The ONLY Vocabulary Method That Worked for Me (after 7 years of trying everything)

if you've ever made long vocabulary lists  color-coded every word repeated them out  

loud and still forgot half of them the next day  you are not the problem you were just taught the  

wrong system because your brain doesn't remember  what you highlight it remembers what you feel what  

you use and what you hear in context in this  video I'll show you the exact method I use to  

actually remember new words without burning out  of flashcards or wasting hours memorizing stuff  

I'll never use and also guys I have created a free  document your ultimate vocabulary guide for this  

video this guide has the exact system that I  use to learn and actually remember new words  

inside you'll find my favorite daily practice  routine five methods to make words stick longterm  

real life examples and tools I use every day  so if you want to get the ultimate vocabulary  

guide all you need to do is click the link in  my description and I'll send you an email with  

all the information when I was preparing for  this video I really wanted to share with you  

guys this one super simple principle that I use  in my daily language learning practice i'm 99%  

sure if you start using the same principle in your  language learning you will see your level increase  

almost immediately and that is this rule of three  Rs relevance repetition recall these three things  

relevance repetition recall is something that  I built my language learning practice on and  

this type of learning is something that helps me  memorize all of the new vocabulary that I need  

to memorize and this is how words actually stick  not through drills through long vocabulary lists  

no through meaningful repetition and so now  I'm actually going to share with you guys how  

I apply this concept of meaningful repetition  and the rule of three Rs relevance repetition  

recall to my language learning practice and how  I actually remember all of the new vocabulary  

so the first principle is listen a lot more than  you read i used to struggle with listening so much  

it was too hard it was so much easier for me  to just read books in English i remember when  

I was in high school when I was at university  listening was always extremely hard i mean we  

mostly relied on grammar drills on reading long  boring texts i grew up learning English this way  

and so I knew that was the only correct way until  I decided to stop what I was doing and focus all  

of my attention on listening and that is when  everything changed for me and that is why in  

this video I say that listening practice is the  number one thing I wish I had done earlier it  

improved my English skills so much my vocabulary  my pronunciation and I liked this method so much  

that I just started with it when I started  learning Spanish and I'm now using this method  

with every single language I'm learning and  going to learn in the future yes listening is  

harder than reading and that is completely normal  but that is actually good because that is exactly  

why listening trains your brain so much better  it forces you to recognize patterns and sounds  

in real time just like in a real conversation  and that is how our brain naturally processes  

new languages listen a lot more than you read  and listen to something that you are interested  

in something where you understand 80 to 90% of  the information so that what you're listening to  

is actually comprehensible to you it's not just  like blah blah blah it's something that you can  

actually understand with a few words and phrases  and maybe grammar rules sprinkled in that are new  

to you and I know that one question that a lot of  you guys probably have right now is how and where  

do I find good quality listening material that is  not boring and not too advanced and that is where  

Fluent You comes in and I want to say a huge thank  you to them for sponsoring a portion of today's  

video and yes it's sponsored but I always share  tools and resources with you guys that I love  

and I would recommend to my friends there are so  many language apps out there but FluentU stands  

out because it gives you real tools for real  comprehension so instead of cramming vocabulary  

from a textbook you're hearing it used by native  speakers in real context they also have a Chrome  

extension which lets you learn with any Netflix or  YouTube video that has subtitles and here is what  

makes FluentU really special when you come across  a new word you don't just get a translation you  

get an image tips example sentences and this is my  favorite part links to other videos that use the  

same word and this helps the word actually stick  fluent also has a built-in review system that you  

can use to start with single words then move on  to phrases and full sentences so you're actively  

building the skill of speaking not just memorizing  and you can also use FluentU to look up words and  

see how they're used in real life kind of like a  dictionary but way more fun i find this feature  

super helpful so if you want to give Fluent You a  try in my description you will find my link that  

will give you a free trial and a 40% discount code  okay so the next part of my method the method that  

I'm using to memorize all of the new vocabulary  successfully is recording myself speaking and  

here the very important part is that I actually  use all of the new words I want to remember in my  

recording maybe it's a video maybe it's a voice  note and so I just record a quick voice note  

that I'm going to listen to later when I don't  know what to do when I'm washing the dishes when  

I'm commuting and this little technique helps my  memory so much because I'm actually saying all of  

the new words that I need with all of the example  sentences that I like that are relevant to my life  

so let's say I found this video and um I just want  to watch it or maybe listen to it and at the same  

time learn new vocabulary what were those values  and how did your parents instill those in you i  

think our parents modeled it i mean if I were  to think of one one word that would describe my  

father he was just a decent man this word decent  might be new to you it might be something that  

you really want to add to your active vocabulary  i go to Chajb and I ask to explain in super simple  

words what the word decent means in English and  how native speakers actually use it you can even  

go a little bit deeper and say "How do people  in the United States use this word?" If American  

English is something you're interested in the  word decent in simple English means pretty good  

or okay it's used when something is not amazing  but also not bad it's good enough or acceptable i  

can imagine using a lot of these sentences myself  maybe I will personalize some of them instead of  

saying she is a decent person like who she I will  say my grandpa is a decent person and so what  

I would do is I would use my phone maybe I would  record a video of myself or maybe a voice note and  

I would be like "Okay the word decent in English  means pretty good or okay." Common ways Americans  

use decent talking about quality this pizza is  decent it's not the best but it tastes okay and  

so I would just read through the examples that  I liked the best and voila here is how I would  

create this video or this voice note to listen  to later and that is a very important thing you  

actually have to watch your videos or listen to  your voice notes later because what we're trying  

to do here is not just practice we're trying to  build a loop where you create listen create listen  

maybe sometimes correct yourself maybe sometimes  notice how your pronunciation has changed how your  

accent has changed with this kind of practice  you are internalizing all of the new vocabulary  

all right so let's move on to the next part of my  method that works incredibly good if you love to  

nerd out on language learning things if you love  to use ani and optimizing things you're going to  

love this part use close cards if you use Ani I  love Ani because their algorithm is amazing the  

way you can customize everything is just really  great for me but I see so many people just use  

basic cards on Anki just like the new word the  translation to their native language guys please  

don't do that try not to rely on translation so  much especially when you're creating flashcards  

for yourself maybe you know at the very beginning  you're learning a new word like the word decent  

and you're just very curious what it means in  your native language because the explanation  

that chat GPT gave you is not enough or maybe  it's too complicated because you're still a  

beginner or like an early intermediate student  okay you can use the translation to translate  

this word to your native language but then when  you're actually trying to memorize this word  

use pictures use example sentences but not your  native language close cards are basically fill  

in the blank cards and the reason why I love them  so much and I think right now my Anki deck is like  

95% closed cards is because you're not memorizing  isolated words context is exactly what triggers  

recall let's continue with the same YouTube video  and let's find a new word to add to Anki and to  

create a close card with honest hardworking  and loyal trustworthy i mean these were the I  

think we can already pause here and save the word  trustworthy because it's such a good word and I'm  

sure a lot of you want to start using this word  in your active vocabulary i would put this word  

to chat GPT with the exact same prompt and I would  add help me create a close card for Anki with it  

too so let's see okay the word is trustworthy  the simple explanation trustworthy means that  

you can trust this person they are honest they are  reliable and they won't lie to you or hurt you on  

purpose this is going to be the close fill in the  blank card for Anki i always tell Jake my secrets  

because he is very trustworthy i go to Anki and I  choose my note type i think by default it's going  

to be set to basic or basic and reverse card  this is not what I want i'm going to choose  

close and this is what it looks like so I'm going  to highlight the word trustworthy and I'm going  

to click here and this is going to create our  close deletion i highly recommend adding pictures  

or maybe synonyms for the word trustworthy like  honest reliable again you can just copy everything  

from Chad GPT because it gave me such a good but  simple explanation i think that really gives you  

a good idea of what word you're supposed to guess  okay then I click add and then I'm going to show  

you guys what it looks like when I click on study  now I see this i don't see my native language no  

translations i see a sentence i click on show  answer and I have again hard good easy let's  

choose good and so if I choose good Anki will show  me this sentence this word tomorrow in one day  

and now let's move to another method that I have  been really loving lately read listen and speak  

and do all of that together at the same time so  basically what I mean by that is you're listening  

to an audio book while you actually have the book  open in front of you and then after hearing one  

sentence you stop and you read the same sentence  out loud i'm not going to lie to you this method  

is really slow if you actually want to read  books very fast it's probably going to slow down  

your book reading progress to show you guys how I  actually use this method I'm going to use the book  

Wonder it is a short book from what I remember it  is really fun to read it has short sentences easy  

words something that native speakers actually  use in real life i know I'm not an ordinary  

10-year-old kid i know I'm not an ordinary  10-year-old kid i mean sure I do ordinary things  

i mean sure I do ordinary things i eat ice cream  i eat ice cream and here I can already notice  

something interesting he said "I eat ice cream."  He didn't say "I eat ice cream." He connected the  

word eat with a word ice cream and created this  flap t sound in American English i eat ice cream  

so guys I think it's going to be it for today's  video i really hope you liked it if you did don't  

forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to  my channel don't forget to check out this video's  

description to get my ultimate vocabulary guide  and also to check out Fluent You with my link you  

can try them for free and then get 40% off now  that you know how to make words stick and how to  

remember them long term let's actually go deeper  because the number one skill that made me fluent  

wasn't memorization it was listening and that is  why I highly recommend watching this video next