Learning 625 words a day (Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies) Language Learning Forum

Learning 625 words a day
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Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies

23 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3

theoanderson3
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Message 17 of 23

07 February 2014 at 8:07pm | IP Logged

Iversen wrote:

I totally agree with emk's information above. If I know a language fairly well, I can get through
a wordlist faster than if it is a new language, where I have problems with something as fundamental as the
pronunciation and where I have few other words in the language to associate to, but 3 minutes with a repetition
or two is quite realistic. And a couple of hours with wordlists in one language is OK, but not something I would
normally do several evenings in a row.

However there are exceptions: On Cuba last year I had brought a Spanish dictionary, but also some printputs in
different languages and - more or less on awhim - micro Greek dictionary. And as a diveseion from he otherwise
total Spanish domination I spent a couple of hours every evening to study that Greek dictionary, and I almost got
through it (see my lame excuses lined up language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12983&PN=0&TPN=395">h ere). However Greek was not a new
language for me even back then so even though I got through around 2-300 words per evening it wasn't nearly
as hard as if I had tried to do the same thing with for instance Hungarian. And in the daytime I stuck 100% to
Spanish.

The tortoise and the hare parable is not quite realistic. The problem is that you can add more meanings fast
when you already know a word, so it is probably more efficient to learn any given word with its core meanings
first and then fill moe meanings and associations on it later. Trying to learn all the meanings of a complicated
word with many uses in one session will just bog you down.

theoanderson3 wrote:

.. would it be wise to keep a giant word document when i'm reading something look up
the word put it in there and then from time to time look
back over the document?

No. Anki uses a formula to present your stack of words to you again, one at a time, so there you'll never run the
risk of burying yourself under tons of old words, and with wordlists I recommend that you do your repetition
round the day after the first round while you still remember that you have seen the words - and maybe even
some of your associations. If you go back to an old wordlist it isn't better than looking through a random page in
your dictionary.

ok then, so use anki for all my words, in one big deck, or multiple?
1 person has voted this message useful

Iversen
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Message 18 of 23

07 February 2014 at 8:21pm | IP Logged

Iguanamon proposed on page one of this thread that you should leave Anki until you have returned back home. I would add that you should carry a small paper notebook or some digital gadget around with you all day long, and each time you think it would be nice to remember a word you just have seen you jot it down for later lookup and possible reuse in a wordlist or in anki. You can also make a note about words you didn't know when you needed them. And if you have time you can look through those notes and maybe check some of the words. But it is simply not realistic to think that you can pick up 625 new words from scratch in a day.

Edited by Iversen on 07 February 2014 at 8:23pm
3 persons have voted this message useful

Cavesa
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Czech Republic
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Speaks: Czech*, French^C2, English^C1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

Message 19 of 23

07 February 2014 at 8:38pm | IP Logged

1. It is possible to learn such large amounts of vocab in a short time but there are a few things I found important during such an experiment:

1.a: an important part of the 3000 words I learnt in a weekend (exam of English medical terminology) was related to words I already knew from Latin. So, you are much more likely to succeed in your endeavor with Spanish than, for exemple,with Russian and any background in romance languages will be very useful. You can surely learn a few thousand words in such a torturous pace. But I highly doubt you could keep going all the way to 10 000 or more words.

1.b: It is not fun. You need to be very motivated. I was because of the exam. Are you? Do you really want to spend your precious time in Spain dived in Anki?

1.c: A large part of such quickly acquired knowledge evaporates if you don't practice. And even anki practice becomes a pain after several days of such heavy adding of new cards!

2. From your thread on overcoming the plateau, I thought you were already an intermediate. You shouldn't have trouble using your stay in Spain for some kind of immersion, fun and practice.

2.a: It may be early to start making friends if you are not that strong in Spanish and you're in Spain just for a short time. But you can still use the language in basic situations, nothing prevents you from going to a cinema, a local café (where you can be slightly rude and try to listen without being obvious ;-) ), public transport (where you get a lot of information in Spanish) and so on. Even a supermarket can be a learning experience! All the museum leaflets (or audioguides!!!), concerts of local bands etc.

2.b: You seem to be nearly frightened "what if there are unknown words?". Well, there will always be some. There will be less and less as you progress, but you can still encounter them. You don't need to know whole dictionary of Academia Real + another of colloquialisms and so on to function in a language.

2.c: Why do you learn Spanish if you'd exchange having a good time with it for anki? You don't need to be perfect right from the beginning. And the more you try, the better you'll get. And take emk's advice to heart, including the piece about buying dvds and books, it is a great opportunity :-)
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Hungringo
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Message 20 of 23

07 February 2014 at 9:44pm | IP Logged

As many others have said above: don't waste your precious time in Spain on memorizing 625 words a day. Unless you are some sort of genius you will lose most of them very quickly.

Learn words in context and the best way to do so is interacting with natives. I also learnt Spanish in a Spanish speaking country and I can remember the words and expressions in their context. I would never forget for instance the word "aceite". How could I forget the pantomime I had to perform for the shopkeeper when I wanted to buy some and after staring at me for several minutes with a blank face he suddenly exclaimed: "Ah, quieres aceite!" When I remember this word I also remember the shopkeeper's face. If I had swotted this word by using a vocabulary list probably would have forgotten it ages ago.

Edited by Hungringo on 07 February 2014 at 10:02pm
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luke
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Message 21 of 23

07 February 2014 at 10:49pm | IP Logged

Cavesa wrote:

You can surely learn a few thousand words in such a torturous pace. But I highly doubt you could keep going all the way to 10 000 or more words.

I love you Cavesa, but you reminded me of 20,000 Words in Spanish in 20 minutes. Just give this book 20 minutes, then the original poster can take advantage of the Immersion experience that is just outside his door in Spain.
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jeff_lindqvist
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Message 22 of 23

08 February 2014 at 10:55am | IP Logged

theoanderson3 wrote:

ok then, so use anki for all my words, in one big deck, or multiple?

Whatever the amount of words and whenever you'll add them to Anki, use one deck. The software itself tells you when it's time to review the word.
1 person has voted this message useful

The Real CZ
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Message 23 of 23

10 February 2014 at 3:24pm | IP Logged

In October-November of 2012, I learned about 200 words/day maximum, but usually 100-150 a
day, and when I got to around 3,000 words, I gave up because it was simply too
exhausting. It would take me roughly 3 hours to be able ti mine 200 words and review them
in Anki, and that's just the new words. I probably spent an hour every day doing reviews
because I had 700 to 1,000 cards showing up everyday. I gave Anki the finger and deleted
the deck just because I knew if I kept that pace up, I would eventually be spending 2
hours a day reviewing words. Anki wasn't really meant to learn brand new things at such a
high volume, it's to help you remember things you already learned and to keep that
information in long term memory. Yes, you can use Anki to learn new things, but it would
be better to do a small amount over a longer period of time (say 30 words/day for a year
as opposed to 200/day). If I seriously attempted learning 625/words a day, I'd probably
give up on day 2 or 3.

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