Starting a study programme taught in a different language than what you're used to can be challenging. Student Zhixuan (Emily) Teng from China shares her experiences and tip on how to get prepared!
Dear students, I’m very glad that you are coming to study at the VU! Are you ready? Or maybe you still have some preparation to do, in particular to improve your English language skills, so that you can adapt to the life here more easily.
Here are my tips to share: First of all, you need to lay down a solid foundation. Vocabulary is quite essential. For this you can try to learn as many new words as possible, perhaps with the assistance of some mobile phone apps or vocabulary textbooks, etc.. If you use the standards ways to learn you will be less motivation, instead try some interesting methods. Reading would be a perfect thing to do. There are all kinds of English novels and you can choose one that attracts you the most and start reading it. To give an example, many students should be no strangers to Harry Potter and probably have enjoyed reading the stories in Chinese during their teenage years, so why not go with the original ones? You may find new joy reading in the English language. In addition, another fun way is to watch some English movies or shows. High School Musical, for instance, is one of my favourite movie series, which I watched about 20 times—the very first time I saw it, it was just for fun, but I realised that there are many useful words and phrases in the lines, and so I watched it over and over again. This helped me to speak and write using more authentic and proper English. Moreover, while watching I picked up a bit of an American accent and thus my pronunciation improved. To sum everything up, it is important to study English in a suitable way for yourself and hopefully all these options above can give you some inspiration. Good luck with everything! Kind Regards, Zhixuan(Emily) Teng
语言技能提升小指南--
好学英语，学好英语，基础为要；基础要牢，词汇关须过矣。可尝试以单词App 为工具，又或是词汇书，解意思知用法，学习并熟记更多词语。愚以为词汇量越是大，听说读写都不怕。
有道是书为人进步之阶梯，因而可挑心爱之英文原著，读之。或以经典电影为教材，记忆揣摩领悟，地道表达方可信手拈来。此是曰花式学英语，既学亦乐，岂不美哉。
语言学习并非一朝一夕，却是要以合适的方法，点点积累，日后定能节节高。
本人不才，小小方法以分享，望君莫嫌弃。
最后祝愿诸位学习顺利顺心