2 fun new ways to learn English vocabulary

Yeah, that was fun. I'm looking forward to hearing that from you later.

Hi. James from engVid. In this video what I would like to do is help you work on vocabulary.

I want to make it fun, because when things are fun, you work harder and you learn more. And today's

lesson, I'm going to teach you two ways to not only just remember vocabulary, but learn

how to use vocabulary in a way that we use it, and you will really understand it, and...

Heck, it's fun. You're just going to have fun doing it. I'm sure you will. All right?

It's a little bit creative. So, let's go to the board. Simple lesson. Here we go.

Two ways to have fun with language. Not just language, but vocabulary. Ways that you may

not be studying in class, we're going to do here today. The first one I want to talk to

you about is fill in the gap. Huh? "A gap" means a space, there's a space between something.

So, here's my hands, in between my hands is a gap. Okay? You have a gap between your eyes.

One eye, one eye, space. In this case, you see I've got this: "tree __________ chair".

Now, fill in the gap doesn't mean just one word. It's a couple of ways you can do this.

In this particular game, we're going to take two vocabulary words, "tree", and take another

one, "chair", and they're kind of a little obvious to make it easy for you, but what

I want you to do is one of two things.

The first thing we can do is use x words. What I mean by that is you could say:

"I want to use five words, and I want to go from 'tree' to 'chair'." Or:

"I want to use three words from 'tree' to 'chair'" or two. Huh? Well, okay.

How do I get from "tree"? Okay. "Tree",

"cut". You cut the tree down, right? "Lumber". Lumber you make into wood you can use.

Let's see. "Carpenter". Find a carpenter. "Craft". "Craft" means make. You're like: "What?" These...

All these words... And then I can say: "Furniture". Okay? Okay, furniture. "Chair", so if I have

a tree, I cut it down and make it into lumber, I take it to a carpenter, he crafts it into

a chair. Five words from A to B. So, one game is tell yourself: "I want to go from five...

One word to another word, and I want five words to get there."

And you can challenge yourself; maybe go from three words. Right? Or make 10 words. You

can use it to describe something. How many words you can use to describe a certain thing.

Right? "I have this word, and I want to go to this word. How many words does it take

me to get there?" What this does is it teaches you relationship between words, and that also

can teach you nouns and verbs, and how they function together. Or, we say "syntax", right?

So, start at A, say: "I want to use five words to get there." This is a great word to do

with a friend. You can say: "Okay, we're going to do 'tree' and 'chair', you need to do five

words that make sense to go from 'tree' to 'chair'", and put a clock on for five minutes.

You go, and she goes, you write together and see what words you get. Compare, check them

out. "Why did you choose this, and why does this word...? What does this word mean?" Right?

So, now, you're not just writing words in a book and saying: "This word means this."

You're: "What does it mean? How do I use it? How would other people use it? How would other

people think?" Right? Yeah. See? That's fun by yourself or with a friend.

Okay, listen, the second way to play this game is: How many words to the answer? What?

Well, we can pick up two random words, two, like... I have "chair"... "Tree" and "chair",

we could have put "chair" and "moon". Now the game gets a little bit more interesting.

Right? "Chair" and "moon". How many words does it get me to go from "chair" to "moon"?

Now, you might say: "That's impossible. They have nothing to do with each other." I could

say, "Listen, the chair in my living room"-"living room" is a noun-"sits"-which is a verb

-"close to the big bay window where I can see the moon at night."

How many words did it take me to get from "chair" to "moon"?

So, it's playing with words, being creative. "Chair"

and "moon" have nothing to do with each other, but I used nouns and verbs to go from this

place to this place, and actually created a sentence as well. Now, you can, as I said,

make it more of a challenge. Do the same thing with a friend. How many words, just random

words, how many words does it take? And you can time each other to see who gets there

first. And the sentence must make sense. Cool? All right? Once again, you're going to learn

syntax and meaning; you have to put the words in the right order, you can't just throw words

in there. And when I say "meaning", it has to have sense that it goes from here to here

that someone would understand it and, you know, agree with it. That's one game.

The second game I like a lot, and I'm going to embarrass myself in about four minutes,

two minutes, whatever. I hope you like this one, too. I like this one because what you

do is if you're studying particular vocabulary... We have in engVid, vocabulary about travel,

the kitchen, the law, all sorts of ones you can go to. Go there, and there's usually about

10 words. Take those 10 words. Okay? And then you're going to write a poem.

Poem. Well, poems are literary devices. They are types of... They're forms of writing that don't

have to follow the normal ways of writing. In Japan, they have what's called a Haiku.

We have rhyming poetry, like... I can't thinking anything off the right... Top of my head.

Simple Simon metapimon. No, that's not a rhyme. But rhyme, words that go together like "time",

"rhyme", "bime", you'd have to have all these words kind of go together. Okay? So, poetry

could be to express a... Or express a thought or an idea, but it doesn't have to be written

as a specific paragraph. Right?

It could be, as I said, a Haiku is in Japanese poetry, rhyming poetry, sometimes abstract

poetry. This is a fun one because in this one you're going to write a poem, and you

might not have done that in your current reading-... Writing assignments. You're writing paragraphs

for essays and things, but we want to show you the connection with words. So, what I

want you to do is write a poem using five or maybe even 10 words. Try not to do more,

because you're learning how to write right now. Okay? Use on vocabulary... "One" vocabulary

word, because "on" is a preposition. One vocabulary word on each line, but have the poem's lines

be connected by the ideas in the words, which means you can't just randomly write words

and funny sentences; they've got to be connected. This shows your mastery of the language. And

that's why I said this is a good one. It's fun and you're showing your mastery. In this

case, I've got: "rain", "down", "heaven", "hard", "thirst". Random words. Right? Let

me clear my throat. You didn't know it, but it's James' Beatnik Poetry Café. I'm about

to give you some lines.

Rain comes down

hard from heaven, crashing into the ground,

making the heart go soft, quenching the thirst of the earth,

removing the dirt, revealing the hidden beauty.

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Okay, so I took these words, and if you noticed, there's a very specific thing. This poem I

did the first line one word, on the second line I put two words, on the third line I

put three words, on the fourth and fifth... You can see these numbers. These were the

words I used. Each of them makes sense in the poem. When you hear it, you're like:

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense." "Heaven" is above, "rain" comes down. Right? "Heaven", above,

yeah. "Hard", well, when water hits the ground, the ground goes soft. And if you're "thirsty",

it means you need a drink, if the dry is ground it's thirsty, so it wants water to drink.

Right? I'm showing you I understand the language enough to put these words together. Because

I put one word, two words, three words, I also have to use other words I learned. So,

you can take this from a particular lesson-right?-because "rain" would be "water" and "thirst". Probably

a lesson on water. Right? Yeah.

You could do that for travelling. You know? Sky drawing me up... No, drawing me up into...

See? I'm just making it up, but you get the point. You take them, you put them together.

And even that last sentence, I'm like: "That wasn't cool. I have to... Don't want to look

like a fool, so I'll have to retool." Right? So, if you're smiling, having fun, saying:

"Wow. I'm, like, playing with the language." You'll show that you understand it, you'll

have a beautiful product that you can show another person, saying: "Look at my English."

And they may be impressed when you explain the rules you were following, like: one words,

two words, three words, and how you learned to express yourself and have a deep understanding.

Right?

So, look, I hope you've enjoyed these two lessons. You can see I did, because I did

a little poem for you, using this exact lesson. E's smiling, because he's like:

"Wow, this is fun." I'm sure this was fun for you. Give it a try. Get out your vocabulary words, or

go watch another engVid lesson. Right? And then take out some vocabulary words, because

they do go together, and use them. Make a couple poems, have some fun with it. All right?

Anyway, where are you going to find these words? Well,

I want you to go to www.eng as in English, vid as in video.com (www.engvid.com),

where you can play, have fun, and experiment.

All right? That's what it's about, and that's how you learn best. Anyway, once again, I

just wanted to say thank you guys for watching the channel, look forward to all your comments,

and the fact that you go do those quizzes. And before I go, I really want you to subscribe,

so somewhere around here, or even down here, there's a subscribe button. Okay? Subscribe,

and you'll get the newest stuff from myself and engVid. Right?

Have a good one. See ya later.

Remember: Rain comes down hard.