How to start the habit of reading Greek books and posts
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All the people who want to learn a foreign language dream of themselves speaking it with locals and other people who speak this language. But until we reach that point, in reality, we need to change our whole selves and patterns, to create this person who speaks this language. And that is maybe the most charming part of learning the language.
I learned many things from the things I have done right and the things I have done wrong, small and big experiments that helped me find in with which people can learn whatever they want to learn.
Today, let’s talk about an idea I have about how we can help ourselves start the habit of reading in Greek starting today, by sharing my experience of how I did it in English.
Before my 30s, it would be unbelievable for me if someone told me that in my life, at some point, reading books in English would be almost the same as reading books in my mother tongue, Greek.
I admired the people who did it, but I had never thought about doing it for myself. I thought it was something very difficult, but also something I didn’t really need. I didn’t have the habit of reading back then, in general.
This idea of mine would change when in my 30s I had to change radically the way I used to live because I had reached a point where I couldn’t continue living like that. I felt, and it was true, that I couldn’t go straigh, right or left. I could have stayed there, for a while, because it wouldn’t go far.
Luckily, I felt a huge need to go back.
This need finally showed that it was not only the change that saved my life, but also it was the change that made my life incredible and turned into a new, fascinating page for me.
I had to go back and start learning again. I had to change the way I was taught what learning is and create a new way that was going to be achievable and enjoyable.
At that point, I was looking for one source of positivity in my life.
I started reading books in Greek, which was difficult for me at that time. You can read about this experience here
After some period of time, I came up with an online self-help book that I wanted to read, the book “Think and Grow Rich”, but it wasn’t translated into Greek at that point. So, for the first time, there was a thought I had never done before.
If you want to download the book for free it is here
Will I read a book entirely written in another language?
My previous self would say “Nooo”, but my new self said, “Yes, you will”.
So, I saved the book on my computer and started reading it, exactly in the same method that had worked for me in Greek. Two pages of the book a day, which later became five.
But here, there was another issue. Vocabulary.
Some words were completely new to me, and others I had forgotten through the years. I started writing them down, one by one, so as to learn them. I saw it as an opportunity to get better in English again, as an extra skill for work.
But soon, I had some pages full of words that I didn’t have the time to study.
Guess what happened after.
I stopped reading the book.
Once again, learning became a heavy burden on my back. It became a new task to do, just like all the others, so I started postponing it. And you know how the circle goes, postponing something gives the feeling of guilt, which was the last thing I needed at this point in my life.
So, I had to figure out what I could do to overcome this obstacle. I had to find different ways that could make this work.
It was about making my brain with this idea in order to find what works for me.
After many experiments, I reached the conclusion that I had to reply to the following questions.
Why I want to read this book?
What do I want to do?
What is the purpose of my reading?
So what I wanted to do was to get the information the book had to offer.
But now, all these new words turned from information into obstacles.
I had to figure out how I would overcome this obstacle. And I reached the conclusion that worked for me. It doesn’t have to work for you.
I reached the conclusion that, what we need to do is, no matter what is going on, to keep on moving. We need to create a path that is going to be long.
Learning is nothing without consistency and duration.
Action and duration are the keywords.
This was a good moment for me, because I found the solution to my problem. I decided to start reading 2 pages of the book, and no matter how many words were new to me, I picked only 2. My goal was to finish the book, to understand the general idea and add 2 new words for one page.
Two words worked for me. For someone else, it can be one new word, ten, or whatever. Always apply what works for you.
With my new method, I had the benefits that I wanted.
- I finished reading my first book in English, so now I had officially the habit of reading both in Greek and in English.
- In a book of 253 pages, I had 506 new words.
- I got the information I wanted and I broadened my horizons. This book changed my life a lot practically. It changed my attitude and brought food to my table with implementing what the Author said, in a very difficult period, emotionally and financially. This books wasn’t translated in my language back then, and why should I deprived of the information? Why should I limit myself to getting information only in my native language?
- I created the habit of reading in English and now, after six years, I read books in both languages, without thinking about it.
Someone will say, yes but you already knew English this doesn’t work for me, I can barely read the alphabet in Greek. The truth is, this method works for all levels.
If you can read the alphabet in Greek, start with blog posts or social media posts. Read the whole thing without expectations, practice the reading activity without expecting yourself to know all the unknown things. This is not realistic it is like expecting yourself to fly towards a mountain. Start by regnizing characters, adding new characters, creating syllables and picking your first words. Write down two new words. The words then will start multiplying.
Do this tiny thing every single day. It is going to be two new words every day. At the end of the week, you are going to have around 12 new words (take a break for one day). At the end of the month, you are going to have around 50 new words.
Do you think this is not important? Maybe it is more than you are doing right now.
We always compare ourselves with our previous self.
Continue.
One day, it will come.
If you build it, it will come.
Set humble goals and rise.
This method doesn’t require any struggle and it works for everyone.
Listening and reading are the two only ways to get familiar and learn a foreign language.
There is no other way to do it, there is no pill you can take to make it happen.
A brutal truth is that we need to stop complaining about the work we don’t do. Think about it, and ask yourself:
“Do I really want to do it?”
If the answer is yes, start reading your paragraph today, and write down your two new words. Set humble goals and rise.
This is how it is done, and I know you can do it.
With Respect,
Efi Asvesti
Founder, Teacher & Copywriter @
MyGreekTeacher.com
