<p>Hi everyone</p>
<p>I'm a non-native speaker and International student and have studied outside of the U.S. all my life. The country I live in is very conservative and doesn't really encourage study of Humanities/Social sciences. I'm quite detached from these fields. More or often, I see that U.S. colleges emphasize a liberal arts education, encompassing all fields of study. And for that reason, despite becoming over aged and a novice to start with these fields, I've a growing interest over them.</p>
<p>What suggestions do you have for me? Not studying Literature and novels has crippled my English too as they are interrelated. I'm very bad with reading comprehension; it is very tough for me to search for an answer and I've to guess often. I don't know who Emily Dickinson or Ralph Waldo Emerson is. I haven't read any play of Shakespeare except for Macbeth (which I didn't understand too. I'm incapable of reading books due to my bad comprehension practices and drastically limits my understanding of complex sentence structures making me bored of many novels. This problem has also affected my standardized scores i.e. SAT Critical reading.</p>
<p>I've rarely written a descriptive/analytical essay on any topic. Creativity has never seen me through. To be frank, I've been an ESL student passing through all hardships that English is supposed to cause. I learn vocabulary but never seem to use them or even worse, forget them. I'm even admitting that my college admission essay was partly written and edited by my good friend (a native speaker). I excel in every subject I learn (the sciences and math) and have been the best student of my class. But English has seemed to snap my ears off. I've seen foreign IB students excelling in their theory of knowledge and other papers and easing the pain of being regarded as a 'non native' speaker. I simply don't get it why I'm incapable of achieving something which is becoming a norm today globally.</p>
<p>After such unsuccessful hurdles, I was very lucky to get into a top New England Liberal Arts College (due to its test optional admission policy). It was quite astonishing (taking my current condition into account) and hope to attend this fall. </p>
<p>But my question is, will I be able to cope up with the level of English in the U.S.? What can I do to get the English preparation of a native college freshman? Do I study SAT/AP English without taking the test? I really want to write like students do as in a high school newspaper. I'm really worried because I need to take english courses at college, which I may fail at and fear that my GPA will go down a lot. And I have high hopes for attending graduate school (apparently means GRE comes as a barrier again). </p>
<p>Sorry for writing a huge essay. Thank you for giving your time to read and answer me :)</p>
<p>Did you write that post yourself?</p>
<p>If so, then your practical English simply needs some minor polish and it won’t be a problem. I’m pretty sure your English is better than most international students and even some English speakers.</p>
<p>May I know what is your native country and language? That sometimes has an effect on how a person learns a language because they are already used to their own one.</p>
<p>Regarding reading comprehension, you will only improve by practicing. Just keep reading and immerse yourself in the language. Nobody said you necessarily need to understand Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo or Shakespeare. In fact, those classics use a very traditional version of English and, believe me, it’s far from modern English.</p>
<p>I recommend reading book you like and having a dictionary close in case you need to understand any words. Then, after the first read, you could read it again without the dictionary and you’ll find it easier to catch up with the pace. </p>
<p>I’m also an international student and I assure you that I am no literature fan or anything, but I read English websites daily, play videogames in English occasionally and read books in English every now and then. It’s a matter of getting accustomed to it.</p>
<p>Thank you Andrewheat for the response 
My native language is Bengali. However, I’ve lived in the middle east all throughout my life. Most Bangladeshis who have gotten into U.S. colleges have either lived abroad during childhood or have been acquainted with literature/language from a very early age.</p>
<p>What books and websites do you suggest for me to read? How much time should I spend daily?</p>
<p>I suggest whatever books and websites you like best. There’s no specific ones that will help, it’s just the dedication and practice you put on it. And, of course, you’re more likely to enjoy reading websites/books you like.</p>
<p>So, it depends on your interests. If you liked history, for example, you should be reading historical fiction books and websites about history. Spend as much time as you feel comfortable with, like if English was your native language and you did read everything in English.</p>
<p>I, personally, like reading webcomics and Wikipedia lol</p>
<p>“I learn vocabulary but never seem to use them or even worse, forget them.”</p>
<p>Language is acquired in context. In other words, memorizing vocabulary lists will do you no good. You need to read things that are interesting to you, watch movies/DVDS/TV programs that are interesting to you, and have conversations in English on topics that are interesting to you. Today you might be interested in higher math, tomorrow you might be interested in finding something to eat. Both situations will provide opportunities for mastering new vocabulary.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about not having read any Dickinson, Emerson, or Shakespeare other than MacBeth. Many US students haven’t read any of this either. The IB students you are comparing yourself to often are doing university-level work. Regular US high school students read Steven King, Eoin Colfer, and Stephanie Meyers. If they have to read one of the literary “classics” in school, they ask their mom to pick up the Cliff’s Notes version at the library. I know this because I’ve got a regular US high school kid of my own.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about your writing skills yet either. If you come to the US to study, ask to be placed into a writing course designed for ESL students so that you can get help with this. Most colleges and universities here also have a “writing lab” where you can get a tutor to help you edit and improve your essays.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>Simply man, read read read… then when you are sick of that, watch english TV; sport movies whatever. just listen to lots of English and read lots of it. If you do that you will become far more fluent very quickly</p>