Elementary Listening Practice

Part One

What I find most difficult is listening. I have an old video recorder and I use it to record movies and other TV shows. Then I watch it later, but I don't watch the movie. No, I watch all the adverts that I recorded! Adverts are very good for learning English I think. They're only short, maybe 30 seconds or a minute, so it's not too long. And they are repeated again and again so you learn the English quickly. The English in adverts is usually simple, they have a simple message.

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Part Two

I love Harry Potter books. They are very interesting. In fact, I bought all of those books in English. They were very difficult for me, so I translated them into my language. It was a lot of work and my friends said I was crazy, but I enjoyed it. At the end of this, I had a huge vocabulary book full of new words and I look at those new words every day, I remember them and I try to use them when I am speaking or writing in English.

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Part Three

I use a very traditional method to help me improve my English. I write letters! Yes, real letters with stamps. My friends say that I'm living twenty years ago and that it's boring. But I like it. I have pen-pals in the USA, Canada and Australia. Every week, I get a letter from one of them and I write a reply immediately, the same day. If I write an e-mail, my computer corrects my spelling and my grammar - it's like cheating. But with a real letter, you must think more. And it's special to write and read a real letter, it's something that takes time and a lot of consideration. I love my letters and I love my pen-pals. It's a very successful method for me.

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Part Four

I love using Skype to learn English. I am a member of a forum called SkypeEnglish. You can find other friendly people to talk to. You can choose the country the other person comes from, if it's male or female, the age, other things like that. I have been talking to Japanese and South Korean girls in the last few weeks. I find their accent easy to understand and they talk to me about their beautiful countries. You can also use a webcam if you want, but I don't do that. My house is always very untidy and I don't want anybody to see that!