Thread: Best way to memorize..

Do you have any suggestions to memorize rules and words in Russian?
I mean,there are a lot of "School of Thought":from the list of words to seeing movie with subtitles..etc etc
I've tried writing a lot of time some verbs and words but, after some days, I forgot it. How do you to memorize?

Giorgia S.

I have some recieps.
First of all you have to be greedy to words.
Take a paper sheet and write down any new word you hear or see. Write also every word you forget and couldn't recall when you needed it. Use the dictionary (or the Web) to write the word right with the transcription and meaning. It can seem boring but you have to force yourself to write down every unknown word you find reading the book. Do not leave any telling to yourself: I have got the right sense, I can figure what does this word actually mean, though I am not quite sure. So be quite sure you know the meaning of the word.
If you can watch the Russian movies (especially the ones which you know well in Italian) or lissten to the Russian songs then you could write the whole phrases.
After the sheet is filled, fix it on the inward side of the door in your toilet. I use the cork desk hanging on the door. Wish you or not every day during some minutes you will forced to gaze into the list of the new words. Just reed it. After two or three days you will find that you can easily name the meaning of the word after just a one look at it (written in Italian or in Russian). So you look at the translation and recall the original Russian word. or you look at the Russian abracadabra and find in your memory the meaning. After a week you will reach one sheet of completely new words in Russian (about 25 lines=25 words or expressions). After you read one page you must take another and fix it and read the new words. Using four pages one after another you will get one hundred of new words fer month=1200 per year as easy as make a pee. And it will take about 3 minutes per day to read the page.

I think that different methods work best for different people. I have my own pet method which may or may not work for you. I used it with a great success when I was starting to learn English to build up an initial vocabulary of 3–4 thousand words. It consists of a number of steps.

1. Make a list of words you want to memorize. I used to make it by taking notes of any new words I encountered while doing exercises or reading textbooks etc, noting any irregular forms as needed. I used to learn up to 40 new words at a sitting, but if that's too hard for you, you can do 20 or so at a time. The list consists of two columns and looks like this (using English and Russian for the purpose of this example):

Code:

begin (began, begun)                  начинать (-ся)
mouse (mice)                          мышь
house [haus] (n.)                     дом
pencil                                карандаш
(etc).

2. Read the list over.
3. Cover the right column of your list (i.e. the translations) with a blank sheet of paper leaving the list of foreign words open, and try to write the translations on that new blank sheet. If you can't remember some of the words, open the list, read them over again, repeating the words aloud, and complete the list of translations on that new sheet.
4. Now that you have the list of translations, do the opposite of what you did in step 3. That is, try to recall (and write) all foreign words by looking at the list of translations in your own language.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you are sure you can work the list back and forth without any omissions.

And now the most important part, which is totally my own invention (the previous 5 steps are not).

6. Take a new blank sheet of paper and try to restore the original list by using only your own memory. Do not look at any of the lists you made earlier. Just a blank sheet and your own memory. On the first attempt, you will probably miss quite a few words. Look them up in your original list, then take a new blank sheet and try again. Repeat until you can write the entire list from your memory.

Many people use steps 1-5 or some variations thereof. However, I believe that it is step 6 that is most important if you want to commit the new words to your long-term memory. Besides, each time I successfully completed step 6, it would give me that "I've done it!" feeling. A feeling that I've really accomplished something and moved forward in my studies.

After you have acquired an active vocabulary of a few thousand words, you can probably switch to some other method.

Please note that I used this method back when personal computers did not exist, and audio and video learning aids were not that easy to come by. It is quite probable that a better and faster method can be developed today. Some people swear by flashcards, for example.

Techniques To Increase Russian Vocabulary
http://masterrussian.com/aa083099.shtml

You can find some ideas here:
viewtopic.php?t=14865
I don't remember if this method is mentioned there: to write nouns with genitive, plural form and the stress on coloured stickers and to stick them to almost everything you see around you ("зеркало" to your mirror, "плечики" to your clothes hanger etc.). It is better to use pink stickers for feminine nouns, blue stickers for masculine nouns and two other colours for for neuter and plural nouns. (: Of course, this method is an additional one, but it helped me to memorise some German nouns with their gender.

First, I want to say "Thanks" to everybody.
I've started using the method of translationsnmru and It started to work..Day by day is gettin' better..
I will try all the rest later and I will let you know if tehre will be some results..


Giorgia S.

His way looks nice, that's for sure!
Вечно он что-то такое знает такое!

I know this is a bit late but here's another possible method:

Once you look up a work you want to learn, look up words which are related to it, as well. I find that the more words I know which are related to each other, the quicker all of them stick. For example:

Citizen, citizenship - гражданин, гражданство

Love, to love - любовь, любить.

Write, writer - писать, писатель

To live, inhabitant (someone who lives somewhere) - жить, житель

I recognise that those are simple examples, but I think I've demonstrated the priniciple. It works pretty well for me; I hope it's of some use to others, as well.

Jack

Words just stick in my head. Yeah, I'm cool like that.

А вообще I just break down new words (prefix-root-suffix) and try to make sense of them. It really helps them become ingrained in your brain.

Originally Posted by Yazeed

Words just stick in my head. Yeah, I'm cool like that.

А вообще I just break down new words (prefix-root-suffix) and try to make sense of them. It really helps them become ingrained in your brain.

Same here. The prefix-root-suffix thing is Russian is really very logical and makes it really easy to learn and remember new words.

общий - general, common
община - community
общаться - to associate
общение - a contact
сообщение - a communication or report
приобщать - to introduce

etc.

I prefer to learn words which are already "begging to be translated".
I read a lot without a dictionary, so in a while some words stick in my memory, I vaguely know where/when I can use them. I only have to translate them. And then I can dig into the word like JackBony and randem suggest.
I also like to speak to myself in a foreign language. I spot some words I don't know but desperately need to complete my statements. So when I have a chance to look them up in a dic, it won't take any effort to memorise them, context rules))

Originally Posted by translationsnmru

6. Take a new blank sheet of paper and try to restore the original list by using only your own memory. Do not look at any of the lists you made earlier. Just a blank sheet and your own memory. On the first attempt, you will probably miss quite a few words. Look them up in your original list, then take a new blank sheet and try again. Repeat until you can write the entire list from your memory.

Did you find you didn't have to go back and review previous words when you did this?