This is a new challenge I've set for myself in the languages I'm currently studying, French and Dutch. I'm recommending it for my English students as well. One of the biggest obstacles to learning a language is vocabulary, not only at the beginning, but later as well. If you only study what you learn at school and from textbooks, you will never learn real English. For speaking, it's possible to get by with only knowing about 3000 or so words. You can even get by just using 1000 if you're creative. However, you won't be able to make any progress in reading unless you know from 8000 - 10,000 words. Of course you will be able to get the general idea with fewer words, but it's still better to work on increasing our vocabulary and make it part of our daily practice.
Most students don't actively seek out and try to find new words, however. Why? Probably, just laziness and procrastination. Most students just do what the teacher gives them as homework. Others watch YouTube videos and read random articles, but don't look any words up. Of course, if you read and watch videos a lot, you will learn and pick up words from context. There is a whole methodology around this, which is known as extensive reading. It works, but you need to read and watch a lot for it to work. Actively looking for new words and trying to learn them sometimes is the most effective way to increase your vocabulary.
Why 20 words? It's a reasonable number of words to learn in a day. It usually takes less than 30 minutes to do. If you do it every day, you will know more than 7000 words at the end of the year.
What I do is find an article that I'm interested in. That's important. Don't try to make yourself read something you don't like. I prefer articles about popular psychology and motivation. These include a lot of everyday vocabulary that is useful to learn. Another interesting place to find words are on lists. You can google things like "100 things to do when you are bored" or look up bucket lists. Lists are fun because they also include useful words and expressions and they aren't difficult to read.
When I find something I don't understand, I first look it up by using google translate and then I find the dictionary in a monolingual dictionary. Wiktionary is good for this. If you are trying to find out what a word means in English you can also find the definition by typing "definition: word" in Google.
Keep in mind that sometimes it's not just a word that you don't understand, but the phrase as a whole that operates as one unit. For example, the expression "every now and then" means "sometimes". Many students get confused because they understand each word on its own, but can't understand what the expression means because they are translating each word one by one into their own language and it doesn't make sense. This is one of the reasons why it is bad to translate in your head. However, even if you aren't doing this, these kinds of expressions can still be confusing. Google Translate, however, is getting better and better at translating these kinds of idiomatic phrases correctly.
One I find the words, I write them down as a numbered list in Evernote. I sometimes also use Trello. You can use whatever note program you want, or keep a separate journal if you like writing things down by hand. I usually just write the word and sometimes a sentence or phrase using the word. I don't write the translation because the next day, I will review the list I wrote from the previous day. If I have forgotten some of the words, I will look them up again. It helps me to train my memory and figure out what words are giving me problems. If I still can't remember I don't worry about it too much. At a later date I can always make flashcards.
The important thing is to keep at it and do it every day. I don't follow my own advice, but I'm trying to improve. The hardest thing is to remember to do it. One thing that helps is to make it into a routine. Do it while your drinking coffee in the morning for example or while relaxing in the evening before going to bed. Let me know how it goes!
Most students don't actively seek out and try to find new words, however. Why? Probably, just laziness and procrastination. Most students just do what the teacher gives them as homework. Others watch YouTube videos and read random articles, but don't look any words up. Of course, if you read and watch videos a lot, you will learn and pick up words from context. There is a whole methodology around this, which is known as extensive reading. It works, but you need to read and watch a lot for it to work. Actively looking for new words and trying to learn them sometimes is the most effective way to increase your vocabulary.
Why 20 words? It's a reasonable number of words to learn in a day. It usually takes less than 30 minutes to do. If you do it every day, you will know more than 7000 words at the end of the year.
What I do is find an article that I'm interested in. That's important. Don't try to make yourself read something you don't like. I prefer articles about popular psychology and motivation. These include a lot of everyday vocabulary that is useful to learn. Another interesting place to find words are on lists. You can google things like "100 things to do when you are bored" or look up bucket lists. Lists are fun because they also include useful words and expressions and they aren't difficult to read.
When I find something I don't understand, I first look it up by using google translate and then I find the dictionary in a monolingual dictionary. Wiktionary is good for this. If you are trying to find out what a word means in English you can also find the definition by typing "definition: word" in Google.
Keep in mind that sometimes it's not just a word that you don't understand, but the phrase as a whole that operates as one unit. For example, the expression "every now and then" means "sometimes". Many students get confused because they understand each word on its own, but can't understand what the expression means because they are translating each word one by one into their own language and it doesn't make sense. This is one of the reasons why it is bad to translate in your head. However, even if you aren't doing this, these kinds of expressions can still be confusing. Google Translate, however, is getting better and better at translating these kinds of idiomatic phrases correctly.
One I find the words, I write them down as a numbered list in Evernote. I sometimes also use Trello. You can use whatever note program you want, or keep a separate journal if you like writing things down by hand. I usually just write the word and sometimes a sentence or phrase using the word. I don't write the translation because the next day, I will review the list I wrote from the previous day. If I have forgotten some of the words, I will look them up again. It helps me to train my memory and figure out what words are giving me problems. If I still can't remember I don't worry about it too much. At a later date I can always make flashcards.
The important thing is to keep at it and do it every day. I don't follow my own advice, but I'm trying to improve. The hardest thing is to remember to do it. One thing that helps is to make it into a routine. Do it while your drinking coffee in the morning for example or while relaxing in the evening before going to bed. Let me know how it goes!
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