Learning To Read Is a Path Toward Enlightenment

If you’re learning a language for the first time, then learning to read can be a bit of a challenge. A language encompasses many forms of communication, from speaking and writing to reading and understanding. Being proficient in one form of communication doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be proficient in another, even if it does help a bit. You must tackle each of these forms individually in order to master them, and reading is no different. Are you going to improve your reading if you spend your time talking your mouth off all day? No, you need to sit your behind down and read some books if you’re going to be a reading champ. In learning to read, as in many other things in life, practice makes perfect.

First off, learning to read entails learning the very basics first. For many languages, this means learning the alphabet. Break it down: to read a book, you need to be able to read paragraphs, which means you need to be able to read sentences, for which you need to read words, for which you need to read letters. Learn your ABCs, that is if you’re learning English. Memorize them, learn how to sound them out before you go on trying to put them together into words. Then when you’ve mastered the alphabet you can start learning familiar words you come across when you’re reading. Then you’ll begin to put those words together into sentences, and eventually you’ll find yourself being able to read long passages. It’s going to take some time to get to that level, so hop aboard the Reading Railroad and hang in for the ride.

When you’ve got that down, you’re ready to move to the next step: learning to read well. Sure, you might be able to read those words on the page but do you know what they mean? This is the final step before achieving reading nirvana: mastering the art of comprehension. You know how people supposedly achieve nirvana by meditating a lot? You can achieve reading nirvana by reading a lot. The more you read, the better you’ll get at it and the better you’ll understand. And once you’ve mastered reading, you’ll have achieved true understanding—being able to read things and knowing what they mean beyond the surface of words. That is the essence of communication, being able to pick up on cues beyond what is visible to the eye. And it is only something that a master of reading can access. Will you undertake this path? Good, then sit down and start reading pronto.