ME AND MY OLD TRICK (MMT)
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Single words are the building blocks of a language; hence we must try our best to develop a wide vocabulary.
It’s a well-known fact that a person who has a large vocabulary is able to express himself in an impressive manner, unlike someone with a small vocabulary - only could do it in a limited fashion.
You may have tried various methods to expand your vocabulary. Despite all the earnest efforts, your struggle could have failed to find the desired result. How many of you had this bad experience…? Perhaps you’d given up hope of ever acquiring that verbal dexterity because you’ve come to a conclusion that it’s virtually impossible! Am I right, my dear friend?
Well! However you look at it…, without doubt, it’s crucial that you amass as many words as you could and you must get it done the soonest possible. Let me draw an analogy: Trying to intrigue your listeners/readers with a restricted range of words is likened to an army which is ill-prepared for the battle and merely waiting for a disaster to take place!
I’ve fought many uphill battles against the inability to express my thoughts uninterrupted. To tell the truth, I had only a handful of words to play with, whether it was my written or spoken English. I was on the verge of giving up when finally was introduced to this TRICK…! I’m glad to share with you that “Old Secret of Mine..!”
Just before I tell what exactly I want you to do, make sure you have the good habit of reading regularly; if not start doing it today and not tomorrow for “tomorrow” never comes!
STEP 1:.
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Take a sheet of paper, for example a leaf from an exercise book: size – 16cm X 21cm, I suppose. Fold it vertically into 2 halves. Now, this time fold horizontally (of course into two) by taking the bottom edge to the top one. Fold one more time horizontally – bottom one to the top edge. Good! Take a pair of scissors and cut off all four edges so that you’ll end up with 8 separate pieces of *slips, equal in size (8cm X 5cm)!
Here’s a sample
8cm X 5cm each piece
STEP 2:
Whenever you come across a WORD which is NEW to you, take a *slip and write down the WORD on the front side of it. (You can add the “pronunciation” as well if you know how to read “phonetic spellings”) Observe the SPELLING carefully as you write the WORD.
Now on the reverse side (back), write the MEANING of the word (Sometimes there could be more than one meaning). Look at your *slip and read the MEANING(S) you’ve just written. It would be much better if you could say them aloud a few times!
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Let’s assume that your NEW word is “entourage” ; your end result should look something like the samples shown below
Front > WORD
Back > MEANING
STEP 3:
Every time you’ve finished writing a *slip, drop it into a “small box” or any other container that you like, for example… (see pic)
STEP 4:
Every morning before you leave your house just pick a few *slips (don’t see what’s written on them) from the box and put them in your pocket. Whenever you get a few minutes of free time, pick a *slip from your pocket on random and read the writing on whichever side that you see first. If it’s the front face (you’ll have the WORD there), try to recall the MEANING on the reverse (back) side or vice versa. Now, check whether you’ve got the MEANING correct. The next thing that you should do is, put the WORD in a few sentences as per the definition(s) given.
You see, you have the whole day to try these *slips as many times as you wish. You can do this while you’re travelling in a bus/car/train, having meals or even in the ‘rest room’ :-P
STEP 5:
At the end of the day you can either simply throw the slips away or put them in another container. I’ll go for the latter because it will motivate us to do more when every time we look at those slips keep growing in number! Can you imagine this for a while…? If you could learn just ONE NEW WORD A DAY your vocabulary power will increase by 365 NEW WORDS in a year! (I’m sure you’ll go for more than one word a day.) Wow! Isn’t that terrific?! Thus, do not procrastinate! Do it today!
Wish you all the best!
~* GS *~
October 8, 2011
Comments
What a wonderful way to memorize the whole new words. I like reading English everyday,though I can understand most content of the stories or articles by guessing meaning of the new words by context clue, but I struggle to keep these in my mind. Thank you very much for sharing your own way in learning - really a great and useful way, I think - to enhance vocabulary everyday.
wow..thank you for the tips and thank you for sharing this blog..
would this work for phrasal verbs and idioms?
WAAAAAW, I'm at lost of words, Really AMAZING, thanks for sharing your great way, I know some ways of GAINING new words, but the problem is how to memorize them.. your way of memorizing is Awesome ,
I would like to add something, which we used to do in the English course ,
the instructor asks us to split into two groups, the first group choose a word , and pick someone from the other group, then they show him/her the word, then he/she has to explain the word to the his/her group and his group have to guess the word ..and so on :D :D You know it was a great way, I still remember every single word I have studied in that way ....Your way inspired me to do it with myself
Dear Vanessa,
Don't mention it. Please, feel free! I would be very glad if this reaches more people and help them to enrich their vocabulary power, as a matter of fact. Thank you!
~* GS *~
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing. I hope you don't mind if I pass it on to a few other people.
I really love the way that you explain every things thanks for sharing this valuable blog :)"
WOW
I loved it.. Thanks for sharing.. And your blog itself is a vocabulary treasure.. I had to look up many words while reading it.. I hope I will be this good with words one day ;)))
Keep it up..
Hello Gabriel,
Wow! Thank you so much for those tips, I hope that can work with my brain lol
Hi Gabriel, wow! very useful tips and clear explanation. Indeed, it is a very helpful method.
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