hey it's Hadar thank you for joining me
and in this episode I'm going to talk
about why if you want to improve your
vocabulary and stop getting stuck in
English you have to stop memorizing and
learning new words here's the thing as a
speaker of English as a second language
you may have found yourself in the past
or in the present speaking English and
then you got stuck right you were
looking for a specific word and that
word was nowhere to be found
word where are you worried word and then
you ended up using a different word that
didn't quite convey the message as you
wanted it to convey the message or you
just got stuck and you started getting
all anxious and nervous and then you get
stuck even more and started making
stupid mistakes and then afterwards you
felt like crap you thought oh my elissa
so terrible I don't know words in
English and then you say to yourself hey
you know I just need to improve my
vocabulary that is the problem I get
stuck because I don't know enough words
you compare to yourself to your
abilities in your native Italian and
your native tongue your words are just
like laying there waiting for you to
grab them right and in English it's just
like you have to search for them with a
flashlight now first of all stop
comparing yourself to who you are in
your native tongue because it's not
productive it's only going to make you
feel bad about yourself and it's just
not fair these are two different
circumstances it's kind of you're
comparing apples and oranges you don't
want to do that second you have to
understand that the problem here is not
your poor vocabulary is what you are
doing with the words that you already
know and to explain that even more I'm
gonna have to take you to my whiteboard
but before I want to share with you a
quick story
when I first started out teaching it was
after a long period where I wouldn't
speak
English at all so just a quick reminder
I moved to New York in 2000 and moved
back to Israel in 2004 or five so I was
there for almost five years and then for
for two years here I haven't talked in
English I haven't read anything in
English I had no connection maybe I
listen to TV shows but that's about it
so when I first started teaching I
wasn't very confident about my English
abilities especially my fluency so I was
pretty good with pronunciation still but
my ability to communicate and the the
the words that my knowledge of English
was fairly limited especially comparison
comparison to where I am right now and I
remember the situation where I I was
teaching this executive he was in my
house back then I didn't have an office
I was teaching in my apartment and he
wanted to practice reading articles and
I was just like okay sure so let's open
the New York Times I wanted to sound
sophisticated and read an article so he
started reading an article and I was I
my eyes went black because we started
reading it and I was just like you know
trying to show him how to pronounce
every word and it was really great and
then we came across a word that I have
no idea what it meant like I could
figure out how to say it but then he
asked me what does that mean I'm like
and then I would try to understand from
the context what this word is and then I
would make up something and then mind
you it was like almost like it was ten
years ago I was young and naive and kind
of my ego was a lot bigger than what it
is today and then I and then we came
across another word and I had no idea
what it meant and then another word and
another
and at some point I was just like okay
let's go back to the beginning and read
it again so I don't come across as
completely stupid not knowing all of
these words right and then I really felt
horrible I was just like how is that
even possible
you know the imposter syndrome started
rising up
it's just how is it possible that you're
a teacher and you don't know all of
these words and this is ridiculous you
shouldn't be even teaching he thinks
that you are stupid and not intelligent
and bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
of course he loved the lesson and then
he texted me oh it was such a great
lesson thank you so much I learned so
much but that doesn't matter right all
everything that I thought to myself and
then I got obsessed with learning all
these fancy where it's from the New York
Times so I invested a lot of time
learning a lot of words that I came
across in all of these academic articles
and and business articles and as I
started teaching I noticed that I'm not
using these words I'm not using these
words and all of a sudden I started
forgetting about all these words right
so I spent all this time learning these
fancy words I never had a chance to use
these words and then I started exploring
it and I started talking to my students
seeing what they are focusing on when
they're learning new words and they were
pretty much doing what I was doing
learning all these fancy words but they
never had a real opportunity to use them
maybe I used them in my room
academic writing because at the time I
was also learning English literature at
the university so yeah every now and
then I used this one of those fancy
words but in speaking in my lessons when
I was talking to friends I I was never
using them and then I started thinking
about how we go about learning words and
is the investment that we're making in
learning all of these new fancy
nice-to-haves words is really
dancing us and where we want to be which
is pretty much speaking fluently and
being able to convey our message clearly
with the right words with the right flow
and of course with the right
pronunciation and intonation I want you
to imagine your vocabulary as a circle
[Music]
as a sort of a circle so it was never
great at drawing okay
anyway you get the point that's your
vocabulary I'll even write it here now
this is your overall vocabulary that
means that these are words that you
understand that you know that if you
were to read them in a book or hear them
when someone speaks you'd be like I know
exactly what it means you wouldn't need
to go to check them in the dictionary
okay so here's the problem the words
that you use in regular conversation are
here it's a much more limited circle
okay so these are that you use easily
right these are the words that are
retrieved easily where it's like house
and on and chicken and and soup and
ladies and gentlemen and maybe other
words that you use on a regular basis
may be words related to technology
because you use them at work all of the
time however there's still a gap here
between the words that you know in the
words that you actually use now the
problem is that a lot of people don't
even think about these words as a
challenge they don't think they need to
do anything with these words because
they know these words so they go ahead
and spend a lot of time expanding and
extending the circle now since it's the
outer circle it'll take a lot more
energy and work to expend it and you'll
do a lot of
hard work to extend it just a bit right
and here's the problem when you extend
the outer circle it doesn't do much to
the inner circle right so these words
usually stay unaccessible I mean you may
understand them better when you read so
it definitely helps your comprehension
and your listening skills but the
question is is that helpful for your
fluency and does it prevent you from
getting stuck I don't think so
so what I'm saying is that instead of
investing in the outer circle and
extending the outer circle focus on this
inner circle I'm using gonna use a
different color for it so you know that
these are the words that you use easily
start putting your focus on the words
that you already know but you never use
these are the words that are not
available these are the words that get
you frustrated because your subconscious
mind knows that you know these words and
you're like I know this word how come
it's not available how come I can't use
it and then you remember it right an
hour later you're like oh that was the
word I was looking for or when someone
helps you you're like yes yes that's it
right whether it's like words or phrases
whatever but you know this and you are
just limiting yourself or you haven't
done something to make these words to
turn them into active words right now
they're only passive and passive doesn't
help us with anything especially not
with our fluency so as I'm suggesting
instead of expanding your vocabulary
with all these fancy words that are
important don't get me wrong I mean it's
great to know more words it really it
really is helpful especially if you need
to write academic articles and if you
want to write books and if you want to
understand better what it is that you're
reading
so of course invest more time in it I'm
just saying don't expect it to be
available right away without doing
something if
and what I'm also saying is these words
or words that you hear around you all
the time so maybe in the hierarchy of
words in terms of what words are more
important than others probably these
words are more important because you
constantly hear them you know them right
that means that they're very very
present in the language it's just that
you don't use them and that's the
problem okay so I'm gonna take you back
to the table and there I'm going to
share with you the steps that will help
you start implementing those words into
your day-to-day speech so the first
thing I want you to have is a memo on
your phone so you can use the Notes app
you can use Evernote I'm gonna put a
link to it below that's a really great
app to keep track of your notes and
there you're going to make a list of
words now this list of words it needs to
be super accessible where every time you
come across a word that you know but you
say to yourself I never use this word so
you need to have this inquisitive
listening where you constantly listen to
words but you're also asking yourself is
this is this a word I use okay
especially words that you need and again
remember these are not words that you
need to go to the dictionary to look
them up these are words that you know
but you find yourself from never using
them and then I want you to put it on
that list now every now and then you'll
come across a word that you don't know
but you feel people are using it all of
the time and you may think to yourself
hey maybe I need to know that word you
can put it on the list as well but
remember the purpose the first stage is
to get you to start using all the words
that you already know it'll be a lot
faster and a lot more effective and then
you are going to start adding those
words as you are listening to English so
don't think about it and try to remember
it
because you'll forget the moment it
happens the moment you come across that
word you put it on your list and then
once a day or once every other day I
want you to go to that list and pull one
of those words out the best way to make
this word more available and more
accessible is to first of all develop
the muscle memory of the pronunciation
let me tell you a secret a lot of times
your subconscious mind know the word but
will avoid using it because you are
uncertain about its pronunciation there
is this fear year that is preventing you
from using that word even though you
know when you need to use it so it keeps
shoving it down until it's no longer
available so for example let's say that
on your list you have the word
regurgitate now this is a word that I
know but I never use and I know that I
can use it more often so let's say that
that's my word and I'm going to probably
say it 20 30 times just like this
regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate
regurgitate regurgitate regurgitate then
I might want to use another resource to
help you me get it into my system so
there then you can use our friend Google
to Google for sentences with the word
regurgitate and then I would probably
say these words out loud a few times
then I would want to invent some
sentences with the word regurgitate so
for example now I need to think about it
the students regurgitate the materials
they learned from their teachers okay so
maybe at first I'll get stuck no wait is
there a better way for me to say it the
students keep regurgitating
the material they learn from their
teachers and then I say it again and
I'll try to refine it and do it again
and again and again until it comes out
naturally with flow that's how I'm
starting to connect all the dots
together all the senses hearing it
seeing it cuz it's written in my
notebook you might want to write it
phonetically feeling it in your mouth
getting the muscles to work around this
this sound reading it out loud using
resources that someone else created and
then creating my own sentences right and
connecting all the dots there the word
with context that's how you start
remembering words now don't overwhelm
yourself you don't need to do ten of
those a day one word a day is enough
expanding your vocabulary by 20 words
within 20 days or 30 days one month is
incredible it's more than what you've
had before right so the other
alternatives they don't work as well
so start enhancing the words that you
already know you will see that it's a
skill it's an acquired skill the easier
is start retrieving words that you know
the easier it will be for you to store
new words or to start using words that
you actually don't know so what we're
doing here will expand your vocabulary
will help you feel more expressive but
most importantly it'll give you the
skill to know how to retrieve words
easily and to integrate words into your
day-to-day speech fast and effectively
remember that understanding something
gaining clarity without taking action
right away is meaningless it's as if you
haven't done anything so what I want you
to do right now is take a piece of paper
and a pen and write down ten words so
you you'll need to do some mind
searching right now brain searching and
you'll need I want you to come up with a
list of ten words that you know but you
never use you find yourself never using
because you're not sure how to say those
words or maybe it's just they're not
available
and if you can't think of something then
start a list of five words maybe words
that you heard in
this video may be the words that you
have recently come across if not make a
point that you'll get that list done by
the end of today and then I want you to
post those 10 words in the comments
below because I really want you to
commit to yourself to take action and
also your words are going to be someone
else's resource so this is a win-win
situation ok that's it thank you so much
for watching if you like this video I
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knowledge of new and old words have a
beautiful week and I'll see you next
week in the next video bye