How do you study vocabulary in a your target language? The app I use to learn languages -> bit.ly/3naGDFl My 10 FREE secrets to language learning -> www.thelinguist.com
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
@@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.
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.
@@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!
@@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.
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.
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 ;-)
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.
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!
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
@@ChandlerBing-t3k 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.
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!
"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"
Every word you speak is "memorized" unless you're directly reading it from something. You have to pull words and vocab out of your memory to speak. Just because you don't notice this process doesn't mean it's not happening. I think people are using the wrong terminology for this theory.
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.
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"
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!
@@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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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).
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
!!! 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.
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.
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.
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.
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'm studying Russian. I listen to Russian music, and I watch Russian Tv with subtitiles, and I follow several sights that teach Russian. There are things that I still don't catch, but I'm trusting that eventually some of the language will stick. I also read in Russian.
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.
I am learning four languages at once using a method given to me by my first English tutor. The concept is very simple: we take the first 5 words and practice them in all possible variations, making 50 sentences. In the second lesson, we add 5 new words to these and practice them along with the old ones, and so on. Gradually, very slowly, we add new elements, tenses, constructions, etc. I also record these sentences with a professional narrator and listen to the correct speech, making sure to say them aloud, trying to pronounce them correctly like the narrator, and then quickly like a native speaker, swallowing some sounds. I study multiple languages like this: I translate these sentences from my native language to a more familiar one, in my case English, then from English to an easier one, and so on, mixing all these languages. It turns into 20 videos for one lesson. It's a colossal amount of work, but the result is fantastic. If you're interested, you can check it out; I upload the voice recordings with the narrator on TH-cam and listen to them there. Maybe it will be useful to someone else too."
This is very helpful and reassuring, thank you. I’m always surprised when I start to recognize a word. There are so many TH-camrs who talk about pushing yourself to memorize and doing forced recall etc. but for the long haul, your way is definitely more sustainable 😊
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!
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.
@@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").
Again, people are using the wrong terminology. People are still memorizing vocab, they just are doing it through exposure instead. Every single word you ever use is pulled from your memory, which means it's memorized. If you have no memory you can't store any information at all.
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.
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.
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 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!
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
@@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.
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 :-))
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.
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.
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.
@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.
@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.
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 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
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!!!
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.
Tha's exactly what I'm doing I don't try to memorize. I use flashcards too but with the word I don't know in a sentence when I take a look at the sentence I know the mean without even flip the card. It's all about exposure.
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).
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
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.
Boa noite, eu tenho uma pergunta, consumindo os conteudos em ingles, quanto tempo você conseguiu a fluência?? estou começando a ler e consumir muita coisa em ingles, além de usar o anki, tem algum conselho que voce poderia me dar?
@@CharlesPortinari Good morning, Charles! Fluency comes with time. In my opinion, the best way for achieving it is to practice as much as you can. Watching series, reading books, talking to your friends who also speak English. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula.
@@CharlesPortinari The only thing I can advise you is telling stories to yourself in English or imagining conversations in your head. That helps you start thinking in English.
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.
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.
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😅
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.
I definitely agree with you, Steve. I learned and became fluent in English and Japanese the same way. I also had students with whom I had them follow listening and reading for most part of their learning activities. Majority of my students acquired the language... It's amazing!!!
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.
It is definitely about exposure. The more you write, listen and read, the more you capture and learn. I used to write down all the unfamiliar vocab in a notebook, and after a few years I looked back, I knew 80% of all the words. This was without efforts trying to memorise them.
Contextualize words and phrases. Do as children would, take in what others say in everyday situations and from pop culture. Make the words and phrases useful and meaningful to yourself. Live the language. You will automatically recall them when reminded. In no time, you will speak to yourself.
4:44 Makes me feel better about my journey. I have be doing what I can to learn and sometimes my mind fogs over. Still, I trek forward and know that one day it will all start to click. 頑張ります！
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’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! 😅
ANKI is a very good software to learn vocabulary. I think one should learn vocabulary, especially in the beginning for the most common 1000 words or so. Later you can just do it with context and stuff but it is very useful to learn words. Just make sure they are actually useful. I think the most common mistake is learning useless words. That wastes your energy which later will be missing for useful activities.
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. ❤
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.
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
The law of use is far more powerful than any other sort or type of law, to apply it to our vocabulary, that is going to be indelible. Great reminder, great content video , thanks for sharing
We live in an era where the only thing stopping you from learning is YOU, I'm happy to be alive in the 21st century with all these kinds of knowledge readily available at my fingertips. 🔥
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.
It goes to show how our phones are listening to us because i was talking about learning better vocabulary and all of a sudden this evening these clips are poping up
Hi Steve! Just a word of background on me, I learned three languages up to 30 years of age and then was busy with family and my job. After retirement started to learn my 4th, Spanish, using LinQ and other online tools. I think learning vocabulary is totally dependent on your learning style. I was a scientist by training similarly with my husband. We learned science in totally different ways. He learned it like you, read it and if did not understand something still went forward. Then later read the whole thing again and maybe again. As opposed to me, I had to understand in order to be able to go further. I read it slowly and spent extra time on parts I did not understand. Later I returned to it at least once more but quickly. Same with the language. I need to spend extra time on the vocabulary after reading and/or listening. I have to write it down and try to memorize it. I agree that it's easier to learn it in contest, in a phrase. And of course I need to listen/read it in the same or different context again to retain it. And surely we need to trust that we are/will be able to retain some of the vocabulary.
Who between you and your husband learns faster? Who do you think that gets to keep and/or internalize knowledge/information? I'm interested in this subject, what kind of study it's better for not only learning language but to get pass on a test, I think that is the same needs, and I think that who studies like you can delay a bit more but at the end will retain the knowledge much more..
I was studying like your husband to take a test, but now I'm using a app to remember through repetition spaced method, and I get that I can retail the knowledge much more but meanwhile I can not be so fast like I was in relation to study several subjects, that's why I'm thinking in what to do
2:59 You said you don’t attempt to try and recall, but in reality 3:16 you are. When you hear the word come up in conversation, text, or even in your native translated. You’ll begin to try and recall why you know that word and it’s connection. Thus causing you to 2:59.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yes- not worrying about learning new words makes sense. As you say, enjoy the process, especially when learning a new language. I try to do look at similarities between different languages. Also, if I forget a name I just let it go & the name will pop up in many forms eg- street signs, movie credits et cetera I told my son as we get older we learn so much to remember. As an aged care nurse it was interesting to see Dementia patients go back to their original language or their past-rather than the recent past or present.🇦🇺🙏🇺🇸
I read an article about an Italian woman who had a stroke - when the doctors tested her they were relieved that she could still speak Italian. But her children were horrified because it turned out their mother had actually forgotten her native language - some would call it a dialect of Italian, but there are "dialects" in Italy that are incomprehensible to other Italians. For some reason she remembered "standard Italian", but not the language she spoke at home. If nothing else, this shows that languages can sit in different areas of the brain - my pet theory is that this is more the case if one learns the language through immersion/association and not via translation. There are words in my native language which have cognates in English, but for some of those it took me years to suddenly realize that a particular English word was a nearly similar-sounding cognate - because I had learned it through association. The images in my mind were of the same thing, just different - imagine a photo of a lake, compared with a photo of _another_ lake. The association threads were different. I imagine the same for whole languages.
Trying to memorize vocabulary, in another language is essentially trying to memorize the dictionary it doesn’t work, at least in the long term. I learned not to memorize vocabulary the hard way many years ago.
How do you study vocabulary in a your target language?
The app I use to learn languages -> bit.ly/3naGDFl
My 10 FREE secrets to language learning -> www.thelinguist.com
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
@@ChandlerBing-t3k 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.
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
"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"
🙏🏻🌸
Every word you speak is "memorized" unless you're directly reading it from something. You have to pull words and vocab out of your memory to speak. Just because you don't notice this process doesn't mean it's not happening. I think people are using the wrong terminology for this theory.
@@Nathan-xr4gv My thoughts exactly
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.
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"
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
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.
** “TRUSTING that your brain will gradually understand more and more” ** thanks for that
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
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.
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
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 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.
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.
👍👍💗💗
This is the most effective and natural way of learning language sir, hats off to you
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.
!!!
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 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.
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.
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.
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
I'm studying Russian. I listen to Russian music, and I watch Russian Tv with subtitiles, and I follow several sights that teach Russian. There are things that I still don't catch, but I'm trusting that eventually some of the language will stick. I also read in Russian.
How is it going ?
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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I am learning four languages at once using a method given to me by my first English tutor. The concept is very simple: we take the first 5 words and practice them in all possible variations, making 50 sentences. In the second lesson, we add 5 new words to these and practice them along with the old ones, and so on. Gradually, very slowly, we add new elements, tenses, constructions, etc. I also record these sentences with a professional narrator and listen to the correct speech, making sure to say them aloud, trying to pronounce them correctly like the narrator, and then quickly like a native speaker, swallowing some sounds. I study multiple languages like this: I translate these sentences from my native language to a more familiar one, in my case English, then from English to an easier one, and so on, mixing all these languages. It turns into 20 videos for one lesson. It's a colossal amount of work, but the result is fantastic. If you're interested, you can check it out; I upload the voice recordings with the narrator on TH-cam and listen to them there. Maybe it will be useful to someone else too."
This is very helpful and reassuring, thank you. I’m always surprised when I start to recognize a word. There are so many TH-camrs who talk about pushing yourself to memorize and doing forced recall etc. but for the long haul, your way is definitely more sustainable 😊
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!
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").
Again, people are using the wrong terminology. People are still memorizing vocab, they just are doing it through exposure instead. Every single word you ever use is pulled from your memory, which means it's memorized. If you have no memory you can't store any information at all.
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.
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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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 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’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.
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.
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).
As someone who knows six languages, I always find his advices relevant.
You are right. Words need to be understood in contexts and practically used as much as possible till they commit to memory.
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.
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.
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.
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 :-))
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 😢
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.
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 👍
Really appreciate this perspective!
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
So, you memorized by exposure. 👌👍
I've never regconized that I'm doing exactly what you said in the video. Thanks for precious sharing Steve!
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
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!!!
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.
Tha's exactly what I'm doing I don't try to memorize. I use flashcards too but with the word I don't know in a sentence when I take a look at the sentence I know the mean without even flip the card. It's all about exposure.
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).
I love your teaching so much you shouldn’t try to remember vocabulary and how you can remember vocabulary,
I adore this man, he is such an inspiration♥
A total guru.
4:54 “language learning is not about memorization [it’s about utilization”]
This is so true I’m going to keep this in mind
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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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.
Boa noite, eu tenho uma pergunta, consumindo os conteudos em ingles, quanto tempo você conseguiu a fluência?? estou começando a ler e consumir muita coisa em ingles, além de usar o anki, tem algum conselho que voce poderia me dar?
@@CharlesPortinari Good morning, Charles! Fluency comes with time. In my opinion, the best way for achieving it is to practice as much as you can. Watching series, reading books, talking to your friends who also speak English. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula.
@@CharlesPortinari The only thing I can advise you is telling stories to yourself in English or imagining conversations in your head. That helps you start thinking in English.
Thank you, Steve, for your videos. They are great!
*I haven't tried to memorize vocabulary in fifty years - and I've great success: I don't understand a word you say.*
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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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.
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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Sorry to hear about your brother, best of luck! ❤
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.
I definitely agree with you, Steve. I learned and became fluent in English and Japanese the same way. I also had students with whom I had them follow listening and reading for most part of their learning activities.
Majority of my students acquired the language... It's amazing!!!
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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It is definitely about exposure. The more you write, listen and read, the more you capture and learn. I used to write down all the unfamiliar vocab in a notebook, and after a few years I looked back, I knew 80% of all the words. This was without efforts trying to memorise them.
Contextualize words and phrases. Do as children would, take in what others say in everyday situations and from pop culture. Make the words and phrases useful and meaningful to yourself. Live the language. You will automatically recall them when reminded. In no time, you will speak to yourself.
4:44 Makes me feel better about my journey. I have be doing what I can to learn and sometimes my mind fogs over. Still, I trek forward and know that one day it will all start to click. 頑張ります！
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’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! 😅
ANKI is a very good software to learn vocabulary. I think one should learn vocabulary, especially in the beginning for the most common 1000 words or so. Later you can just do it with context and stuff but it is very useful to learn words. Just make sure they are actually useful. I think the most common mistake is learning useless words. That wastes your energy which later will be missing for useful activities.
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. ❤
Motivational. Thank you Steve
1:00 พยายามจำสัพท์ให้ได้เยอะๆ ผิด เด็กๆ แค่สิ่งที่เจอ แล้วออกเสียง ตามสิ่งที่ตนต้องการ ฟังให้เยอะ ตามสถานการณ์ แล้วออกเสียงตาม สิ่งที่ต้องใช้ประจำวัน คือการเรียนดีสุด เพราะใช้ทุกวันมันจะไม่ลืมนั่นเอง
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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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
Thanks, I really like the way you explain this method of learning and how to immerse yourself into the language
The law of use is far more powerful than any other sort or type of law, to apply it to our vocabulary, that is going to be indelible. Great reminder, great content video , thanks for sharing
I find that it helps to learn words by category, such as restaurant words.
We live in an era where the only thing stopping you from learning is YOU, I'm happy to be alive in the 21st century with all these kinds of knowledge readily available at my fingertips. 🔥
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! 😊
It goes to show how our phones are listening to us because i was talking about learning better vocabulary and all of a sudden this evening these clips are poping up
Hi Steve! Just a word of background on me, I learned three languages up to 30 years of age and then was busy with family and my job. After retirement started to learn my 4th, Spanish, using LinQ and other online tools. I think learning vocabulary is totally dependent on your learning style. I was a scientist by training similarly with my husband. We learned science in totally different ways. He learned it like you, read it and if did not understand something still went forward. Then later read the whole thing again and maybe again. As opposed to me, I had to understand in order to be able to go further. I read it slowly and spent extra time on parts I did not understand. Later I returned to it at least once more but quickly. Same with the language. I need to spend extra time on the vocabulary after reading and/or listening. I have to write it down and try to memorize it. I agree that it's easier to learn it in contest, in a phrase. And of course I need to listen/read it in the same or different context again to retain it. And surely we need to trust that we are/will be able to retain some of the vocabulary.
Who between you and your husband learns faster? Who do you think that gets to keep and/or internalize knowledge/information? I'm interested in this subject, what kind of study it's better for not only learning language but to get pass on a test, I think that is the same needs, and I think that who studies like you can delay a bit more but at the end will retain the knowledge much more..
I was studying like your husband to take a test, but now I'm using a app to remember through repetition spaced method, and I get that I can retail the knowledge much more but meanwhile I can not be so fast like I was in relation to study several subjects, that's why I'm thinking in what to do
2:59 You said you don’t attempt to try and recall, but in reality 3:16 you are. When you hear the word come up in conversation, text, or even in your native translated. You’ll begin to try and recall why you know that word and it’s connection. Thus causing you to 2:59.
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.
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 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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The caption is on point
I already love it
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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Yes- not worrying about learning new words makes sense. As you say, enjoy the process, especially when learning a new language. I try to do look at similarities between different languages.
Also, if I forget a name I just let it go & the name will pop up in many forms eg- street signs, movie credits et cetera
I told my son as we get older we learn so much to remember.
As an aged care nurse it was interesting to see Dementia patients go back to their original language or their past-rather than the recent past or present.🇦🇺🙏🇺🇸
I read an article about an Italian woman who had a stroke - when the doctors tested her they were relieved that she could still speak Italian. But her children were horrified because it turned out their mother had actually forgotten her native language - some would call it a dialect of Italian, but there are "dialects" in Italy that are incomprehensible to other Italians. For some reason she remembered "standard Italian", but not the language she spoke at home. If nothing else, this shows that languages can sit in different areas of the brain - my pet theory is that this is more the case if one learns the language through immersion/association and not via translation. There are words in my native language which have cognates in English, but for some of those it took me years to suddenly realize that a particular English word was a nearly similar-sounding cognate - because I had learned it through association. The images in my mind were of the same thing, just different - imagine a photo of a lake, compared with a photo of _another_ lake. The association threads were different. I imagine the same for whole languages.
Trying to memorize vocabulary, in another language is essentially trying to memorize the dictionary it doesn’t work, at least in the long term. I learned not to memorize vocabulary the hard way many years ago.