STOP Memorizing English Vocabulary Lists

In this week's English lesson, I am going to give you five reasons why you.

Yes, you my friend, should stop memorizing vocabulary lists.

This is something that you may not have heard before, something that

will change the way you study English from today Moving forward, stop

memorizing English vocabulary lists.

Are you ready?

To know why?

Well, then I'm teacher Tiffani.

Let's jump right in.

Reason number one, the very first reason you should stop memorizing English

vocabulary lists is because of a lack.

Of context, lemme explain.

Memorizing words without understanding their meaning and usage in context

makes it difficult to effectively use them in real life situations.

Listen, I need you to understand I have been where you are.

I speak Korean.

I started learning Korean when I was about 27 years old, several, several

years ago, and I remember sitting in my room memorizing hundreds of words, but

the problem was I couldn't remember the words after taking the exams because

I wasn't learning them in context.

When you simply memorize tons of words, your brain doesn't

have anything to connect to.

You need to learn them in context.

So instead of just memorizing a long list of vocabulary

words, I want you to do this.

I want you to read a passage from a book, from an article, or even a blog post.

Now after reading the passage, go back and review the words you did not know.

Then this will actually help you remember the words later.

You see this will help you learn the words in context and remember them when

you have another conversation later on.

You see, when you study words in context, your brain basically, thanks you.

Yes, there is this place inside of your brain that it can be stored because

there's already a connection there.

All right.

You read this word in the passage and the passage was

talking about a man and a woman.

They fell in love and you learn this word infatuated.

You learn that, oh, okay.

In the beginning, before they fell in love, he was infatuated with the woman

he wanted to be with her at all times.

Ah, infatuated, you are basically engrossed.

You want to be with the person at all times.

They consume your thoughts.

This is what happens when you learn in context.

You have a visual that connects to a word you are learning.

So again, the first reason why you should stop just memorizing words from a list

is because you lack context when you do.

That makes sense, right?

Let's move on to reason number two.

Reason number two, why you should stop memorizing words.

In a list form, limited retention.

You see memorized words are often forgotten quickly, if not

applied and reinforced regularly.

I mentioned earlier when I was telling you reason number one, I was

memorizing tons of words, but I wasn't able to retain them In my mind, in my

memory, the retention was very low.

Why?

Just like it says, they're often quickly forgotten because they're not reinforced.

They're not used on a regular basis.

Instead, this is what I want you to do Instead, I want you to learn two to

three related vocabulary words, synonyms.

Then try to use the words to describe some aspect of your daily life.

I wanna make sure you're writing this down.

This will help you remember what you learned.

For example, you know the word happy, right?

Many of you, maybe even you have said that.

I'm a very happy teacher.

It's true.

I'm a very happy person.

A synonym for happy.

You could also say elated.

Happy.

Happy to see you.

Elated to see you.

Now I'm gonna use this one word as an example.

So you have the word elated, and the majority of my students know this word.

Why?

Because they learned it by studying with me in my academy.

If you wanna join my academy, please do.

The link is in the description, or you can go to www.dailyenglishlessons.com

and start studying with us.

But they know this word elated, right?

So when you learn the word elated, Think of something in your life

that you feel elated about.

Ooh, I was elated when I saw my nieces.

I actually saw them yesterday, right?

That's my personal life.

So now in my brain, I'll be able to retain or keep that word.

Why?

Because now it's connected to my nieces.

So again, The reason why you should stop just memorizing lists of words is because

you will lack the retention necessary.

Instead, pick two to three words that have similar meanings and use them to describe

your daily life, and that will help you retain the words and use them later on.

Makes sense.

Right.

Good.

Now let's move on to number three.

Number three, the third reason why you must stop simply repeating

and re, re, I'm, I almost lost my train of thought there.

I'm leaving this in the video.

Stop memorizing just lists of words.

All right, here we go.

The third reason is this.

Inefficient learning method.

Inefficient.

It's an inefficient learning method to simply memorize.

Let me explain.

This approach focuses on rote memorization like a robot.

Rather than actively engaging with the language.

Ooh, I love this one.

Which can hinder overall language acquisition.

Let me break it down.

English is a very creative language.

It literally is focused on helping the individual put into words his or

her thoughts, ideas, and opinions.

So you're putting these words together, these English words, in a creative way.

To express yourself, but when you turn this creative process of

speaking English into simply a robotic method, memorize, memorize, memorize.

You are limiting yourself from being creative.

You won't be able to speak English like a native English speaker again.

This is not an efficient learning method.

Just memorizing over and over and over again turns you into a robot.

So instead of just this rote memorization of these long lists,

this is what I want you to do.

Instead, I want you to listen to Real English conversations and try to write

down new words and expressions again.

I actually have a new English conversation every month.

For students in my program now, I have two major programs.

The second program that includes these conversations on a monthly basis is the

speak English, like a native program.

Now that's for advanced English learners.

Again, if you'd like to join us, please do.

We'd love to have you in our family.

It's www.speakenglishlikeanative.com, but having these natural English

conversations listening to them, then.

Listen a second time and see if you can understand the

meaning of the words in context.

This will help you actively engage with the English language.

Again, listening to a conversation.

One time you're gonna hear new words, new expressions that you've

never heard before, but relax.

It's okay.

Listen again.

This time you'll hear the words and expressions, but because you've listened

before, because you have a little bit more context, You'll be able to

understand a little bit more what the words and expressions actually mean.

This is helping you actively engage with the language as opposed to

sitting down and just memorizing words.

Makes sense, right?

Alright.

Number four.

The fourth reason why I really want you to stop memorizing lists of words, a lack.

Of enjoyment.

You see, simply memorizing long lists of words is often tedious and not enjoyable.

Listen, I remember like it was yesterday when I was laying in my

bed memorizing a list of about a hundred Korean words, and I remember

it was around 4:00 AM in the morning.

I said, something has to give.

This is not the right way to study.

Because I was simply memorizing like a robot, but I knew that I was not going to

be able to use the words after the exam.

This is exactly why I'm trying to encourage you not to do what I did, right?

I changed my study style and it really helped, and I'm trying to

help you change your study style.

So when you're studying.

You want to enjoy the process.

If you're not having fun, you're not going to want to continue.

Think about it.

You've told me many times, and maybe you were one of the people

in the comment section, I.

Tiff, I love watching your English lessons.

Why?

Because you just look so happy.

You look like you're enjoying what you're doing, and I actually am enjoying this.

But can you imagine if all of a sudden I switched today's lesson is, and I, I don't

look like I'm enjoying what I'm doing.

You wouldn't watch the lessons anymore because you'd be able to

tell Tiffani's not enjoying this.

And you'd stop enjoying it too.

It's important to enjoy the process.

So instead of just memorizing, this is what I want you to do.

I want you to pick three to five new English words after

learning the meaning of each word.

Try to actively use them throughout the day in various conversations.

Have fun.

You learn a new word.

We learned elated earlier, right?

Let's say you learn apprehensive, it means a little bit nervous

or not sure of something, right?

Try to use that word throughout your day.

I went to go buy a bagel for breakfast, but I was a little bit apprehensive

because I had never tried that bagel shop.

Think about what you do throughout your day and try to use the

words to describe your day.

This will help you start actively using English because you'll be constantly

looking for creative ways to use the words we're talking about, truly learning words,

and not simply memorizing long lists.

Make sense?

Right now, this fifth reason I want you to pay close attention to the

fifth reason is an overemphasis.

On quantity over quality.

One of the reasons why I am telling you to stop memorizing English vocabulary

lists is it puts too much emphasis on quantity instead of quality.

Let me explain.

Instead of focusing on memorizing long lists of words, it is more

beneficial, more beneficial to focus on quality vocabulary that has

practical applications, for example, My database of vocabulary words

is much larger than my 13 year old niece's database of vocabulary words.

But my niece can speak very eloquently.

My niece is very intelligent.

Yes, I have more words in my database, but she is a fluent English speaker.

She's actually amazing.

I know I'm biased, but she's amazing.

You see what happens is instead of focusing on the quantity, you need

to focus on the quality of the words.

Are you able to use the words that you know, my niece doesn't know as many

words as I know, but she is able to use the words that she does know to

express herself clearly with confidence in whatever situation she's in.

And that's the goal you should have.

You should be able to use what you know, and then you can slowly

add more into your database.

So instead of focusing on the quantity, I know 5,000 words, but I can only use 200.

I want you to focus on the quality.

This is why I'm telling you to stop memorizing long lists of vocabulary words.

I want you to focus on quality, so this is what I want you to do.

I want you to write two to three vocabulary words that you already know.

Write them down, then find one synonym for each word.

After you have the synonyms, try to use them to describe

one aspect of your daily life.

Notice we're always talking about your daily life.

This will help you expand your vocabulary in a more natural way.

You know yourself well.

You know what you do on a regular basis.

So when you start using words to describe your daily life, you'll

have triggers in your brain.

You'll have things to connect to, and it will be easier to remember the words,

so, you know, happy a synonym, elated.

Excited, elated, uh, exuberant.

These are things you can use to describe your life.

Makes sense, right?

I really hope this lesson helped you.

Don't forget to open up the English with Tiffani app.

You can start practicing what I taught you today.

But don't forget this.

Stop memorizing long lists of words.

Follow the tips I gave you.

If you need to watch this lesson again or listen again, please do I believe in

you, and I hope you believe in yourself.

I'll talk to you in the next lesson.

You still there?

You know what time it is.

It's story time.

Hey, I said it story time.

I said it story time, all.

I have kind of a funny story for you today, so I'm gonna

tell you something about myself.

Okay?

So you know that I'm a foodie.

I love good food, right?

I love cooking for people.

I love eating good food.

I just love good food.

You also know that I am an early bird, right?

I go to bed early and I wake up early.

There's something else that you need to know.

There is a term that we use.

I'll teach you the shortened version.

After you eat a good plate of food, right?

Sometimes something happens, right?

You eat the plate of food, you sit back and you're just

reminiscing on all the flavors, the ingredients, and how good they were.

But all of a sudden your eyes just start to slowly close you.

You feel like you're awake, but your eyes are closing.

It's called the itis.

Now, in the African-American community, we call it the itis.

Some people call it a food coma.

Again, it's just what happens after you eat a good plate of food,

you start getting sleepy, right?

You get a little drowsy.

Now, this is something that happens to me all the time.

I get a little bit of drowsy.

I get a little bit drowsy.

I, I need a little bit of a nap right now.

It's not good to always nap after you eat.

You should take a walk, but I'm just letting you know what happens.

Why is this important?

So, you know that I used to work at nasa great boss John Sutter, and.

Our boss used to have meetings about once a week, which is

normal team meetings, right?

There was one problem.

Now, I've told some of you this story before, so you might remember there was

one problem you see, John would schedule the meetings at one o'clock, my lunchtime.

It was 12 o'clock.

Now, I just told you, after I eat a good meal, my body just wants to take a nap.

Now, the first time I heard that our meetings were at one o'clock, I knew

there was going to be a problem, but I said, Lord, you help me.

You help me.

So I remember I would eat my lunch.

Delicious.

Delicious.

And I said, okay, TIFF, let's stay strong.

Let's stay strong.

1245 would roll around.

I was doing good.

1255, I was doing good.

So I walk into the room where we were gonna have our meeting,

and everyone's walking in there about, I think 10 of us, right?

Everything was going good.

1259.

I was sitting in my seat.

I like to be at the front to make sure I could pay attention, right?

Coworkers were all, you know, saying, Hey, how are you?

How was your lunch?

And then John would come up front and sometimes he'd have a presentation.

So if you have a presentation, you have to cut the lights off.

Woo.

And that's where it started going downhill.

I made the greatest effort to stay awake in those meetings.

He'd start the presentation and I'd be focused.

Mm, yes.

Yes.

John.

Say it.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Paying attention.

10 minutes in.

Gone.

Gone.

I, I tried to, I tried to stay awake, but my eyes just, my eyelids felt

so heavy and I doze off and then the lights would come on and I'd look

around and I know that John saw me.

I was in front, but he was such a nice guy.

I think he understood.

They just ate lunch.

She's tired.

She's tired.

He never said anything, but I was trying.

So I'd wake up when the lights came on and we'd finish the rest of the

meeting, but I just wanna let you know.

If you have a boss like John, a boss that understands sometimes it's

difficult to stay awake, hug your boss.

Let your boss know you appreciate him or her.

John, I appreciate you.

I really did like John.

Guys, this is, again, just a funny story, but John was a great boss

and I honestly was so in shock that he never mentioned anything to me.

I think he understood my struggle.

I hope you enjoyed this story and I will talk to you in the next lesson.