Learning Bulgarian is a difficult task, no doubt, however progress is really dependent on how much and how smart we practice. Here we will share with you some smart tips on how to use reading to your benefit.
Don't read just anything
Reading texts suitable for your level can significantly improve your vocabulary-building, grammar, and writing skills. Although it doesn’t immediately affect your speaking, it does improve it through providing you with a good flow of vocabulary and structures. Reading out loud has been proven to improve language production since it activates the same regions in the brain necessary for speaking, so you can 'trick' your brain into thinking it is speaking, even when you don't have a partner to practice with.
Slow and steady wins the race
As experienced readers we tend to associate quick reading with skill and would like to pick up speed in the new language as well, however this is not a necessarily good practice when learning a new language. There is the method of slowing down and instead of breezing through the pages, trying to read slowly and pay attention to details, which words go together, how the sentence is built, what prepositions are being used, this will help put things in real context.
It is good to have unknown words
When reading and listening it is actually good to have some amount of unknown words in order to improve your comprehension. Here is how this works.
Our brains are built to predict events, they are really quick in doing so. This is the reason behind the fact we sometimes feel that we can understand certain conversations in foreign languages without ever having learned them. The reason is that we recognize the context in some way, we know what to expect and we make different connections in order to do so. We would like to activate the same mechanics when reading and listening, but in order for it to work we need to understand at least 60% of what is going on.
Reading on a rainy day
We are not always in peak condition to exercise and practice Bulgarian. That is completely OK and one should permit oneself to feel a bit under the weather, however it is still key to practice everyday in order to keep the habit of learning. This is where reading comes in handy, because it is not really necessary to put a lot of personal effort into it in order for it to be helpful, so it is a good idea to create a habit out of it - reading before you go to sleep, or on a coffee break.
If you still don't know how to read in Bulgarian, you can check out our online course for Complete Beginners, where you will be guided step by step through some of the most important basics.
