The results of reading tons of foreign books during my college years.

Fools and ugly people should read foreign books!!

That's a joke, but for those who want to improve their English skills, I highly recommend extensive reading of foreign books.
In particular, I recommend extensive reading of foreign books to college students who have time.

I myself read many foreign books when I was a college student. The trigger was a kind of longing,
“It would be cool if I could read foreign books.”
Like the “college students who open their laptops at Starbucks,” I wanted to open a foreign book on the train while commuting.

Also, “I didn't want to lose the English skills I cultivated for university entrance exams” was another motivation.
I wasn't cut out for grinding through vocabulary books or studying for the TOEIC, so I arrived at extensive reading of foreign books as a study method I could continue enjoyably.

As a result, I continued reading foreign books for about three years, from my freshman year to my senior year of college, even with some interruptions.

And I strongly felt an improvement in my English skills. Furthermore, not limited to English, I also acquired various knowledge through foreign books.

I think it was really good that I did extensive reading of foreign books during my college years.

I will leave the detailed explanation of extensive reading of foreign books to other online articles.
In this note article, I would like to summarize the “effects of extensive reading and tips for continuing it” that I personally experienced.

As a major premise, I am not an English teacher or anything like that.I am just an ordinary person who got a TOEIC score of 800 through extensive reading of foreign books.
I would be happy if you could read this with the feeling of “Oh, there is such a study method too.”

And if you are even slightly interested, please try challenging yourself with extensive reading of foreign books.It takes time, but I think it will surely be useful for improving your English skills.

It became a long article, but I would be very, very happy if you could read it to the end.

What is extensive reading of foreign books?

Simply put, it is a study method that aims to improve English skills by reading a large amount of simple English text. It is important to input a large amount of books that are “at a level you can read fluently” as much as possible. (Do not start with Harry Potter right away. You will get burned.)

Effects of extensive reading

・You will have absolutely no resistance to long English texts

When faced with a long English text, you won't go “Ugh...”

Originally, when I was faced with English text, I immediately relied on translation tools. I barely read my English textbooks during my undergraduate years and just shoved them into camera translation (I'm sorry, professor).

Also, in the long English text questions of the TOEIC I took for the first time in my freshman year of college, I wanted to get bored and give up halfway through.

If you continue extensive reading of foreign books, this will stop happening. You can remain as calm as when you are faced with a long Japanese text.

Since entering graduate school, I have not used translation tools when reading papers. It is faster to read them myself than to translate them.

Also, when you no longer have resistance to long English texts, English will start to enter your daily life.
You will come into contact with English not only in books but also in online articles and social media, and the speed of English learning will accelerate. The time spent in contact with English in daily life will increase.

・TOEIC reading score will skyrocket

My original reading score was 335. After spending about three years lazily reading foreign books, my score improved to 400. My listening score didn't improve much, but thanks to the increase in my reading score, I reached a TOEIC score of 800.

I want to emphasize that I never once solved any official practice tests.I hope you can feel how effective extensive reading of foreign books is for improving reading skills.

・Acquiring general knowledge

Reading foreign books helps you acquire general knowledge. Since extensive reading is the same as reading in general, this is only natural.

However, when reading foreign books, you are more likely to read non-fiction than novels (because the English is easier to understand that way). Therefore, compared to reading in Japanese, with extensive reading of foreign books, you end up picking up books that provide general knowledge, such as history, biographies, or children's versions of famous overseas novels.

My username on Note, "Oliver," is taken from the protagonist of Dickens' "Oliver Twist," and my encounter with this work was also triggered by extensive reading of foreign books.
I love reading, but I probably wouldn't have read a Dickens novel if it weren't for foreign books.

Extensive reading of foreign books is the ultimate English learning method that allows you to acquire both English proficiency and general knowledge.

・Foreign books lined up on your home bookshelf

This is slightly different from the effect of extensive reading, but having foreign books lined up on your home bookshelf gives you an indescribable sense of accomplishment.

"Wow, I've read this many foreign books."

Sometimes I see social media accounts that display foreign books they've never even read as interior decor, but that's not what I mean. You can display the foreign books you have genuinely read.

In my case, this satisfied my desire for collection and my sense of pride.
It might seem pathetic, but this became the motivation for me to continue learning English (extensive reading of foreign books).

Other things often said

It is also said that it helps improve listening skills by allowing you to understand English instantly, but I haven't really felt that much.
It is also said that you acquire native-level vocabulary, but I'm not sure about that either. It's true that I remember expressions that appear frequently, but I feel it's a different matter whether I can actually use them in real English conversation.

In any case, there is no doubt that extensive reading of foreign books improves your English proficiency. This is especially true if your only goal is to raise your TOEIC reading score.

Tips for continuing extensive reading

・Choose what you want to read

When you look up extensive reading on the internet, it often recommends "starting with books for children." Since the important thing in extensive reading is to input a large amount of English that you can read fluently, that might be correct advice.

However, would an adult find reading picture books fun?

Probably not. You shouldn't just resign yourself to it by saying, "It's English learning, so it can't be helped."
It will become difficult to continue.

I also started by reading picture books, just as the internet suggested. The ones with about one sentence per page.

It was boring. It became a chore to continue. There is no point in extensive reading of foreign books if it becomes an ordeal instead of a fun way to improve your English skills.

You should always choose books that you are interested in and that you can enjoy reading.
At worst, I think it's fine to prioritize reading what you want to read, even if the book is above your current ability (this is called "giraffe reading").

・Don't strive for perfection

You don't need to translate everything into Japanese as you read. It doesn't matter if you don't understand 100% of the content. It is enough if you can roughly understand the content to the extent that you can enjoy it.

In fact, trying to translate into Japanese is a problem. It is desirable to understand it in English as it is.

When I pick up a difficult book, I inevitably end up thinking about the Japanese translation. To avoid this, I should pick up easier books.

How to find foreign books

I understand that extensive reading of foreign books is good. So, which books should I actually pick up? Here, I would like to introduce how to find them.

Overseas book introduction websites

You can search for books by genre. I recommend YA (Young Adult). These are books for overseas middle and high school students, and I think the level is just right for English learning (TOEIC 700 points or higher).

Searching for English versions of your favorite Japanese novels

For those who love reading, another option is to check if your favorite Japanese novels have been translated into English.
Works by globally renowned authors like Haruki Murakami are usually translated into English. If you have already read them in Japanese, they are easy to read, so they are perfect.

In my case, I love Kanae Minato's "Confessions," so I read the English version, "Confessions."

Go to the foreign book section of the library

If there is a foreign book section in the library, I think it is also effective to look there. In my case, both my university library and the public library had such spaces, so I would borrow and read books from there when I had free time.

Foreign books are expensive per copy. It is probably easier to continue if you save money by using the library.

Summary

I introduced extensive reading of foreign books as an English learning method.

It takes time, but if you continue, I believe your English ability will definitely improve. Please give it a try. I would like to summarize specific recommended foreign books in a separate article.

See you.