I have taken many many English Courses in my country since I was very young. I went to the “Anglo-Argentinean Cultural Institute” where I got my first English Certificate at the age of 16. After that I studied “Business English” for 2 years at my University (UESIGLO 21). It was an obligatory subject and I needed to take that course if I wanted to obtain my degree. Then, I went to the Faculty of Languages at Cordoba’s National University where I took two summer courses. Finally, I attend to “British Culture” Institute because I wanted to take the First Certificate International Examination.
Although all these institutes have taught me the basic grammar, vocabulary and structure of English, they have never taught me “the best way” to study English by myself. They never gave us tips, advice or methodology to improve our English skills by ourselves.
One of the things that I really hated at that time was reading English books. Although they were not very long, they were always boring. We were forced to read them because they were tested in the final oral exam. However, in the final exam, all the students (me inclusive) always forgot the plot, the characters and the settings. We couldn’t remember what we had read. Big problem!.
Now, it is different. I love reading English books and specially “Short Stories”.
In the Vocabulary Building Seminar I learnt a very nice method to not forget the mains ideas. You need to follow these Literary Devices:
- Narrator / Point of View
- Characters ( protagonist / antagonist)
- Setting ( Place / Time)
- Plot: main actions.
- Identify type of conflict:
- Person vs Person
- Person vs Society
- Person vs Self
- Person vs Nature
- Person vs Fate
- Identify symbolisms, flashbacks and foreshadowing
In that way everything is EASY!
Following this method we had read many Short Stories.
As I told you earlier, my favourite short story was: “One seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful april morning” written by Haruki Murakami.
But I also recommend reading the following ones:
- The Lottery Ticket by Anton Chekhov
- Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Heminway
- One of these days. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- In a grove by Ryounosuke Akutagawa
- The cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe.
- The veldt by Ray Bradbury.
If you want to look for them, may be this web site can help you. I didn’t look at it yet, but it seems amazing:
CLASSIC SHORT STORIES
Link: http://www.classicshorts.com/
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