4 steps to learning a language with books 

I thought the thumbnail was a toothbrush and a book, I was intrigued.

Harry Potter's book to learn are very good, since the language evolve at the same time as the children grow. When you take the first one, the language is really basic, good for 11 years old, really easy to read and follow, and the older they get, the more sophisticated the language is becoming.

Reading Harry potter in German and it's amazing how quickly the number of words I don't understand on each page reduces

This actually works if you stick to it! This is how I learned English in school. I had average teachers in school and were a bookworm, so I took it upon myself to translate the first Harry Potter book from my native language in English. It was quite difficult to do so in the beginning because I knew almost no words in English. I did that for the whole series and it became easier with each completed volume. Fast - forward 3 years, I obtained a C2 Cambridge Certificate. Did the same with German, got to Level C1.

This is what I have found very useful. A very simple recipe. When you are brand new to a language. First buy only very short children's primary books. one short sentence per page. Buy as many as you can (at least ten). These books were specifically designed to introduce very young children to their own native language. 1. For each page first score as a percentage how many of the words you know of the short one or two sentences (ie. the page text). 2. Then in a notebook write down all the words and look them up in your app or dictionary. Write down their meanings. 3. Then re-read the page again to understand it. Do this for every page. 4. Your note book should devote a page with scores per each page of the book. Index your notebook as you go. You then have a great look up facility. Also research has shown conclusively that writing down words you have looked up, will help you retain them in memory. 5. Don't worry about words or phrases you can't find. Just skip over them. As you only need 75% of your chosen language (plus your native speaker can help you with these anyway.) Once book is finished (only a few days as books are very short) . Go through each page again as a second pass and score as a percentage again how many words per page you know compared to first pass. Do one more full pass and tabulate the scores again. Then move onto next book. Once reached 1st pass of next book go back to previous book and do another pass and tabulate scores. Then leave first book. Do same treatment on all subsequent books. In this way not only will you get the thrill of discovering what the book is about but you will also get to see a real percentage score of how many words per page you have reached. Eventually you will reach the 75% score. Once you have reached 75% on the children's books only then move up to teenager books (Now with teenager level books, just do a single pass, as no need to do multiple passes once your reading books with more than 50 pages full of text). Once you are consistently reaching 75% per page on any of the teenager book's pages then any books can be read after that. Forget about feeling foolish for buying nursery level books. These are the first books you should definitely stick to and read, as you are now effectively a small child in the new language. So these books will be ideal for you. Only move up in age when you are scoring 75% or more per page on your current age level books. At same time as doing this, pay for an hours help once a fortnight to a native speaker, to clarify any words concepts you could not work out.

I use a Kindle to help me read in Spanish. It has a built in translator and when I look up a word, it saves it automatically in a list for me. I like the idea about re-reading books, but it also helps to read a series of books by the same author, like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and Hunger Games. The authors tend to have their own favorite vocabulary they consistently use. Then you don't have to get bored reading the same book 4 times. Just a thought. : )

My lifelong goal is to own the Harry Potter series in 7 different languages, and be able to read them all. So far I have 1st in Welsh, 2nd in French and 3rd in Polish. 😁

So true! I am reading a Sherlock Holmes story in Spanish and I am enjoying it and learning some new vocabulary.

I enjoy Olly Richard short stories. The same stories (science fiction, history, adventure) have the same enjoyable stories told in 15 different languages and include glossaries and questions. Some are beginners and intermediate.

Hey! Thanks for wonderful tips. I personally start with reading combined with listening to audiobook at the same time, then I underline the words I don't understand, I make a list of them, translate them and use quizlet to learn them. Then I read it again and listen to it again. And it works. Everytime.

Great video. I started reading Harry Potter in french a couple of weeks ago and it really helps if you enjoy it and also have a knowledge of what the plot is.I also downloaded the french audio book so I can listen as well as read at the same time.

Man, That was AWESOME!!

Thank you for giving us a step-by-step guide! This info is gold! Merci!!!

Probably the best overview I've seen so far!

Thank you for this super useful video !

Thank you. It’s really helpful.

Dude I cannot wait to try this, thank you so much!

Wow I’m amazed and thankful for this brilliant video 💓

This is the most useful video I've watched today. Thank u so much for this.

This was so helpful! Thank you!

This was such a helpful video, thank you!

Excellent advice! It is very helpful and effective. Thank you for sharing. :)

Awesome. I started readin the boy in the striped pajamas several weeks ago in german and i could never really get passed the first episode cause i stopped every single time i saw a new word. This method really makes sense, i’ll try it.

so useful tips!!! thank you

Thanks for sharing your tips on language learning. This video really helped!:)

Very helpful and useful stuff. Thanks!

Really interesting, thanks for the advice! I'm definitely gonna give this method a go 👍

Thanks for the tips bro. I'm starting to read more books in my target language, so I'm still working out the best method for me.

I love the glossary idea! I will definitely be doing this!

Great video, really helpful. Thanks

incredible methodology,, really keen to apply these great ideas.. thanks:)

This is a great method to learn/practice a foreign language. I love and enjoy a lot reading in English, as much as I do in Spanish, which is my first language

This is such a great idea!!!!!! Thank you!

Thanks for the video and tips!

I've only seen a few of your videos but they are great! You have a knack for explaining things simply :)

This video is very motivated. I decided to buy a new book after this video.

Very helpful video. Thanks

Great Video Fingtam

it was very useful thank u.

Brilliant. Thanks for this, top advice which I shall put into action :)

your friendly helpful approach is wonderful. Thank you. I will try your suggestions )))

Great video! Those were some excellent, practical suggestions. Thanks!

I find this video very benefical. Thank you.

Hey,that's a master plan,bro.Most practical video. 🙏🙏🙏

Very usel tips! Thanks a lot! Greetings from Mexico.

Excellent video

thanks for tips , so helpful

Great technique mate.. love it :)

Thank you so much for guiding us.....

Thanks!

Great tips! It really surprises me that many well known language learning systems don’t spend much if any time emphasizing reading and writing. Liked subbed and Thank you!!

Dude, great tips!! Thk u

It was really helpful, thanks a looot!!!!

Great tips, thank you for this video :)

Really helpful tips.

Finally, a video that is actually helpful !!

Thanks for these tips

Good tips thank you!

Great method!!

tanks for your explain.

I love these tips! 👏👏👏

Great tips, I've been reading books in English (I'm Brazilian), and I've been trying to not look after every word that i don't know, it's hard at the beginning, but now I can see that is the better way to read. I'm going to follow your tips now on, tks. There is only one thing that I like to do different, instead highlighting the text I put a post-it. ;)

Hère from the time of covid!!! Such an amazing video it helped me so much with French! I just wanted to thank you!

Thanks for the info 💯

Buenas ideas! Gracias por el video

thank you

Great advice. 😊👍

Great content! Thank you🌻

Muchas gracias Fingtam languages por el video excelente y claro con muchas ideas útiles para me y otras personas.

Great video i love this tips

I've started to read The Hunger Games in French a while back, and it really helps since I've read THG in English sooo many times so it's simple.

Great steps.

I agree with a lot of your ideas about reading. I have been using the program Lingq to do the same things. You can upload books, news articles and anything else you want and the program will both highlight and instantly give definitions to unknown words.

Nice video!! I finished reading hp a couple of days ago in english, and it was quite challenging bc my level of english is not the best, but i enjoyed it nonetheless.

Thank you for your help so informational. I am learning German and I have maybe 30 German book in my house but till now I wasn't finished one of them. I hope your video will help me. 🤞

That's such a great video. I started learning English on my own almost six months ago and now I feel like I was ready to start reading some book in English. I made sure to write the essential of what you said down and I'm gonna try putting it into practice from now on. You've got a new subscriber.

thanks!

I reaaally love this idea of reading children's book. I give people the same advice! And definitely true that you need to be in that "comfortable but not too comfortable" balance when you read a book. That's what I tell my students. It's also good practice because when you learn a language, there's always gonna be times where you won't understand some words (in real life situations for example). So it's good to get used to not always understand everything!

This works awesome!!!

Great technique

I think that's a great step-by-step approach! The only thing I would add to what you said is to review the words every time you pick up the book, and get bilingual books, so you can see the English, and highlight the English and foreign language. However, unlike I've done, I think your idea of only highlighting two words is better. I was very impressed! This fleshes out what Steve Kaufmann was saying: making it practical. My problem is, although French and Spanish seem easy to find and pay for, Portuguese is steep. The 4-Hour Work Week was something like $65 on Amazon and about the same, all included, on eBay.

you're an inspiration

This method works well with new articles too if you don't want to commit to a whole book.

Thank you

I really like your enthusiasm in teaching

Thanks for your tip

1. Find the right book for you. 2. Read purely for enjoyment. 3. create personlized dictionary. 4. Read again.

Great ideas!!!

thanks

VERY good video

You used to be able to just walk into a bookstore and buy any language Harry Potter, etc, before Borders went bankrupt. Barnes & Noble just doesn’t have the in store selection that Borders had. My oldest daughter got The Sorcerer’s Stone in French, when she was learning, and got it down well enough to be a volunteer teacher assistant in a 2nd grade French immersion classroom. (She did also spend an hour a day practicing speaking and learning vocabulary. It wasn’t just reading, but that’s what put her over the top.)

Buenas ideas! Muchas gracias por el vídeo.

amazing

i just started to read the little prince in icelandic. hard but fun

This was fantastically explained! I just need to get to the point where I understand that many words to begin with lol. Thanks a ton!

I recently bought a Kindle and have found it super easy to quickly check the meaning of words I’m not sure of. Whenever I come across a word I don’t know I simply press on the word and I get a translation and examples of the word in different sentences. I mainly read Spanish literature. I have tried reading both books that have been translated from English and books that were written by Spanish authors. I enjoy both but I find the books that were originally written in Spanish have a richness of language not found in translations. My favorite Spanish author is Isabel Allende.

When on a trip to Germany many years ago, I bought a handful of children's books. It was such a fun way to learn the language. It helps to have a basic understanding of the language first, but it's a great way to practise and build fluency. Also, reading aloud helps with speaking skills.

Great video and I am especially happy that we can not smell it! ;) ("Fingtam" has meaning in hungarian)

Brilliant! Thanks for the advice! I’ve been meaning to read Harry Potter in Spanish for month now but never really knew how to approach it. Will definitely be doing this ^_^

I like it 😀