Learning English

Juliet
It was a friend of mine who just said to me one day, "Oh, I've signed up for ballroom dancing lessons, do you want to come?" I said: "definitely", so the two of us, off we went, no partners, and I just, oh yeah, on our own, beginners' classes, and I've – I've completely fell in love with it.

And that same friend actually is the person that finally inspired me to do my degree course.

I am studying worlds of English. The academic texts that I use all form a complete part of the course: they're, they're written as textbooks that are specifically for that course. I think to get the most out of reading the academic texts you've got to give it proper time and proper consideration. I always plan to do around about two hours a day reading and note taking.

First of all, I'm looking to get the gist of the subject and understand it a little bit deeper and then I'll read it more thoroughly with an eye to answering a question – a particular assignment question. When I'm choosing the bits that I really need to focus on, my main tool is to keep referring back to the question that I am answering. If you're trying to sort out which bits of the text are going to be most relevant, just make best use of all the contents pages, the chapter headings, the indexes; always reading through the summaries, the conclusions and the introductions of each section actually gives you a good overview and you can pick out the bits that are going to fit in well. And also, using the contents is quite detailed: the chapter headings, they give you a good indication of what's going to be there as well.

A typical day for me is, my morning ritual: I get up and sit down and read the paper cover to cover, and do the puzzles. After that I do like to go for a walk. That is one of my rituals and I usually take about an hour. I've got three or four good sort of four-mile routes around the local town which takes me through the parks. Then I come back, do all my household chores, bit of cooking, bit of gardening; my partner's out most of the morning playing golf - he comes home at lunchtime.

As part of my in-depth reading, I note the key terms and then make sure I bring them into the assignment. Sometimes the specialist vocabulary can be a bit trying. Actually, the glossaries in the back of the books come in very handy for that.

What I most like about the academic texts is that they can introduce new ideas to you: open your eyes to all sorts of subjects but there's always a bit of proof behind it.

My top tips for learning would be: try not to miss anything out and don't just read the bits that you think will answer the question.

The thing that I enjoy most about the academic studying is that it broadens the mind.

Next big dancing event will be an exam which is an Argentine tango: that will be the ninth exam we've taken in that particular form of dancing. My dance partner and I like to take the dancing exams, it's by no means compulsory. For me they are just more of a marker, put all that work in and you have achieved a level: they're quite significant for me.

Go the distance.