How to learn and remember vocabulary

OK Lucy

quick question

Why did you use pigeons

as your main example

throughout this whole video?

Look, don't worry about it

it..it will be fine.

If you ask a language teacher

how can I improve my vocabulary?

They'll probably say something similar to:

read books

watch films

speak with natives

do vocabulary exercises

and repeat, repeat, repeat!

These are all valid points!

When I was learning Spanish

I managed to expand my vocabulary incredibly quickly

and this is thanks to a method that I created for myself.

This method probably already exists

but I identified my need and I created a solution.

I needed something that I could do

bit by bit

day by day

And I'm gonna explain to you how you can do this method too

My method is going to help you train your brain

to start thinking in that second language

so, what's the first step?

Well, when you wake up in the morning

you somehow need to remind yourself

that today I'm going to be searching for words that I don't already know.

Constantly!

So whether you put a poster on your door

a post-it note on your fridge

a reminder on your phone

anything to remind you that today

new words!

So, from the minute you leave the house

you need to be on the look out

for words that you don't know

Try to start thinking in the language that you're trying to learn

for me it's Spanish

So, I'm thinking in Spanish

I see a pigeon

'paloma'

OK, I know that one

I see a bus stop

I'm not sure how to say that in Spanish

so, I whip out my phone quickly

write it down in English

and then I forget about it

and I keep on doing that throughout the day

So you're constantly on the look out

Do I know that in Spanish?

Yes I do. Left it.

Do I know that in Spanish?

No, I don't. Write it down.

You might end up with five words at the end of the day

You might end up with twenty words

at the end of the day

it depends on your level, and also where you are

By doing this you are train your brain

to become accustomed to

thinking about things in that second language

and it will help you towards fluency

Then, you're also creating a list

on your phone

of all the things that you've seen throughout the day

that you don't know how to say

Now the important part of this

comes when you arrive home in the evening.

So when you get home from work

or university that day

you need to dedicate a couple of minutes

to creating a word diary

I use a notepad for this because

I like to use use two pages per day

so, I write the date

I write a short sentence about what I did that day

And then I go ahead and I look

at the words that I didn't know today

on my phone and I add them into my diary

so...

So the words I saw today were;

pigeon, litter, bus stop, jeweller's and skyscraper

and I don't know how to say those in Spanish

So I move on to the next page

And I go and search them on the internet

So the first word was pigeon

So I get my computer

I use a website like 'WordReference'

I search 'pigeon'

and I listen to the pronunciation

'paloma'

great, 'paloma'

and then I add that to my word diary

one of my words was 'skyscraper'

that I didn't know

so I use 'WordReference' to search for 'skyscraper'

and then I listen to the pronunciation

'rascacielos'

'Rascacielos' ok, and I add that to my word diary

'rascacielos'

great! And then I just keep on doing that

Untill my list is full!

and then I have a definitive list

of all the new vocabulary

that i saw today

So ideally you need to do this diary every day

Make it a part of your life

and a part of your routine

So what you're actually doing by following this process

and this method is

you're training your brain

to be constantly looking and confirming

that it knows words in that second language

and immediately

when it doesn't know

alert! you write that word down

and then you know that you're going to search for it later.

It's really interesting to look back through

your word diary after months of doing this process

because you see words and you just think

'Oh my god, I can't believe I didn't know how to say that!'

When you wake up the next morning

after having completed your diary the night before

You'll immediately see

skyscraper = rascacielos

pigeon = paloma

You just are constantly, it's there, it's in your mind.

Once you've trained your brain to think and process in this way

it's going to be so much easier to pick up vocabulary

and also to identify where your vocabulary is lacking!

For many of you, this might not work!

Give it a try

if it does work I'd love to hear about your success stories

If you ask a lang t...ugghgggh