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"This way of learning a language made complete sense to me. Working with the SpeakEZ German course, I was able to understand more in 2 weeks than in five years of German in school!"
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Those who have studied languages realize that looking-up individual words cannot convey a language in the correct manner. Becoming fluent means being able to verbalize ideas ; not learning technical rules and identifying the Past Predicate Indicative.
The audio part of this method has been my favorite portion of the learning process. Not only is the pronunciation slow and clear, but it is presented so that I remember the flow of sentences and concepts.
Thank you for the opportunity to work with this amazing program; it has been a blessing for me."
-- Destiny Yarbro, College Student
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Sticky Subject: Expanding Your Vocabulary
by Nathalie V. Fairbanks
You know how it goes. You go to your language class and learn useful things: how to introduce yourself, talk about your hobbies, your work, your family. You've probably learned a lot of grammar and could sing a song about the past subjunctive or some other obscure grammatical treasure. Yet... you get home and can't even say: "Where are my keys?", nor can you name the most common objects.
A fun and easy way to remediate here is to write the name of objects on Post-it(R) notes and stick them on every object that you'd like to be able to name around your home.
If your new language has them, make sure you add an article to identify the gender. An even better strategy for your brain to retain the gender is to use different colors of Post-it(R) notes for different genders:
- blue for masculine
- red for feminine
- green for neuter
Now, you're not trying to connect a written word with an object - that's almost like looking at a textbook!
What you want is to connect the sound of the word as you say it to the object by looking at it. Pronouncing the word correctly is obviously crucial, so check a "speaking dictionary" to listen to it a few times or ask your teacher.
Now what?
1- Point and name.
Put yourself in the place of a 2-year-old. Point at an object and say the article and the name ("the computer"). Think of how happy small children are when they learn a new word. They'll drive you bananas repeating the same word over and over again! That's how we learn, even as adults... So repeat every step a few times.
2- Make a sentence.
Get into it a bit more and make a sentence. Start with something simple, such as
"This is a computer."
"This is a desk."
3- Take it up a notch.
Have a little fun: add an adjective to describe your noun.
"This is a fast computer."
"This is a large desk."
4- Add complexity.
Challenge yourself and change the sentence, so it does more than just state that something's there:
"I see my large desk."
"Show me the fast computer."
Depending on the language you are learning, this can open up a whole new can of worms -- "the computer" being a direct object and the "me" an indirect object...
But this is how you will need to use these words in everyday life, so start practicing in small units. The possibilities of variation are endless -- use your imagination!
Realize that the more involved you can get with your statements, the easier it will be for your brain to create a network of information that it can easily scan and retrieve the word you need when you need it.
The worst you can do is to sit down and repeat word pairs such as
der Schreibtisch - the desk (German)
le livre - the book (French)
el gato - the cat (Spanish), etc.
This is "dead" information that will end up floating around in your brain without anything to connect to -- no context, no emotion, probably no real interest, either.
Make your statements as relevant to your life as you can. When you get stuck because you're missing some grammar or structure to say what you want, go ask your teacher. That's what we're here for!
© 2007 Nathalie V. Fairbanks
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