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Memorising abstract concepts | ||
Tags: Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| FuroraCeltica Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6868 days ago 1187 posts - 1427 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 1 of 13 17 January 2014 at 10:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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When learning vocabulary, I try to memorise words. This is easy for concrete things like the word for 'dog' or 'big', but I really struggle with abstract words like 'fairness'. Does anyone have any tips?
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7208 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 2 of 13 17 January 2014 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Actually, I find the abstract stuff the easiest. Maybe it depends upon whether one tends to think abstractly or
concretely. I'm an abstract thinker. As far as what I think may help you is to listen to audio on philosophy or self-help. Self-help tends to be an easy genre. Those abstract words like "fair", "good", "exciting", "fun", are all over the place in it. Also, self-help and philosophy tend to "explain" things, which to me makes them easier than novels like "Lassie", "Old Yeller", and "Bigfoot". Edited by luke on 17 January 2014 at 10:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 3 of 13 18 January 2014 at 6:41am | IP Logged | ||
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| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4536 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 4 of 13 18 January 2014 at 8:41am | IP Logged | ||
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I also found nouns by far the easiest to remember. I think that's just how our brains work.
I found that simply trying to memorize words on their own relatively inefficient in Anki. If in addition to single L1-L2 word cards, I included cards with sentences containing the words I was trying to remember my retention went up dramatically. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5985 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 5 of 13 18 January 2014 at 9:11am | IP Logged | ||
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I also find brute force memorisation to be more effective for concrete nouns too. Using
sentences can help for some abstract concepts. But over the last few days I've been doing a lot of reading and I've noticed how repeated exposure in many different contexts to certain abstract words I had previously struggled with has helped me develop a much better understanding of their meaning and use. I wasn't reading with this purpose in mind, but it's been a pleasant and surprising side effect. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4536 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 6 of 13 18 January 2014 at 9:22am | IP Logged | ||
I think once you reach the B1 level it's more effective to switch over to reading and let go of Anki and other memorization techniques. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5012 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 7 of 13 18 January 2014 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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I find a combination of approaches to work the best. Anki is a good part of the process but far from the only. I find real input to be very efficient. And making your own context as well.
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| FuroraCeltica Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6868 days ago 1187 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 8 of 13 18 January 2014 at 8:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Many thanks for the tips
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