Any tips on how to use this technique for phrasal verbs in English? I know you haven’t tried this yourself…;) The technique seems to work just fine for me with other types of words, but when it’s the same word with different particles that change the whole sense (give in, give up, give off…) I don’t really know how to use it!!

Thanks for dropping by!

Here’s my question on relaxed Sunday morning… How/where can this power be harnessed for other things in life? If I can learn 2000 odd characters in 5 months by silly stories, what else are we tryingto do using an old, inefficient technique which could be replaced by imagination???!!!

Enjoyed reading your post. Thank you!

The process I usually employ when encountering a new word is to “try to make it make sense.” With Chinese, this could mean examining the characters involved and considering other words I know in which they appear. With a Romance language, it could mean looking for roots or commonalities with other languages. Having learned Spanish and just started French a few days ago, it is easy to find commonalities in the basic structures of the languages. I know this technique sounds vague but there’s a hidden gem here…

Ultimately, I don’t think it matters if I actually find a solid connection or “reason” behind a word that I am trying to learn. The exercise is really more of an attempt to look at the new word from all possible angles and dissect it. In this process I am asking myself questions like “what other words does it sound like? what grammar role does it fill? how does the word look when written on paper? does it have a direct translation into other languages I know?”

By asking these questions, I make many more connections than I otherwise would. As Benny pointed out, one of the major problems with the listen-and-repeat method is that even when it “works” it is very mono-directional. I like to think of it in terms of a neural-network — by going through the exercise here, I am encouraging my brain to connect the new word neuron(s) to many other neurons. More connections == more pathways == more solidified. Or something like that.

I agree with you about connecting it with a story I had connected a certain math equation years ago with a melody, and haven’t forgotten yet

One thing though that I want to know your opinion on… How can I make up stories for thousands of words that is a language’s vocabulary? I think I would just confuse my poor brain with the stories

I'm new hear and my english is very good so dont beat me hard and ofcourse as a polite person i apologize because of my bad english .

So i read all post and i hope i understand in right way in general.

Here is my conclusion about all your posts.

We all are different and we all need different approach you cant suggest one approach to all.I think it's just wrong.Same is with the health,sport,job and so on.And best what i find is ayurveda which more or less correctly explain what is best for that or another person.And i'm very curios maybe some day some one will use it even in english and i think it will be very useful because in things like job and sport,food health,thoughts and so on it works.

About imigination approach.Ofcourse it works.When you was kid how you learned new words?Only through real contact feelings,pain,smell,imagination,seeing and so on..

Since we dont have around us language which we learning.What can we do?Only imagine,talk withself,listen some podcast,maybe watch some movie or radio or read and so on.

Since i dont have mp3 player i'm using flashcard(i hope i understand this word righ .Writing on it some word and when in job i have pause or free time i took it and trying to make sentence.trying to make sentence with real situation or my dreams.But i found that it not really works.No i understand why.Because it was not colorful.In other words it was maybe boring or not very much important for me.

I think to learn any language we need to surround us with it.But not only with sentence or sounds or text but with feeling emotions and so on.

I think all you here acctually trying to remember to revise how you learned your all native language.For me all your posts,thoughts basicly lead to your childhood.

And conclussion for now for me is simple to learn any language all what you need is to make your enviroment around as much as possible native.:)

So one more time sorry about my super duper english.I hope you will understand me.I started learning english only two month ago(acctually i'm not learning)i just listening that's all.Now i will use imagination more and i believe it will help.

Thanks to all that you remind me some things from my childhood.

Ye i know very weird post )

see ya with respect and love Edmunds

On method that I've found useful is to remember a familiar room (bed room as a child, etc), and associate each item in that room with a word, sentence, story, etc. It helps for recall and makes the creation of the stories go quickly. All you have to do is mentally pick up or look at that object and the word will come back to you.