How can I learn 50 new vocabulary words a day?

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leosmith
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Re: How can I learn 50 new vocabulary words a day?

Postby leosmith » Mon Jun 05, 2023 3:30 am

rdearman wrote:I figured if I jump-started the reading process by learning most of the words in the book, before I start reading the books, then I'm ahead of the game. This is the reason I'm not all that worried about reviews, I'll see the words in the books anyway.
Maybe you've already answered this, but is this book the first thing you've read in the language? If so, why not read something easier?

Also, are you reading using a pop-up dictionary? They make material much more comprehensible. Some people learn thousands of words in advance, but it's a harder path imo. With a difficult script, the easiest path may be different. For example with Mandarin, standard advice these days is to do tons of reading, feeding a manageable amount of vocab into anki as you go, doing L2 to L1 reviews only. I always add "read with a pop-up dictionary that lets you export your selected words" to that advice, since it's such a time saver, but I'd be lying if I said that was standard. Anyway, Korean isn't Mandarin, so ymmv.
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Re: How can I learn 50 new vocabulary words a day?

Postby Iversen » Mon Jun 05, 2023 8:22 am

I would never try to learn all the new words in a book before trying to read it - but it's a good idea to 'learn ahead' for just one sentence or paragraph at a time so that you don't have to look things up in the middle of it. Apart from that, using bilingual texts is my solution to the need for immediate solutions to lexical problems, popup-dictionaries is another useful tool, but then you have to read onscreen.

And by the way, as I promised in my previous message I have done some more Serbian wordcounts to check my current status, and as expected my status is basically unchanged since 2021 - around 50% known headwords. So whatever I do it seems to keep my vocabulary at a stable level. I'll write some more about it in my own log instead of cluttering this more general thread, but the message must be that it IS possible to learn a lot of words fast, and it is NOT impossible to retain a reasonable part of them. What you have to do that is the big question ....

I did however notice at the top of this page that einzelne apparently didn't read literature in French during one year, and that would definitely be a valid reason for vocabulary loss - but reading non fiction should actually be enough (that's what I read, and therefore I may be weak on day to day vocabulary, but strong on scientific and cultural topics).

I have a pattern with Irish where I sometimes work hard for maybe a couple weeks, and then I leave it aside because I haven't got much apart from Harry Potter to study, and it's irritating to spend time on a language which most people in its home country hate because they have been forced to (not) learn it in school. But each time I return to Irish for one more active period I have to relearn most of my vocabulary just to read a simple text, and of course that also is a factor that limits my involvement with this language. With Albanian and Indonesian it's the same thing, except that there are populations here that actively use them- the main problem is that their Wikipedias aren't the most compehensive in the world, and I am never confronted with those languages here in Denmark.

The inference seems to be that you don't have to reinforce the concrete words, but you have to keep the languages in general active.
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Re: How can I learn 50 new vocabulary words a day?

Postby Le Baron » Mon Jun 05, 2023 10:03 am

Skimming ahead through a chapter and pinpointing words I don't know is what I always do, unless I'm only reading casually and don't care as much. That skimming draws up a short list from which I look up the meanings of the words and note them down and then read the chapter with that list to hand. By the end of the book I have a number of lists amounting to quite a lot of words. Some of which go into Anki and some just stick.

The important part being the compilation and investigation of the words, then trying them out in sentences to work out what they really mean, is what anchors them in memory for me. I can't see that some attempt at an automated 'solution' will provide anything better. Like the difference between repairing something yourself and sending it somewhere else to be repaired. The first gives you hands-on familiarity with what is going on, the second is just a closed-shop operation. How could anyone learn anything from that?

I use pop-up dictionaries now and again (mostly for obscure words when reading news), but the principle seems to me anti-learning, too easy, because you can just get an instant translation and move on as the gaps are quickly filled. So it's a crutch and if it were to be taken away and you go back to a book you're lost. That is a slap in the face for how competent one's reading only appeared to be.
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Re: How can I learn 50 new vocabulary words a day?

Postby einzelne » Mon Jun 05, 2023 12:17 pm

Iversen wrote:I did however notice at the top of this page that einzelne apparently didn't read literature in French during one year, and that would definitely be a valid reason for vocabulary loss - but reading non fiction should actually be enough (that's what I read, and therefore I may be weak on day to day vocabulary, but strong on scientific and cultural topics).


Precisely! It would be enough to keep your language active in specific domains but neither philosophy and science books nor radio podcasts on culture and politics discuss such things as tumble dryers or slippers.
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Re: How can I learn 50 new vocabulary words a day?

Postby einzelne » Mon Jun 05, 2023 12:28 pm

Le Baron wrote:I use pop-up dictionaries now and again (mostly for obscure words when reading news), but the principle seems to me anti-learning, too easy, because you can just get an instant translation and move on as the gaps are quickly filled. So it's a crutch and if it were to be taken away and you go back to a book you're lost. That is a slap in the face for how competent one's reading only appeared to be.


Not really. I wouldn't be so harsh. Imagine I would like to read some classical or modernist novel. For instance, I read Céline's Guerre out of curiosity last month. I couldn't read it on paper. But do I need to clutter up my memory with some argot words I will only find in his novels? Even the French edition has an appendix Lexique de la langue populaire, argotique, médicale et militaire for native speakers.
Last edited by einzelne on Mon Jun 05, 2023 8:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How can I learn 50 new vocabulary words a day?

Postby Le Baron » Mon Jun 05, 2023 12:33 pm

einzelne wrote:Not really. I wouldn't so harsh. Imagine I would like to read some classical or modernist novel. For instance, I read Céline's Guerre out of curiosity last month. I couldn't read it on paper. But do I need to clutter up my memory with some argot words I will only find in his novels? Even the French edition has an appendix Lexique de la langue populaire, argotique, médicale et militaire for native speakers.

Yes of course, but I meant for learning words at a level where regular vocabulary still needs to be learned. I still look up argot/verlan words in modern French novels and either remember or forget them, but when I was reading Spanish regularly at lower intermediate pop-up was of limited value to me, because it tempts you to move on after having the word problem quickly solved.
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Re: How can I learn 50 new vocabulary words a day?

Postby einzelne » Mon Jun 05, 2023 12:46 pm

Le Baron wrote:Yes of course, but I meant for learning words at a level where regular vocabulary still needs to be learned. I still look up argot/verlan words in modern French novels and either remember or forget them, but when I was reading Spanish regularly at lower intermediate pop-up was of limited value to me, because it tempts you to move on after having the word problem quickly solved.


I don't see it as a problem, provided that you continue to read and also read paper books time and then. Ideally, it would be great to review new vocabulary but even with 'lazy' reading you eventually build you vocabulary. (I would always highlight new words though and then, if you happen to go through them, you notice that you highlighted the same word several times which sends a direct signal to your brain — this word is of greater value for you) This is what happened to me when I started to read fiction extensively on my iPad in the beginning of COVID when all libraries were closed.
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Re: How can I learn 50 new vocabulary words a day?

Postby Le Baron » Mon Jun 05, 2023 1:01 pm

einzelne wrote:I don't see it as a problem, provided that you continue to read and also read paper books time and then. Ideally, it would be great to review new vocabulary but even with 'lazy' reading you eventually build you vocabulary. (I would always highlight new words though and then, if you happen to go through them, you notice that you highlighted the same word several times which sends a direct signal to your brain — this word is of greater value for you) This is what happened to me when I started to read fiction extensively on my iPad in the beginning of COVID when all libraries were closed.

If you are pursuing and checking out the words after noting them, then okay it's not much different then looking up the words in an ordinary way. What I'm saying is that the ease of using a pop-up dictionary makes it tempting to just check the pop-up and move on (since that is the point of a pop-up dictionary, right?), rather than spending time to become familiar with the words in many ways. And specifically becoming familiar with them before reading the passage where they occur. That latter was the main point.
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Re: How can I learn 50 new vocabulary words a day?

Postby AndyMeg » Mon Jun 05, 2023 5:39 pm

rdearman wrote:The best things I did with French and Italian were the super challenges, both the reading and the listening. But, I can't read in Korean! I don't have enough vocabulary.

If you use Mirinae you can do it with your current knowledge of Korean. That's what I'm doing these days (I'm reading a Korean webtoon and just started to read a Korean webnovel with the help of Mirinae). You can use the Google Chrome Mirinae extension (which is free) and start reading right away. Or you can buy a subscription to the app (available for both iOS and Android) to be able to use all the features (though quite a good amount of those features are still free on the browser extension).

Here a video about Mirinae:

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Re: How can I learn 50 new vocabulary words a day?

Postby Christi » Sun Jun 25, 2023 8:17 pm

I just went through this thread and just wondered if anyone has used the idea of using Chatgpt to create a story with all the new words to be learned? It seems like an innovative idea!
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