How and how quickly do you learn vocabulary?

[neoni]

What tricks do you use? How many words do you learn a day/week?

I mostly use flashcards. I'll make about thirty a day in the mornings, sometimes carry a few over to the next day if I don't feel I know them well enough, then I just carry them around with me in a little pouch wherever I go, and every time I have a spare minute run through a few. A couple days a week I'll just grab random old cards and make sure I still know them, but I normally have at least half of them pretty well. So I guess, although I 'learn' about thirty words a day, I maybe forget ten from the few previous days. I've never tried it, but I've heard that flashcards work just as well for grammar rules. I don't usually have much trouble remembering the rules though, just applying them.
I remember once being insisted by a friend to stick some German flashcards under the windscreen-wiper of a parked German car. I'd have loved to see their face as they come back to find on their car "DIE BRÜCKE" "DAS GEHEIMNIS" "DAS GESINDEL" etc.

Other things I do is learning songs, then listening to them often. I did this particularly with German.
Whenever I look a word up in a dictionary I put a little dot by it, then if I am ever on the same page I make sure I still know that one.
When I was doing Gaelic at first, I stuck post-its all over my room (some of them are still there) with the Gaelic name for the items, and I think that helped a lot.

Staring at lists is useless for me, especially if the translation is visible, and I rarely make mnemonics; I think they are useful but only for a few words at a time, and I don't have the patient to learn vocab that slowly.

Anybody got any other techniques?

[Duke of Prunes]

I think flashcards work relatively well.

And then always do it with 7 cards at a time, preferably with different colour cards. Also, I tend to use other words from other languages that are similar to the ones I'm trying to learn and somehow link them(often in very strange ways, but it works for me)

[hashi]

I like to read lyrics and stories, newspaper articles etc and try and translate them into english, but then from that i'll make my OWN word lists. I also find I have to actually use a word several times before it'll stick, so I like doing what I said above, but in the reverse direction as well.

I find flashcards don't really help me alot because I get fustrated and look at the answer

[Mutusen]

Généralement je ne fais pas grand-chose de particulier pour apprendre du vocabulaire. J'ai commencé à faire une liste de vocabulaire en allemand (et un peu en finnois) où je note les mots inconnus que je rencontre (par exemple dans les paroles d'une chanson, ou en lisant Wikipédia). Les chansons c'est très pratique, mais il faudrait que je trouve de nouvelles chansons en allemand.

J'avais aussi pensé à faire des fiches de vocabulaire à transporter avec moi, mais je ne l'ai pas fait. Et les pense-bêtes sur les objets de la chambre c'est une bonne idée, je devrais essayer.


Usually I do nothing special to learn vocabulary. I began a list of German vocabulary (and some Finnish too) where I write down unknown words I run into (for example in the lyrics of a song, or while reading Wikipedia). Songs are very useful, but I should find new songs in German.

I although thought of flashcards I could carry with me, but I didn't to it. And post-its on the objects of the room are a good idea, I should try.

[Duke of Prunes]

post-its on the objects of the room are a good idea, I should try.

I agree. It's a method I've been recommended many a time but never actually got round to trying out. As you say, it sounds like a good idea

If you want suggestions for German music, let me know what kind of thing you're into and I'll recommend a few bands/songs.

[BezierCurve]

Whenever I look a word up in a dictionary I put a little dot by it, then if I am ever on the same page I make sure I still know that one.

Very good idea, I'll apply that to my learning too

At the moment it's mostly reading same stories (containing lots of new words) for a few times, with a week/two weeks intervals.

I find songs great too - they're like a key: I know I heard a word, then I have to remember what song it was. Then I try to remember the line which contained that word, its context and finally, get to its meaning.

When there was a need to learn a lot in a short time (exams), I used computer drills (whenever I wanted to remember a word, I had to imagine a keyboard and re-type the answer ). It was effective (around 400/500 words a week), but after a few months you're left with only a few of them. So, I'd say it depends on the purpose.

[Kasuya]

Ich lerne Vokabeln lieber durch Lesen als mit Flashcards. Wenn man ein Wort innerhalb von einem Kontext lernt dann bleibt es viel eher im Gedächtnis hängen.

[Trapy]

Repeated use. I have to use it in a sentence, in many ways, over and over. It's all good and well to learn how to spell it, but if I can't remember what it means, then I'm not even half way through it.

ex. denken (to think). It took me forever to learn this, untill I started using it in sentences, and hearing it elsewhere. Instead of my favorite "Ich glaube" (I believe), I replaced it with "ich denke" (I think), and within a day, I had it down solid.

Songs and newspapers are good for advanced stages, but in early stages, not really. It can help reenforce vocab, but as for new vocab, only a few like "nur einmal", "Nie mehr", "Seele", "Jetzt" and "ohne dich", just bits of the lyrics can have super-importance to me in them, so I remember them. But on a whole, I don;t understand whole songs. Or if I do, I find words conjugated, articles in cases used, that I can replicate, but with very inaccurate usage which develops bad habits later.

My problem with flashcards, is that I go "too quickly". I learn it, but it only gets stuck in the short term memory. So "La voiture" = Car. Every time I see "La voiture" I think "car". But then a week later, I have already forgotten it, as I associated "La voiture" with car, on that flashcard. Without the flashcard, and knowing the other words in the set, I wouldn't remember it.

Mnemonics are the best, and longest lasting. My Malay is only about 20% of what it was, but using mnemonics I can remember vaguely that "pelancong" = Tourist (A person playing Jahlai with a Pelota, which is exotic to me, and 从 (cong), showing movement from one place to another) and "beberapa" = A few (Because Baby Rapper only sold a few albums, he was so bad). Etc

[neoni]

Ich lerne Vokabeln lieber durch Lesen als mit Flashcards. Wenn man ein Wort innerhalb von einem Kontext lernt dann bleibt es viel eher im Gedächtnis hängen.

na klar, die worte, die ich an den karten schreiben, hab ich nicht grade aus dem worterbuch rausgesucht, sondern in lieder, bücher usw gefunden. manchmal schreib ich den kontext auch, also;
"am anfang war das wort" mit "in the beginning was the word" (tut mir leid, dass ich so a schlechte beispiel hob )

[Nukalurk]

I'm soooo lazy regarding learning words. I prepare those neat flash cards but don't use them often. Though, e. g., I've learnt quite a few words by reading Russian newspapers.

[Duke of Prunes]

na klar, die Woerter, die ich auf die Karten schreiben(schreibe? geschrieben habe? Kommt drauf an... "schreiben" ist aber auf jeden Fall falsch) hab ich nicht gerade aus dem Woerterbuch rausgesucht, sondern in Liedern, Büchern usw gefunden. manchmal schreib ich den Kontext auch...(auf), also;
"am Anfang war das Wort" mit "in the beginning was the word" (tut mir leid, dass ich so schlechte beispiele hab(e) )

[Kasuya]

na klar, die worte, die ich an den karten schreiben, hab ich nicht grade aus dem worterbuch rausgesucht, sondern in lieder, bücher usw gefunden. manchmal schreib ich den kontext auch, also;
"am anfang war das wort" mit "in the beginning was the word" (tut mir leid, dass ich so a schlechte beispiel hob )

Während man mit den Karten gebüffelt hat, hätte man die Wörter schon in einem neuen Kontext wiedersehen können und damit den Lerneffekt weiter verstärkt. Aber gut, es ist mir schon klar dass Flashcards nicht ganz ohne Nutzen sind.

[Formiko]

I have developed a specialized list of 600 words that MUST be memorized. Those 600 words are used in 80% of conversations.ns. So, if one learns the words on that list, it would greatly increase one's fluency. So, by learning 10 words a day, the entire list can be learned in 2 months.

[hashi]

I have developed a specialized list of 600 words that MUST be memorized. Those 600 words are used in 80% of conversations.ns. So, if one learns the words on that list, it would greatly increase one's fluency. So, by learning 10 words a day, the entire list can be learned in 2 months.

Would you wanna share it??

[Sean of the Dead]

I have developed a specialized list of 600 words that MUST be memorized. Those 600 words are used in 80% of conversations.ns. So, if one learns the words on that list, it would greatly increase one's fluency. So, by learning 10 words a day, the entire list can be learned in 2 months.

Would you wanna share it??

I second that.

That would be sweet if Formiko would like to share it; that would help me a lot with German and Norwegian, then I could repost those here.

Great idea, if Formiko would like to share the list he created, people could translate those words into their language(s), and they could all be posted on UniLang!

[Formiko]

I second that.

That would be sweet if Formiko would like to share it; that would help me a lot with German and Norwegian, then I could repost those here.

Great idea, if Formiko would like to share the list he created, people could translate those words into their language(s), and they could all be posted on UniLang!

Hmm...how much are you gonna pay? hehe

PM me your email address, and I'll send it to you.

[Duke of Prunes]

I'd like some of that action as well, sounds interesting enough.

I once made some spreadsheets on excel including most important verbs, numbers, etc. for French and Spanish, I'll have a look around but this was ages ago.

[ILuvEire]

Right now, for example, I'm focusing on Norwegian, German, and Japanese.

Japanese:
I use mnemonics for the kanji and write them everywhere (in the borders of my notes, on my Myspace, and on post-its).

Norwegian:
In each lesson of my book there are around 80 vocabulary words. I usually choose ~30 of them to actually learn. (Like, I don't need to learn et glass means "glass"). I make this list, and proceed to use it in posts and on Personen under meg.

German:
I get a vocabulary list and use the words in school.

Subito, per esempio, imparo il norvegese, il tedesco, e il giapponese.


Il norvegese:
In ogni lezione del mio libro, ci sono ~80 paroli vocabulario. Scelgo ~30 imparo. (Non ho bisogno di imparare et glass è il bicchiere). Faccio la lista, e la uso in "posts" (?) e in Personen under meg.

Il tedesco.
Ricevo una lista voacublario e uso le paroli nella scuola.

Il giapponese:
Uso i mnemonichi per il kanji, e li scrivo dappertutto (nei bordi delle mie note, nel mio Myspace, e su le marce di carta).

[TaylorS]

So far learning Spanish nouns and adjectives have been a breeze, because of all the Romance-derived words in English, but there seems to be far less of such obvious cognates when it comes to verbs. I generally use flashcards, saying the word, the English meaning, and the word again, over and over again until I remember by rote.

[loqu]

people could translate those words into their language(s)

or into their conlangs