Hi, everyone and welcome back to Happy Hour. 歡迎回來(lái)酒館. Hi, 安瀾.

Hi, lulu, hi, everyone.

So 安瀾, do you know that every year on April the 23rd, it's the World Book and Copyright Day, also known as世界讀書(shū)日.

Yeah. We have the same thing in the UK, so around that time, schools will have like parties where school children will have to dress up as their favorite literary character.

That's interesting. Did you dress up as anyone?

I did, but I'm not gonna say who.

It's not Harry Potter, is it?

I'm a little bit too old for Harry Potter.

Alright. So I thought let's do a couple of episodes on reading because this is very, very important for language learning and also just a good habit in general.

Exactly. For example, we've talked about reading during our live streaming. We've talked about reading before, but I don't think we've really ever done an episode on reading itself.

Exactly. And I know that both you and me we're bookworms, we're avid readers.

Absolutely.

So there's a lot to talk about. But first things of first, can I just ask you when did this whole passion for reading start for you?

According to my parents, I learnt how to read before I really learnt how to speak.

Okay, so you just didn't speak, you were just reading?

Well, almost. So when I was very, very young, I only started learning how to speak about the age of three or four. I had problems with speech, okay. But I was able to recognize words. So my parents say that I was able to start reading before I was actually able to start speaking.

Wow, and now we just can't shut you up.

Pretty much. Now I'm doing a podcast.

All right, but jokes aside I kind of understand that. So basically you developed your skills in reading before your speech.

Pretty much, pretty much. So I used to love car magazines apparently.

Yet you don't drive.

Yes, I don't drive.

You are full of paradoxes.

Well. My dad used to teach me how to recognize letters by walking around a car park. So there was a car park quite close to where we lived. So he would point out the names of cars and then he would read those car names with me.

The models.

The models, and that's how I learned how to read apparently.

That's very interesting. That's a very unique way of learning how to read.

Yeah. How about yourself?

My story is a bit different. I started speaking very, very early, I can imagine that, like very, very early, I think my mom's very much into the idea of early education. So she bought me many many books. She told me so many stories and I don’t remember having things akin to flash cards.

Oh yes.

But not like flash cards per se. It's just maybe like a picture book, almost like a pictionary if I remember correctly. A pictionary of different types of animals.

So all my zoological knowledge was from back then.

Okay.

Yeah. But like I said, I also developed speech very, very early on, so my mom would tell me stories and then I would retell those stories to family guests. So when they like paid my parents a visit, when the grown ups when they're trying to chat, I would like hold on, everybody hold on. I'm here to tell you a story, and they had to humor me.

That's really cute.

And eventually my mom would get quite busy sometimes and she couldn't really finish a story, so she would just throw me the books.

Okay.

If you want to know the end of the story just try to read yourself. I basically kind of also taught myself to read and from then on just couldn't stop.

Oh yeah pretty much. My parents would give me loads loads loads of books and I used to really love Greek myths. So that's one of the reasons why I got so interested in Greek history and Roman history is because my dad used to read me the Greek myths when I was very, very young.

Yes, but Greek myths were filled with things that are not appropriate for children.

Err.. he found more child suitable versions for me.

He just basically purified those stories for you.

Pretty much.

So you never really read classic fairy tales then.

I did, but to be honest, my parents got a little bit bored of telling those to me.

So I do know the classic fairy tales, but I always remember when I was very, very young, my dad just said, ok let me tell you another type of story and it was a Greek myth.

And that sparked your interest in the whole Greek mythology. By the way, 可能有的人也買(mǎi)過(guò)我跟安瀾老師的【名著掃盲】, 其中還包括【希臘神話掃盲】.Yeah. You are quite the expert in this!

Oh, thank you.

You actually studied?

I did study, yes.

You studied in university as well.

Yes.

It for me I mean I read all the classic fairy tales and also got bored but I moved on to a much darker territory. I started reading like mystery books, crime books very early on.

Okay.

Probably explains a lot.

That does explain an awful lot.

Up till maybe like 12, 14, my dream job growing up was number one being a lawyer because I loved courtroom dramas, and then number two being a forensic scientist, the medical examiner.

Okay, no comments.

And number three being a detective, but you know you gotta survive.

Yeah, exactly. And you gotta be kind of very conveniently close to the murder.

Exactly. But dialing it back a little bit. So that's how we started reading.

Now, what about reading as a tool or as a methodology to learn a foreign language?

Well, first of all there are different types of reading. Now lots and lots of students always say okay I wanna improve my reading, but very few actually think what am I reading for? So there are lots of different types of reading, for example, skimming.

Yeah, this is something that I do want to talk about in this episode with you because a lot of the times in China, when it comes to English learning, people seem to focus on intensive reading, reading word by word, 就是精讀, but you were mentioning skimming. 這個(gè)就是略讀, 速讀. It basically is a very speedy type of reading, only reading for the main ideas.

Yeah, so you're reading quickly just to get the main idea. So you might do this, for example, if that you found a book that you might be interested in reading, but you don't want to read every single word, you just read certain sentences and then move on.

And sometimes when you read news articles, you just want to very quickly see what's going on. Exactly.

To be honest I was an English major right? So the TEM-8, I believe the test for English majors, there was a specific part called skimming, so I was training language learners in reading really fast. Speed is everything.

Exactly. And this is less about language. This is actually more about developing that type of reading habit.

Yeah, because if you don't have skimming skills, your reading speed will never really increase, no, never really improve. There's something similar called scanning.

Yes, so scanning is looking for specific information. Like for example, you'll find in a word in a dictionary or you're looking for a time on a timetable for example.

It's almost like your brain is a computer, a programmer system. 所以你就可以檢索信息. This is extremely important. If you are taking tests like IELTS , TOEFL or if you are just generally doing any types of research.

Yeah. So You don't have to understand every single word. You are not interested in every single word. You are only interested in specific information.

Yeah. And then of course there is intensive reading which is studying texts carefully to understand every detail. I mean I did intensive reading when I was in year one in university, but that's mainly for the基本功for the basic understanding of more complex grammar or usage of phrases, idioms.

So intensive reading is mainly used as a way of learning language, but it's also just only one of the reading habits. So for example, what most people would do on a day to day basis is extensive reading.

就是泛讀. 安瀾, I have a personal question for you. So What would you suggest the ratio between intensive reading and extensive reading for a language learner?

I would say intensive reading should be a bit less than extensive reading because the thing is that intensive reading does take a lot of time, it does take a lot of effort and it can also be incredibly tiring. So if you do too much intensive reading, then you're not going to enjoy reading. Whereas if you do extensive reading more, you're still learning vocabulary, maybe not at the same speed or at the same depth as intensive reading, but you're still learning.

Yeah. I always say to my students, I think intensive reading should be at the very most 20%, 30% and you need to do about 70% or so extensive reading just really to increase the amount of text that you read.

Yes.

I think for a lot of learners in China, the problem is not that you don't read closely enough. It's you don't read enough.

Yeah, when you start focusing and fixating on one particular sentence pattern that's not really reading.

Exactly. Exactly. And when you read extensively, you...not only will gain more information knowledge, but you're also getting more used to the idea of scanning, skimming like we talked about, and also more maybe like summarizing, retelling, and all of that.

Exactly.