Here's a question that I often get asked
How do I learn words
or what is the best way to learn English vocabulary or to remember new words
First of all the best way to remember new is just don't worry about it
the reason I say this is because the more you worry about it
if you're stressed because you can't remember words
for example you studied a word but then in conversation you couldn't remember that word
the more stressed you get about it the harder it becomes
If you learn a word and then you forget it the next day it doesn't matter Just forget
about it
Give it time
if you do remember the word great fantastic but if you don't remember the word it doesn't
matter just give it time let things come naturally
this said there is a learning principle a learning idea worth bearing in mind worth
remembering that will make your learning English words much much easier that is that we remember
words best by taking not one but two approaches and linking those two approaches together
now the first one is deliberate learning
that is purposely trying to learn new vocabulary
this is what you do when you read a newspaper article and you underline the words you don't
know you look the words up in the dictionary you write them on flashcards you study those
flashcards or if you use an SRS software something like Anki for example and you do reps on Anki
this is deliberate learning you're trying to learn words now this is one way the second
way is to let things come naturally that is accidental learning this is what happens when
you're not trying to learn words but you're enjoying the English
you're watching a TV show you're listing to some English you're reading a book
and maybe you'll be listening to English then suddenly a word you've been trying to learn
or struggling to remember will pop out and at the moment you will think AH-HA!! got it
and then at that point you will never forget that word again
a good example for ne is when I first learning Japanese the word "gyoretsu" now that means
queue as in a queue outside of a shop I think I saw this word first on a flashcard and I
thought this is a useful word I should remember it and I studied it many times but it never
stuck and I'd always try and remember this word but the next day I'd be like "Ah, what
was that word?" it didn't sink in but then one day I was listening to a podcast form
japanesepod101 and it wasn't even part of the lesson it wasn't in part of the dialogue
for the lesson but the presenters were talking I can't remember what they were talking about
they might have been talking about a famous ramen shop a famous noodle shop which always
have a long queue of people outside but one of the presenters said the word "gyoretsu"
and that was it it was like a lightbulb went off in my head
ping
AH-HA!!
and I never forgot that word. it just stuck
you see waht happens is when you try to learn a word you make a connection in here and when
you accidently hear them you link that together and it's when you make that link that the
word sticks
I don't know if you've ever seen videos from Steven Kaufman he has lots of videos on YouTube
and I definitely recommend checking them out but he often talks about making links and
its true that's the most powerful way to learn words to just make links between different
things so don't do one thing do two things or do many things and let the words come to
you naturally make links between those things study a word listen to English when you hear
it you'll remember it easy as that
OK that's it for today
as always any questions anything you want to ask any comments leave a message in the
comments box
OK until next time