Our Refreshing Cocktail for your English in Summer

It’s July, and officially summer holiday has begun! You are probably on your way to your dream destination or are taking care of the last details of your trip to a sunny place to relax and recharge.

Perhaps it’s the last thing on your mind to fit in any English language learning activity; usually, the most difficult part when learning a language is to maintain what you’ve already acquired.
No need to think of packing any studying material, all you need is your smartphone and to follow our super refreshing tips to keep track of your English in summer.

Smartphones are great, not only because you can keep in touch with friends and family while you’re away; they can be your on-the-go language trainer while you have fun practising your English. Installing the following apps will guarantee a moment of constructive learning and fun.

Get your Word Game right!

1. Ruzzle: A word game to challenge your ability with words and help you expand your vocabulary range. You simply search the letter board for words, challenge other players, play tournaments and track your progress while your skills are being sharpened! Free to download.
2. Words with Friends: a highly popular word game, very similar to Scrabble, to play with friends; you take turns building puzzle-style crosswords. You can challenge your friends or other users and fight to the highest word score! For upper intermediate to advanced language practitioners, and free to download.
3. Bookworm: a good, simple word game to create words from a board, using as many letters as possible. Straightforward rule! Tune up your brain to create words and watch out for those burning letters, they could mess up your spelling! Not free to download.

Hands off your smartphone

If vacation to you means going off the grid, then we propose the following to help you stay in touch with your English in summer:

Cook yourself through English

How about preparing a great summer dish for your family or loved ones? Cooking is one thing, following a recipe in English will keep you on your toes, help you understand what you are reading before going into action mode. Our favourite sources for summer recipes are Nigella Lawson, Erin Alderson a.k.a Naturally Ella or Gordon Ramsey, to name but a few.

Read a book (in the original language, of course!)

Reading is magic, we’ve said it many times, because it is so, plus we love reading books as well! Some great summer books to pick and read could be any of these:

• To Kill A Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee
• Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
• The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
• Life of Pi, by Yann Martel

You can always read at your own pace, learn new expressions or words, escape to another dimension with the help of your imagination, leave work and responsibilities behind.

Organise an international movie night

You can experience the world without leaving your sofa through a film. Why don’t you invite some friends over and watch great films and improve your English together? With or without English subtitles, you are getting exposed to various native accents and speaking speeds. What’s your favourite film? Go ahead and watch it, in the original language, this time!

We hope that all these fun tips will help you avoid the so-called “summer-slide“, maintain your language motivation high without making you feel you’re sacrificing your vacation over anything else. It’s all about the right balance, but also maintaining the skills you have already built through all the hours you have invested in using English with confidence.

Enjoy your summer break!