Vocabulary Notebook

Hey!

It’s me againJ. When I was still in High school, I had an ordinary technique for studying vocabulary. I wrote the German word on the left, the English equivalent on the right side, then covered one side and tried to remember the translation of the words.

At university I realised that this system won’t work because our English teachers expected from the definition of the word and an example sentence to show that we know how to use it. At this time I discovered the website www.vocabulary.com and fell in love with itJ. After each PC I improved my studying technique a bit until I found the perfect method for me.

At first, I create a new vocabulary list and type in all of the words. Then I look at the Cambridge online dictionary for definitions. I do not use the definitions from vocabulary.com because they are often too long and too complicated for me and I find it difficult to remember them. When I have found a definition, I look for a “good” example sentence. The best example sentences are those where something exciting happens, e.g. when someone gets murdered or dies. This sounds brutal, I know, but I can comfort you: I am not violent or aggressive person. It is just easier to remember a word when you have a clear picture in your mind. My example sentence for the word “precipitate” was: “Susan’s death precipitated a family crisis.” This sentence is more powerful than the one I found in an online dictionary: “An invasion would certainly precipitate a political crisis.” 

If I have to learn 200 or more words, I need sentences that create strong and vivid pictures.

Sometimes the example sentences are not strong enough. If I cannot remember a word after I have revised it five or six times, I cut it out and put it in a plastic bowl. Here you can see a picture: (didn't work :(

I then pull the words out separately, repeat the words a few times in my head and think up an aide-memoire. Most of them are really stupid – but very helpful. My favourite aide-memoire this time was for the word “discern”, which means to see or recognize something. 

I imagined a person who is playing Frisbee with a disc (discern). Suddenly the disc gets stuck in a wall of fog and the person cannot see it anymore. This little story made it easy for me to remember the example sentence: “I could not discern the ... [ship, car, dog... à whatever] through the fog.

What do you think about my technique? Funny, stupid, weird??