About my English study method

Maybe the biggest problem of non-English native students is "Learning English", especially majoring in humanities or social sciences. Economics students are not an exception. Although economists usually love math, the essential implications are more important, and it is expressed verbally, very English. And, I think, in terms of English, the implication of the 2023 Novel Prize expresses the importance of implications.

It does not mean that a non-English native or non-Latin-based language user can't be a good economist. But, according to my university alumni, it's also true that if someone isn't good at English, he or she will have a very big problem since they are not good at PR their papers, or their paper's readability will be bad, or they will be a bad position to get some empirical data sets that may be necessary for proving their papers, or they will have problems to receive guidance of a thesis. (My university is one of the most prestigious in my country. So it is trustworthy enough.) Besides of alumni's testimony, there is other evidence. Most famous Korean economists usually majored in econometrics or game theory. It doesn't need more rigorous English than other subjects.

So, the biggest problem for me is to learn English. Others who want to go to grad school in the US or another country usually go to private academic, and I heard, it takes about 2 years to get sufficient English level to go abroad. But, it costs about 400,000 won per month (it's about 3,000 dollars. Even considering the price level, it may be up to 4,000~5,000 dollars!!). It's absolutely expensive. Furthermore, I have 5-6 years before going to my abroad graduate school. Maybe it's enough to teach myself.

But how I can teach myself? So I searched very much. I want to record what I got. These informations are recommended by experts like professors, translators, or professional English teachers.

First, read and listen to the "Penguin Readers" series. The series is published for English learners who are not native English speakers. It consists of 7 levels. But the levels are a little subjective, so the series also provides "CEFR". It's a level expressing how a learner is advanced, and certified by the EU. It divided into 6 level --A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2--, A1 is lowest, and C2 is highest. The series of books is very interesting. Most of them are not original, but they are edited/rewritten from beneficial, famous, popular, interesting books or films, like "The Godfather", "1984", and "Darkest Hour". So learners will not be bored. (As you know, the most important thing is fun!) Now, My level is B2(not high, just between B1 and B2, but closer to B2). My first purpose is to make B2 firmly. For this, I read and listened to the books of level 7.

As covered "Reading" and "Listening" by "Penguin Readers" series, we should cover "Writing" and "Speaking". Yeah, for writing, I started this blog. (of course, I also want this blog to become my portfolio) But as foreign, though I can make some logical structures since logic isn't bound by language, I'm not good at grammar, vocabulary, and the tone of English sentences. vocabulary is covered by a dictionary or Google Translator, but other two problems exist. To solve the first one, the program free version of "Grammarly" is a wonderful option. (If I buy the pay version, then I can handle the last one. but, I think the tone is not a major issue yet. so I didn't pay for it.) Before I upload my post I always use it. Fortunately, most of my grammar errors happened at "the" or "a". I often forget to attach them because they don't exist in Korean. Additionally, It calculates the score of my text. The score reflects "readability", "how long my sentences", "how much I used words variously", etc. By the program, I'm not good at using "rare" words, in other words, my vocabulary is lacking. 

The remainder is "Speaking". I'm using the app "Speak", based on GPT-4 and invested from Open AI. This app provides various speaking practices, including "chatting with AI", and "taking classes divided into levels". I'm just a beginner, so I usually take classes. The theme of classes is very diverse, like "How I talk to my boss?" or "How I tell a waiter?".

I'm just a beginner and not an expert in English education. So if you take my advice, please take it with a grain of salt.