Thread: Good way of remembering vocablulary forever?

I find messing up the definition badly is a good way to remember it. Of course that means being corrected, but if it's embarrassing or funny, it's extremely helpful. For example, a Russian friend of mine drew a picture of a crow in a pocket with the subtext "Кар кар! I'm a crow in your pocket." It was so funny and out of left field at the time that I'll never be forgetting that Карман means "pocket."

Medved and Antonio are exactly right here. It's about making it memorable. Try associating it with something goofy and you might have a better chance of remembering it.

Originally Posted by alexei90

I'll never be forgetting that Какрман means "pocket."

It's карман. Just in case it wasn't a typo, which I'm sure it was

As for topic at hand. I think you need to drop this "as fast as possible" attitude. Haste will only make you forget more and more words that you've already tried hard to remember for good. That's just how things work, if you try to remember too many words in too short a time most of them will only stay in your "short" memory, which is good for drilling before exams or whatnot but bad for language learning. Your goal is to "put" them in your "long term" memory and unfortunately that's not a fast process, at least not fast enoung for your needs.

There are a few tricks to expedite this transition, as people have already noted arguably the best of them is making it a memorable experience, like that push off of a chair thing or a good laugh. However, you can only do so much with this, you can't use this technique on all the words you have to remember, certainly not on 100K+ words you mentioned there (frankly I'm not sure where this number is coming from, I doubt most native know that many and by a long shot).

So it all comes to the mother of learning. Repetition! It's absolutely the best tool you have at your disposal. If you came across the same word like about 10 times in a week, chances are you'll hammer that one. Just not make it a simple list of words to review, put them in their natural "habitat", which is sentences By the way, there are a few apps to help you with the repetition thing. Anki is one of them, just giving you a hint here.

One last thing, don't forget that words are not everything. They are irrefutably a huge part, but grammar, unique ways of thinking inherent in a language, logical structure etc are no small parts as well. You have to be at least familiar with all of those aspects to conquer the language beast.

Originally Posted by iCake

It's карман. Just in case it wasn't a typo, which I'm sure it was

Switching between languages mid-sentence is my bane, haha.

Originally Posted by alexei90

I find messing up the definition badly is a good way to remember it. Of course that means being corrected, but if it's embarrassing or funny, it's extremely helpful. For example, a Russian friend of mine drew a picture of a crow in a pocket with the subtext "Кар кар! I'm a crow in your pocket." It was so funny and out of left field at the time that I'll never be forgetting that Какрман means "pocket."

Medved and Antonio are exactly right here. It's about making it memorable. Try associating it with something goofy and you might have a better chance of remembering it.

It is a good method. It also works if the association is even goofier: карман ← a car in your pocket.