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Permalink Reply by Igor Kurilin on July 18, 2011 at 11:35am

I use flash cards. The problem with flash cards is that one needs to put new words into a context and start using these words in every-day situations as soon as possible. Otherwise all those words are easily  slipping one's mind.

I found that memorizing useful sentences with new words works better for me but it's kind of hard to make a good sentence for each new word.  

Permalink Reply by Steven S. Bammel on July 18, 2011 at 1:49pm

Here's my answer:

I've also published this as a KBC Community Soapbox video. I'd love to "see" how other members are solving their Korean vocabulary study needs.

 

Permalink Reply by Philipp Grunwald on July 18, 2011 at 9:56pm

OMG, you made a video just like that (even mentioning me -.-), great stuff! But I guess it looks to me like you didn't really have to cram since 1979 (or 1999), because you were done back then? ;-) ...As you labeled it all as "old" stuff.

 

And 10 binders, wow. There are the 10.000 hours.

Permalink Reply by Steven S. Bammel on July 19, 2011 at 7:43am

I'm a little concerned that my ten binders statement was an exaggeration. I'm going to check my box of stuff when I get to the States to check for sure. It's a big box and there's plenty more in there, but as for counting fat binders, I might have miscounted...

 

And as for "being done". No, no way... Every word doesn't stick forever the first time; lots of words pop up more than once, which is a nice feature of this approach. Each time I find a word, the text is different and so with repetition, it helps to build up context and an understanding of nuance.

Permalink Reply by Philipp Grunwald on July 21, 2011 at 4:47am

Actually I'm still interested in the topic in so far that the "how" is, I think, always more important and interesting. We all might have big or many folders, the question is:

Did/do you order your vocabulary after topic or context, do you have separate grammar sections, do you felt the need to keep it as simple as possible (one box, 5000 vocabulary) or as structured/detailed as possible (hierarchical topic sorting or after difficulty or whatnot) or did this question never bother you?

 

How do you repeat, what kind of exercises / drills do you do to check on your knowledge or internalize grammar rules? All these things are interesting to me. I am definitely into the specifics, as e. g. lined out by Mr. Vise here. Of course not everyone is into this kind of "meta"-analysis...

Permalink Reply by Jan Persson on October 4, 2011 at 4:44pm

I have been following these discussions while I made an app for it. It's kind of a flashcard application but has more features. Like translation lookups which makes it work like a dictionary with more training functions. I usually add notes of who said the word, or in what context I found it, which helps remembering a lot, as someone mentioned already.

 

The flashcards/words are automatically placed in a todo-list, so what I do is that I try to clear my todo-list every day. For each time I practice a word I decide how long time the word should be removed before coming back to the todo-list. Could be hours, days, months or forever. For difficult or important words I let it reoccur after a few hours or days, while easy and unimportant words I set weeks or months. Allegorically, it's kind of like you are walking with flashcards in your hand and throwing them in a straight line in front of you, the longer you throw them the longer it takes until you pick them up, read and throw again.

 

I usually use the app on my computer while studying, perhaps reading news or watching Korean movie. Since it's faster to use the keyboard. But while commuting or lying on my bed I just use my ipod or sometimes my tablet.

 

Before this I used to have a lot of excel-lists, but the problem was that it was bothersome to look for words I have to practice on.  Since I have an automatically updating todo-list its somehow easier to get started.

 

 

Permalink Reply by Jamie Lee on December 14, 2011 at 8:32pm

When I was studying Japanese, I found the easiest way to internalize vocabulary in phrases rather than in individual words.

When I was in good condition, I'd just memorize a whole sentence or whole paragraph of content that I already understood (after looking up words I didn't know to understand the content) and the method of how I would do this was by speaking out the language outloud to myself over and over again.

That is the only way I could really internalize a word or phrase or sentence.

The problem with words, is that even if you know a bunch of words you can't make much use of them except for recognizing them in the real world. But how lucky would you get unless you were constantly wandering around Korea in a different surroundings?

 

Writing down while studying on a scribble book helps me to focus on what's in front of me, but it wouldn't let me memorize them. I would have to go back to my scribbles at least 4-5 times to be able to think up the word without peeking.

 

But when I read outloud whatever expression it was I needed, that seemed to sink into my memory cells. And I would be able to use it again in the proper situation.

 

Lastly, when I was working in a large international firm, I noticed one of the Executive team leaders who was excellent as making new words his own. What he'd do was contstantly use a new word he learned almost any chance he had for about 2-3 months. I almost got tired of him using the word "bottleneck" in every meeting, every colleague dinner and even during soju, and in morning greetings even.

 

For my English students, I use keynotes on ipad to incorporate beautiful images with the phrase or key learning.

So that they're using more of their brain.  Again, I always associate words with phrases or clusters of words.

 

Hope that was helpful.