If you are learning a language or several languages like me
you must know that taking notes is so tricky
you take a lot of notes from language lessons
books or videos podcasts you fill one notebook after another
but it often takes a lot of work to organize to search
and review or you just
note down a lot of new vocabulary but never review them again
if you want to know how to take notes
smartly absorb what you have learned this video is for you
I'm Zoe , a PhD student in sociology
in France and now in Germany who speak seven languages
note taking
is part of my life I have to read many books and papers
and learn different languages
after years of struggling
and trying out to different methods I finally found some
practical ways to take note
efficiently and I would like to share them with you in detail
I’m going to tell you why I prefer certain tools
over others at different learning levels
so this video is structured by my favorite
note taking techniques
for different learning levels beginner
intermediate and advanced level
please please please give me a like if you
like this video and find it helpful
is the best way to support me
remember to subscribe to my channel let's get into the video
the key to
smart notetaking is asking yourself the right questions
how to select
organize
and highlight the information to reuse and review them quickly
I don't note down everything I learn.
For the beginner level focusing on pronunciation
basic grammar structures and frequent words is more important
no need to note down
long and complicated sentences
or even a paragraph to show you have worked a lot on it
which is often overwhelming when it comes to reviewing
if you note down a word or an example sentence
keep the sentence simple
short clear and related to your daily life
this phase is essential to keep your interest
and build good learning habits
for intermediate advanced level the same principle: be selective
less but useful
one mistake I used to make is to
note down everything without selection
I used to read a news article on Aljazeera
for learning Arabic every day
and I checked
all the new words and noted down
all the long and complicated sentences
by expecting that I would memorize everything
first I copy them into an excel sheet
translates into English and then imports them inside my Anki
it seems super logical
but it was
counterproductive because those sentences were so long
complicated and heavy
so I often feel very overwhelmed to review them
I still have this heavy deck
and I really need more
motivation to reopen it
so now I prefer to note down a part of the sentence
rather than the whole sentence for example
normally I don't note down the whole sentence anymore
but I don't only know down words
because I still need a context so normally I note down
part of the sentence for example
it means climate conference
it's gonna be very useful I understand the context
I will just note down this part
I use
different tools for different resources and different levels
Excel sheet for the beginner level
Google doc for the notes with Tandem partner
Notability on iPad for language
books and articles
new words from YouTube videos
and Netflix I use Reverso
one by one step by step I’m gonna explain it
Excel is more beneficial for the beginner
period by separating notes
into different categories
words and grammar points
I usually start learning a language with the structured book
or videos I usually organize words in different topics
like place, time and food
etc the goal of this period is to have a
basic language structure and gain frequent words
if you want to know more about how
I memorize vocabulary with this method
especially for the beginner level
you can check out
this video of course
you can do it by noting them down in different notebook but
two is enough one for grammar and another for vocabulary
but one advantage of excel is you can search
quickly reorganize them and link those notes together
excel is very suitable for visualizing the
whole structure when you review
you can import them into your Anki
Anki is a super handy to review at the beginner level
why I always emphasize the beginner level I'm gonna
explain you guys
the disadvantage of excel
is you can't practice your writing skill
sometimes we memorize better when we write at the same time
my solution to this problem is to write sentences or journals
so just open
this excel sheet and try to use and link what you have learned
it's actually that active recall
is more interesting than just repeating Anki cards
make new sentences or write Journal by using them and linking them
together
that's that you just learned a couple of new verbs okay
such as to eat
then
add words progressively into food time and place categories
over time while you know down this verb
you can add a simple example by using
other words like this morning he eats the bread
next time you learn a new word for example
library or something you can say
um he eats breakfast in the library
which is super weird for me this kind of things
to be honest I don't use Excel after a certain level
because I already know the structure of the language
making constantly different categories just make this document
heavier and heavier
so next phase we have to simplify
when I start to exchange with the Tandem partner
I will basically note down the date
words and expressions short sentences
then I will put a couple of keywords on the top
I often know down with my Tandem partner on a Google doc
so we can edit at the same time
a Google doc on the drive is very practical now is my favorite
notes taking tool for any kind of notes
not just for language learning even for podcast everything
so because I can review them whenever and whereever I want
one important tip
always take note with highlight
it's actually the most crucial thing but it often neglected
you should assume the future you
who's gonna read those notes without remembering
everything and don't always want to start from the first page
so it will be efficient to keep points
especially the mistakes
you used to make clearly and pop out quickly
for example
while I’m doing my Tandem exchange when she corrects me
I will highlight the type of mistakes in different colors
the pronunciation mistakes is in green
new words in yellow
and grammar mistakes in blue
it's super helpful when I review
I directly target my weaknesses rather than
browsing everything once again
I read those highlight notes after the
Tandem and the language lesson it only takes
five to ten minutes
but it can reinforce my memory
or every day before my language lesson
I browse those notes quickly
it's actually a very good way to review as well
one tip it will be more efficient if you read then out loud
the following tool is Notability when I have a higher level
and want to avoid writing or copying
every new words in an excel or document
because I feel like
I know more about language
I can remember words by their roots and context
so if I study with a book or read articles like news
I often open a file
on my Pad and when I note the translation
I writes them on a blank side of the book
I don't write it under the word when I do revision
I will reread the text I don't read the translation directly
but I try to remember what it means
and I review the whole chapter at the end of the week
by just browsing reading
the articles again
the same highlights technique new words in yellow
grammar point in blue
pronunciation in green and translation in pink
The highlight style should be constant for all your notes
for the words from YouTube videos or Netflix
I use Reverso to take notes by saving them by one click
then I can directly review those cards on application
but I don't like the spaced repetition function
on Reverso, to be honest I found it so slow
and too repetitive I I can't adjust them
so you can try it out maybe it's suitable for you
another way I do is by
exporting the vocabulary list of a period like
one week or two weeks
on an excel sheet and browse them
quickly as a quick review
it's great that they still keep the original sentences from the video
another tip for review is you have to write it
in your study plan like fifteen to thirty minutes
before starting a new lesson
You have to build a habit of reviewing
to sum up Excel and Anki are more useful at the beginner level
I still use all these tools
I use mostly Google documents for my Persian Arabic because
now I only do Tandem practice to keep my level
but I use Reverso or Notability
Google documents sometimes Anki
for my German because I’m learning it intensively
I need to watch the news and read articles every day but I use Anki
uh sparingly to be honest
because it takes too much time to import notes and to review
and it's just boring
I browse the highlight notes immediately after reading
an article or language exchange
and I do a weekly review to go through
everything and the rest is the
immersion
listen read and speak
as much as possible to remember those words by repeating them
in different situations
rather than just memorizing them mechanically
so you can try them out
just find the most suitable one for your level or
learning style I’m just giving you a toolkit
if you have any questions
please leave them in the comments
I will try my best to answer them
and help you to improve your notes
taking skills and language learning skills
if you have good methods please
share them with others in the community
I hope this video is helpful
don't forget to give me a like and subscribe to my channel
see you soon guys bye