Tip-- Flash Cards
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I wanted to share a technique that many of my students have found very useful over the years. It mostly applies to learning new vocabulary.Start out by getting index cards. If you don't have any at home, simply cut out paper into small rectangles. You may also want to cut the index cards in half if you find them to be too big.Write the new foreign words on one side and the English translation on the other. Students say it's a great way to learn new vocabulary. One of the advantages of this is that you can quiz yourselves. Go through the index cards and see how many you remember. Oh, and one last thing, don't just quiz yourself by identifying the foreign word and translating to English. Try it the other way around, which is more difficult.If you get all of them right you're doing a great job!
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Great tip, Enrique! And of course, the online course and apps have exactly this feature, in digital format. As you go through a deck from each lesson, you can move the ones that you're comfortable with into your "mastered" pile, and just focus on the one that you don't. Soon enough, you'll have mastered all of them!You can also switch between English and Spanish as the language you see on the card facing up, so you can test yourself both ways.Flashcards, whether good old-fashioned index cards or virtual, are a great tool for the language learner.
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I have a tip for those vocabulary words that for some reason
are harder than others to move to the "mastered" pile:
- Write the words in Spanish on a bright sticky note.
- Write the English translation on the back.
- Stick them around the house or the office (fridge, bathroom mirror, tv screen)
- Everytime you see the note, try to remember the meaning and try to put the word into context by saying a sentence.
Next time you review the vocabulary flashcards online you will find those words much easier to remember!
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This reminds me of when my younger sister bought some book with stickers to learn Spanish. She stuck "el sotano" (accent on the first o, I think) on the wall going down to our basement. That sticker was there for years! I think the people who bought the house inherited it.But I'll never forget the word for basement!
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Hahaha! Sótano. That is a great story. I guess that if you leave a sticky note for years there is no way you can forget it.I had to do something similar to learn the word underneath. I could not remember that word and had a post it on my computer for months. It became part of my office´s decoration.I would recommend pick up one word a week, for things and objects around the house and accumulate them.How are the Living Language lessons going? If you have any questions or need help please post your doubts and comments on the forum.
