The rate with which I learn new words on a regular basis has been inversely proportional to my age (except for the childhood years, I suppose) - until now. I either actively learnt a lot of new words when I was a child, or I am beginning to do it this year. Well, there was a phase in between when I was preparing for my MBA entrance exams - but that was more because I had to do it if I wanted a good score, rather than because I genuinely wanted to learn new words. And of course, that approach is neither much fun, nor very effective.
This time, however, I have made learning at least one new word each day a part of my goals, because I really want to have a better vocabulary. And so far, I am on track. The method I am using is working. At an average, at least. Technological tools have made this process fairly effective, and if you want to build your vocabulary - I recommend this process to you. Here are four simple steps I follow to learn new words.
Step 1: Reading: To learn new words, one needs to encounter new words. And reading is definitely one of the best ways to do that. The more I read, the more words I encounter for which I don’t know the meaning, and so there is a greater chance of me learning new words if I read more.
Step 2: Looking up the Meaning: For a rather long time, I was content with guessing the contextual meaning of words. Pure laziness, if you ask me the reason for it. But if I got a general idea of what the author was trying to say, I would just ignore the words I didn’t understand and move on. But now that I am making a conscious effort to learn new words, even if I can broadly make out the meaning of a word, I refer to an online dictionary on my phone to see what exactly does it mean. And at times, the findings surprise me.
Step 3: Remembering the Words: If I come across a word and look up the meaning, I will definitely remember it. For a few minutes, that is. But chances are, if I don’t make an effort to internalize the word through one way or another, the next time I encounter it ten days later, in the best case scenario, I will vaguely remember that I had checked its meaning, but it will not come back to me. And in the worst case scenario, I will reach for my phone to look up the meaning - all over again. And so, it is important for me to remember the words I am looking up in the dictionary, so that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel the next time they pop up. For this, I maintain a list of words that I learn, as and when I learn them, on Google Keep - which is an excellent app for taking notes and making lists.
Step 4: Remembering the Meaning: This is the trickiest part. How do I ensure that the meaning stays with me forever? I know some people use flash cards, but I have always been too lazy to use them. Getting to know the roots of the words works for some people - and I have tried it too, but it also takes up a lot of effort and I got bored. What has worked really well for me is a mobile app called “Memrise.” It is there on the web and can be downloaded on your smartphone as well, and learning words is just one of the many things you can learn there. What it does is that it teaches you the words, and then keeps asking you questions about them till you can define their meaning in your sleep. The best thing is that you can create your own course in a few simple steps - and learn whatever it is it that you want to learn. So I refer to the list I create in Step 3, and keep updating a course I have created on Memrise. And the app does the job of drilling the meaning down in my head - for all the words that I have learnt - as and when I choose to practice the words.
That’s it. I have learnt over seventy new words in 2015 so far using these steps. I don’t remember the last time I learnt so many words so quickly. But then, how would I - I must have been only three years old when that happened.
