Learning a Foreign Language: Learn from the Blind

In a previous article, you read that to establih your own lists was the best way to learn vocabulary as fast as possible. Let's study what an effective list looks like.
Among prejudices about languages, there is the following: you need to establish huge lists in order to acquire as many words as possible.
WRONG !
The most effective list contains 5 to 6 words at a time. Yes! Your larger list contains 6 words. Are you still afraid of the task? I'm sure you can deal with 6 words at a time. If you could draw your memory, you would draw a two room flat. The first room, your instant memory, is large enough for 6 items. Your deep memory, the second room, has no limit, but it can receive no more than 6 items at a time and wants you to confirm your order. What happens when you fight against Nature? If you go on solliciting your instant memory and try to add a new item when there is no room left, it will make room for this new item (your memory is obedient, from a certain point of view) by pushing out something else. The newcomer is not added, it replaces the older in the queue. If you are lucky, the previous 6 items in your deep memory had been stored when you tried to add one and the pushed-out word enters your deep memory. More often, as you have experienced, it disappears. That's the reason why the memory seems a bit temperamental as long as you don't know how it works.

If you are determined to learn a foreign language, you can't rely on luck to enrich your vocabulary. Don't fight against Nature, use it. Take advantage of this human feature instead of struggling with it. You have got six-item boxes, but the number of boxes is unlimited, and anyway, long lists are boring.
Fill a box, send it, confirm your order! again and again. It is the fastest and best way to enrich your vocabulary. Do you recognize the "first five minute factor"? When you begin a novel, when you start watching a movie, you meet the characters. Honestly, how often do you have to rewind the tape to encounter them a second time? Never. Neither need you to re-read the first chapter of a book. Though I admit I have some trouble with Dostoievski's characters.) Make the first five minute factor the slave of your memory.

  • Check 6 words in a dictionary.
  • Learn them. Each time it is possible, learn words in association (see part II): table/chair, son/daughter, inside/outside, high/low etc. Make associations that are meaningful for you. I think easy to learn "son" and "daughter" but you may feel easier to learn "son" and "boy". Any association that works for you is a good one.
  • Take a break in order to empty your immediate memory. (For me, singing a verse is enough.) Let the new words "sleep" for an hour while you fill other boxes. At the end of the session, revise everything.
  • The day after, revise the whole list again, carefully, box by box, before filling a new one.
  • It seems slow to learn that way? It is not. Remember the waste of time it has been to learn and re-learn the same words in your school years, and still not to know them. Put this method on trial while waiting for the next issue:
    why and how to become a kind of ventriloquist.

    Gabrielle Guichard, a French teacher who can be reached on GabrielleGuichard.com and listened to on FrenchPodcasting.com

    Latest News


    Washington Post

    Kerry Condemns "Hate-Filled" Language At McCain-Palin Rallies
    CBS News, NY - 12 hours ago
    I strongly condemn language like this which can only be described as hate-filled." Kerry also put the comments on his "anti-"smear" site. ...
    Body Politics: Sarah Palin's Body Language And Why It Should Worry You Huffington Post
    BETWEEN THE LINES: Sarah 'Six-Pack' and All That Goes With It Eurweb.com
    IMF Chief on Financial Crisis, Medvedev on America, and the ... Council on Foreign Relations
    Slate - The Tennessean
    all 1,353 news articles

    MediaPost Publications

    Ad Council Campaigns Against Anti-Gay Language
    MediaPost Publications, New York - 17 hours ago
    by Fern Siegel, Friday, Oct 10, 2008 8:00 AM ET To combat anti-gay language among teens, the Advertising Council launched its first national multimedia ...
    Hilary Duff & Wanda Sykes Anti-Anti Gay Language PSA for GLSEN ... Huffington Post
    Celebs Urge Teens to 'Knock Off' Anti-Gay Language Brandweek Magazine
    Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones OpEdNews
    PageOneQ.com - EDGE Boston
    all 41 news articles

    BBC News

    £2.7m boost for Gaelic language
    Times Online, UK - 9 hours ago
    A £2.7million package to build schools and boost educational support for the Gaelic language has been unveiled by Alex Salmond (Mike Wade writes). ...
    Cash boost for Gaelic vowed as Mod opens Scotsman
    Mod launch on song as Salmond unveils £2.7m boost for Gaelic The Herald
    Mod festival first for Falkirk The Press Association
    BBC News
    all 13 news articles

    eFluxMedia

    Dial 'M' for Microsoft's new programming language
    Register, UK - 16 hours ago
    As if you haven't got enough languages already, Microsoft is about to give you one more: M, part of its Oslo development and service-oriented strategy. ...
    Microsoft renames its ‘D’ language ‘M’ ZDNet
    Microsoft details Oslo's modeling language, tools SDTimes.com
    Microsoft Moves a Step Closer to Oslo eWeek
    InformationWeek - InfoWorld
    all 18 news articles

    The Gazette (Montreal)

    Duceppe slams Dion's language critics
    The Gazette (Montreal), Canada - 4 hours ago
    Friday, the question of language dominated Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe's day as he took his campaign to Montreal, where his party is fighting ...
    Duceppe defends Dion over language 'double standard' CBC.ca
    Layton, Duceppe defend Dion over interview Globe and Mail
    Duceppe defends Dion after botched Edmonton Sun
    Vancouver Sun - Winnipeg Sun
    all 18 news articles

    Le Petit Robert relaxes language rules
    Times Online, UK - 7 hours ago
    He says that the reform has been necessary to enable a rigidly codified language to move forward in a society of slang and multi-ethnic innovation. ...

    BBC News

    Body language: confident Obama, combative McCain
    The Associated Press - Oct 9, 2008
    More than in the previous presidential debate, body language proved telling on Tuesday night, and it reflected the status of the race: a contest transformed ...
    Candidates zero in on character San Jose Mercury News
    Sarah Palin and the mean wink Seattle Times
    A Bush leaguer on the ticket Socialist Worker Online
    Huffington Post - New Yorker
    all 1,417 news articles

    Canoe.ca

    Kevin Libin: Shouldn't prime ministers meet the same language ...
    National Post, Canada - 8 hours ago
    Let’s look critically at both of those alternating explanations: 1) Mr. Dion has trouble with the English language: Is this really the story the Liberals ...
    Tories show video to play up Dion's language difficulties Toronto Star
    Dion TV muddle knocked Edmonton Sun
    Tories spark storm over botched Dion interview Canoe.ca
    Winnipeg Sun - Chatham Daily News
    all 42 news articles

    Charter Petition group asks state AG for new ballot language
    Knoxville News Sentinel, TN - 11 hours ago
    Lockett had to write the language that actually will appear on the ballot as a summary of the seven amendments, however. That ballot language must be ...
    Charter petition group fighting ballot's wording WBIR-TV
    all 2 news articles

    Berbers' Amazigh language becomes mainstream
    Radio Netherlands, Netherlands - 16 hours ago
    But their language - commonly known under the umbrella title of Amazigh - has not been the lingua franca or commonly spoken language since the Arab invasion ...

    Resources