I’m not going to talk only about methods that I use now but all the methods that I used a lot over the years. (Mostly for learning languages btw)
Writing texts.
This is my favorite thing ever after learning vocabulary. It requires you to actively use the language, yet it also gives you enough time to think what to use in terms of grammar and vocabulary.
Translating texts
I like translating texts because I not only translate words but I associate them with a context which makes the memorization of the new vocabulary easier.
No translations in my vocabulary lists
I rarely write a translation nowadays when I make vocab lists with vocabulary from texts.(the translation is usually on the book, where the text is but I make a separate file only with the words)
I usually just look over the list until I’m 90-95% sure I know the words and then I recall them randomly while I go to school. I keep switching between requesting the translation from the target language and the meaning of it.
Workbooks!
I think of workbooks as games so they seem fun to me. All I gotta do is fill in or come up with a sentence or match etc. but they involve study material so I’m practicing while playing.
Explaining to others!
I love this one. In order to explain to someone, you gotta know the material very well and then there’s a twist, you must know the material so well that you can simplify it and teach even a kid.
I like how you gotta come up with various ways to explain the same thing and also make sure the other person understood everything.
Journaling and talking to yourself
Both are great ways of learning how to express yourself. I like that you use the language until you stumble upon a word that you use frequently and you learn what you need as you go.
Correcting things
In order to know what’s wrong in a text, you must know what’s the right version for it. I used to read many papers for my classmates but I can’t just tell them “this is wrong, this is the right one”. You have to explain to them why they got it wrong and why your version is the right one.
Sticky notes everywhere and marker on windows/mirrors
I’m not using this one much nowadays but if you stare in a certain place a lot when you stay at your desk or in bed, this might be the right approach for you.
I’m supposed to be studying some Italian, but instead, I was googling in my computer how to learn a new language (no, googling how to learn will not teach you shit, you have to sit down and learnyour target language not how to do it, I know but I’m lazy.) and I came across LingoHut, and I have to share it.
I don’t know if someone ever talked about this page, but if they did is worth mentioning again.
So basically you go to the website and in the Home Page you have to choose what is your first language and what language are you trying to learn.
Once you choose it’ll take you to another page in which you have tons of lessons, for ex. In Italian, there are 109 lessons.
I haven’t checked every lesson yet but for example, the first one is greetings and such. You click that lesson and you have 16 flashcards that will show you the word in your target language and the translation, at the same time that someone pronounces the words.
Below the flashcards, you have this ⬇️
And basically is a bunch of game, an easy matching words kind of game, some kind of tic tac toe with words, a memory game do you know the one that kids play in which they have to find the matching pictures? Same but with words and lastly a listening and matching game.
Below the bar of the games, we have the vocabulary list of the words we are taught in that lesson, and you can click the word and listen the pronunciation.
In the end, you have a bunch of the next lessons.
The lessons vary from the content it can be greetings, numbers, health stuff, office words, computer terminology, etc.
The website doesn’t have every language in the world, but it has a lot of them. choose your target language, in my case Italian, and enjoy, is fun and simple if you want to practice or do something related to your target language but you don’t have the willingness that day to study something more consistent like structure.
And the best part is that as far as I went looking around in this page it’s fucking free. Sure, you won’t end the one hundred and something lessons speaking like a native from whatever target language you’re learning, but it can be useful to expand your vocabulary.
