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Abstract

       <h2>An Efficient Approach to Learning a Foreign Language by Reading Books</h2>
            <div><h3>All you need is a book, a phone, and headphones.</h3></div>
            <div><p>medium.com</p></div>
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    </div><h1 id="81af">2. Stolen: A Letter to My Captor by Lucy Christopher</h1><p id="9396"><i>Stolen</i> is told in the second-person narrative as a letter from Gemma, a 16-year-old girl, who is kidnapped by a 24-year-old man named Ty and taken to the middle of the Great Sandy Desert in the Australian Outback.</p><p id="d2c2">The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. This book covers topics like love and obsession, perfect for young adult learners who like romance and thrillers.</p><p id="316b"><b>How can this book help you learn a foreign language? </b>The book is full of verbs conjugated in the first and second person. For example, imagine the following excerpt in the language you’re learning,</p><p id="7433" type="7">You saw me before I saw you. In the airport, that day in August, you have that look in your eye as though you wanted something from me, as though you’d wanted it for a long time.</p><p id="5911">Also, the inner conversations Gemma has in her mind helped me think in a foreign language instead of translating. After reading the book, many phrases in the foreign language would suddenly pop into your mind helping you think in that language.</p><h1 id="83a0">3. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins</h1><p id="d442"><i>The Girl on the Train</i> is written in the first-person limited-omniscient perspective from the points of view of three female characters. Paula Hawkins allows them to tell their stories themselves. The genre is mystery and suspense, so the limited-omniscient aspect allows the reader to know only as much as the characters do, which is enough to go deep into their lives, thoughts, and motives.</p><p id="1d4a">The book is about a girl named Rachel who takes the train to work every day and sees a perfect couple, “Jess” and “Jason,” from the window. She creates a dream life for that couple in her head about how they are a perfect happy family. One day, she wakes up with a hangover, many wounds and bruises, and no memory of the night before. She only knows something bad happened, especially when she hears on TV that Megan is missing.</p><p id="0e38"><b>How can this book help you learn a foreign language? </b>Although the vocabulary used is sometimes advanced, the storyline is simple with a few plot twists. More importantly, the book is full of real-life situations written in the format you would use in a diary. They’re divided into dates and subdivided into <i>Morning, Afternoon, </i>and <i>Evening</i>. Below you have one example.</p><blockquote id="98d6"><p>Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Morning — I find myself standing in front of my wardrobe, staring for the hundredth time at a rack of pretty clothes … Afternoon — I quit! I feel so much better, as if anything is possible. I’m free… Evening — Scott just called to say he has to work late, which is not the news I wanted to hear. I’m feeling edgy …</blockquote>You can learn a ton of useful vocabulary as the narrator describes what she’s doing or feeling in her everyday life.If you like reading The Girl on the Train, you can also read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Both books have some similarities in narrative and language level.<h1 id="75b7">4. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin</h1>The Fifth Season takes place on a planet with a single supercontinent called the Stillness. The Stillness looks much like Earth, but it has different geology. The Stillness is far more geologically kinetic, replete with earthquakes and volcanoes.The book begins with a devastating, seismic-apocalyptic event that breaks into three narrative threads. The story then follows three female o

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rogenes across the Stillness from different time periods: Essun, Damaya, and Syenite.Although this is a fiction book, N. K. Jemisin uses the second person to provide life and complexity to the narration. You’ll be asking yourself who the narrator is, how he or she addresses the Essun character and whether the narrator is actually addressing Essun. The second-person point of view is shown in the following excerpt.<blockquote id="34a2">You are she. She is you. You are Essun. Remember? (….) For the past ten years you’ve lived as ordinary a life as possible. You came to Tirimo from elsewhere, the townsfolk don’t really care where or why. Since you were obviously well-educated, you became a teacher at the local creche for children aged ten to thirteen. You’re neither the best teacher nor the worst.</blockquote>How can this book help you learn a foreign language? The Fifth Season uses the second person in events narrated in the present tense simplifying the complexity of the language. However, this might be the hardest book to understand in this list because some chapters use the third person exclusively. I still included this book for those language learners who would like to challenge themselves with a book that uses a hybrid point of view.<h1 id="e43b">5. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer</h1>I’m not a fan of Twilight, but I have to admit that the book is good for learning foreign languages and I’ll explain to you why.How can this book help you learn a foreign language? In Twilight, Stephenie Meyer was a first-time author, which is revealed in simple speaker attributes like “He/She says,” making the book easy to read for language learners.Also, the Twilight series is written in the first-person narrative, primarily through the main character’s eyes, so we’ll often hear verbs in the first and second person. Above all, the book offers an entertaining story, and the vocabulary is easy and simple to understand with frequent use of the present tense.In case you never heard of the Twilight book series, it explores the romance between human Bella and vampire Edward, as well as the love triangle between Bella, Edward, and Jacob, a werewolf. A good book for learners who want to learn a new language with fantasy and romance.<h1 id="0020">6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins</h1>The Hunger Games is written in the first-person. Here the first and second person isn’t used as much as in You, Stolen, or Twilight because the main character, Katniss Everdeen, tends to narrate events more than to have conversations with other characters. However, this is still a great option for learning a foreign language because the book is easy to follow.The Hunger Games is a dystopian novel, where a boy and a girl from each of the nation’s 12 Districts are chosen annually as tributes and forced to compete in The Hunger Games — a televised competition in which participants have to fight to the death. In the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen has to compete in the game after she volunteers to take her younger sister’s place.How can this book help you learn a foreign language? This is an easy and quick read perfect for learners at the intermediate level. However, don’t try to understand every single word written in the book since some of the vocabulary used isn’t simple — especially when Katniss narrates the events.That being said, this saga contains 3 books — The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. I read the 3 of them in different foreign languages, and I can guarantee you that you learn new vocabulary easily because words will be repeated over and over again throughout the books.Reading is not enough to become fluent in a foreign language. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/LearnLanguagesWithTV?sub_confirmation=1">Join our YouTube channel with 1K+ subscribers to complement your language learning by watching shows & movies you love</a>.</article></body>

6 Fiction Books That Will Help You Fluently Speak a New Language Faster

First and second person books will help you speak a foreign language.

According to the polyglot Benny Lewis, in order to learn how to fluently speak a foreign language more quickly, you should prioritize studying the “I” and “you” (singular) conjugations. This happens because when we’re beginners, most of our conversations are one-on-one, so most of the time, we ask questions about the other person (2nd person) or answer questions about ourselves (1st person). This is important because you need to conjugate verbs in many languages so that it matches with the subject.

Conjugation might be simple in English (e.g., I/You/We tell versus He/She tells), but verb conjugation in many foreign languages would challenge you a bit more (e.g., Spanish conjugation of “to tell ”— Yo cuento, Tú cuentas, Nosotros contamos, Ella cuenta)

For this reason, I made a list of books written in the first and second person that helped me and would help you speak fluently faster, thanks to the narrative. There are many books of this type, but I’m considering those translated in many languages, so most likely, they’ll be available in your target language. Also, most of them are book series because they’re great for learning a new language — research suggests that content from the same genre increases the potential for vocabulary learning,

The books listed that you read in your native language or whose movie version you watched before are perfect candidates to learn a foreign language with because you’re already familiar with the plot. Also, your reading skills should be at least at the intermediate level to understand them.

1. You by Caroline Kepnes

In the book, you’ll often hear Joe, a bookstore manager, using the word you every time he talks about Beck, a graduate school student he met at the bookstore. Joe becomes obsessed with Beck after that first encounter and tries to take control of her life.

Caroline Kepnes delivers a psychologically twisted novel for our hyper-connected digital age by showing how vulnerable we all are to stalking and manipulation. A must-read for language learners who like thrillers, mysteries, and suspense.

How can this book help you learn a foreign language? The book has many pop culture references, making the book's vocabulary simpler than most books. However, the plot might sometimes be hard to follow because the writing style isn’t what normal readers are used to.

Joe has a particular way to narrate things by overusing the word you. Thanks to this, we can get used to the conjugation of verbs in the second and first person in the language we’re learning. Above all, the book has plenty of real-life situations, making it an easy and fast read in any language.

As a side note, remember that books in a foreign language are harder to understand than those written in your native language. Then consider using the right approach to learning a language by reading books. In the article below, I explain the approach that helped me learn multiple languages.

An Efficient Approach to Learning a Foreign Language by Reading Books

All you need is a book, a phone, and headphones.

medium.com

2. Stolen: A Letter to My Captor by Lucy Christopher

Stolen is told in the second-person narrative as a letter from Gemma, a 16-year-old girl, who is kidnapped by a 24-year-old man named Ty and taken to the middle of the Great Sandy Desert in the Australian Outback.

The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. This book covers topics like love and obsession, perfect for young adult learners who like romance and thrillers.

How can this book help you learn a foreign language? The book is full of verbs conjugated in the first and second person. For example, imagine the following excerpt in the language you’re learning,

You saw me before I saw you. In the airport, that day in August, you have that look in your eye as though you wanted something from me, as though you’d wanted it for a long time.

Also, the inner conversations Gemma has in her mind helped me think in a foreign language instead of translating. After reading the book, many phrases in the foreign language would suddenly pop into your mind helping you think in that language.

3. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train is written in the first-person limited-omniscient perspective from the points of view of three female characters. Paula Hawkins allows them to tell their stories themselves. The genre is mystery and suspense, so the limited-omniscient aspect allows the reader to know only as much as the characters do, which is enough to go deep into their lives, thoughts, and motives.

The book is about a girl named Rachel who takes the train to work every day and sees a perfect couple, “Jess” and “Jason,” from the window. She creates a dream life for that couple in her head about how they are a perfect happy family. One day, she wakes up with a hangover, many wounds and bruises, and no memory of the night before. She only knows something bad happened, especially when she hears on TV that Megan is missing.

How can this book help you learn a foreign language? Although the vocabulary used is sometimes advanced, the storyline is simple with a few plot twists. More importantly, the book is full of real-life situations written in the format you would use in a diary. They’re divided into dates and subdivided into Morning, Afternoon, and Evening. Below you have one example.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012 Morning — I find myself standing in front of my wardrobe, staring for the hundredth time at a rack of pretty clothes … Afternoon — I quit! I feel so much better, as if anything is possible. I’m free… Evening — Scott just called to say he has to work late, which is not the news I wanted to hear. I’m feeling edgy …

You can learn a ton of useful vocabulary as the narrator describes what she’s doing or feeling in her everyday life.

If you like reading The Girl on the Train, you can also read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Both books have some similarities in narrative and language level.

4. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

The Fifth Season takes place on a planet with a single supercontinent called the Stillness. The Stillness looks much like Earth, but it has different geology. The Stillness is far more geologically kinetic, replete with earthquakes and volcanoes.

The book begins with a devastating, seismic-apocalyptic event that breaks into three narrative threads. The story then follows three female orogenes across the Stillness from different time periods: Essun, Damaya, and Syenite.

Although this is a fiction book, N. K. Jemisin uses the second person to provide life and complexity to the narration. You’ll be asking yourself who the narrator is, how he or she addresses the Essun character and whether the narrator is actually addressing Essun. The second-person point of view is shown in the following excerpt.

You are she. She is you. You are Essun. Remember? (….) For the past ten years you’ve lived as ordinary a life as possible. You came to Tirimo from elsewhere, the townsfolk don’t really care where or why. Since you were obviously well-educated, you became a teacher at the local creche for children aged ten to thirteen. You’re neither the best teacher nor the worst.

How can this book help you learn a foreign language? The Fifth Season uses the second person in events narrated in the present tense simplifying the complexity of the language. However, this might be the hardest book to understand in this list because some chapters use the third person exclusively. I still included this book for those language learners who would like to challenge themselves with a book that uses a hybrid point of view.

5. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I’m not a fan of Twilight, but I have to admit that the book is good for learning foreign languages and I’ll explain to you why.

How can this book help you learn a foreign language? In Twilight, Stephenie Meyer was a first-time author, which is revealed in simple speaker attributes like “He/She says,” making the book easy to read for language learners.

Also, the Twilight series is written in the first-person narrative, primarily through the main character’s eyes, so we’ll often hear verbs in the first and second person. Above all, the book offers an entertaining story, and the vocabulary is easy and simple to understand with frequent use of the present tense.

In case you never heard of the Twilight book series, it explores the romance between human Bella and vampire Edward, as well as the love triangle between Bella, Edward, and Jacob, a werewolf. A good book for learners who want to learn a new language with fantasy and romance.

6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games is written in the first-person. Here the first and second person isn’t used as much as in You, Stolen, or Twilight because the main character, Katniss Everdeen, tends to narrate events more than to have conversations with other characters. However, this is still a great option for learning a foreign language because the book is easy to follow.

The Hunger Games is a dystopian novel, where a boy and a girl from each of the nation’s 12 Districts are chosen annually as tributes and forced to compete in The Hunger Games — a televised competition in which participants have to fight to the death. In the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen has to compete in the game after she volunteers to take her younger sister’s place.

How can this book help you learn a foreign language? This is an easy and quick read perfect for learners at the intermediate level. However, don’t try to understand every single word written in the book since some of the vocabulary used isn’t simple — especially when Katniss narrates the events.

That being said, this saga contains 3 books — The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. I read the 3 of them in different foreign languages, and I can guarantee you that you learn new vocabulary easily because words will be repeated over and over again throughout the books.

Reading is not enough to become fluent in a foreign language. Join our YouTube channel with 1K+ subscribers to complement your language learning by watching shows & movies you love.