speacking. I sometime start to read something with good pronunciation and enough speed. But I am not doing this anymore as it causes me headache. And as I mentioned I practiced speaking on Paltalk but unfortunately entering English rooms (Social issues) on Paltalk is not free anymore, you should pay first.
9- Links.
I hope you have a full access to them Web. These are some useful links to learn or practice English and these are the web pages I really prefer visiting.
1- Shiachat: If you like Islamic discussions.
2- BBC: Powerful and useful website to learn English. I have directed the link to the section where it focuses on English. You may read news, listen to radio or participate in have your say where you can write comments about recent issues.
3- Personal Development for Smart People –Steve Pavlina– : I visit this website every day. It has lots of articles written for self help and personal development also for my English.
4- 4 Shared: A good file sharing website to finding e-books you want. Just type the name in the search engine.
