Ep. 01 | Advice from a Student to a Student
Hi there! I decided to start a new series called Advice from a Student to a Student or shortly STS series. I hope you will find useful tips about studying here. This one will be about what you can do to improve and memorize your vocabulary when you are learning a foreign language. Let’s do it.
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR VOCABULARY IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (7 TIPS) HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR VOCABULARY IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (7 TIPS)
1. FIND SYNONYMS. One good way of broadening your vocabulary is finding a synonyms to any words that you already know. For example, if you like the word Beautiful, you look up the synonyms and you can immediately say it in several different ways. Splendid, dazzling, exquisite and more. Some words have more than ten different synonyms so you can say the same thing in more than ten different ways. Amazing! I personally love the diversity in a language. It is so beautiful when you can express yourself with a rich vocabulary. So with this way of improving your vocabulary, your speech will improve as well, because you will know how to explain and also express many situations and things.
2. MEMORIZE NEW WORDS WITH IMAGES. If you are learning a new vocabulary and you bump into words that you are not quite sure about or you don’t quite understand them or you can’t remember them, you can simply look them up using google images and voila! If you have a good visual memory, this tip is the win for you. You will connect the word with the image and you are sorted. Memorized? Check.
3. ONE WORD PER DAY. Set a specific small journal for this. Every day in the morning (in the train, bus, or whatever you are using to commute to work or school) find a new word and only one its synonym and write it down. After you do this, look up its meanings, some pictures related to these words and most importantly repeat them all day in your head when you have some spare time. By the end of the year, you should know about 365 new words x2 times. So that equals 730 new words a year! Whoa! (365 x 2 because of the synonyms = 730). And even if you forget some of them, you still know at least 580 words by the end of the year. That is easy and simple, right?
4. LISTEN TO SONGS. Of course to the songs that are in the language you are learning. Okay, if you have the song, now what do you do? I recommend to always play the song with lyrics on youtube. If you don’t know the words, simply write them down and look the meaning up. And you have plenty of new words in your diary to practice the step 3. This is one of the most fun ways hot to improve and broaden your vocabulary.
5. READ. As simple this sounds, as simple it is. If you are a bit advanced in the language you are learning, this tip is definitely for you. You really shouldn’t miss out on books. Any kind, basically. But, even though you are a beginner, don’t forget that you can find some books divided into different language skill levels. Simply ask in your favorite bookstore and they will tell you if they have these options as well. Also, it is very common to learn on the internet these days, so I suggest you to find any kind of articles on the internet that might interest you. Do your research. It is worth it.
6. LISTEN TO PODCASTS. This tip is also slightly improving your grammar and listening as well, but you can also improve your vocabulary with listening to the natives. And podcasts are most likely recorded by natives. Try to loop up any podcasts in the language you are trying to master and then simply listen.
7. WATCH TV SHOWS. Yes, this is the classic tips. But it is working. When you watch the tv show, you hear the language, like in the songs or podcasts, but also, you have a visual support. So it is most likely more effective. However, very often the actors and actresses speak fast and you can’t quite catch the point. To minimize that cause, I recommend finding the show with subtitles. But make sure the subtitles are in the language you are learning, please. Also, don’t be scared to pause the show several times and look up the vocabulary you don’t understand and use some of the memorizing techniques I told you about earlier in the article.
Okay boys and girls, I hope that you enjoyed these seven useful tips on improving your vocabulary. If you know about anything that you would like me to do the next advice STS about, then let me know! I am open to any ideas for new articles. Okay boys and girls, I hope that you enjoyed these seven useful tips on improving your vocabulary. If you know about anything that you would like me to do the next advice STS about, then let me know! I am open to any ideas for new articles.
Thank you so much for reading this article and see you in the next one. Good luck with you vocabulary! Thank you so much for reading this article and see you in the next one. Good luck with you vocabulary!
Naty