Don't try to memorize vocabulary in a new language
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- Опубліковано 17 тра 2024
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Some people say you should try to learn 10 words a day and make sure you can use them, really nail them down. I've never found that effective. Here is how I learn vocabulary.
0:00 You do not need to worry about not remembering words when learning a language.
1:34 My vocabulary learning process on LingQ.
3:17 If we continue to expose ourselves to vocabulary, we will learn them.
4:46 Does poor memory mean you are a bad language learner?
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How do you study vocabulary in a your target language?
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I have to burn anki decks at the moment since im working towards the JLPT exams and there are alot of words that come up that i dont tend to use.
Outside of that reading stuff you enjoy (in volume) is the best way in my opinion. Thats where linq shines.
I try Anki for a while, burn myself out then I give up and the process repeats for each attempt to learn the language.
I don't like the read and look up approach alone. Feels too passive, so I'm trying to just take a text that's broken up in lines/sentences and translating them. I struggle with low attention span and focus, but I don't know if this works or not before I try.
@@sevret313 I think Steve himself has said it before that you have to enjoy spending time with the language. If flash cards aren’t for you I’d say don’t do them but I kind of like them. It feels like grinding a video game to mez
Osmosis. My brain absorbs German and out comes Brezeln and Käse.
@@sevret313 me neither. I've been trying to use his method for months. It's not bad. It makes you able to read, but not able to speak. If this is your problem, I recommend looking at how words are used in context and trying to practice the words on your own until you're comfortable with them and move on. Try speaking with real natives and ask them lots of questions about word usage when you can. For me it's more fun to think of new uses for already known words, phrases, and grammar.
I like to use the analogy of remembering all your co-workers' faces at a new job. You're not going to sit down with a chart of all their names and faces and try to memorize them all by rote. You're only going to learn their names and faces by interacting with them over time, repeatedly seeing them in all the different contexts you see them.
Very good analogy!
That's a great analogy!
Actually I have started to to exactly this before I get into a new class. And it's interestingly easy for me to connect the names to the faces. In only 2-3 days of learning a bit with the pictures and names I know the names by the first day of school ;-)
Omg, analogy, to me that s the most powerful way, effective and incredibly penetrating method, you got it. I admire ur response
I like your analogy! We just need to do the interaction with whatever we are learning!
Your videos help me learn English!
@Language Simp I've never heard about this language, could you explain please?
Is it just me or are you the most attractive thing in the whole universe.
@@starfront22 It's not just you
ur gonna fail just give up.
🤣
When I was learning English, I found useful to search the meaning of a word written in English instead of a translation into my language. This helps increasing the "exposure" to the language and also making mental links between different words.
100%. In the beginning, it feels awkward. But - over time - there's way less mental effort learning a new word in its own language rather than try to translate everything word for word.
You dont translate how to you can understant, when i learn i often headache so translate
@@tuyenho6159 at first you maybe, but the goal of learning a language is not to translate it in your head, but to think in the language. When you start thinking in your target language, you know you are in the right path!
Im as a beginner should i do that instead of translation?
@@zakariaAlyoussef I recently started to apply this technique and let me tell you I've been missing out on such a big one! Indeed, my perception has refined.
So basically, Once you have a basic foundation of words in the language; Accordingly, you may as well get more exposure to that language by learning contemporary words just by the definition. You will most likely encounter rare wordings or terms concerning the definition. Obviously, find the definition pertinent to that particular word, and so on and so forth.
You are so spot on, Steve! I approach it much like you - I never try to memorize. I get exposure, I get input, and whatever sticks, sticks, whatever doesn't - it will next time. 0 worries, great results. Being relaxed and not stressing over memorization helps so much. What a great message to share! :)
Makes me less guilty for not always having stuff stick in my head. I feel like thinking too much about it triggers my anxiety resulting to learning nothing at all.
Hello if someone is learning spanish I can help you , so just write me here to send you my name on instagram
)))
This is not only the less painful method but it is also by far the more efficient one. You end up learning new words without even realising that you have done it.
Both recall and exposure are important. Can you try to do exposure only? Sure, but it is less efficient, since recall has been shown to be the single most important factor for acquiring and retaining vocabulary. If you really hate doing a few minutes of recall every day to balance things out, then by all means don't do it. But please don't try to convince others that it's more efficient because science does not support that claim.
This is exactly how I learn my English! I never forcefully memorizing vocabulary. Instead, I do the mass reading. Just read the topics that is interesting to you and make it a fun process. Eventually, the words will stick to you automatically!
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Спасибо за совет!
And when you come across words that you don't understand the mean, as you reading what you do? please help I'm thinking about studying like that I'm sick of anki
It will come along with reading, reading and reading even more.
@@imoliver2822 You may begin reading the topic you already know in your own language, so the unknown vocabulary won't prevent you from understanding the context of the article. For example, I play video games a lot, so reading video game English news will be easier for me even though I don't look up all the words in the article.
I also tried Anki for my graduate school exam (counseling psychology) and I found Anki wasn't an efficient way for my learning. So I got back to the old school way of taking notes, which has been working great for me.
When you read an English article, don't look every word in the dictionary unless it prevent you from understanding the context of the story.
If the English article is too hard to understand, change to an easier one.
Absolutely true, but people, especially in this day and age, forget that language learning is a marathon and try to dash through it by all kinds of means including trying to memorize vocabulary lists. When I was learning English I remember going through the entire Longman dictionary and highlighting and exposing myself to all the words I did not know. Memorizing their meaning was certainly out of the question. It would have been a mammoth task. Today, I look at them and smile!
It is frustrating to see people learning new language in a few weeks, while you are on the same beginner level even after a year...
@@vadymrud4462 Don’t be fooled, that does not happen at least not at meaningful level! You yourself can claim that you can speak a foreign language by learning how to say easy sentences such as: what is your name, I am from such county, I am hungry etc! Anybody can do it after a few weeks including you. But to speak a language fluently is another story. I speak 6 languages including English and it took me a lifetime and…I am still learning. Believe me I have watched the so-called polyglots, they are not fluent in all the languages they claim to be fluent in. They dabble in a lot of them. Back to my case: of the 6 languages I speak, only 3 were learned “consciously” so to speak. I acquired the first 3 ones naturally because they were spoken by my parents and in my environment. So no much merit there! My knowledge of my first 3 languages helped me tremendously in learning the additional languages and what is the secret? Never compare or translate languages. They all have their own untransferable logic! The only prerequisite to learn a language fluently is PASSION! Good luck!
@@kaalengoonga1584 I thank you for that. A lot of sense in your words.
@@kaalengoonga1584 That was very motivating for me! Thank you(:
Bruh, this is an essay
I sort of disagree. I think it depends on where you are in your journey. I think some people benefit from building a basic foundation of around 1000 words and then proceed with this method. Because having too much in the beginning can make it hard to stay motivated.
I'd tend to agree with your point. I find it useful to build a basic vocabulary and then start getting broader exposure.
Like they say, Repetition is the mother of retention. I need to have the basics ( alphabet and 100 or so commonly used verbs) drilled in my head first then I move on to the method spoken of here.
@@mwnmwnnn That is true to an extent. Many of the words are not useful which you will know for yourself for example I don't need to learn the word for fax or bungalow etc. But choosing words relevant to you from this list and building a foundation I find of benefit. I cannot concentrate as much if I have nothing to check my progress against.
@@mwnmwnnn Okey dokey 🙂
@@mwnmwnnn Your approach is also right. Depends on the person. I can see that with your method the initial rate of progress will likely be higher
爷爷，我从这个视频发现了ling Q，试用后觉得很棒！我在学习英语，您的视频对我帮助很大，谢谢
I use mnemonics (association and visualisation) to memorise a lot of vocabulary quickly, but of course most of the learning comes from reading and listening.
"Language learning is not about memorisation. Language learning is about committing yourself to a process, enjoying the process, allowing the language to come into you and trusting that your brain will gradually understand more and more, gradually acquire more and more words"
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Another useful video, Steve. Your comments here resonate with me as this has been my experience in learning French. Relax and let the words come to you is my advice to those learning a language.
My approach is to write down all the expressions I want to learn in a journal. I group expressions with the same purpose of use under the same category. For instance, if the purpose of use of the expressions is giving advice (category), these expressions will be together: your best bet, you'd be better off, you may want to, it's in your best interest, and so on and so forth with all the expressions. This gives me a sense of direction and organization. When I hear one of the expressions under a category, I remember all the expressions that belong to that specific category. The bottom line is you have to prioritize to remember (sense) the category (purpose of use) over the expressions so that during a conversation, you're not trying to remember a specific expression ...once you need to say something with a specific purpose, the expressions will come to mind.
Your channel deserves much more subscribers and thanks for your valuable videos
I'm so glad that youtube algorithms showed me this channel. I have been looking for information like that for ages. I've already signed up on LingQ and tried a couple of lessons, it's just perfect for me. Thank you!
Me, likewise, Olga ,I wish you the best. Lucky to be led to this very useful channel
This is very helpful and reassuring, thank you. I’m always surprised when I start to recognize a word. There are so many UA-camrs who talk about pushing yourself to memorize and doing forced recall etc. but for the long haul, your way is definitely more sustainable 😊
** “TRUSTING that your brain will gradually understand more and more” ** thanks for that
There is probably nothing more reassuring than having a Polyglot's honest learning experiences and advice on the topic. If it works for me personally remains to be seen, but I am very thankful for the input. As Seneca said "If you want to learn, the first step is to look for a mentor"
Generally when words stick with me they have to have a memorable enough context, that's why it's sort of a "choose your own journey"
I love memorising words and phrases and feel like it really helps with my ability to speak - I need concrete examples, it helps me pragmatically apply the grammatical rules too.
For me, memorisation is so much faster than immersion (although I do take the vocabulary from articles I’m reading/interviews I listen to).
Memorize Emma, but use it, if u don t use it, u lose it . Have a great journey
Wouldn't use the word 'bullshit' :), but that's in accord with my experiences. The immersion concept sounds tempting and more fun, but at least for me it hasn't really worked yet. Even if you expose yourself to a language many hours a day, the intervals you come across certain words are way too huge in order to adopt them into your passive or even active vocabulary "naturally". So I'm afraird there's no way around doing the work of memorizing. Of course one should take care to do memorizing in a fun way, what makes the process way more effective. But language learning obviously requires some effort. There might be exceptions of learners, but it seems to apply for the majority.
This is an incredibly helpful video! You don't know how much easier, faster and fun you've made my learning process. Having to remember vocabulary is pretty daunting sometimes and I feel bad for myself when I don't remember a word, even though I've been exposed to it just once or twice.. Thank you very much!
Great to hear!
I think this is so spot on. I used to agonize whenever I would come across a word that I had previously learned but had to look it up again. I would feel like I didn’t study hard enough.
Now when I come across a familiar word that I don’t altogether remember the meaning of while reading or listening, I just think “oh, it’s you again” and look it up . And doing that a lot for a lot of words will cement the meaning better than limiting myself just to a bunch of lists that I must learn consecutively in some arbitrary order.
It’s good to allow myself to forget-way less guilt in language learning now than how I studied before.
Hello if someone is learning spanish I can help you , so just write me here to send you my name on instagram
A living example of this is myself reading your comment and thinking "oh -Altogether - here we go again hahah" then I look it up and found out it means pretty much - completely - hahaa now just by commenting this I'm sure I'll never forget this word
For me, reading was the key to learning English (except that I didn't try to learn English, I tried to read what I wanted to read). That was a long long time ago, but now with Japanese the reading part is hard.. but then, at some point (and this goes for audio too), you start noticing the words you *don't* know, as opposed to only noticing the words you *do* know. That's when it starts getting interesting. Exhilarating, even.
Listen to Audiobooks, watch your favorite movies in the language you're learning.. over and over again! You will remember so much vocabulary and improve your pronounciation big deal at the same time
The real truth about learning a language for someone who has spent over 5 years in this process , one of the most difficult things to do is memorize vocabulary and remember the words when I need to use them. As for me it had never works to learn words with vocabularies, my english improved a lot when I started to exposure to the language by watching tv shows, read in english, and the words just started to stick in my mind because the thing it's just that you have to get to use to them to start to learn.
but what do you do when words make no sense or don't stick overall while facing the language in tv shows/books/whatever?
@@youhateyoutube if there's no other possibility then try to get an explanation _in the target language_. I actually remember when I had misunderstood the meaning of a word when I was a small child - I kept using a word which translates to "boring" as if it meant "scary", but when I was about five years old another child, half a year older, explained to me what the word actually meant. It's just that I can't remember how she explained it.. it worked, anyhow. I even remember the last time I used the word incorrectly (watching a movie and finding it scary, telling my father it was "boring").
I 100% agree with you. Memorize the words slowed me so much and made my journey in learning English language longer than it should take! Whereas Listening and Reading is effective and useful. Exposure is also an effective method for learning languages
I've never regconized that I'm doing exactly what you said in the video. Thanks for precious sharing Steve!
This reminds me of a Soto Zen instruction, “Don’t do anything unless you have to.” It’s so important to let yourself go with the flow of something and not get too caught up in trying, especially with language learning.
When i saw this video at the first time i was like "wait, what do you mean? If i want to learn a language, it's obvious that i need to memorize the words".
But then... after 2 months since i started to actively study english, i now understand the porpose of this video.
I still have a vocab list, but i use it in a better way now, than i used before. I build my vocabulary using the new words in different phrases and contexts and i have a moment where i use to review the words that i'm learning and those that i already learned before. The more you see the word, the more easy she will be fixed in your mind. But of course, you will forget the word sometimes, but it's okay and some words will stick more easily than others.
The main porpose of the video i guess is... don't force too much your brain trying to memorize.
I agree 👍
As someone who knows six languages, I always find his advices relevant.
I definitely see truth in this! I know there are times when I will speak and a word that I have never used appears in my mind in that particular context. I'll look it up to be sure that it means what I think it means, and I'm always right. The mind is a powerful and funny thing!
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I read an article in a science magazine which explained that all the words in your brain are all connected in one multidimensional network, so there is a path, direct or indirect, from any word to any other word. I figure that if a new word can link to the existing network it will and you will remember it, otherwise you won't. The next time you come across it your network might have expanded so there is now a link.
I watched this video 3 times, every word of you is extremely precious for me, thank you a thousand world❤
My first priority learning a new language is learning vocabulary any way I can, including memorizing them... like lists of related words, opposites, pairs, idioms, etc.
Steve, is there a language app or online course you recommend? I enjoy your insight. ciao, John
That’s fantastic! This is exactly what I wanted to hear about learning English. Thank you so much. Now I’m confident about my method of learning English.
You are absolutely right Steve. I do exactly the same as you and I believe it is the right approach. I use spaced repetition for Hanja, but I no longer try and memorize Korean words by heart. I try to consume as much content as I can instead.
I think with the chinese characters more memorization is necessary than the stuff in hangul for sure.
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I find your approach is very helpful because when I reviewed the Japanese words that I learnt several days before, I almost forgot 50% of them, so I changed my strategy like you said in this video , to accumulate words in a variety of contexts , not just memorize them! Thank you for your sharing ,Steve!
Glad it was helpful!
@@Thelinguisthii gd morning sir. Can u make a video on the book of Raymond murphy. It is a good grammar book.
That’s what repeating is for.
Thanks a lot teacher Steve!
I was wondering if there is a kind of speaking meeting with the people who follows your Chanel ...kind of speaking session...but with your guidance, off course!
Thanks again!
Very informative video and helpful thank you amigo! All the best new subscriber!
Thank you for this video. Children never try to memorize words and they learn all the languages in the world in few years after being born. I think that's a valid evidence that this man in this video is right.
I agree, and they have a massive input every day and all the time
Interesting. I always feel like I make the most progress while memorizing lists of words. I suppose it's not so much the memorization (though that certainly helps in the short term) but rather the continued and active exposure that makes it so effective.
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Right! Sometimes if you want to try to remember but suddenly you've slip on the floor you'll forgot it.
I agree! It's gradually till you acquire to.
Your good advice helps in my poor memory.
Thank you so much!
As a language teacher and learner, there's a lot of sense in what you say and a lot that tallies with my own experiences. We learn our first language mainly through contact and absorbtion rather than deliberate learning, and although the infant brain is different from the adult one, i agree that learning a second language is a lot to do with exposure, too...
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Thanks, I really like the way you explain this method of learning and how to immerse yourself into the language
I agree to an extent. I’m an American living in Poland and learning Polish. I‘ve been here for about a year with my husband and am on the border of A2/B1. Considering this is the 3rd most difficult language for English speakers to learn I’m quite proud of the fact that I can understand about half of what I hear and can respond to native Polish speakers in simple sentences.
What I’ve been doing for the last year is keeping a list of very functional words I don’t know in my phone. Every time I don’t know a word, I open up the notes feature in my phone, add the word to my list, and then intentionally memorize it.
Polish is not very intuitive for Native English speakers. Not many words are similar to English and I can hear a word 20 times in a polish conversation and never remember it. But, if I write it down and intentionally memorize it it stays with me forever. It’s been working so far since these words are incredibly functional in everyday conversation. For instance, I’m pregnant right now and have been memorizing so much baby terminology since I’m very motivated. This gets reinforced daily by my environment (for instance, seeing the word on an item in the maternity store) since right now baby-related words are functional.
Lately I’ve also tried memorizing predetermined lists of words from a small Polish-to-English visual dictionary. This week I’m focusing on the category “wygląd” (appearance) which has many technical terms pertaining to clothing and accessories such as: cotton pads, a dress seam, a necklace chain, nail clippers, dyed hair etc.
These are all functional terms I absolutely should know if I plan on living in Poland long-term, but getting through this list systematically has been proving far more challenging for me. Isn’t it better to memorize all of these lists at once? If not, it may end up taking me years to master Polish! Just some food for thought.
3rd most difficult. Good one
@@vikingexploring Powodzenia!
polski jest trudny nawet dla nas, polaków! powodzenia!!
3rd most difficult language for English speakers - what a joke lol
Sinhala is the most hardest language in the world. If you can approach to Sinhala language, You will be a great polyglot. Learn Sinhala and after you will be able to speak 60 plus more than language effortless.
You are right. Words need to be understood in contexts and practically used as much as possible till they commit to memory.
Thanks for this video, Steve. I am an English teacher in Brazil, and I've been trying to convince my students of that for a long time. However, it seems that my message hasn't come across to them yet. I am going to use your video and hopefully, they'll get it.
He's totally correct, learning lists of vocabulary isn't really effective, it's easier to learn words when you have context and you can link the words to several topics. This can be done by like he said, exposing yourself more to written texts, audio, listening to others speak, etc. and memorizing words/meaning of words becomes a lot easier since you'll also learn how to use them in different situations.
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Steve, Thanks. This has always been my philosophy both as a teacher and as a language learner. We need receptive recognition of the 'new' vocabulary and then we start to use them as the brain cognates them better that way. Eg. Why do specialists remember their jargon and use it effectively? Because they use it every day and in the right context.
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!!!
Thank you for your wonderful tip on enlarging vocabulary. I think I've followed the way of yours when it comes to learning vocabulary. In late 80s I thought I had to buy a vocabulary book to learn more words. Then I studied hard to learn new words with the book for a month. I realized studying word's was boring and make me fall asleep. I studying the book and gave it to one of my friends. Then I just enjoyed English watching English dramas, attending English clubs reading books or listening to audio programs and so on. Along the way my English vocabulary has been enlarged without any particular difficulties.
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I really love how you talk about language learning , you have inspired me to look sat the process in a different way.
Will LingQ have Brazilian Portuguese anytime soon ?
LingQ has Brazilian Portuguese. Just search for it in the library. Probably more content from Brazil than Portugal. Don't forget you can import whatever you want.
I think you have the right approach! I used to be an Anki power user, trying to cram as much information in my memory as possible. But eventually, I came to realize that my "learnings" just didn't stick - they lacked context. Moreover, it was very time consuming (making the cards and reviewing them took hours every day!), and worst of all, it was boring as hell!
I still think Anki is great for some things. Learning kanjis, for instance, or acquire core vocabulary (the first few hundred words). But it can quickly become a hindrance.
Nowadays, I just read and listen a lot, which is much more enjoyable and more efficient. Shoutout to you for helping me to find the right path!
I used to use ANKI a lot when i started learning english i think anki is interesting for beginners you know people who never had the contact with the language but is pointless when you already have a good level of vocabulary and keep using anki features and one of my reasons is well. If you got a good amount of words you just search for more context. Sentences that give you an example of what that word means if you still dont know what it is so you can use a dictionary too but remenber its only good if you got a good amount of words
When we are reaching a good level in language, we should use Anki differently: adding more contexts in flashcards (audio files, example sentences based on what we heard or read in our daily life...). So, creating much less flashcards than before, but much better cards in contents as before. It is really possible to use Anki cleverly when we have already an "intermediate level".
@@Rudolphhhhhh for me i dont think it would be useful because you can see those sentences over and oven just by reading a lot online so yeah.but i dont blame people who use this method tho
@@Rudolphhhhhh I'm sure you can continue to use Anki in a productive way in the later stages. But it just feels too much like a chore for me these days - even 5 cards a day haha! The way I see it, the key is perseverance, so whenever a learning method starts to become chore, you have to adapt and change.
@@AntonioSilva-zl9lk Not necessarily: you cannot plan nor know for sure when you will read again that kind of sentence in the future. That is why Anki can be a great help to read again such a sentence not too far in the future, so that you can memorize some vocabulary or grammatical structures much better. I think.
Thanks Steve. I bumped into your channel and found it captivating. I keep frustating and feeling how stupid I am cause I can’t memorize words or sentences in English (my target language). Listening to your advice makes me realize that I shouldn’t do that since the beginning. I should have let myself be exposed to the language instead of pushing my brain to memorize words. Good to know that I’m not stupid😅
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recently my progress in japanese has become really slow because i was lacking motivation to learn vocabulary words but this just gave me the motivation needed! ^^
Well explained !! Thank you 👍
Steve, you are such an incredibly inspiring person, thank you for everything.
I will try to watch all your videos, with you I learn not only English, much more a constructive and enjoyable approach to languages in general :-))
This letter, I have only translated from the German language
Hier das Original:
Steve, du bist ein so unglaublich inspirierender Mensch, danke für alles.
Ich werde versuchen alle deine Videos zu schauen, bei dir lerne ich nicht nur Englisch, viel mehr ein konstruktiven und genussvollen Umgang mit sprachen generell :-))
When I didn't try to learn vocabulary as much, I actually learned more vocabulary than when I tried
There’s defiantly something to that. Because I’m the same way
Great! Many thanks! Very useful, extremely motivating and truly inspiring. I am so glad that the big bookshelves are again on the background. They are creatinng appropriate atmosphere. Please continue in your unique magnificent style and don't pay any attention to any negative commments/remarks. BRAVO!!!! 👏👏👏💪👨🎓
I’m so glad I clicked on this post. I love languages. I don’t speak any language other than English but I love learning words and will very often look up words that I’m familiar with but can’t give a definitive explanation of what they mean. I thought there was something wrong with me bc I couldn’t always remember what they mean even if it’s a word I can use. Any time I come across words that I don’t know what they mean I look them and I might have to do it multiple times with the same words! Thx for making me feel better! Yaaay! 😅
I play a bit of duolingo, there's a process with the vocabulary of being able to recognise it but not think of it myself, then being able to sort of remember what letter it starts with and vaguely how long it is, to then actually being able to use it myself (although my spelling isn't always correct).
Thank you, Steve, for your videos. They are great!
Thank you so much. I have a poor memory, and I have been studying English for 20 years but my English is still terrible. I hope your method works for me.
Thank you very much for your work and effort and soul you put into it. Much appreciated
This is interesting and it's one possibility.
But personally I do like spend a VERY LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME doing conscious vocabulary review, throughout my language-learning process until I am quite advanced (i.e. until I get to the C1 level or so). I have a natural feeling that some conscious review of some important words is helpful in getting them to "stick" eventually. And as long as vocabulary practice remains a minor activity, it's actually reasonably interesting and enjoyable! (By the way, it isn't my expectation that, having reviewed a certain word for a while I will now know it forevermore and even be able to actively use it. Review is just another way of "playing" with words and expressions and getting more exposure to them...).
Here's how I do my vocabulary review for Hungarian (my fifth language, currently at the B1 level). First of all, I'm using lingq, and since new vocabulary is stored there anyway, and Lingq has a reasonable and simple SRS associated with it, I use it as my review tool. My target is to make sure that the time I spend at vocabulary review is limited to something like 10-15 minutes a day out of, in my case, 1-2 hours a day of language study/exposure.
So how do I use an SRS effectively while limiting the time spent? Simple: I only review a very small subset of the words I lingq! Every day I will flag a maximum of 1-5 words with a tag I've called "review". I always filter on this tag when doing reviews and only review words that are due AND that have the "review" tag attached. I also add information to the "Note" field of these lingqs at the time I attach the "review" tag: I look up the word in the dictionary and include the standard, "dictionary" form of this word or expression as well as the full paragraph of surrounding text and I look at these later when I do my review. Also, I'll add that I only use the "flashcard" option for reviewing, that is, I try to remember what the word means using only with the tiny snippet of context Lingq shows you.
If it takes me more than 12-15 minutes to review all "due" vocabulary, then I stop adding new words with the "review" tag for a little while. I also regularly remove the review tag from older vocabulary that I know quite well (for now), aiming to keep to a maximum of no more than 300-400 words with the "review" tag attached.
How do I decide what vocabulary to tag for review? I go by gut feel and pick words that seem useful to me. I usually tag vocabulary associated with a particular source, picking only texts that are right at my level, because they are more likely to contain the right vocabulary for me at this stage of the game...
Some thoughts anyway. Different strokes for different folks as they say!!!
Summary:
- put minimal effort into studying vocabulary
- learn vocab. through reading (LingQ)
- small portions of spaced repetition of 300-400 unknown and useful words (use tags to keep track of them)
- review daily (max. 12-15min), delete old vocab. after a while
Actually, when I was learning Thai, I wrote all the words that I would possibly be using in daily life on a large sheet of paper and pasted it on the wall. Every morning, as I sip my coffee, I would stare at the paper and memorise the words. Yes, it was difficult but I managed to memorise them and used them when I was in Thailand. So, memorizing worked for me.
I think Steve would say that was partly memorisation, but also simply repeated exposure to the words, since you were doing it daily. So it does kind of fit with his method.
Sometimes stickers in your target language, pasted on the actual item in your home, can work to some extent. I.e. not a sticker with a translation, but a sticker saying "sugar" in your target language, stuck to the sugar bowl.
I really like this its like you do not just know a word or do not know a word. You know the word on a 1 to 100 scale of how well you know the word
I really enjoyed this clip of yours, Steve! I like your way to teach, that's why you have now one more subscriber... me!
Greetings from Mexico!
I don't understand the advice really. So rather than learning a word's definition actively, you're advocating to "let it sink in" passively over the course of time by encountering it very often. That seems fair enough advice when you are already at a certain level and can use much context to help understand the word, but if you are starting in a language, it doesn't seem the best way to approach.
When you are trying to remember a word, many people use more brain power worrying that they won’t remember a word than they do trying to remember the word. I find just accepting that eventually I will learn the word to provide the best result. I make it a point not to think about my progress or failures. Just focus on the lesson at hand. That doesn’t mean it is the right approach for you.
It is, though. Actively learning vocabulary is slower than moving on. If you see words repeatedly you will learn them without thinking.
@alanwhiplington5504 After 10 years of living in Poland as a foreigner without doing much effort to learn the language, I can safely say that that is not true at all. All vocabulary knowledge that I have is from studying.
I was going to counter this with an argument of my own but didn't, as you speak better English than me... 😅
@Rhand007 You didn't make much effort but you studied? But you have misunderstood what is being said. No one said don't study. They said don't waste time learning vocabulary.
Couldn't agree more. We don't even try to memorize our L1 vocab, except for the test. So why do we need to do it for L2 or L3? I always tell people to not memorize anything because it'll go to short-term memory anyway. Also, if those words are important to you, you'll be able to remember them. :)
".. to not memorize anything because it'll go to short-term memory anyway. " That sounds exactly right and would explain a lot about why it's so difficult to remember anything by that method.
As for myself, only association makes it stick - when for some reason or another the word or expression finds a hook somewhere in my brain. And that's also nearly never if there's a translation involved. The problem is figuring out the associative mechanism - it's like grasping at shadows. But I do remember those situations where I just got what my wife said in her native language, from the situation in question - and I only ever needed that single exposure to remember forever, even though it would be the first time I even heard the word(s). But in general it's extremely hard to remember vocabulary by any conscious method I have tried.
@@ta4music459 Thank you for sharing! 😊
I really love the way you think and the way you expose your philosophy of the language learning! As a language learner myself, I always tried to memorise lessons, read texts or memorising lyrics of various songs in different languages, etc. but it doesn't help me much in the learning process of these languages and it's not really motivating when you're trying to understand the grammar rules and all... Really frustrating I feel. But with your methods, your philosophy and the way you see the work of language learning, I'm just feeling more confortable, it's really motivating to learn this way, because the language will enter, like you said, sooner or later, so just make sure to have a good learning plan and stay motivated. So thank you for that.
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I agree with you, in my case learning is gradual too, I need time to understand what is happening, but I am managing to learn...Ah! I'm learning Korean, it's challenging because of the language's tricks, it's like doing a puzzle, but I really love this language.
Most of the words in Korean I know has been ingrained in my memory just by continually seeing them while studying Korean or listening to videos seeing posts etc. This was super helpful
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I find that it helps to learn words by category, such as restaurant words.
Ahlam Hadi
Your golden advices help alot in learning English.
Deep appreciation.
Many thanks
Enjoyed your video, made me feel more relaxed about learning a language.
I think it makes sense when learning a latin influenced language (all europeans basically), but when it comes to things like ideograms (chinese for example) its important to remember not only the meaning but how to write and how to read.
When it comes to languages with the same basis as our mother language, we already have knowledge of the basics of this language, while when trying to learn one from another background, you need to do everything from zero pretty much.
I agree that acquiring is more relevant (and its how i learned english) but memorization isnt intrinsically bad and in some cases its also necessary.
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For beginners, i think it's still very important for them to learn some more commonly used words, maybe 1k-2k words? Obviously for more complicated words it's better to learn them in context by immersion.
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As an English learner - my secound language - with some years learning the language, I 100% agree with what you said. Language is more like an skill than just to remember the words, so practice and practice without any pressure on brain is the only way we can learn a new language, just like any other skills (swim, dance, ski, ect).
This is not the vedio for students preparing for tests or exams. But generally it's true. Great insight!! I think the process really matters.
It always makes me wonder how we learnt new words in our native language while growing up. We didn't deliberately seek to learn the meaning of words, we just slowly learnt them naturally via immersion.
Hello if someone is learning spanish I can help you , so just write me here to send you my name on instagram
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I'm learning 10 words a day, with 1.400 cards I bought, for a few months, then I take it easy and learn with more exposure, reading etc. I think learning 1400 words within 5 months is not easy otherwise. Speeds things up in the beginning.
Thank you Steve your life provides benefits to everyone
I’m Abdullah from indonesia, I am learning english at the moment for job abroad. This channel help me to improve my english skill. Thank You Sir.
It always upsets me when I hear a friend say "I would love to learn Spanish/French etc but I failed it when was at school". We have probably all heard that.
Imersão no idioma é o melhor caminho.
Memorizar palavras eu acredito que é efetivo só no nível bem básico, onde você não sabe nada.
Ótimo vídeo, Steve.
Se você não memoriza palavras você não consegue entender ou falar o idioma. A crítica do vídeo é sobre o jeito que as pessoas utilizam flash cards ou algo similar. Eu particularmente uso o Anki para memorizar só que só uso definições em inglês explicando tal palavra.
@@aprendainglesemcasabr4668 Quando disse "memorizar palavras", me referi a essa forma de memorização descrita no vídeo. Talvez tenha me expressado mal.
O que quis dizer é que depois do nível intermediário, intermediário avançado, muita coisa você aprende pelo contexto e imersão.
Nem no nível básico! Temos que significar as palavras: associar o som delas com a coisa. Enquanto a gente escuta uma palavra qualquer, por exemplo, apple, vendo, comendo, se lembrando das nossas experiências com a maçã, vamos associando sem memorizar, sem decorar. Dessa forma, não precisaremos pensar na palavra maça para traduzi-la e depois falar em inglês.
@@Edgar2023ES cara, eu cheguei num nível tão alto de leitura que quando eu encontro uma palavra em inglês, já pesquiso ela em inglês. Nem olho a tradução.
@@Edgar2023ES e tem palavras que não vai ter como associar, porque pode ser um verbo, adjetivo, uma expressão ou até mesmo um phrasal verb. Associação só vai servir para substantivos.
I was forcing myself too much for vocabulary memorizing.
But this video just eased me up, that learning a language is actually no that hard. We just have to stay in tune with the language and know the meaning. When we are going to review, our brain will automatically recognize. Thanks, Mr.Steve!
Do you believe that?
I agree with one portion, he makes it easier. But sister there are some words you are not gonna see it again
@@ZeyiadAlthafery I tried his method and yeah it works if really immerse yourself and start living your life in that language I mean spend enough time with the language as he said and don't force too much.
Here's a tip : Some words are rare to see again, so keep them highlighted and practice making sentence with them.
Well not all of us are same, but this tip worked for me and you can try this if you want.
Hi Steve kaufmann I'm a English's leanner and I use your methodologys for learn a second lenguague, and I Like all of your videos because you teach a practical form to study lenguagues, and the best part of your videos is I'm trying to understand theme your give us on your videos with the input. Sorry if I make some mistakes or sound like a robot 😆 but trying to improve my English
I suppose I feel somewhere in between. I like to put initial effort into memorising the word and using LingQ’s Srs, but I see this as just providing the outline of the word. I’m aware that what really helps me know a word is exposure in context, which sort of ‘colours in’ the nuances of the word outline provided by intentional learning. Big caveat here is that I’m far from fluent in my target language so could be completely out.
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I'm averaging about a 100 new words a month. I get these words from the books I read and the videos I watch so I have some context. Next I write the new word on post it notes with the English equivalent on the backside and stick them on my walls. This allows me to learn vocabulary passively when I walk by or if I'm standing around looking at my walls. I will also set a few minutes aside each day and take a section of my wall and drill myself. After awhile I will even reposition the post it notes on my walls. At the same time, I enter each new word into Anki and test myself everyday. If you don't mind having thousands of post it notes on your walls, this method works well.
@Nerian For me learning a language is not a race. The amount of words can be adjusted by the individual. I find a 100 words a month for me to be fairly comfortable to acquire yet not overwhelming where it's going to demotivate me or start to feel like homework. It's also about the quality of the words I choose to learn. My original post is more about how I'm learning and not about the amount of words I'm learning. Even so , if you can get to a 3000 - 4000 vocabulary in 3-4 years, you're going to be pretty functional in your target language.
100 words a month? That means it would take you 100 months to get to the level where you can understand the news. 100 months. 8 years!
@@MartenHemstrom Everybody learns at a different speed so a 100 words a month for me is about right. It's quality over quantity without feeling overwhelmed. Overwhelming ones-self with vocabulary can be very demotivating. Currently I've built up about a solid 5,500 word passive vocabulary, so I've got a fairly high comprehension level when it comes to understanding everyday language. I'm pretty happy on how I got to this level and still feel motivated. Correct about understanding the news but the news is not my current goal. Written and spoken news uses too many formal words and the subjects don't interest me.
But I don’t understand here. You wrote ”100 words a month”, yet you have built up 5500 words.
@@MartenHemstrom I learned German and lived in Germany for a few years and went on hiatus from the language for many years. I estimated I'm fluent in about 1500 words. So I picked up German again about 3+ years ago using the comprehensible input method. So roughly a 100 words a month + 1500, more or less gives me about 5500 vocab at my last count.
The way you said is true, being exposed to vocabulary several time it will attach with us than memorizing blindly.
I agree with you ,absolutely correct 😊
I would rather say that it depends of the language. If you're studying Chinese, Korean (with hanja) or Japanese, you need to pay attention to the words and by trying to remember by the writing will increase your chances to acquire this vocabulary. You will find yourself coming across a lot of words that are similar, if you don't pay attention you will end up not memorizing how it should be. Example: 転、軽、軋 and etc.
Note: If one has a solid base on radicals, this won't be a problem whatsoever.
Steve's point is that we should increase the exposure rather than memorising. It's not about whether it's audio or visual. As a Chinese speaker, I agree that east Asian language learners need to pay more attention to visual information.
@@sidniohuru1868 Agreed!
Yeah I would agree that Kanji is a bit of a tricky one.
I previously used Wanikani that sorta just throws radicals, Kanji and vocab at you (in an order where you cover most commonly used ones first, and much more complicated nuances words later), but I found this never seemed to stick for me.
I instead started studying Kanji using Remember The Kanji which teaches them in an order of common radicals, this way you can see several similar Kanji at once and be able to pick apart the radicals they are constructed of. It's definitely aided me in my ability to not only tell apart similar Kanji but just remembering Kanji in general.
To be honest, as a Chinese, I have no idea about these three characters 😢
With LingQ, rather than go through a list of the words and phrases I've saved (lingQs) throughout all of my lessons, I prefer to skip through a specific lesson to review these. I find the immediate association with what I've previously read to be more enjoyable - and hopefully more retentive.
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I think people need to learn vocabulary. There are some words that I have learned in Russian and now I know them just as well as I do English. A lot of people can’t afford to purchase a monthly learning plan or speak with someone in the native language that they are trying to learn. I do agree with what you have said in the past about listening to music and watching movies and just getting immersed in it.
I've just subscribed to this channel.
His approach to teach someone who is 'bedridden', and makes life interesting, as learning something everyday and moving on. Thank you, Sir.
Not thinking of the health conditions all the time.
Thanking this gentleman from 'Happy Learners' like me
Correcting my English:-
.. His approach to teach someone who is 'bedridden', to make life interesting, learning something everyday and moving on.
Thanking this gentleman from 'Happy Learners' like me. ❤
Всё правильно. Не надо пытаться учить слова. Всё что нужно это много слушать и пытаться использовать это в практике. Именно это происходит с детьми когда они сначала слушают, затем пытаются говорить, и с каждым днём их речь только улучшается.
Hi Steve. I have a question. When is time to look grammar rules? Example: I can understand a text, but when I will speak I don't know how to use perfect tense phrases properly. So should I follow study plan in grammar or should I take the grammar rules according my errors? Thank you
When I discover a new language, at first, I try to have a general view of the grammar, without trying to understand every rule nor advanced rules. Then, when I am struggling to understand or express some sentences, I know that it is time to study those specific grammar rules I need.
@@Rudolphhhhhh Thank you
thank you, sir! Your videos helped me to learn American language !
Your advices are very valuable.
I adore this man, he is such an inspiration♥
A total guru.