How to Learn Vocabulary / Practice English with Paul

hello my friends and welcome to practice English with Paul today the ultimate video for you how to learn vocabulary now I'm willing with myself I spent years learning German words expressions idioms everything you can imagine I really feel that sometimes I wasted a lot of time but sometimes we're effective through personal experience as a linguist and also as a professional teacher I want to sort of give you my advice on how to learn vocabulary there are some very important things to know and also some very important things not to do okay now interestingly enough when I when I was searching on the Internet it seemed that so many students are not looking for the best way of learning vocabulary they are looking for the easiest way if you are looking for the easiest way my friends it will not work there is no easy way it's always hard work sometimes it is boring but again not everything can be fun and games in life sometimes we do need to work hard I personally believe that some of the methods to learn vocabulary are not the easiest but they are the best and they do work better than others we need to make sure that we don't waste time a lot of you have jobs and you know University we need to be effective with the time that we have now what ingredients do we need to learn vocabulary effectively okay so even before I give you tips we need to understand how to use the mind the first one be active you need to be active my friends you can't learn passive you can't learn vocabulary passively by butum it's not going to work very well do you need to actively use it so maybe practice speaking with it maybe write some of your own examples or give you some more ideas later for this but you've got to be active with it for it to stay in your head I mean I'm sure a lot of you you have the same problem as me we're even like in Russian sometimes I just have a list of words I don't really learn them actively I just look at the list I'm not going to remember them the next day that's the problem okay so I've just wasted ten minutes by looking at that list okay I could I could do something a lot more effective we have will be organized being organized is extremely important as I will show you in a minute you need to record your vocabulary you need to record it in a very organized way now here is an example for you to think about I don't know about you but for me personally when I was at university and I was in a seminar or a lecture sometimes I wrote notes and it was so messy and disorganized and so a few weeks later when I wanted to revise for my tests I looked at the piece of paper and I just put it away because I thought it was worth nothing it was so untidy I had drawings all over it and I never looked at it again but there was important important information on that piece of paper so again you want to be tidy organized and clear so you come back to it that's another DEATH push yourself push yourself and take the initiative go hand in hand and I'm going to explain why in my friends with a nice example I once had a student called Maria she was a fantastic student a good friend she did CAE with me now I have student that's just sometimes come and go okay fine whatever but Maria she interested me because every lesson she would come to me and say opal I found this words which I can't find the new dictionary or sure what it means what does it mean every lesson she was asking me this she was taking the initiative I didn't ask her to read this material I didn't ask her to do it she wanted to do it herself so she was learning a lot of words herself she was reading herself studying English yourself plus doing my lessons she got an a at CAE that's the key so take the initiative push yourself make yourself learn the vocabulary again be active if you're going to be passive and just read lists and not make sentences write essay speak not much is going to happen okay you've got to take the initiative I do not need to tell you to go and buy some books I can recommend which ones to buy but I can't make you do it be realistic now my friends how many words should you learn a week 5 10 20 50 70 100 I'm definitely not 1,000 that's a pretty big number and quite unrealistic it depends do you have a family do you have a busy job a stressful job do you have other personal obligations or are you completely free so you need to sort of think about how you can realistically learn vocabulary you need to do it every day maybe I think one of the best ways is to have between maybe 10 to 15 words and/or expressions every day and again down here under Tips & Tricks I will teach you how to do this but you've got to do it every day okay now I wanted to tell you about this watch out for false advertisements now my friends so many times I've looked these online communities on the internet some language schools somewhere in the world and they say are on the website you can learn with us 100 words a day yeah really course I'm sure if you have no job no children absolutely nothing to do you probably could memorize a hundred words a day but to use them correctly and in context I don't believe it now I'm an experienced teacher and I'm a linguist out of the thousands of people I have taught it's never happened never and maybe there is some person in the world to who can do it but that's one but I really don't believe in these advertisements like online or language schools that say learn English in five months learn 100 words a day it's impossible it's completely unrealistic as we will see in a minute the key is to how well you learn those words and about using context because otherwise words mean nothing all right now what were you going to do we're going to have a look at firstly how not to learn vocabulary so that sounds very unusual to do the negative part first but you will understand why and then we will look at how to learn vocabulary correctly okay and then some little tips and tricks that you can do at home or a work or with your phone or tablets that can really help you learn vocabulary more effectively okay so let's have a look at how not to learn vocabulary so welcome back in this part I'm going to show you how to how not to learn vocabulary okay and in fact I'm going to put that knot right there right now as I said before you need to be organized and we do need to record vocabulary somewhere now for example no you get us a book like this like no bits of paper you can do the line the line down the center like English Russian or English Arabic on either side it doesn't matter kind of like what I've done here okay but there is a way of doing this now if you're a beginner or elementary of course you just need simple words by dog blower rain blue burglar that's quite simple but what happens when you start to go sort of up the levels it becomes a lot more difficult you know my dear old professor a university once said to me a word has no meaning it only has the meaning in the context of a sentence to be honest most part I agree with that but of course with things like concrete nouns dog rain etc you just need basic translations that's fine potato leveler chair blue blur etc but as you can see here what happens if we have for example this course marker on top of that and a basic translation it tells me nothing I don't know if it's full I don't know if it's informal is it spoken is it written it tells me nothing how do I use it in a sentence for example here phrasal verb crop up now I have my my translation ripper burglar in my special beautiful language here which I just created five seconds ago but crop up now like if you just have your basic translation I promise you it will not help because with phrasal verbs is classic example my friends you need context you can only learn them as care locations or in the context of a sentence because the crop up means that something unexpectedly appears let imagine for example that you you're about to have a business meeting and you say oh don't know I can't come to the meeting something has just cropped up I have to go and is used very specifically now a lot of dictionaries probably as we will see here in a minute do not give such detailed information you need to find that okay it's just not enough to write like a phrasal verb like that it's not going to help you so for example when you look at many like phrasal verb books like my best one my favorite one phrasal verb organizer it's actually on my wall if you scroll down 10 minutes it's there phrasal verb organizer always gives phrasal verbs in their context like which words they are used it and that's very very helpful now for example charge I have written the word charge now I should really know about translation but really I should write many more because this word has so many different meanings and I haven't written down any of them I've just written the word charge I have probably translated one meaning there are many versions of this and there are many expressions of the word charge it like just by having the word charge you can increase your vocabulary by about 30 words basically and I haven't done anything with it okay now even here for example I've got he hit the roof I saw that somewhere so I recorded it he hit the roof and I translated it into my language but again I understand it means angry how angry is it spoken is it written is it formal is it informal again it tells me nothing and so I need to take the initiative and push myself to go to a good dictionary online like oxforddictionaries.com or merriam-webster if you're on American English and it will tell you this ok a good dictionary will tell you this now and I'm going through the online dictionaries as I just said now like anything my friends as I said in my previous videos if you want something which is of good quality you need to pay for it ok isn't anything for free is not going to be that good you know if you type in this expression to hit the roof into Google Translate ie doubt you would get a very precise translation I really dealt it dog rain sure okay but again if I typed in charge like she charged me she she charged me too much I could get the completely sort of different meaning from Google Translate it doesn't help you need a good dictionary so either one of the old sort of classic ones like the paper ones like I use for learning German they were fantastic or you know I think that Oxford is calm merriam-webster or you pay for a very good one okay be careful with these though because they don't always give you accurate information um another point I would like to make about how how not to learn vocabulary is this I'm sure many of you have done this I did it myself when I was learning German and I was stupid to do it sometimes I when I'm in class well when I was in class I had my sort of book and I would have my notes and I'd make the call sort of translations or little bits of vocab around like around the page like this now being honest did I look at that sheet of paper again not really so but those big words that I recorded were done now again to be organized like if you remember my ingredients before be organized if you have just written down words somewhere copy them to your vocab list okay if it's on here or on your tablet it doesn't matter record it so it's organized and neat and it's easy for you to follow it's very important that you do this my friends or you're just going to waste time then don't write words down in the lesson that you're not going to use you know time is short okay now with that I think it's quite clear so now I am going to show you how to learn vocabulary okay the important part so welcome back let's have a look at how to record your vocabulary correctly now I have taken the word to decide you should know this word is quite a basic word now if you read a book you see the word decide and you write it into your vocabulary list if you only write the word decide that will not help you very much because look all of this is related to the word decide so I have my noun and adjective form of the verb decide I also have the preposition because sometimes the site can have a preposition to decide on something have we decided on a plan I have also written here plus infinitive so even some little grammatical help here so I now know to say I decided to do my homework and not I decided doing my homework blew there okay so even something as small as this can help you my friends to be effective so not looking grammar books all the time I've got a noun form decision okay and I have here some Cal occasions if you don't know what a Cal occasion is Cal occasion is like a combination of words that fit together and we need to learn many complications by heart you probably know this like to make your bed to do your homework to do your best to make a cake or unless I just said that for example okay for example to make a decision to come to a decision to reach a decision and to amend a decision and in red I have written legal and it's telling me that it's legal English okay and so I would not use this in a sort of informal conversation only in a very formal one it may be sort of academics and sort of the legal area and here I have done the most important thing I have written some of my own example sentences now if you don't know what sentence is to write when you look at a sort of good online dictionary it will tell you or give you excuse me a few example sentences some of them are not very easy to follow but some of them are and you can make your own sentences based on that model okay or even something quite simple that you know basic grammar present perfect present simple doesn't matter just to make your brain active for example I decided to do my work I'm using the side plus infinitive beautiful English have you decided on what to buy that's a fantastic sentence we were even using a present perfect with the word decide so a practicing a grammar and our new word okay plus the preposition I want to use the noun plus the verb phrase so I have made a decision and I will visit the museum so for example do you want to visit the museum or the cinema well I have made a decision and I want to visit the museum perfect you're using it say that a few more times look at it a few more times it will stay in your head I also recorded the adjective decisive in brackets I have the negative prefix indecisive because English has quite a few negative prefixes they usually follow a sort of schematic or model but not always but again just record it and I have Ness because quite often abstract nouns have the suffix nests so decisiveness indecisiveness and I have again another example I don't like indecisive people I can't stand indecisiveness well just from that new like words you have made a really nice sort of semi-formal phrase there that sounds professional it sounds good it's better than I don't like people who can't decide all the time I don't like indecisiveness Wow okay just from copying words from your online dictionary that's it that's it simple right now if you don't know how to use some of these words what you can do is just type them into Google or whatever search engine and you will find some examples of to use in a census I sometimes type into Google decisive decisive in a sentence and ends up BAM many examples okay so we've done like one particular word and all the parts which is very important especially if you're doing it like an exam is really good to do this okay it's going to help you a lot in the future because you don't have to do it again you have everything here now this side okay now here I've got a phrasal phrasal verb to give up I'm sure you know the phrasal verb to give up now I have also written the partner verb to quit the more semi formal formal version of to give up so that helps me understand that if I'm talking to people I will say give up if I'm in a more formal situation I will say quit but I've also got some examples and sort of collocations because you can give up smoking you can give up drinking you can give up study but you stop doing it of course there are many more sort of meanings of give up for example surrender like I give up or you don't know an answer what's the answer to this question I don't know I give up I give up okay there are more to this and again a good diction we will tell you and you record all of them down and for example yet again I have my sentence I gave up going to the gym because it became too expensive perfect English and you're using the sentence actively you're using that vocab actively that's what you need to do to make it stay in your head okay and I'll say that again and again and again another thing for example you have a verb and you write a verb down like wait then in a dictionary it will tell you this preposition for because we often say to wait for someone I'm waiting for the bus I'm waiting for you to finish your class I'm waiting for you to phone me okay and again I put sort of here in blue some more of my own written examples now here to advise I've put to advise somebody do something I've written down all the parts of that verb okay not just to advise because okay well done you know the verb to advise but do you know how to use it correctly well like this you will to advise somebody to do something again an example he advised me to do my homework before the lesson perfect he advised me to give up smoking just from this you're making some fantastic structures already just from having a organized vocabulary list my friends now the last one to make a mountain out of a molehill this is an expression and I've written the sort of single word which is a kind of equivalence of this expression exaggerated and I have my translation here because of course we always sort of translate into our own languages some people say don't do it I think it's fine but generally to make a mountain out of a molehill exaggerate it means that I make a story much bigger than it really is I'm exaggerating so I was going to work and it was raining so heavily and I got so wet really it was raining a little bit and I was a little bit wet I was making a mountain out of a molehill okay now I hope that has helped you my friends to show you how to record vocabulary so to summarize write down all the parts of the word a good dictionary will tell you this just copy it okay on the other hand you know write down all those Cal occasions all those words we can use with it and most importantly write your own examples okay you have to be active to learn vocabulary and to actually make it come out of your mouth now I'm going to the last section now my friends which I'm going to talk about a few tips and tricks that you can do to learn vocabulary okay let's do it so my friends we have looked at the ingredients which we need to learn vocabulary effectively be organized you know be active we've looked at how to record your vocabulary and how not to record it it is very important that we understand that but now we will look at some ways to learn vocabulary now it depends on you as a person are you a visual learner like me for example I like to have a look at lists in front of me that I can see the examples and say them again in my head that's how I learn it's how I learned German some people can learn by just listening and it kind of they're able then to why suddenly speak and that's fantastic some people are kinesthetic they like to get up and move around it helps them remember things a way that I quite like is the use of prompt cards now so I've got this here sometimes you will see people on public transport with bits of card like them in there like this and prompt cards are very useful so you can record your vocabulary like we did before on prompt cards you can have maybe English on one side and your language on the other so you can just just go over the examples read the examples to yourself look at all those structures the prepositions are parts of the verb and then you can just check oh I was right hoorah and those will be your 10 or 15 for the day I mean think 10 is probably enough especially if there's some idioms in there and then the next day you do some more so it doesn't take long to do a prompt card okay really really doesn't I know that there are some special applications for mobile phones I think memorize I've looked at memorize it doesn't seem bad but get it again is still a good application to throw words at you and to test you but again you need context very important notes around the house do you see these things yep I did that when I was learning German and it really annoyed the people I was living with because there were bits of paper everywhere um if it works for you do it okay but again fogers have one words have your word have your parts on it that's why I think maybe these notes are very good if you're like beginner or elementary when you don't need sort of a lot of explanation it's just a simple concrete noun or a simple basic adjective but when you get more advanced I think these things will be a little bit too small especially for like decide as we saw okay but if you like it do it if you're happy to put big pieces of paper all over your house do it I know for example some people put their weekly vocabulary lists on the back of the toilet door because that way they can sit and stare at it for like five minutes I don't care how you do it I just care that you learn vocabulary find the best way for you even if it's just by the bed is like good like my darling and study for 10 minutes doesn't matter learn by association some people talk about this it's a kind of psychological phenomenon learn by association that's like you know when you go shopping and you don't have a shopping list and you try to remember what you need to buy buy bikes or creating some memory like some associations so I need to buy eggs white chicken things I need to buy cucumbers long green things I need to buy tomatoes sweet red things around I need to buy some some Jam sweet taste the red stuff I put on toast and again I think Association is quite a good way it works subconsciously to for example just as an interesting example a few days ago I said to my students the Russian word for town or city like God it sounds to me to my ears it sounds to me the name of a monster to be honest my name is gorod and i will kill you and then literally a few days ago I was playing Mortal Kombat's on the PlayStation and I suddenly remembered there was a character called Goro and so subconsciously I made this association the the sound gawd oh gawd sounds like a monster and that's where it came from so the power of association is actually quite a strong thing but then on the other hand I don't think you can try to associate say 100 words a week there's a lot of work to do to be honest I all go down to the next thing that I think will help but it's something to think about that you can read about yourself and again as we say in the linguistic world use it or lose it so write or say your own examples as I said at the beginning my friends be active get it out write your own examples write essays the problem is nowadays I don't know what it's like in your countries but I definitely know a lot of the textbooks that teachers use from beginner to upper intermediate there is very little writing which is done unfortunately there are writing exercises in those books but a lot of teachers don't do them only really when you get to exam classes and therefore it takes a lot more like preparation so yes write your own example because you're going to use it again and again and again ok write stories I know some students that do and they practice their English that way so when I have my classes I often do projects or I do certain activities I really get them using that language draw pictures I heard this online draw pictures to remember vocabulary that's fine if you're a beginner or elementary further than that it will not help is too much work again be realistic if you're going to learn a lot of legal words for your I lik exam are you going to draw pictures for it talking not okay but this is the key number eight repeat repeat and repeat and repeat repeat and I'll say it one more time repeat you have to use a word several times before it stays in your head write it say it okay now just to sort of finish off my friends as I said you need to be responsible for your own vocabulary learning you need to follow exactly what I have just told you and you will learn effectively the problem is is online on facebook for contact here and all over the internet there are so many thoughts I should say there's so much material that people just like copy download or buy it and whatever but it's just passive people I believe just really just take it and don't use it so much and that's unfortunate because even though there is so much information learning English online people just aren't using it properly to use it properly you've got to do it like I have just told you and if you organize a new stick to the plan your English will go up like that and I promise you it will okay but I can say the most important thing my friends is be organized take the initiative and you will be absolutely fine so if you have any further questions please leave some comments below I'll be happy to answer them please subscribe to my channel give it a like and I will start making some videos on listening skills reading skills and every other skill okay have a nice weekend my friends and take care bye bye

Channel: Practice English with Paul

Views: 34,557

Keywords: vocabulary, english, 'english lessons', university, 'learn vocabulary', 'how to', advanced, 'upper-intermediate', 'learning vocabulary', vocab, 'best way to learn vocabulary', 'best way to learn vocab', 'easy way to learn vocab', 'fast way to learn vocabulary'

Id: wrgm6j16gC0

Length: 31min 51sec (1911 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 09 2015