How to memorize THOUSANDS of words in any foreign Language

Timestamps:
00:00 - The Recipe for Building a Huge Vocabulary in a Foreign Language
02:14 - Rule 1: Mark, Highlight, or Underline What You Want To Remember
09:54 - Rule 2: Transfer the Most Important Expressions Into Your Notebook
16:48 - Rule 3: Store Just Enough Expressions To Remember the Gist of the Content
21:13 - Rule 4: Connect Stored Expressions to the Context in Which They Were Learned
23:49 - Rule 5. Translate the Expressions Into Your Native Language
24:42 - Rule 6: Review Your Notebook Regularly

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[e-genieclimatique]

in brief:
In this video, Lucas, a language coach who speaks 14 languages, shares his secret to building a large vocabulary in any language.
He explains the three things you need to get started:
-a portable notebook,
-authentic target language content,
-and his six rules for memorizing new vocabulary.

Lucas demonstrates his process using a German podcast as an example.
He first marks or highlights interesting words and phrases in the content, then transfers the most important expressions into his portable language learning notebook.
He emphasizes the importance of storing just enough expressions to remember the gist of the content, which he calls "density."
By having appropriately dense notes, learners can recall the main ideas and sequence of concepts from the original content, making it easier to remember the expressions.


The speaker discusses six powerful rules for memorizing words in any language using a notebook.
Here is a summary of these rules:

1. Mark, highlight, or underline what you want to remember: When reading or listening to content, identify important expressions to learn and remember.

2. Transfer the most important expressions into your notebook: Write down these expressions in your target language to help commit them to memory.

3. Store just enough expressions to remember the gist of the content: Write down enough information to reconstruct the original piece of content, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming.

4. Connect stored expressions to the context in which they were learned: Add context, such as a title, source, and date, to help remember where the information came from.

5. Translate the expressions into your native language: Use a two-page notebook layout to write translations of expressions, allowing for a bird's-eye view of the content in both languages.

6. Review your notebook regularly: Consistently review the expressions and translations to reinforce memorization and improve recall.

By following these rules and regularly reviewing your notebook, you will be well on your way to memorizing words and improving your language skills.

[paulafranciscac]

I prefer to just start a book and read for hours. I write at the margins the words that are new and of interest. Just by writing and translating them I am able to remember them later. By looking up a word at least 3 times and writing down the translation in the margins of the book you can memorize them. Writers tend to use over and over certain words. I have read the Da Vinci Code in French, English and Portuguese. I know that it is not the " best literature", but it is easy to read and therefore an effective way of acquiring vocabulary. (I am a Spanish Native Speaker and Teacher). Those 4 languages help each other also.

[stephenY]

The fastest way i honestly learnt langauges was the most simplest yet everyone says its not as effective and made hundreds of flashcards over the course of months using single words/ basic sentences etc on each one. Practicing daily. Adding new cards regularly. Once i memorised a big chunk of the essentials of the language, i then moved onto just casually listening to audio (radio, videos, tv programs etc). Its simple.

[luismarquez]

Guys as someone who masters 3 languages I sort of have used this concept. I also write down important vocabulary words and learn them as part of sentences that I creat myself.

Mémorisation of vocab simply does not work.

Have a conversation partner in your learning language is extremely helpful.

[sestra]

It took me years of learning German to develop a similar technique.
The difference is that instead of writing down in a notebook, I am using folded in the middle A4 pieces of paper. In this way, during review sessions, I can combine newer with older vocabulary.

So I do agree with you, the results of contextualizing the new words and expressions are indeed remarkable and I also highly recommend it.

[davidmares]

Key is interesting content, don't choose something you would not want in your native language. Great video 🎉

[selfmadenewbie]

This is very much like a manual version of LingQ used with an SRS. I used these 2 tools to become conversational in Mandarin in about 9 months. Great video for my confirmation bias on how languages should be learned haha nice work.

[tullochgorum]

This approach makes a lot of sense, and avoids the drudgery of flashcards. I particularly appreciate the idea of using the context as an anchor for the memory.

But I do find that storing the content on paper is a bit inflexible for creative review. So I'm experimenting with a tweak to Luca's technique.

This time around I'm putting the vocab into a Personal Knowledge Management database with powerful tagging. Then I can search by any combination of source, part of speech, function (eg shopping, date and time, environment, mountaineering) and degree of learning (inbox, difficult, easy, learned).

This way I can filter any subset I want for review by self-talk, prepping for language exchanges, drilling grammar patterns, writing a journal or whatever.

Early days, but I think I'm going to like it.

[lingofranca]

super interesting! I'll add to that process also the cycle of:
- extensive reading
- intensive reading (using luca's method)
- extensive reading
- self talk/discussing with a native speaker on the subject.

[KuroSteve]

Vielen Dank für dieses Video! Deine Aussprache ist übrigens sehr gut!

[davidn]

A very informative video! As a polyglot I dont actually find the whole learning process the hardest. Maintaining a language (especially when you know lots of them) is far more challenging. Ci vediamo in Polyglot Gathering Luca!

[pyrolinka]

This is basically what you teach in your paid online course, but over here, you give it away for free...

[KaruMedve]

Interesting! I do almost the same thing. The main difference is that after I finished my list on paper, I type those sentences and their meanings into an Excelsheet, save the list as a CSV file and export the whole list into Anki which automatically creates recognition and recall cards from the whole list and the sentences are ready for me to review.

[Paul_Mirror]

Excelente material, ¡realmente se siente una conexión contigo en este video como si estuviéramos allí al lado tuyo, Luca!

[AnthonyLauder]

Great video from Luca again! One skill I think this helps develop is the ability to paraphrase. That is, to summarise even complicated things in a clear and concise way. This is essential for being able to communicate any idea on-the-fly, without getting tongue-tied due to fear that you don't know some advanced vocab or grammar structures. That is, it helps you become "fluent with what you have" and to gradually progress "what you have" along the way.

[MariaDiFilippo-usur]

I completely agree with you, Luca. I came across a video of a girl who claimed to have passed the B2 exam in Russian and Spanish within three months by using flashcards and sentence-building exercises for four hours a day. Intrigued by her success, I purchased the same course and followed the method, even attending tutor sessions. However, despite learning around 3500 words in Russian from scratch, I struggle to comprehend the language, non capisco una mazza😂. Simply knowing individual words and their usage in a sentence does not equate to understanding the language in context. As for my Russian proficiency, I can only speak about basic topics, which would probably be classified as between A1 and A2 level. In contrast, with a basic course and a lot of comprehensible input in German, I was able to achieve a solid B1 level within the same three-month time frame.

[Janonina]

Your small notebook reminded me of my own that I used to study latin language during high school education.
On one side of the notebook, I used to write down new vocabulary (latin - croatian) and on the other, I used to writw down some famous latin proverbs. During our latin classes, we would have oral exams and our latin teacher would always check the small notebook of every student. I actually find it useful, even though it may seem oldschool!
Thanks for all of the advices, Luca!

[klausg]

Luca has so much great content inside of what he says. Good stuff.

[NaturalLanguageLearning]

I do something similar, but memorising the unknown words I encounter through visualisation & association.

[wandererrrrrr]

hey luca since you're reading the comments and that's very humbling and gentle of you ❤ I suggest you making us a video about how you were learning languages back in the day when you first started or even when you were a college student considering back then you didn't have the resources you have today and yet you still managed to learn perfectly ( I saw your very first video you were perfect) . and how did you balance between studying and learning languages
I think it's pretty difficult for youth learners including myself to figure that out and you're really a role model for me ❤