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How to make things stick? | ||
Tags: Vocabulary learning | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3903 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes  Speaks: French | Message 1 of 15 24 September 2014 at 8:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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The other day I realized I had confused avoir, with voir (easy to do) I decided it was time to do a big review to see what else it was I had forgotten or confused. Luckily so far nothing much was forgotten, since I passively use my french by listening to the radio or reading almost every day, I did forget some things especially those that you don't hear on news radio every day. So my question is how do I make those things stick that I don't hear all that often?
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| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 5049 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 15 24 September 2014 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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The general favorite tool for making things stick that you don't hear very often is spaced repetition systems such as
Anki. You can make cards with the words, or the sentences that contain them, or the sentences with a blank where the word would be. That said, a good deal of forgetting is to be expected, even desirable (since you want to learn the frequent words more than the infrequent ones). As you get more advanced, infrequent words will be more likely to stick because (a) you'll be able to read/listen more extensively, so you'll run into them more often, and (b) you'll have more potential associations to help you remember. Therefore, you may not have a problem at all and might only want to use SRS if you find it enjoyable, or if you are finding that you can't make any progress because absolutely no new things are sticking at all. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| smallwhite Pentaglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5298 days ago 537 posts - 1045 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin, French, Spanish | Message 3 of 15 25 September 2014 at 7:20am | IP Logged | ||
If radio and books have worked for you, then maybe do the same with the remaining words - find podcasts and books that cover them. And for words that still aren't covered, SRS, or write them down and review them twice a year, or simply ignore them if you have no special need for them. That's a good habit you have, listening to the radio or reading almost every day! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4999 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 15 26 September 2014 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are many ways. SRS is good for many things (such as conjugation cards, vocabulary etc.) but books and movies/tv series will help as well and can become an awesome tool. Having fun is the surest way to not lose contact with a language. Further practice methods are plentiful, such as writing a diary, finding a song with lyrics and singing along a new one every other day, etc etc.
Perhaps your approach to those awesome "passive" tools is a little bit too passive. Perhaps you are not using the effects of immersion enough, you might like to keep thinking right after you finish your radio session or chapter for the day. Thinking about the book you're reading is one of the easiest active activities and ways to stay in the language for a while. Speaking to yourself regularily might help. Writing something, as I have already mentioned. Both allows you total freedom in what do you want to practice. SRS, on the other hand, makes you revise things you keep forgeting to practice on your own. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3903 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes Speaks: French | Message 5 of 15 26 September 2014 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for the replies, this has given me a bit of thought. I do randomly say things to myself in french but that doesn't always mean I remember things, especially if I haven't heard them or read them in awhile. I just don't do this as often as reading or listening. This is my method of maintaining what I do know, I believe listening and reading were my original reasons for learning french in the first place, I think that a review once in awhile is not a bad idea.
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| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4523 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 6 of 15 26 September 2014 at 5:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I used SRS a lot to learn my vocab initially, and what really helped me was to throw in 1-2 sentence cards for every 1 "word" card. The sentences made the meanings stick much easier.
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| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4037 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 7 of 15 26 September 2014 at 6:52pm | IP Logged | ||
You cannot remember/understand one thing? Do it hours everyday for a week. You will maybe end up to dream it at night. Sure that you will not forget it anymore. Put it as a mini-mission. This weekend I will hammer my head against word order in Dutch >:-( 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3903 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes Speaks: French | Message 8 of 15 27 September 2014 at 7:15am | IP Logged | ||
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No, I can't remember things I haven't heard for awhile, yet I still remember some basic things in Spanish that I took in high school, but have never used. Why is that?
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