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Vocab Learning

od Abii, 17 maja 2009

Wpisy: 17

Język: English

Abii (Pokaż profil) 17 maja 2009, 23:51:40

Does anyone have a good vocabulary learning method? I've tried the courses on this site, and I get bored quickly. I find that just learning the grammar flat out is how I learn the best, but I pick up very few words in the process. Is there any way/where I can learn an abundance of common words at my own pace?

RiotNrrd (Pokaż profil) 18 maja 2009, 01:42:08

Start writing something (anything, really), and avail yourself of the Lernu vortaro. Look up every word that you need to, and you'll quickly learn exactly the vocabulary that is most useful to you (and will amaze yourself at how quickly your rate of looking words up drops).

I personally recommend starting a blog and forcing yourself to make a daily (or weekly, or whatever-pace-you-want) entry. Doesn't have to be long. Doesn't have to be interesting. Does have to be done. ridulo.gif

But if a blog isn't your thing, then write a story. Or a political commentary. Or... anything.

Regularly writing original pieces in Esperanto is, in my opinion, the single best path to learning useful vocabulary quickly.

At first it will be truly slow going, where a single paragraph will take waaaay more time that it feels like it should. However, you will pass that phase pretty quickly. Esperanto is amazingly "sticky" - the words have a great ability to stick in your head once you've used them once or twice.

andogigi (Pokaż profil) 18 maja 2009, 01:48:25

Abii:Does anyone have a good vocabulary learning method? I've tried the courses on this site, and I get bored quickly. I find that just learning the grammar flat out is how I learn the best, but I pick up very few words in the process. Is there any way/where I can learn an abundance of common words at my own pace?
I use recipes cards for flashcards. Write the Esperanto word on one side with the English translation on the opposing. You can carry them with you anywhere and do word drills while you're standing in line, riding the bus, etc. It really helps.

jchthys (Pokaż profil) 18 maja 2009, 03:16:45

I highly recommend the free computer program Mnemosyne (named after the Greek goddess of memory). It works sort of like flashcards, only it times the cards based on when you are likely to just remember it. Thus it is efficient and does not make you waste time on cards you know well.

In addition, thousands of Esperanto cards can be downloaded freely from the same place.

hiyayaywhopee (Pokaż profil) 18 maja 2009, 05:06:41

I recently found the website http://smart.fm/, and I can say that it's excellent, and some users have already added content from some lernu courses, though unfortunately the site doesn't take Esperanto characters as input too easily so the courses that use the x-method work best.

Miland (Pokaż profil) 18 maja 2009, 09:10:18

Abii:Does anyone have a good vocabulary learning method?
I suggest you begin with the lists by topic on this website.

After that start compiling your own vocabulary notebook, and I suggest organising it in groups of 20 or so words at a time for a suitably sized learning unit. Cover up the Esperanto words and try to remember the English, then do the reverse.

But it's important to get one thing straight: improving your vocabulary deliberately will require a sustained effort, involving regular self-discipline. Unless you are willing to make that sacrifice, there will be no worthwhile progress.

jchthys (Pokaż profil) 18 maja 2009, 12:45:26

I found these couple pages comparing Anki and Mnemosyne. Seems like if you've been using Anki there's not a real reason to change. (Mnemosyne cards can be imported into Anki without losing learning data, but not vice versa.)

richardhall (Pokaż profil) 18 maja 2009, 17:36:49

RiotNrrd:I personally recommend starting a blog and forcing yourself to make a daily (or weekly, or whatever-pace-you-want) entry. Doesn't have to be long. Doesn't have to be interesting. Does have to be done. ridulo.gif
Thanks for that - just the kick up the pants I needed to get going on by E-o blog again.

russ (Pokaż profil) 19 maja 2009, 09:17:54

Another nice free program (in Java, so it works on most computers and operating systems) is at http://jmemorize.org - I have been using it for years for Esperanto, Polish, Latin, etc learning. It handles Unicode fine.

As you get a card correct more often, it shows it to you less and less often, so you don't waste time studying the stuff you already know well, and if you don't know a card, it shows it to your more frequently again.

It also lets you add a picture to a card. I've found that Google images is a nice fast way to get a small (2K or 3K) image file for many common concepts! Visual learning of object names often helps!

A practice I highly recommend is to read Esperanto text frequently and note/underline words that you notice to be frequent/useful/interesting to you personally, and then look them up and add them to jMemorize (or whatever program you use). Studying words that you encounter in real life and that have relevance to you personally is more motivating than only trying to learn long lists of words created by other people.

And yes, of course write/translate and read/listen often - that forces/encourages you to continually learn new words.

erinja (Pokaż profil) 26 maja 2009, 20:57:49

richardhall:
RiotNrrd:I personally recommend starting a blog and forcing yourself to make a daily (or weekly, or whatever-pace-you-want) entry. Doesn't have to be long. Doesn't have to be interesting. Does have to be done. ridulo.gif
Thanks for that - just the kick up the pants I needed to get going on by E-o blog again.
Richard, don't forget that this works for any language at all - including, oh, I dunno, perhaps WELSH okulumo.gif . If you are writing something short, perhaps you could try to do at least part of it in both Esperanto and Welsh!

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