Learning Vocabulary

Whenever you learn a new language, you also need to learn new vocabulary. Whether you learn the second language in school, in evening classes or on your own, the more words you know, the greater your possibilities. But how can you learn new vocabulary the most effectively?

Cluster Learning
New words stick best if you learn them in connection to something. For example, make a word cluster with words that have to do with holidays, or with school. Then, learn the whole cluster.

Three Times Ten
Instead of learning new words for a long period of time every day, dedicate three times ten minutes per day to new words. The human brain is not able to "save" new input for longer periods of time; instead of remembering everything, it will concentrate on the first and last things you learnt. If, however, you split the time to shorter intervals, your brain can actually save everything more easily.

15 Words
Every time you learn new words, limit the amount of words to about 15 and repeat those 15 words a few times in random order.

Rinse and Repeat
New words need some time and several repetitions in order to be saved in your long-term memory. Repeat new words every day for three or four days, and then go over older sets of words every week until you feel you really know them.

Make it a Game
Learning vocabulary can be very tedious. If you manage to make it fun, though, the task doesn't only become more pleasant, the words will also be easier to remember. Try to make the longest word chain (start each new word with the last letter of the previous word) you can think of, or grab some friends who learn the same language and try to come up with words from different categories which start with the same letter (for example nouns, verbs and adjectives which begin with an a).

If you have other tricks to learn new vocabulary, I would appreciate it if you shared them with us. Thanks!

English--Language of Variety

The English language has an extremely wide range of words for us to use. It is estimated that the current English vocabulary sums up to about 500,000 - 600,000 words. German comes close, but French, for example, only knows about 300,000 words. Now what does that mean?

One reason for this huge difference might be the way words are built. Where English or German may create one new word, French uses several existing words to name the same thing. On the other hand, English is a language full of synonyms and words with a similar yet slightly different meaning. In short, English is a paradise for writers because we have a huge variety of words at our fingertips. By choosing one word over another, similar word, we can express nuances of meaning which would otherwise be difficult to describe.

Example:

She looked at him./She stared at him.

Both verbs describe the same activity, but in the second sentence you get the impression that she is intensely looking at him, maybe in shock or surprise, whereas the first sentence could mean anything from a fleeting look over turning her head towards him in surprise because he spoke to watching him in his sleep. "Look" doesn't tell us the quality of the activity; "stare" conveys more information in a single word.

Synonyms can help to make a text varied since we don't need to use the same word over and over again.

Some examples:

eventually--finally--in the end--at last--ultimately
luckily--fortunately
however--though--but--yet

Depending on which word/word group we use, our sentence structure might also vary, which will ultimately make out text less monotonous and thus less boring to read.

If we know our vocabulary, it is so much easier to create images with our writing, and to make a text interesting to read, which should be our ultimate goals as writers (even the best story will suffer from bad writing, but with a good writing voice, even the most boring content can gain appeal).

Reading - Only a Hobby or More?

Your child is sitting in his room, totally absorbed by the book he's reading, while chaos reigns all around him? He is reading although you told him to tidy up his room? He knows more excuses for reading on than for anything else?

Congratulations! You are blessed with a book-loving child. Nowadays, this becomes ever rarer. Many children love their computers, Xboxes, Nintendos and the like. If you give them a book, they might even look for the switch to turn it on.

You might wonder why I congratulate you if your child forgets his duties while reading. Well, that’s simple. Reading is the most precious gift. A child that loves reading will most probably be more creative than other children. He has a great imagination. He can concentrate for hours on one and the same task. Furthermore, his ability for language, for grammar and spelling, and his vocabulary will increase considerably through reading.

Now, do you still wish your child wouldn’t read that much?

The greater problem is how to wake up the love for books in a child that doesn’t have it naturally. There are so many children nowadays who have never read a single book in their whole life. The best way to get your children to read is so easy: Read to them when they are young. Buy them books with topics that interest them and fit their age. Read a lot yourself. Children tend to copy what their parents do.

And then, when you have a book-loving child, don’t lose patience when he forgets his duties over his books. Just think of all the benefits of reading and get yourself a nice book too.