Real ESL

One way to learn vocabulary fast is to put a sheet of vocabulary words in your pocket as you leave the house. Then, every time you have to wait for something, pull it out and learn a few words or test yourself or practice using the words in sentences.

How do you get this sheet? Every time you watch American TV or read something on the Internet, you should have an English-English dictionary with you. When you hear a word you don’t know, write it down. Then, look up the word in your dictionary, write down the definition in English and write down the example sentence.

Try to avoid writing down a translation because that will not help you think in English and this should be your eventual goal. Write down an English explanation and then if it still doesn’t help you, look up the translation. Don’t worry if this takes more time; in the long run, it will save you time because you’ll learn English faster.

Do you have difficulty remembering words? Try to link them to something funny or something you will remember, a strange image or another word in the language. These are called tags and they help you remember anything you want to remember.

For example, yesterday, I learned the word “hormiga” in Spanish. This means “ant” in English. I have a wonderful housekeeper who speaks Spanish and I was trying to explain how we were getting a lot of ants in the last couple days. I’ve learned this word before, but I keep forgetting it. So, I tried to think of a tag. I decided it sounded like “horny amiga”. Horny is an English word that describes someone who wants to have sex. “Amiga” is a Spanish word that means friend. It’s a strange tag, but it helped me remember it.

To give you a similar example, when I went to Korea to teach English, I didn’t know any Korean. On my first day, another English teacher taught me how to say hello – anyonaseyo. It sounds a little like ‘onion asshole’, he said, and I never forgot it after that. ‘Onion asshole’ makes absolutely no sense, but the strange combination of words helped me start learning Korean.

So, about the sheet of vocabulary, bring it everywhere you go and stick it up anywhere you spend time. Don’t leave vocabulary in a notebook! You will never learn it. Stick it up by the toilet, put it in the part of the shower that doesn’t get wet, put it by the place where you wash dishes, put one by the front door and stick one in your pocket.

One last thing . . . a great dictionary is the Longman dictionary. It has simple explanations and example sentences. You can get it on Amazon.com. Don’t get an electronic dictionary. The great thing about a normal dictionary is that when you open it to look up a word, you can discover other words.

Have fun!
Kim