hi there! first of all you need to know: reading comprehension as well as listening comprehension are difficult task for all beginners or students of another language. So don't worry!! The most important thing is: don't give up! You need to motivate yourself and find some strategies to make it easier for you. Here are some suggestions: - try to learn 'scanning' = it's a strategy taught to children at school. It means that you scan the text with your eyes trying to find the most important information or the information which is asked. you don't have to decode all words, only the essential ones. - try reading text/books as often as you can!! find a good book you would like to read. You can also have a look on the internet and find a good website you are interested in. But watch out! Only look for websites by native speakers. - try to understand the text by using the co-text or context. Sometimes you don't have to look up words...you will definitively understand them by the information given. You can look the word up after having imagined what the word means. You will find out that every time you have guessed a word correctly you will get eager to go on. there are plenty of other good advices. If you are interested in learning strategies just google reading comprehension strategies. There are also plenty of websites which provide exercises, eg: http://www.rhlschool.com/reading.htm The most important thing is that you keep on going!! Good luck! patty ps: if you have problems finding other strategies just ask me...

I understand and sympathize. English has an almost infinite number of ways to express the same thought. We all use different writing styles, and professional writers do this more than others. All of these sentences have the same meaning, but they create different emotions in the reader: For me, this is a really sad day. Today my depression knows no bounds. The depth of my current woe is unfathomable. The darkness in my life is currently limitless. My grief overwhelms me. The beauty of English is its frustration, especially for a non-native speaker. There are very few standards of style, we have a robust vocabulary influenced by many other cultures and languages, and we believe that rules are made to be broken, especially for professional poets and writers. And we just love our idioms and metaphors! So my advice, keep trying, do not let the difficulty stop you for the prize at the end of the journey is worth the pain of that journey. Study well and just keep reading!

"... are difficult for me."