Comics and Language Learning by Jess

I love reading comics – I think they are a really fun and interesting way to learn a language. Personally, I feel that sometimes reading ‘bare text’ (i.e. words only) in another language can be difficult, frustrating or just, well, plain old boring. I’m learning Turkish and I find the sentences are really long, with a very different grammar and sentence structure to what I’m used to.  I’ve tried reading newspapers, song lyrics, and children’s books but I find it very confusing and difficult – so I often give up! 

But comics, well, ….. for me they are wonderful! The pictures, shapes and colours hold my attention and sometimes help me work out what’s going on, or at least, give me clues to the topics. Plus, in the speech bubbles the language is often more similar to what I actually hear people say – it’s helped me understand how to use some slang and colloquial /everyday phrases. So, I totally recommend trying comics to liven up your language learning – reading them and maybe even making them!

Here are some comics we (in the Rose Collective) made about Spring earlier this year. They are inspired by the beautiful Spring Fever by Grant Snider. You can find Spring Fever and many more of Grant’s comics here.  They are joyous to read and thought provoking too. 

We made our comics pretty quickly, but I love them – they make me smile and fill me with joy. What do you think? If you like our comics let us know in the comments below! You could even make a comic about Spring or Autumn and share it with us.