hi um today I wanted to talk about real
really interesting subjects for in
language learning which is the
acquisition of new words now um words
are without a doubt the bricks of a
language and we all agreed that without
words we cannot we cannot speak we
cannot form sentences and convey our
thoughts now the problem is that for for
some for some of us for some of you
learning acquiring new words fast is a
has become some kind of obsession I have
to learn 100 or a day and sometimes this
leads to some kind of frustration and
disappointment because you know we have
great expectations and we want to learn
thousands of words and then we happen to
realize that it is not as easy that
acquiring the words is not as easy as it
looked at the beginning now it is no
surprise then that one of the most
frequently asked question is exactly the
following how can I learn languages can
learn words fast now why is it so hard
to memorize to memorize new words I
think that its physiological for the
brain that when it gets when it receives
information to discard the information
that it deems as and not necessary
imagined remembering every single
information that comes the flows into
your brain that would be a nightmare
there's the case of facing serious
famous case of a girl of a woman who
could not actually forget anything and
then she said that her she was polluted
by all these all this unnecessary and
unwanted information constantly flowing
in her brain she could not concentrate
it's a special case of course but it
demonstrates the fact that if we get too
much information in us and if the brain
cannot discard it then our brain is
going to be a mess
so actually forgetting things is
actually a very
good thing it's not a bad thing it's
physiological and it is natural now
people tend to jump to conclusions and
say that since they cannot remember
words they're not just good at languages
and they just don't have a good memory
now this is another myth to dispel once
and for all now I wanted to discuss with
you I just you know if you can take a
look here if it's visible I want to take
a look at this picture which is called
forgetting curve you can write it on
Google for example and you just write
forgetting curve now this curve here is
time and this is the efficiency of
remembering a given word or some
information when you learn acquire some
information or a given word here on day
one your ability to remember is pretty
high then time passes by you will forget
the word very quickly within a couple of
days you know now this curve is very
important because it testifies to the
fact that learning words is and is
something not not difficult but you have
to do it the right way if you want to
acquire a word and store it in your
long-term memory you have to do certain
things in a certain way in a given time
now how can we actually improve our
capacity to of retaining the words
that's the next question as I was
discussing just two seconds ago in
general the process of acquiring new
information can be generally divided in
three categories the first one is
decoding the second one is storage and
the third one is retrieval when are in
brain receives some information it
decodes it and then it decodes it tries
to figure out what it means like sound
into meaning transforms itself into
meaning and then it's put in in your
memory then the storage is the action of
storing this information
in your long-term memory and then the
retrieval retrieval is when you are
talking for example and you your brain
suddenly searches for a word in your
long term memory
like the computer does you know computer
searches for some kind of information
then retrieves it and you know the
so-called knowledge gap happens in one
if if something an anomaly happens
occurs in one of these three stages now
there are several several types of
memories I think you know like for
example as I said a long term memory
short or memory sensory memory the last
one the latter means that we acquire
information through the senses such as
sight touch smell etc and the short-term
memory which is called a working memory
it happens when retain small amounts of
information like for example for short
periods of time let's suppose that you
are doing mental calculations you have
to remember a password you have to
remember something on the drop of a hat
as they say a code for example called
building here it's pretty useful in
Paris because you have to remember every
kind of building code in order to get
inside otherwise you can't in general to
make a long story short it memory is
just like a muscle it advertised if it
does not work so you should make it work
on a daily basis to make it powerful to
make it to make it more powerful you
know
it's a capacity it's like each like
every capacity faculty if it's neglected
it tends to weaken and eventually
disappear that's an extreme case so it
must be constantly stimulated the best
way to do it is to repeat continuously
the problem is that a lot of people say
well you know you have to repeat this
word a lot of times the secret here and
I will reveal this in my book in my book
it's that there's repetition and
repetition there are two kinds of
repetition
first one is not that effective the
second one is much much much more
powerful now I would like to emphasize
the fact that if you want to remember to
work well once again make it work a
little bit every day okay the repetition
of an operation has a cumulative effect
whose main goal is that are forcing
information into your brain without us
making deliberate efforts because the
problem is a lot of people make
deliberate efforts they constantly tried
to remember a word they do it like twice
three times four times a day it is not
the way it works okay you might
eventually end up remembering that word
but it is not an efficient way to
remember it trust me on this now I'd
like you to discuss some key factors as
far as the acquisition of words is
concerned let's start the first one the
first one is interest in order to
improve your your ability your general
ability to recognize and to memorize new
words and expression you need to be
interest and passionate about what
you're doing if you're passionate about
learning languages I find worries you're
constantly reminding yourself why you're
doing it why it is so incredibly it
could be an incredible experience for
you you this is an incredible boost for
your learning in your learning process
in scientific literature it is they say
and I agree that feelings that memory is
enhanced when emotions are involved so
this is a key factor so try to remember
try to be you know if you're interested
in something you're passionate something
emotions are involved and emotions are
very good for boosting the process of
the acquisition of information in
general in this case of words the second
one is attention we live in as I always
say in an exhilarating era where we have
the Internet we can talk we can do
whatever you want you can watch a movie
you can talk to your friends etc but the
downsides of this the problem is that
sometimes ap roads are capacity of
concentrating there are some articles
written by famous journalists
who comment on the fact that internet is
in part destroying our capacity of
thinking deeply because we're constantly
bombarded by by a lot of information and
we are constantly our attentions
constantly diverging because sometimes
we drift away without without us even
realizing that so attention means that
when you have a task let's suppose you
want to read attacks to listen Japanese
I don't know whatever you have to turn
off whatever it turn off Skype turn off
music this might seem like a little bit
trivial something trivial to say that
it's pretty important because if you
turn off the your your brain actually
when it's for example if you listen to
using at the same time you are doing
your homework there are some people
might say yeah but music helps me to
concentrate better in part that's true
in part it's not I honestly I tried to
learn languages while listening to music
while I was like for example reading a
text something that didn't involve
directly listening to a given text in
the language but I just saw that when
you were doing something you like
concentrating on just the time the task
at hand the general result is much much
much better ok so just focus on one
thing and I always suggest especially at
the beginning to focus on listening and
reading at the same time because
listening to something forces you to pay
attention to reading and vice versa vice
versa if you're reading something you're
paying attention also do the sounds
another one which seems a little bit
trivial as well as comprehension now I
always say and I like a like like this
that we only learn what we can
understand it means that whenever you
fully understand a sentence or a concept
you are more likely to remember the
single parts that make up that sentence
or that concept like an engineer I'm an
engineer so I'm going to use this
example a an electronic engineer who
understands how a given circuit
works he will repeat or she will
remember the single components of single
parts much better so you have to get the
general picture in general to understand
something too so to understand the
sentences then the whole script of a
given text will help you remember things
better we're not just talking about
single words so don't concentrate don't
focus too much on single words but focus
on the general picture you will infer
and remember the words better okay if
you remember the general picture another
one another key factor is Association
now our brain as you all know is a huge
network of neurons so you have every
single neuron is connected with tens of
thousands of other neurons and our work
our brain that's reason why our brain
works according to the mechanism not
only according to that mechanism but
also according to the mechanism of
Association you're associating
information with some other information
store previously stored in your brain so
one of the most effective ways to words
is done by associating with some other
information that was stored that was
previously stored I emphasize this point
and one ways of doing this is by
visualize visualized things for example
one of the things that one of the common
techniques that we'll teach you in
conference interpreting courses or in
other courses in general is to use
images in order to remember things to
remember speech it's called loci method
I don't know if you ever heard of that
if you can write loci method on on
Google make I will make a video on that
later but this is for interpreters so
you can actually process the information
via colors forms etc if you for example
link a given word with an image that
word will be more likely linked with
other information like for in the result
in general will be better for example
let's suppose that you come across a
person you
remember the name of that person you can
relate that name with a particular
feature of her or his appearance is this
going to work better so he's gonna the
more absurd the Association is the
better okay
consolidation um we live in an era where
learning quickly is in demand people
want to learn quickly I want to learn a
language within two months so in the
language within a couple of days now the
problem is that languages in general
take time um consolidation when we're
talking about learning new words and you
have to take the time to store and
process the information one of the best
ways to do it is to review the what you
have learned at regular intervals and
the time schedule is particularly
important for that to be an efficient
thing for that to be an efficient method
remember irregular intervals there's a
there's a so called time time window and
you have to choose carefully choose this
time window for this whole thing to work
I'm going to expand on this a little bit
later another one another very important
factor is context context is absolutely
king in language learning
now I emphasize I cannot emphasize
enough the fact that it is very
important it is fundamental to always
learn words in context when we're kids
when we as kids we learned for our first
language we are always learning words in
context from our parent from situations
etc it doesn't necessarily have to be a
linguistic constant in context doesn't
necessarily have to be just that word
doesn't necessarily have to be
surrounded by other words can be also a
word uttered in isolation in a given
circumstance that will help us remember
better I don't know if you've ever it
ever happened to you that you used a
certain word you made a mistake in a
certain context it was a little bit
awkward and you've got if you're you're
going to remember that for the rest of
your life you know because it's just
stuck in your long-term memory so
context is absolutely king you know
always try to learn words in firm words
from a given text and not I'm not a fan
of lists I do lists but this is for a
conference interpreting that doesn't
have anything to do with language
learning in the first stages you know
stage one what I call stage one and
stage two which are the stages of
deliver and learning and then we have
multiple contexts now that's another
thing that I cannot emphasize enough is
the fact that we have to read as much as
you can if if you have to read as much
as you can if you want to reach an
excellent level in the language reading
is absolutely important and if you read
a lot the probability that you're going
to come across a given word in multiple
context gets high and reading a word and
finding a word in different context is
very useful for your brain to you know
Association it connects that word it
puts that word consider some words and
sees it in different contexts puts them
together this is going to boost your
capacity to remember that word dynamic
this is a feature of special feature of
my method in general being the method as
I always say languages are not it's an
ability that you acquires there is not a
subject that you study so the more
dynamic a method is the more dynamic
your approach to language learning is
the better it is and what I do is I use
my technique in general I use other
techniques in order to learn words in
their in their context but also
dynamically and this is I'm going to
expand on this a little bit later
especially in my book now the last thing
that I wanted to say is that I have two
techniques I always divide language
learning in three stages stage one stage
two is what I consider deliberate
learning when you're using a certain
kind of material in order to build a
core and then you have stage three where
you're an advanced learner you're
constantly learning more
but you are autonomous you have reached
the so called stadium of one of your
autonomous okay autonomy the techniques
in stage 1 and stage 2 I applied this
bi-directional technique and also other
techniques in order to remember words
I'm going to talk about it later and
then at stage 3 it's this is a special
technique for remember words with
newspapers and magazines and this is for
advanced learners and for interpreters
because the thing is that even if you
have reached a certain level which is
they call c1 c2 you never stop learning
you never stop learning things and I
just figured out more and more in this
period when I am attending a conference
entering school where you have to learn
thousands of thousands of words and also
in all sorts of specific contexts so you
know even if you reach the c2 c1 c2
level there is always plenty to learn in
life this is a lesson for life dying
they learned and they keep learning of
course um I as you as you can see here I
I don't know if you can see it hi this
is the article of the day then but I
just then I wrote a couple of weeks ago
and you can of course find it here in
the box below
you can also find my Facebook page and I
have to thank you all because I'm
actually I'm getting a lot of lot a lot
of messages and my my blog is is taking
off and I'm very happy so I have to
thank you all for all the attention and
for all the nice words that you're
spending for my language endeavors and
for my funny shot I I really like
sharing all my thoughts with you guys so
thank you very much I wish you a great
day I'm gonna talk to you soon bye