Study Tips

How To Learn New Words:

Knowing words is absolutely essential if you want to speak another language! It’s like the bricks when you want to build a house – there is no use in designing a fancy balcony or big French windows if you don’t have any bricks. Learn some new words everyday! Only rich vocab will enable you to express yourself. Here’s how to make it easier:

· Use flash cards – they seem a lot of effort at the beginning but will save you a lot of time and frustration in the long run – you will definitely thank yourself later. Colour-code them according to the gender (pink for feminine, blue for masculine - and white for neuter if you are learning German!) and put the foreign word on one side, the English on the other. If the word is a noun note down the plural form and gender too. If it’s a verb note down any irregularities in conjugation. Also copy out a sentence where you got the word from so you are learning it in context.

· Group words on one card that belong together for you – for whatever reason

· Then learn vocab in short bursts – in the tube, on the plane, in a queue at the cashier. Write your 5 daily new words into your diary or have that day’s cards lying on your desk

· If you absolutely cannot bring yourself to make up cards use a small notebook, something you can easily carry around with you. Use foreign on one page and English on the other, so that you can easily cover up one side and test yourself. As above include all the relevant information on the word as well as a sentence. Don’t be afraid to write the same word down many times – if you still don’t know it, write it down again. One saying goes, “You will never forget what you wrote down nine times.”

· Differentiate between need-to-know and nice-to-know: only learn vocabulary that you really need or are interested in – don’t learn words that bore you just because they are next in the book. Personalise your learning by taking active responsibility for what you want to learn.

· When learning words say them out loud as well as read and write them, this is very important – the more senses involved in the learning process the better. If you are learning on the train or other public places at least mumble to yourself!

· Make the words active by doing them – e.g. when learning nouns ("people, places, things") look and point at, or draw the actual thing; when you learn the verb 'to stand', actually stand up, or 'to think', tap your head etc. Make your own sentences – at least one for every new word – and check if these work with your teacher. It is very important to learn new words in the right context. Right includes, right for you. Think about how you would want to use that new word in situations you actually encounter.

· If you find a word particularly hard to remember, use a compare-and-contrast-strategy – look at the word and actively think about associations it holds for you. E.g. notice how a word is unusually short or long, what vowels it contains, if it starts with the same letter as the English word, if it sounds like an English word or any other word etc. Then think of a picture or a sentence that can help you remember it. Take the German word ‘bald’ meaning ‘soon’. An obvious phrase [for some!] would be, “Soon I will go bald”. It doesn’t matter how silly these memory aids are, if it is vivid enough you will never forget the word.

Use Your New Language Skills Every Day! Here is How:

Write in your schedule or appointment diary in the language you are learning, count the stairs in the target language, read out telephone numbers and prices in the foreign language, list the things you do regularly in the office: reading email, writing reports, phoning clients. If you lack any of these words ask you teacher!

· Use every opportunity to talk to native speakers, such as friends and colleagues, even if it’s just for short bursts like, “Hello, how are you?" "I have a question.” The worst mistakes you can make are: to be shy or to be a perfectionist!

Simplify sentences until you can say most of what you want to say, this is very important. You will not be able to say everything in the target language like you can in English, but that doesn’t mean you cannot say anything! Use simpler words and simpler constructions. Break longer phrases into two shorter ones.

Now practice by talking to yourself! It is very important to speak a foreign language! In your head you might sound perfect but as soon as the sounds come out of your mouth the truth will reveal itself!