Ways to improve your English:

Read a lot
It really, really helps. We need lots and lots of input (that's when we listen to or read English) to learn a new language. When you read, you learn new words without thinking about it. You also learn grammar: if you see ‘I ate’ 100 times while you are reading, you probably won’t say ‘I eated’. And, you learn how English speakers usually build sentences and the kinds of things that are normal for them to say.
There are some very good books you can buy for students who are learning English. If you go to an English language school, they probably have some you can borrow. These books are specially for students and have been written in easy English. They come in different levels so you can choose the right one for you. Don’t pick something too difficult – you should be able to read it without a dictionary. Try to read at least one per week, and you will learn English much more quickly and easily.
Listen as much as you can
The same thing as reading – if you hear lots of English words, they get into your brain. Listening is more difficult because if you try to watch TV or a film it might be too fast for you (and it’s not useful if you don’t understand anything). The easy books I already talked about often have CDs, which is a brilliant way to practise, and you can check in the book if you don’t catch a word. You can even listen on the bus.

Listening to English music is also really good (though songs can be difficult). However, you can usually find the lyrics (the words of the song) on the Internet so you can check what you hear.
Study new vocabulary
When I ask students how they learn vocabulary, they often say ‘by reading’ or ‘by watching TV’. It’s not what I mean. It’s true you can learn new words when you read or listen, but you should also study new words seriously.

If you try something like learning 10 new words per day (it is possible!) and review often, you will improve a lot. I’m learning Japanese, and I have problems remembering new words. Here are a few things I do (some work better than others!):

1. Make flashcards: I find this is really the best way to learn new words, but you have to be organised! Make some small cards (or you can buy them) and write the new English word on one side and either the word in your language or in easy English on the other side. Then test yourself. You can write down the words or just say them to yourself. To really make this work, you have to review often (you need a system!). I think this is the best method for learning English vocabulary.


2. Record the words onto a tape or CD or MP3: if you learn well by listening, this might work for you. To record, say the word in your language, then wait a few seconds, then say the English word. When you play the CD you should try to say the English word in the space. Then listen to check. (This does have a few problems – it’s best if you can ask someone to check your pronunciation for example, also usually you get to know the words at the beginning better).


3. Make sentences with the new words: this is great if you can ask someone to check them. It’s also great to make up really crazy sentences – that way you won’t forget them! I also collect example sentences of the words I’m trying to learn – if I see the word in a book I write down the sentence.


4. Make up a mnemonic: a mnemonic is a way to remember something, like a little story. For example, if I want to remember the Japanese word ‘yukkuri’ (which means ‘slowly’) I could think about the English words ‘you’ and ‘curry’, and maybe imagine someone eating a plate of curry very, very slowly! This works for learning English, make up the story in your language.


5. Put labels with English words on things in your house: I tried this one too, I put Japanese words all over my house. For example I put the word ‘daidokoro’ (which means ‘kitchen’) on the kitchen door. The problem with this is that it works for a while but then you get used to the words and forget to read them!


6. Use a flashcard computer program: there are lots you can buy.

Do a language exchange
I’ve done this several times. It’s a really good way to meet people, though it depends on where you are. I live in London so it’s easy for me to find a partner. You arrange to meet an English speaker in a café, and then you speak half in English and half in your language. It’s nice because you can help each other. In many countries there are English speakers trying to learn your language: try the university.

Don’t panic if you can’t speak or write well yet
It takes a long time to learn a language, and learning English might be particularly difficult (it depends on your first language). If you relax and don’t force yourself, speaking and writing well will come.

1. Calculate your BMR (basal metabolic rate). Your BMR is what your body needs to maintain normal functions like breathing and digestion. This is the minimum number of calories you need to eat each day. Keep in mind that no calculator will be 100% accurate, so you may need to adjust these numbers as you go along.
2. Calculate your activity level. Use a calorie calculator to figure out how many calories you burn while sitting, standing, exercising, lifting weights, etc. throughout the day. It helps to keep a daily activity journal or you could even wear a heart rate monitor that calculates calories burned.
3. Keep track of how many calories you eat. You can use a site like Calorie Count or use a food journal to write down what you eat and drink each day. Be as accurate as possible, measuring when you need to or looking up nutritional information for restaurants, if you eat out.
4. Add it up. Take your BMR number, add your activity calories and then subtract your food calories from that total. If you're eating more than you're burning, (your BMR + activity is 2000 and you're eating 2400 calories) you'll gain weight. If you're burning more than you eat, you'll lose weight.

Instead of...	Do this...
An afternoon Coke	Drink a glass of water. (calories saved: 97)
An Egg McMuffin	Eat a small whole wheat bagel +1 Tbsp of peanut butter (calories saved: 185)
Using your break eat sweets	Walk up and down a flight of stairs for 10 minutes (calories burned: 100)
Hitting the snooze button	Get up 10 minutes early and go for a brisk walk (calories burned: 100)
Watching TV after work	Do 10 minutes of yoga (calories burned: 50)

• Direct promise of benefit
• News about the product
• Curiosity or provocative, and
• Command headlines

• Slogan that emphasizes product or reward- every product has some reward to offer consumers. It may have some hidden quality that differentiates a product from the competitors.
• Slogans that emphasizes action to be taken- the slogan might urge directly that you use the product or service.

• Thumbnail sketches- Advertising people usually work in pairs. A copywriter and a visualizer sit together and create ideas. The first thing they do is to come up with as many ideas as possible. And as they get the ideas they put them on paper, which is called thinking on paper. This helps in many ways-it records all the ideas options on paper, it gives some kind of a shape to the idea without using any expensive color, wasting much paper, etc. and without spending much time and efforts. In the thumbnail sketch the various elements of the advertisement are just schematically or diagrammatically represented. For example, a thick serrated line represents the headline. Thinner serrated lines represent the subheading and the slogan. Straight lines or dotted lines represent body copy. Boxes crossed inside represent visuals. Also thumbnail sketches are very small in size. Only the shape is proper-being proportionately smaller.
• Rough sketches- in the rough stage, bigger layouts are made so that more details can be accommodated. Hand lettering is done for the headlines and other copy parts that are to be composed in bigger type sizes. A rough sketch of the visual is pasted. These rough layouts are presented to the agency creative director for approval. Then the rough layout is further polished.
• Comprehensive stage- the rough layout is still small in size, with no color, with no proper borders and no proper lettering and visuals. Now it is enlarged to its actual size. All the copy is lettered or composed. Proper borders and other marks are put on the layout. Photographs and other visual are cut from other places or Photostatted and pasted. Some coloring-particularly using crayons, water colors, etc is done. This stage is called the comprehensive stage. As the name suggests this layout is easy to understand. This layout is presented to the client for approval. Once the client approves the layout, it is then ready for the final finishing touches.
• Art work-this is the final stage of layout. Here care is taken to look into each minute detail. The copy is properly composed or lettered. Proper photographs, paintings, sketches, or graphics are used. Other elements like borders etc are properly places. Coloring is done. Finishing artists give the final touches. This stage is now ready to be printed. All these various stages of preparing the layout are beneficial in a many ways. First these stages save time, money and efforts. If you prepare a final layout without taking the approval and it gets rejected, then all the material used, efforts and time spend are wasted. Also working on only one idea curtails the various other possible options.

• It increases the credibility of the firm because the buyer buys the product only after looking at the brand name.
• Registration of trademarks prohibits duplication.