What can I do to understand Shakespearean language.

No Fear Shakespeare on SparkNotes is a great resource when it’s not abused. It is a ‘translator’ that turns Shakespearean English into modern English. Many teachers may discourage it or even ban it in class, but where you do not understand what is being said, it is better to use it to get a baseline understanding of what is going on. However, using it as a crutch won’t allow you to form an actual understanding of the idioms, imagery and nuances in language that you will need to understand and analyse to be achieving higher marks. Make sure you refer back to the original text after using No Fear Shakespeare to try and figure out how Shakespeare has used language to communicate the message that you have read on the translated version. Another good idea is to look up difficult words and write them in a word bank. When you have a bit more time, watching the live plays online can help you to visualise the script, and some of what Shakespeare was trying to convey, which can make the speech a bit clearer and give you some context when you’re analysing the text. A range of these techniques together will offer the best result, and make sure that after you have grasped the meaning of the chunk of text you were struggling with, that you highlight any interesting imagery/language features, structural features that Shakespeare used, considering context and setting to get a better understanding of some of the themes and ideas that Shakespeare was trying to present in this section. This extra bit of work at the end will help you to remember what Shakespeare was actually saying if you even come across it again.