Is it possible to remember all the words from the dictionary. We remember only the necessary words

Today we are talking about the method of spaced repetition, which allows you to memorize foreign words so that they will never leave your head again.

What kind of technology?

Spaced repetition is a mnemonic technique based on repeating words at intervals.

The method was developed by American linguist Paul Pimsleur in 1967. Pimsleur noticed that the brain forgets words almost instantly after learning them. But if you repeat words before they are erased from memory, the time of “forgetting” will increase exponentially.

Prepare cards: phrase in English, translation and, if necessary, transcription. Write clearly and large.

Why phrases and not words?

Learning phrases is easier and more effective. And that's why:

Phrases are easier to use in conversation;
- they already contain information that is usually searched for additionally: prepositions, articles, areas of use;
- a phrase is an image, it’s easier to remember.

How many repetitions does it take to learn?

Pimsleur advised repeating the phrase 11 times. You can make it simpler and get by with nine approaches: read, repeat after 30 minutes, then the next morning, then after three days, a week, a month, three months, six months and a year later.
If you repeat a phrase for 10 seconds (two voiceovers of five seconds each), it will take one and a half minutes per year.
To avoid confusion, write down the date of the next repetition on the word card and put everything in folders or boxes.

I'm too lazy to write on paper, is there anything else?

Eat. For example, Seinfeld Calendar. It allows you to program goals, intervals, and track your progress.

Instead of flashcards or stickers, try apps: Anki, Mnemosyne, Supermemo, Quizlet, you can write new words in them, set repetition intervals and create libraries. We have the services “Word Training” - for repeating words added to the dictionary, “Danette by Dictionary” - a game in which you see the translation of a word and choose whether it is correct or not, and “Exam Mode” for training a specific list of words.

How to support the result?

The method is based on regular repetition, so the main thing is a systematic approach and motivation. We have already talked about the systematic approach. And so that motivation does not fade away, it needs to be fed:

Use new words in conversations or correspondence,
- record on a voice recorder short stories in English with memorized phrases, and then listen to them until you remember all the words you have learned,
- take notes of articles and lectures listened to in English,
- share your knowledge on social networks or start a Telegram channel for the words you have learned.

Practice in a pleasant and quiet environment. This makes it easier to perceive new information, and a stable positive association “learning is pleasant and easy” will appear in your head.

For those who want to improve their English

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When learning a foreign language, it is very important to constantly replenish your vocabulary - to memorize new and new words in English. However, not everyone is able to do this successfully. We offer you seven tips to help you remember new words in English more effectively.

Create associative networks

Our brain takes what we read and transforms it into images, ideas and feelings, and then forms connections between new information and what we already know. This is how memorization occurs - the new is united with the old.

Imagine a tree. Isn’t it easier to see a large spreading tree with many branches and leaves than a small tree with a few branches? The same is true for the brain. When you connect a new word or concept with something you already know, it is easier for your brain to find it and remember it at the right time.

How to do it? Very simple. Draw a network of concepts. Take what you want to remember (a word, an idea, a sentence) and write it in the center of the paper. Then draw lines from it in all directions, like a web.

At the end of each line, write down any English words or even draw pictures that come to mind when you think of the word written in the center. It doesn't matter what the associations are, just write down everything you come up with.

It only takes a couple of minutes and now all the words or concepts will be interconnected in your brain. If you see or hear one of them, it will be easier for you to remember the others.

To make this work even better, pronounce how this or that word in English is connected to others. The more often you do this, the more connections are formed. And the more connections, the easier it is for your brain to “see” the word you want to remember.

Remember phrases (word combinations)

Remembering the word is important, but English language, like any other, is not just a set of concepts, it is a tool that people use to communicate and express their thoughts. Find examples of how this or that word is used in the text.

Write down not only the word itself, but also the neighboring ones. For example, if you need to remember the English word “arrogant,” you could write “the tall, arrogant man.”

This will help you remember that "arrogant" is an adjective used to describe people. Then try to make three complete sentences to practice using it.

Use pictures

Draw little pictures to remember the meaning of a word. Don't know how to draw? It's not scary, it's even better. Our brain receives so much monotonous information that a strange picture is a kind of surprise, and we always remember surprises.

Our brain reads visual information better. Draw a funny picture to illustrate the meaning of a word and you will remember it much faster.

Make up stories

English learners often complain that there are too many new words and it is difficult to remember them. There is one trick you can use to learn words quickly. Compose any story, even a ridiculous one, that uses all the words in English. Imagine it in detail.

We remember stories easily, especially strange ones, if we can recreate them in our imagination. Feel free to combine words in funny and awkward ways. Let's say you need to remember the following 20 English words:

shoes, piano, tree, pencil, bird, bus, books, driver, dog, pizza, flower, door, TV set, spoons, chair, jump, dance, throw, computer, stone

(shoes, piano, tree, pencil, bird, bus, books, driver, dog, pizza, flower, door, TV, spoons, chair, jump, dance, throw, computer, stone)

You can compose them like this incredible story:

There is a piano wearing shoes and sitting in a tree. The tree is strange because someone has stuck a giant pencil through it. On the pencil a bird is sitting and watching a bus full of people reading books.

Even the driver is reading a book which is bad because he isn’t paying attention to driving. So, he hits a dog that is eating a pizza in the middle of the road and kills it. The driver digs a hole and buries the dog in it and then puts a flower on it.

He notices that there is a door in the dog’s grave and opens it. Inside he can see a TV set with 2 spoons for antennas on top of it. No-one is watching the TV set because they are all watching the chair. Why? - Because the chair is jumping and dancing and throwing stones at the computer.

A piano sits on a tree with shoes on. The tree looks strange because someone pierced it with a huge pencil. A bird sits on a pencil and looks at the bus, full of people reading books.

Even the driver is reading a book, which is bad because he is not paying attention to the road. So he hits and kills a dog that was eating pizza in the middle of the road. The driver digs a hole and buries the dog, and then places a flower on top.

He notices that there is a door in the dog's grave and opens it. Inside he sees a TV with two spoons on top that act as antennas. Nobody watches TV because everyone is looking at the chair. Why? Because the chair jumps, dances and throws stones at the computer.

Give it a try. You will surprise yourself!

Remember opposites

Memorize words with opposite meanings (antonyms) and words with similar meanings(synonyms). For example, memorize the pairs angry/happy and angry/cross at the same time. We remember similar and opposite things faster because the brain creates connections between them.

Parse the word according to its composition

Use roots, prefixes and suffixes to guess what a word means.

For example: even if you don't know the word "microbiology", you can guess what it means. First, take a look at the prefix "micro". Micro means something very small. You may know that the "-logy" part means science, the study of something.

So we can already say that we're talking about about learning something small. You may also remember that "bio" means life, living things. Thus, we can come to the conclusion that “microbiology” is the science of microscopic living organisms.

If you make a list of common prefixes (un-, dis-, con-, micro-, etc.) and suffixes (-able, -ly, -ent, -tion, -ive, etc.) and remember what they mean, you will be able to guess the meaning of new words in English.

The main thing is time

Psychologists who study memory processes argue that there is good way remember things quickly and for a long time. Use a new word as soon as you learn it. Then use it after 10 minutes. Then an hour later. Then the next day. Then a week later.

After this, you are unlikely to have to make an effort to remember it - the new vocabulary will remain with you forever.

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Why remember English words?

Learning English has become a necessity for many people. For schoolchildren, it is dictated by the requirement to pass exams. For traveling people, this is an opportunity to communicate with representatives of other nations. Learning a language involves mastering several skills. The foundation on which these skills are based is word learning. After studying several tenses and practicing using them for a couple of weeks, you can speak quite clearly. But then another difficulty arises, this is the study of words. If you approach this seemingly tedious process creatively, you can speed it up many times over. You can even learn to enjoy it. Let's look at a few known methods learning English words.

1. Write down the words in a notebook

This is the easiest way to accumulate new words. It is usually offered in schools. Marya Ivanovna gives the task to write down all the new words in a notebook and learn them by heart.Then she asks for their translation from Russian to English and from English to Russian. This method of memorizing words is not bad, but it has its disadvantages. The position of words in the list is remembered. It is difficult to concentrate on words that are difficult to remember. In the future, words learned in this way are poorly recognized.

2. Write words on cards

This method is much more effective than the previous one. You write words on cards on both sides. The English word and its transcription are written on one side. The other side is being recorded synonyms (if they are), example words in a sentence and translation into Russian. This memorization of words allows you to divide words into “ I know», « Don't know" and then focus on words that are difficult to learn, that is - " Don't know" Here is a more detailed description of the process of learning English words using cards. You can make the cards themselves from cardboard or thick paper, or you can purchase ready-made ones in the online store.

3. Select synonyms and antonyms

If possible, you need to think and find synonyms and antonyms for the word you are studying. In this form, words are remembered faster. For example, you know the word fast - fast. Then you came across the wordswift – fast, but you don’t know this word yet. You associate it with the word fast, swift = fast. This way it will be remembered much faster. And if you also find the antonym slow for it, then the connection will be stronger.

4. We are surprised by new things

If possible, create some kind of unreal association in your mind. For example, remembering a word fast – you are fast together with fast-food imagine the name slow-food . Such associations usually make you smile. They are unusual - so they are remembered much faster. This ability to change, design and be surprised is very important. You don't just assign one value to another, but look at it from different sides, from different angles. You are surprised, delighted and laugh at what you made up. Any information undergoing such processing will remain in memory much longer.

5. Looking for associations

Sometimes it's difficult to remember a new English word. Well, it’s not remembered, that’s all! In this case, it is necessary to find associations for it. For example, words are often confused blackberry – blackberry, bilberry – blueberries and strawberry - strawberry. If you break them down into components, e.g. black - black, berry – berry. Bill similar to bill – account and straw - straw. You can remember these words quite easily.Blackberry remembered as " Blackberry" And if you also remember the once very popular telephone, you will remember the meaning of the word even better.

Blueberries are remembered as “the berry that sits on the bill.”

Strawberry is remembered as “a straw stuck into a strawberry.”

For associations, it is better to use words that can be easily imagined, seen, given taste, color, touched, etc.

The more words you know, the easier it will be for you to find associations for new words. Therefore, many are surprised how 80-year-old professors sometimes remember words or other information better than teenagers. The secret lies in the correct memorization habit and a huge vocabulary.

6. Remember words in context

Unprepared students remember words as “word” = “translation”. In this form they are remembered very poorly. The connections are too fragile. Our memory works with images, emotions, rhythms, so information should be presented to it in this form. Don't forget to look at how a particular word is used. We have a tendency to use words that we use in Russian in English without specifying the context. For example, when we ask in a cafe “whether the chair is occupied or not”, in Russian, we use the word occupied -busy . Unfortunately, we cannot say “ Is this chair busy ? “Is this chair occupied?” It would be correct to say “ Is this chair occupied? “Is this chair occupied?” Word busy implies the absence of time, which cannot be applied to an inanimate object, in our case, a chair. Therefore, check the context of each word using the examples given in the dictionaries.

7. Learn to express emotions using synonyms

We have already written that it is very advisable to find synonyms and antonyms for the words that you want to remember. New words are more easily associated with words you already know. Another aspect of such memorization is finding words to express certain emotions. We live in a world of emotions and logic. Depending on a person’s temperament, one or another component predominates in him. Therefore, it’s a good idea to have ready-made blanks in stock. For example, let's take joy. How can we admire this or that event? Let's find a few words that make it possible to do this.

It's cool!

It's wonderful!

It's beautiful!

It's amazing!

It's thrilling!

It's exiting!

It's breathtaking!

It's far out!

By organizing words into groups according to their purpose, it will be easier for you to use them.

8. Ridiculous stories

We have already written that words that are similar to each other are remembered worse, so you should not learn words in alphabetical order. If the word is wrapped in a story, or better yet, in a ridiculous story, the effect will be even stronger. For example, you need to remember the wordceiling - ceiling. You imagine that you entered your room, and the entire ceiling was made of silicone. Some may find it difficult to imagine silicone. Silicone is a material with elastic properties. The story is ridiculous because ceilings are not made of silicone, so your memory will remember this image much better.

9. Chatting with friends

In every difficult task, a person needs helpers. It is necessary to maintain your enthusiasm and one of the most effective methods, this is communication.Try to find friends with whom you can communicate in English. Nowadays there are many different applications that allow you to find friends with similar interests from English speaking countries and discuss some topics that interest you in a language that interests you. There are apps where you can exchange help with those learning your native language in exchange for advice on the language you're interested in. In this case, language ceases to be a goal, but becomes a means. This is well described in the book “We Passed By”.

10. Watching movies in English

Watching movies is one of the most effective ways learning languages. You become immersed in the situation and struggle to understand what is going on. In this state of “special interest,” you remember words much better. We recommend that you do screenshots(screen photos) with the words you want to learn if you are a beginner and watch movies on the computer. After taking a screenshot and looking up the word in the dictionary, leave it without writing down the translation. This will keep your memory active. If you are watching a movie in a group and it is inconvenient to constantly stop it, then you can read the script in advance and learn all the unfamiliar words. In this case, it will look much more productive.

11. Repetition is the mother of learning

This old proverb is the key to success in learning any subject. Memory cuts off unnecessary information, and whether it is needed or not is determined by the frequency of its occurrence in your memory and your attitude towards it. We must really remember it. Hanging all the rooms, bathtubs and toilets with stickers with English words will not force our memory to remember them. She will find a way to let them pass by.

You need to develop the habit of repeating the material covered at each subsequent lesson. Move on to learning new material only if you have mastered the old one well. Proverb " so that it bounces off your teeth" will help you understand the meaning of what was said. Unfortunately, this principle is not taken into account in many training programs. There are such large gaps between repetitions that when the time comes to a test on the material covered, the student looks at the material already studied as completely new. Therefore, do not forget to bring what you have learned to perfection.

How often should you repeat learned words so as not to forget them?

There are many tips and tables showing memory cycles and effective repetition rates. It should be noted that they are designed for the average student or adult, while memorization productivity is very highly depends on individual abilities, which, in turn, develop quickly with regular training.

Start learning words by proven “3 by 3” memorization technique with a gap between sets of 2 hours, and then see how it works for you. If the result is good, you can increase the time interval between repetitions. If it is bad, it should be reduced.

12. Planning your training

Write down on a piece of paper the skills you are working on and the skills you want to develop in the future. Put them in a table, setting out the tasks and the time allotted to them. Track your progress by working on these tasks every day. It is not necessary that you can work on every skill every day. In our case over speaking, by reading, by letter And listening. Just systematically devote time to them, recording the results. If you don’t have the time or desire to practice a skill, it doesn’t matter. By recording your inability to do this now, sooner or later you will have a desire to do it. Well, you don’t want to read anything right now. Okay, watch movies. Well, you don’t feel like writing an essay today. Okay, correspond with John about music.Use your mood to study more effectively. Learning should bring joy, it is not torture. And most importantly, focus on your achievements, not on what has not yet been done. You need to feel progress and planning with reporting will help you with this. You can register and study words on-line, then in personal account see how many words you have already learned, and how long you have studied them over time.

“We forget words as well as names. Vocabulary must be constantly fertilized, otherwise it will die.” Evelyn Waugh, British writer

When starting to learn English, many people want to find the easiest and fastest way to achieve their goal. And since one of the most important goals is, the question arises: how to learn words easily and quickly? Words really can be learned easily, you can learn quickly, but you have to choose - either quickly, but by the sweat of your brow, or easily, but slowly.

I call these two ways of remembering easy words and difficult.

The hard way- this is learning words with the help of cards, exercises, when you take a set of, say, 20 words and purposefully memorize them. I call this method difficult because it requires effort to remember. In fact, with a little practice, learning words no longer seems difficult.
The easy way– this is incidental, latent memorization while reading, listening, communicating in English. I call this one easy way, because you don’t make any effort to deliberately memorize, but just read, watch, etc.

An easy but slow way to learn English words

Let's start with an easy but slow way - practice. You've probably heard that vocabulary, and knowledge of a language in general, is best developed through practice: reading, listening, speaking and writing.

Indeed, when you read books, look, some of the words stick in your memory. Words that are often repeated or guessed from context are remembered. If you come across words that are difficult and at the same time important for understanding the plot, you have to look for their meaning - such words can also be remembered. When you write or speak, you have to activate your vocabulary, retrieving words, expressions, and whole words from your memory. The more often you use words in speech, the easier they are remembered next time.

Practice is easy way learn words. You don’t study, you don’t study in the usual sense of the word - with a notebook, a textbook, but you just read for pleasure, watch a TV series or communicate. But, unfortunately, it cannot be said that reading or listening is quick way learn words. Yes, words are memorized qualitatively, with reference to context, but not large quantities.

A fast but difficult way to memorize English words

On the other hand, there is a quick way with which you can learn about 20, 50, 100 or even more words in one go - this is memorizing words using double-sided cards.

Why are flashcards an effective way to learn words on your own?

Flashcards are effective because they use the principle of active recall.

Active recall- this is the principle effective memorization information based on active stimulation of memory during the memorization process. Its opposite is passive review, when information is not retrieved from memory, but is simply read.

For example, if you are reading a history textbook, this is passive repetition. If you answer the question “What were the prerequisites for the Decembrist uprising?” - This is active remembering.

Information is remembered better, of higher quality, if it is not just read from the media (read a chapter of a textbook), but also “pumped up” with the help of active recall (retell the chapter and answer the teacher’s questions). This is why textbooks often provide self-test questions at the end of a paragraph - by answering them, you will avoid the effect of “it went in one ear, out the other.”

The easiest way to apply this principle to memorize words is with ordinary double-sided cards with an English word (expression) on one side and Russian on the other.

The simplest way to learn words using cards is this:

We make cardboard cards of a convenient size,
On one side we write the English word, on the other the translation - at this stage, an initial acquaintance with the “questions” and “answers” takes place.
We look at one side, guess the other.
Turn the card over and check your guess.

It turns out that by looking at the card, you received question, then goes active recall- an attempt to remember the meaning of a word. Turning the card over, you check answer. Key moment– recall, it is at this stage that memory actively works and information is remembered.

If you did not compose a set of cards yourself, but took a ready-made one, you first need to look through them so that an initial acquaintance occurs, that is, so that there is something to remember later.

Cardboard and electronic cards

Cards can be used cardboard or electronic. I used both of them a lot, and I’ll tell you about both options.

Cardboard cards

Flashcards are a simple but extremely useful language learning tool.

I cited above the simplest way learn words using cardboard cards: look at one side, remember the other. To remember words more effectively, I recommend:

Words need to be passed in both directions: from English into Russian (easier) and from Russian into English (more difficult). If you remember that “birch” is “birch”, this does not mean that you will remember that “birch” is “birch”.
Read the words and say the answer out loud - it helps you remember the word, the correct pronunciation, and the answer.
On the first try you will be able to guess only a few words from the deck, on the second you will be able to guess more. Put the guessed and unguessed words in different piles and run the deck until you can guess all the words without hesitation.
Ideally, words should be recalled instantly, automatically.
The slightest hesitation in an answer is considered an incorrect answer.
If you have memorized words, but they are difficult to remember, there is a way to bring recognition to instantaneousness: work through the deck several times with a stopwatch, each time trying to beat the previous time.

You can read more about how to learn words using cardboard cards in the article:

There is a significant drawback to working with cardboard cards: they need to be made and stored. I myself practiced a lot with flashcards, and I remember that it took me longer to cut the cardboard into eight pieces and sign them than to learn the words.

Electronic cards

With electronic cards, the basic principle is the same: look at the word, remember the translation, check the answer. But the electronic format provides many conveniences and opportunities:

It's easier to make cards; you don't need to store them.
Cards can be made with pictures and automatic voice acting.
There are modes and exercises that are impossible with cardboard cards (for example, typing a word under dictation).
With the help of words you can always take it with you and repeat it anywhere.
Big choice programs for memorizing words.

The last point is not only a plus, but also a problem. There are so many programs with flash cards that it is difficult to choose one. My favorites are Quizlet and Lingualeo.

– service for working with cards. If you want an electronic equivalent to paper flashcards, Quizlet is great choice. The program has six word learning modes, including two games. It is very convenient to create sets of words - either one card at a time, or by copying/pasting a list from a file. Words are automatically spoken.
. Vocabulary learning is just one of the functions of this multifaceted service. It’s inconvenient to add words manually, but in Lingualeo it’s very convenient to save and then learn words added while reading or watching a video (words can be saved to the dictionary directly from the subtitles). Using the browser plugin “LeoTranslator” (works only in Chrome browser) words can be saved in the Lingvaleo dictionary and on other sites. Voiceover, transcription, and picture are automatically added to the words.

If you want to create word sets yourself, it is more convenient to use Quizlet. To remember words while reading texts on the Internet (on English-language sites), Lingualeo is very convenient - you will need to install the LeoTranslator browser plugin.

In what cases does it make sense to learn words using cards?

With flashcards you can learn a lot of words in just one minute. a short time, but this is not always necessary. Cards are valid in following cases:

You need to quickly reach the minimum vocabulary, at least the first 500 words. Without this minimum, you will not be able to read, listen, or talk.
You have a basic vocabulary, but you need to learn vocabulary on a specific topic, for example, or words written down while reading a book or watching a movie.
You are preparing for an exam.

Basically, the cards are useful for beginners, but if you have a level that allows you to read and listen at least, watch, and understand at least general meaning, talk with mistakes and actively gesticulate, then it is better to focus on practice: read, listen, communicate more.

How not to forget learned words?

Learned information is quickly and inevitably forgotten if it is not used. Even almost completely.

However, forgetting can be minimized:

Learn the right words. If you're learning low-frequency words, you'll likely see them very rarely. First of all, you need to learn.
Learn words well. With the help of cards, it is better to learn words so that they are recognized instantly, without any movement of the brain. If the word is “underlearned,” then you may not recognize it.
Repeat the words. Before starting a new set of words, repeat the previous one - this simple rule will significantly increase the efficiency of your study.
Practice, practice, practice! When you learn a word, it enters your memory, but it becomes firmly established when you encounter it while reading, listening, or using it in communication. Without practice in reading, listening, writing and colloquial speech all your efforts are not only futile, but also meaningless. Why learn a language if you don't use it?

You shouldn't learn too many words a day, raising the bar too high. Many people easily remember 10-20 words in one go. I was able to learn about 50 words in one sitting, and more than 200 words within a day. But I noticed that if you move too quickly, more words are forgotten, and in general it’s difficult to hold on at this pace for long.

How can you learn words quickly and easily by combining two methods?

Read the text in English,
Write down unfamiliar words
Make sets of cards with these words and memorize them.

Some tips:

Read only what you are really interested in
Do not write down all unfamiliar words in a row (this way you will quickly lose interest in reading), but only words that are important for understanding the text or words that seem useful.
Write down not only words, but also phrases, especially useful ones, such as politeness formulas, greetings, etc.

Personally, I did this: if I was reading a paper book or on my phone, I wrote down the words with a pen in a notebook or saved them in notes on my phone, then created sets of cards and repeated the words. Sometimes I was lazy, and I didn’t make cards, but simply looked through the notes, repeating the words I had written down - even this method helps me remember them. If you read in a browser, you saved the words using “LeoTranslator” and then repeated them using cards on Lingvaleo or simply looking through the list.

You can also combine the two methods using films, TV series, TV shows in English: watch a film, writing down interesting words, and then teach them. The big inconvenience is that the film will have to be paused often. In this regard, the service is convenient. Just hover over the subtitles and the film is paused; click on a word - the translation pops up, and the word is saved in the dictionary. You have to be distracted to a minimum.

Conclusion

Words can be learned quickly, in large quantities, using the “hard way” - with the help of cards and various exercises. This makes sense if you need, for example, to learn words on a certain topic or gain a starting minimum vocabulary. It is important to understand that if you do not read, listen, communicate in English, that is, use foreign language according to their intended purpose, over time, even tightly memorized words will fade from memory.

On the other hand, words can be learned through practice: reading, listening, communicating in English. Some words will remain in memory simply through repetition and understanding their meaning from the context. The nuance is that constant and very extensive practice is required so that using this method the vocabulary is actively replenished.

The methods can be combined - many do so. Read in English, watch films without translation, and if you come across useful words in the process, write them down to clarify the meaning, repeat, learn. Actually, this also applies to the native language.

Have you decided to learn a language? What's stopping you from just opening a dictionary and learning all the words in a row? That's right, without associations and repetition you won't learn anything - there will be a jumble of words in your head, and not a trace will remain of some of them.

There is one simple technique related to the use of cards, associations and correct selection words, which allows you to learn 100 or more words a day, quickly master the basics of the language and increase your vocabulary. This technique is presented in free application for iOS and Android "Uchisto".

In it you can easily learn words using the proposed memorization method, and track your progress, and set reminders to repeat the material you have already learned. But first things first.

Paper card technique

With the help of paper cards, more than one generation of translators has been increasing their vocabulary in record time. This seemingly simple technique is based on the memorization mechanism itself, the use of short-term and long-term memory.

The student has a deck of cards, on one side of each of which a foreign word is written, and on the other - a translation. He flips through these cards, pronouncing foreign words and remembering the translation. If you remember the word, he puts the card aside; if not, he puts it down on the deck to repeat again later.

After memorizing all the words, the cards are put aside, and after a certain period of time (a week or a month) they are repeated again.

Initially, the learned word ends up in short-term memory, and after the cards are put aside, it is quickly forgotten. However, later it turns out that the erased information was useful and instead of short-term memory, the learned words end up in long-term memory. In other words, they are firmly remembered.

Like paper cards, only better

This card technique is fully implemented in the Uchisto application. You can turn them over, read a new word in English and its transcription, and back side- translation.

You can put the learned cards aside by clicking “Learned”, or leave them for repetition by simply swiping through them. In addition, you can change the settings and learn words by translating from Russian to English.

After studying each dictionary, the “Check in 30 days” timer is automatically set so that you periodically take tests and do not forget the material you have covered.

As you can see, the card technique is fully implemented in the application, however, unlike real cardboard cards, learning words in Uchisto is much more convenient for several reasons.

Firstly, on each card there is not only a transcription, but also an audio icon, by clicking on which you listen to the correct pronunciation of the word in English. Thus, the application partially replaces your teacher.

Secondly, you can edit the translation of words by adding notes about your associations with the word. The association technique helps you remember words even better and transfer them into long-term memory the first time.

Associations and the complete Uchisto methodology

A word that is not associated with familiar images is easily forgotten. The brain simply has not built a neural connection for this word; it is not associated with anything and instantly disappears from your memory.

To remember a word, you need to associate it with already familiar objects and concepts. For example, you come across the word challenge, which translated means “problem”.

Do you imagine spaceship NASA's Challenger and the disaster that resulted in the death of the entire shuttle crew. It was swipe according to the US reputation, colossal monetary losses and a real PROBLEM.

So, an unfamiliar word is associated in your brain: challenge= Challenger shuttle disaster → serious problem. You have built an association for yourself, new neural connections have appeared in your brain, and now you can easily remember what this word means.

When you have come up with a vivid association, linking a word with a translation, do not rush to press the “Learned” button. First, repeat the word out loud five times, while imagining your picture. By the way, for associations it is advised to imagine something funny and absurd - it will be more vividly remembered.

So, the complete “Uchisto” teaching method, with the help of which you will memorize words in the application, is as follows:

Read an unfamiliar word → check your pronunciation → look at the translation of the word on the second side of the card → imagine the association with the word and its translation → repeat the word out loud five times and at the same time scroll through your association in your head → click “Learned” → consolidate the result by translating from Russian into English → set a reminder to repeat the words in 30 days.

If you don’t remember the technique, you can always look at it again in the application itself. On the “Settings” tab, in addition to switching from Russian to English and sounds, there is step by step description techniques.

And now one more no less important point: exactly what words you will learn. After all, all the words in the Uchisto dictionaries were not chosen by chance.

We remember only the necessary words

There are more than a million words in the English language, but everyday speech At best, several thousand are used. So if you need basic language skills to speak freely with foreigners, read online publications in English, watch news and TV series, then a few thousand is enough to get started.

The Uchisto application presents frequency dictionaries - collections of 100 words most often used in everyday life and literature.

Why exactly 100 words? It is known that taking small steps towards a goal is much easier than trying to learn a lot at once. A clear distribution into portions of 100 words helps you systematize your learning, start it with pleasure and monitor your progress with the same pleasure.

To begin with, you are given three free dictionaries with which you can evaluate how much you like learning using the Uchisto method. And then you can buy one dictionary separately or buy everything at once with a 20% discount.

We monitor the progress and do not forget to repeat

On the last tab of the Uchisto application, you can track your progress by day: how much you managed to learn on what day of the week, how many words your vocabulary has increased in general.

Of course, one application is not enough to learn English and speak it fluently. For example, to improve your spoken English, you can try lessons with native speakers via Skype, and to improve your vocabulary, watch films and TV series in English.

However, the Uchisto application will provide you with a platform for a great start and will help you believe in your capabilities and strengths, even if you are starting from scratch.

You learn words in any convenient place and at any time: in traffic jams, transport, queues or in the evening, before going to bed, which is especially effective for long-term memory. The main thing is not to lower the bar.

100 words a day, 700 a week, 3,000 a month - and you will already be able to speak English quite well and understand what they are saying.

Well, then - there are no limits to improvement. New dictionaries are added to Uchisto with every update, so you will always have a reason for a new workout.