Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - 100 foreign language words a day: Can it be done?

Michael Tipper · 04-29-2007, 08:05 PM

100 words a day is possible if you break it down into chunks, used the right techniques and that is all you focussed on. However I'd imagine that there are other things you also need to be doing with your life :-)

The key thing to understand when you are learning a language is not that you develop the ability to recall lots and lots of words, but that you develop the skill and understanding of being able to use those words yourself in the right context and with the right pronunciation. You also need to be able to recognise the words when spoken to you so that you can understand their meaning in the context you hear them.

Whilst having a good memory for the words is good, it is only part of the challenge in learning to speak another language.

The other contributors have already given you som great advice and some good resources to try out and I'd suggest you have a look at some of them. However the one thing I would suggest you consider when you memorise the words is this:

Within 1-2 days of learning something new, you will be unable to recall 80% of it because of something called the "Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting" - essentially everything you encounter and experience is stored in your mind as a very weak memory trace. If left in that fragile condition, you will quickly lose the ability to recall it because of it becoming "confused" with all of the other equally faint memory traces. It is for this reason that most people cram for their tests and exams the night before, pass the exam but if they sat it 2 weeks later would fail.

So the important thing for you to do, however many words you end up memorising every day, is that you should also recall them from memory after 10 minutes, a day, a week, a month, 3 months and 6 months. Each time you strengthen the trace until eventually you can recall the word at will.

It will take a bit of discipline but combined with the conversational practive you should be doing and the other exposure you should be having with the language it will help reinforce your memory of the words so that you will always be able to recall them.

Now if you can do this at a rate of 100 words a day then you might find yourself a little busy. 5 - 10 would be a good target and as you progress you will build up your recall of these words.

But one final thing to be aware of, most languages have a working vocabulary of 1500-2500 words. At a rate of 100 a day you could be done in just over 3 weeks! My advice is to take your time, ease the pressure off yourself a bit and start with a small number. If you want to increase the number of words, do so by adding 1 every day until you find the figure that you can comfortably handle.

Good luck with the Mandarin. For me it is Russian and German:-)

04-29-2007, 08:05 PM	#10 (permalink)
Michael Tipper Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7	100 words a day is possible if you break it down into chunks, used the right techniques and that is all you focussed on. However I'd imagine that there are other things you also need to be doing with your life :-) The key thing to understand when you are learning a language is not that you develop the ability to recall lots and lots of words, but that you develop the skill and understanding of being able to use those words yourself in the right context and with the right pronunciation. You also need to be able to recognise the words when spoken to you so that you can understand their meaning in the context you hear them. Whilst having a good memory for the words is good, it is only part of the challenge in learning to speak another language. The other contributors have already given you som great advice and some good resources to try out and I'd suggest you have a look at some of them. However the one thing I would suggest you consider when you memorise the words is this: Within 1-2 days of learning something new, you will be unable to recall 80% of it because of something called the "Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting" - essentially everything you encounter and experience is stored in your mind as a very weak memory trace. If left in that fragile condition, you will quickly lose the ability to recall it because of it becoming "confused" with all of the other equally faint memory traces. It is for this reason that most people cram for their tests and exams the night before, pass the exam but if they sat it 2 weeks later would fail. So the important thing for you to do, however many words you end up memorising every day, is that you should also recall them from memory after 10 minutes, a day, a week, a month, 3 months and 6 months. Each time you strengthen the trace until eventually you can recall the word at will. It will take a bit of discipline but combined with the conversational practive you should be doing and the other exposure you should be having with the language it will help reinforce your memory of the words so that you will always be able to recall them. Now if you can do this at a rate of 100 words a day then you might find yourself a little busy. 5 - 10 would be a good target and as you progress you will build up your recall of these words. But one final thing to be aware of, most languages have a working vocabulary of 1500-2500 words. At a rate of 100 a day you could be done in just over 3 weeks! My advice is to take your time, ease the pressure off yourself a bit and start with a small number. If you want to increase the number of words, do so by adding 1 every day until you find the figure that you can comfortably handle. Good luck with the Mandarin. For me it is Russian and German:-)