Language of culture – how to effectively learn it
Works of culture, such as books, movies or games – can be a great way to learn new vocabulary and expand your knowledge of language. These types of works often contain a wide range of vocabulary and language usage that you may not encounter in everyday conversation. By engaging with these works, you can expose yourself to new words and phrases, and through the process of looking up words, inferring their meanings from context, and practicing using them, you can effectively learn and start using this new vocabulary in everyday situations!
In addition to learning new vocabulary, engaging with works of culture can also help you improve your understanding of how language is used in different contexts, including formal and informal settings, and can expose you to different writing styles and ways of expressing oneself. This can help you become a more proficient and confident language user overall.
There are several ways to effectively learn new vocabulary from works of culture:
- Look up words you don’t know: If you come across a word you don’t know while reading a book, watching a movie, or playing a game, take the time to look it up and understand its meaning.
- Use context clues: Try to infer the meaning of a word based on the context in which it is used. This can help you understand the word without having to look it up.
- Use a dictionary or thesaurus: A dictionary can give you the definition of a word, as well as synonyms and antonyms. A thesaurus can provide you with a list of words with similar meanings to the one you’re looking up.
- Practice using the new words: Once you’ve learned a new word, try using it in a sentence or two to help commit it to memory.
- Make flashcards: Write the word on one side of a flashcard and the definition on the other. Review the flashcards regularly to help reinforce your memory of the new vocabulary.
By using these strategies, you can effectively learn new vocabulary from works of culture and expand your dictionary over time. There is no single tactic to learn vocabulary most effectively and language users might find any of these ways to learn new words effective for them. What’s really important is – language used is language known. Language proficiency diminishes – even when it comes to branches of previously known vocabulary – when one doesn’t practice. So, keep doing it!
Overall, engaging with works of culture is a great way to not only expand your knowledge of language, but also to enrich your cultural knowledge and understanding of the world.
Here’s a little list of visual works of culture that are considered easy enough to provide many initial insights to language users starting their journey with English culture. Note: some of these titles might require language users to be of age!
| Board games and video games: |
| Scrabble – always a good way to train your vocabulary and learn some new words off other players’ creations. As well as the classic board game version, many different online counterparts exist that offer fun and learning opportunities. |
| The Curse of Monkey Island – this little classic developed by LucasArts over twenty five years ago offers a lot of opportunity to improve your dictionary; it contains a wide range of interactions between the characters with additional pirate quirks! |
| Skribbl.io or Gartic Phone – both games are accessible online and offer unique learning opportunities while having fun with your friends. Both involve pictorial and verbal elements, making sure you’ll have pictures to match with newly learned words! |
| A wide array of Visual Novels and Role-Playing Games – titles that involve a significant amount of reading material: like Disco Elysium or TES III: Morrowind might serve you as a great basis to learn new words. |
| Series available through streaming services (Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon): |
| The Crown (Netflix) – as well as being a wonderful example of English Received Pronunciation, it might offer you a wide array of vocabulary from many fields: politics, royal life, fashion or even economy. |
| Succession (HBO Max) – this family saga creates a list of interesting characters whose interactions often require understanding of words and phrases relating to power and influence: a great opportunity to learn. |
| The Expanse (Amazon) – a space opera which can teach you many words from the fields of science, space and its exploration – and intrigue. Wide variety of actors and used language makes it a particularly interesting one. |
| Mindhunter (Netflix) – this criminal thriller might provide you insights into vocabulary used by uniformed services, police specialists and psychologists. If you crave to speak more like an investigator – here’s your chance! |
Naturally, virtually every title can be used to learn language with greater efficiency. It all depends on the speaker’s preferences.
Good luck with your self-improvement!