How to Memorize New Vocabulary: The Techniques Every Learner MUST Know (Right From The Start) 

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Summary of how to retain new vocabulary: 1. Be interested in what you're learning 2. Remove any distractions (this includes background music) 3. Make sure you comprehend the meaning of the word 4. Associate each word with preexisting information, the more absurd the better 5. Review what you've learned at regular intervals 6. Always learn words in context

This goes for UPPER-INTERMEDIATE Learners: I believe that when you reach the upper-intermediate HELL level which I am right now, the easiest way to learn and remember new words is to simply engage in conversations as much as you can and watch more and more media in that target language. What do I mean? You see, I learned English by myself when I was 12 and reached fluency when I was about 15 (maybe before, but at 15 years old I was sure because I spent 3 days on a vacation trip talking only in English with Canadians), yet I am struggling for 4 years to reach the same level in Chinese. For English, I learned most from Music and Games, right from the outset you can see clearly that there were 2 important things: 1 Context, 2 MEANINGFUL CONTENT and EMOTION. For Chinese, sometimes I had neither of these. I've got to learn about Flashcards and overuse them. I don't mean to say that flashcards are bad, but you need to know how to use them and I didn't. I used to add tons of words without context, with no meaning for me. In a few months, I realized I needed at least a sentence with a context and my results started to improve. I didn't use many songs to learn Chinese as I did when I was learning English because I am well aware of the fact that Chinese loses the tones during songs and I didn't want to forget about the tones because I know they are very important when speaking Chinese. But quite soon revising flashcards grew boring and painful. I've reached a stage where I feel I know a lot but yet know too little. I struggled to find interesting context suitable for my level in Chinese, meanwhile, in English, it was pretty easy because I could easily find translations for the songs I liked and most songs are really short and easy to follow. Then I decided I would search for content suitable for my level and I found it, thank god. Now I know I am at an upper-intermediate level in Chinese (HSK 4) but I don't feel even the least close to my level in English. But recently I noticed something: Every time I am talking to someone in Chinese and I need to use a word that I don't know or can't remember, if I look this word up in a dictionary, WRITE IT (not copy it) and use it in a sentence SPEAKING then I can remember it and NEVER forget it again. I was giving an Online English Class for a Chinese little girl and I didn't know the word for "Title" in Chinese. I looked it up, wrote it and spoke it, I DIDN'T add it to my Anki deck and BOOM: Three days later while studying SPANISH there was the word "Título" (title in Spanish) within a sentence and all of a sudden I remembered that a few days ago I was looking for that word in Chinese and could remember the word EASILY. Because it was IMPORTANT and I MADE USE OF IT.

memories are enhanced when emotions are involved

Come on, you grammar maniacs, leave the guy alone! He's on fire in the video. Luca, rock'n'roll, man, it was a total knockout ;)

Next you should do a video on "accent acquisition", Your American accent is near perfect!

I love this! I'm currently learning Spanish on Memrise and I'm finding the way it teaches is very good. I spend 20-60 minutes each day and I'm finding the language actually sticking for once!

actually ın my opinion one the most powerfull way to expand your vocabulary is reading articles that you can be enjoy while reading and maybe this may be very tough but for example ıf you are intersted in science there are tons of articles about it and you can read these articles just one time but ıf you want you can read the same article more than one time so in this way ıf you encounter one word that you dont know ıts meanıng day by day you will be familiar with this word and also unless you make an effort very much you will learn this word's meaning and this method is the key to learn language thank you luca as always ıts very usefull video

I'm so glad that I find you through "easy German". You are awesom. I speak Chinese, English and German, wish I can learn 4 more languages, the more languages I learn, the easier it gets, but I think I'm still in the hard time, trying to figure out my own way. You are a great inspiration. I wish more and more people know you and your mathods.

Congratulations Luca, I really appreciate your presentation. I agree with you about ways of learning vocabulary and I've taught this to my students.

I was walking with a girl at night in thailand (after a nice meal), quite romantic but as we walked past a sewage system that smelled really bad she used the expression Mai Mahk Mahk and wafted hands in front of her face. that was 2 YEARS AGO, I never use the expression but I remember it more clearly than the words I was trying to remember yesterday. Tied to an emotion, tied to a memory, tied to a smell and tied to a visual image (the hand wafting).

Coming from a linguistic standpoint, it's amazing how far your fluency, pronunciation and phrasing has come in such a short time. Bravo!

Although I watch football with my friends! I spend a lot of time watching, learning and remembering stuff about different sports. I went to a bbq earlier this evening - my knowledge about many different sports allowed me to begin chatting to people I didn't know because I could easily join in with the stuff they were talking about and then often move on to chat about other stuff. Learning language isn't the only way to improve yourself and enrich your soul, mouth and mind!

Omg, You can't even imagine how much you inspire me! I kinda study (better to say 'practice') english like 10 hours a day, I consider myself as a crazy person for doing it. But well, that's my real dream, I call it as the first thing in my life, it comes first over everything. There's just one thing.. I feel like I never know enough about it, I encounter so many new words everyday and I don't know how to deal with it. When I watch a movie, there's always a new word that messes up with the whole sentence. What can I do to overcome with this? And sometimes, I don't quite catch words, when they whisper for instance. What would you recommend me? At the time I can't go abroad but I do my best to pretend as If I were surrounded by english people by watching a lot of tv shows and stuff like that. I really hope you read this comment since it is one of the last comments so far. Ciao Luca, un saluto dalla Sicilia, sarai come un 'mentore' per me! :)

You are pretty smart guy

Excellent advice on both memory and language learning. It's great to have a different perspective on approaching something as daunting as foreign languages. I think this is applicable to other disciplines beyond learning foreign languages.

Great video! I appreciate the help in showing us how to keep motivated to learn. Crecí con padres bilingües y quiero aprender el francés. Siga dando buena información para que uno se motive. 👍🏼

I'm Brazilian and I'm learning English by myself here in Brazil. Learn news words and to try to remember them during the longs days for me it is really difficult. I'm using an App called Anki and it has been very useful for me to remember some words that I've learnt a some days ago. I can say that this app really works.

This is one of Lucca´s videos that I studied most often during my English learning. Whenever I needed to motivate myself to keep learning, I would listen to the video again and start the process over and over. Decoding, storage and retrieval.

The emotionally involved part is right on, that’s why my Italian is the best even if this is my third year with it. I’ve been learning Spanish for years, but somehow just can’t get it to the level I want to.

Interval terms for learning, exclude other factors when reading, learn words in context! THANKS A LOT :)

Luca may be Italian. And he may speak with a perfect American accent. But I’ll tell you what he isn’t. American-Italian. Not one bada-bing, not one oofaa, not even a Maaadone!!

In order for any one to know their level of fluency in any given language all one has to do is take a language level test ,either on line or from your cell phone i usually take every few months every 3 6months or any time that you want to check on your desired language i usually check on my italian, portuguese or french every 3 months to check on my progress you can use "cactus on line language level in different languages also there's another web site one can check; cyber language either on line or from your cell phone in case one doesn't have a lap top or computer,one can also go to the public library in your city &check there too!!

Thanks, Luca! Those are my sentiments as well. I never understand why people get offended by being corrected. Having your mistakes pointed out to you gives you a free opportunity to improve. I look forward to seeing your video on this topic! :)

Hi Luca I know what you mean. In order to remember what you are trying to learn, you need to be emotionally attached. I’m very emotional when I’m learning Russian. I get very happy when I can finally sit down to do my self study. I just love the language so much. When I’m at work, Sometimes I feel like I need to be at home to study. I get to excited when I’m about to open my books and or go on youtube to learn. I Mastered the Cyrillic and it’s sounds in 3-4 weeks. Considering that I have 3 jobs lol, I’m native of Philippines and I’m already 36 😭. I love everything about Russia 😍

Excellent lesson, Luca!!! A great video!!! Thank you a lot from Argentina!!!

your english is flawless! You're amazing!

the part about "passion/emotion is a very good boost for teh memory"is very reconizable. I live in Greece now, and of course learn the lang. i can get around town pretty easy, and make some small talk to strangers on the metro for example, but i can talk whole stories about cars.. I love cars, and have an antique one, and i al ready know so many technical terms and words, just because it has my particular interest. (and also because i repeat it a lot sincer i like sharing about it haha)

I bought the New Testament in Spanish. It was the dramatized RV (Reina Valera) 1960. I've attended the Latino ministry at my church for around 3-4 years only understanding around 30%-40% of what I heard but after a month of listening to each chapter 4-5 times (and reading it at least once) I understood at least double!

I've tried so many methods to memorise words, and by far the most effective method for me is Memrise. I'm complementing it with reading, but reading doesn't help me to learn words, what it does is that it helps me to solidify the meaning of the words I learn.

I would be happy with 5 to 10 words a say in each of my 2 target languages.

Luca,I listen you video with interest. You pronunciation is very clear so I can catch the meening very well even my hearing level is not so good. Thank you a lot.

I really like your ending. I passed the CPE (C2 (CEFR)) in English in high school but now I started my university studies which include minoring in English, I realised that I know nothing. I went to my first lecture and was stunned of how much vocab I have to revise and learn to be able to write a scientific paper in english. And C2 should be near native level... But my studies also show me that learning is way easier on my current level than it was in high school with all the vocab lists. It is just flooding in!(maybe because of the repetition I hear and read the words since yeah.... university ;))

I heard (well, read) people learning languages mentioning 'Luca'. I googled, searched keywords. Finally found your channel by accident. I'm impressed. Very nice video, and applicable to much more language learning, I could use this for revision in general. Glad I found your channel.

Dude, I am 50 years old and i cannot learn even five words a day normally ! However , you are correct ! I find if i try to learn a word of phrase in español and repeat it over and over ,i cannot remember it . If i just forget the word or phrase and don’t try to remember it ,i find that about a week later i can recall it no problem !

I'm learning speak English along at home, I'm from Brazil it's wonderful the language English.

Thanks a lot for the new video! I was really looking forward to getting new suggestions and tips from you. I totally agree with the method you've applied to your language learning. I'm a big believer in the necessity of mulling new words and expressions over before attempting to produce them. Great as usual))

Crystal clear Luca. Who would not suspect that you are overloaded? It's the result and consequence of your very success. Congratulation and best wishes from Christian. Thank you.

Luca, I thank you for your videos I usually watch them frequentelly. They help me to learn more and more. Thank you very, very much.

Thanks - Not exactly what I was looking for, but it pointed me to some more resources. Let me share with you what I also use: -YouDao dictionary 有道词典: In chinese, but has many features including translation when you hover your mouse over text - recognizes phrases too -Yellowbridge com: Has everything you need to know about any character, including etymology, examples of words that have the character in front and back, words that sound like it, etc. -SoGou pinyin input method - The best I know.

I agree 100% with the passion part of your video. I know it is true because I tried to remember at least 5 moments in my past where I was really bored, and also tried to remember 5 moments where I was really happy or sad. I found that it was extremely hard to remember the boring moments, but remembering the emotional moments was effortless and almost instant. 10/10 video.

When I first listened you I thought you are American,your accent is perfect! I'm happy I have found you, you're are such an inspiration. I hope I'll be able to have accent like yours in English.

This is what language teachers should teach instead of bombarding students with grammars thanks god i found this channel and steve kaufman's

Hi Luca, I'm glad to have found your videos. I've taken many language classes, but stopped learning after moving back to the U.S. from Europe because I felt that I had no practical reason to continue. But watching your vids has helped put me back in touch with this passion that feeds my soul. So thanks, I've never seen or met any polyglots before but now I don't feel like such a nerd for loving languages so much, it feels normal! Nu leer ik Nederlands. Dank je voor de inspiratie!

Thank you, Luca! Watching your videos has a plenty of benefits for me - I'm not only receiving interesting and useful information, but also improve my listening skills. Thank you!

I envy you Luca, you really speak like an American or English native..I wish I can have at least half of your fluency in English..now that I am 53yo and having 4 major operations (under general anesthesia), it probably had affected my memory. I find it hard now to learn a new language. I listen and watch videos with translations almost everyday because I knew a lot of words already, I just dont know how to use those words correctly. I am trying to learn to speak Italian by the way. Anyways, thanks for your advices. Keep safe, God bless😊

All of this is very true. It's pretty standard classroom procedure to use flashcards or learn single words individually but you're just learning by rote memorization; incredibly labourous, boring, and inefficient. Instead of this, I've always believed in writing down entire sentences onto flashcards. I benefit from seeing the target word in actual context, I'm reinforcing memory of words I've seen already, and I'm exposing myself to the syntax so my brain can have more examples to decipher the grammar more naturally. As you have said, understanding how everything functions as a whole allows one to understand the individual parts much better.

I have found a great way to remeber, and retain languages is to listen to music in that language. When doing homework I use instrumental music from that culture. It doesnt work for everyone but it helps me. I like this video.

Luca how is your American accent so perfect? Did you live in America for awhile? Is this all from exposure to film and tv shows? You sound like you grew up in New York or some other American city! You speak English the way I want to speak French! It is amazing!

Hi Luca! Loved it! Just a friendly critique, though. At around 1:40 you referred to "every single information." Information is a category and not an individual item. Instead, you would more commonly hear "every single bit of information," or "every single piece of information."

I believe we all have different passions and if someone's hobby is football our is languages. Now, if you watch football for 1 and 30 per day after work, that's what I can actually do as well, but instead of watching something is not going to bring any improvements in my life I will instead learn a language which is going to enrich my soul, mouth and mind! :D

Hi, Luca! It's Victoria. It's just been a long time... i'm not sure u remeber me, but about a year ago we used to talk in msn and i remember how u shared with me a video where u speak russian (i'm a native speaker) and how i used to say something about ur pronunciation of "л" letter) it's great to see u again and the way u develop ur skills in languages. it's so inspiring) it's a pity that we haven't talked for so long, but i'm glad i can see u again) good luck and keep on moving that way)

Thank you very much for your learning and inspiration!!!

Your English is amazingly fluent and convincing (as well as the other languages). Being myself a polyglot I've been using many of the processes that you describe in your video and they are definitely effective. Thanks for sharing it with us!!

This one's been the best of your videos so far. Discussing applied psycholinguistics on a serious level really levels up the standard of what You Tube Polyglots have to offer. All I can contribute with is to recommend to everybody interested in vocabulary acquisition the studies written by Paul Meara and the VAGRA research group.

Hi! I have recently taken an interest in learning German. I have watched many of your videos, but I’m still unsure where to officially START. I am a beginner and have not began learning yet because I do not want to start learning the wrong way. What I want to know, for now, is what should be my FIRST step? Should I look for a language learning application on my phone, should I buy a book, should I listen to lectures or stories through my phone, etc.? I have enjoyed watching your videos and I am truly inspired by what you are doing. Any type of answer would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Thank you so much, for me, I think vocabulary is one of the hardest issues in the learning process, keep on!

Could you please do a video talking more about the importance of reading and how to read actively? This is something I struggle with! Your videos are very interesting! :)

My own experience might be useful here. My background is psychology and I did a memory man act on stage (memorising cards, magazines, etc), but am just now looking into languages. The psychological research, and my experience, shows that you can remember a word in one language by relating its SOUND to a concrete image in YOUR OWN language. You can then, as per my own approach influenced by the Greeks, have a PERSON who represents a language. E.g., William Shatner is for Esperanto. (This person is then the 'organising principle' for that language for me. I DON'T use locations - the loci method - and never did on stage, because I didn't find it natural or elegant for me, and spatially I'm quite poor.) Then, with the sound evoking or suggesting a concrete image, make an image combining the person with the image. E.g., I see William Shatner fighting off a BEE with a BELL. (Abelo is the word for bee in Esperanto.) That's it. Now when I want to remember the word in the target language (and usually after doing this, you'll find you won't need to, as the method itself is elaboration and encourages deep processing), I think of Shatner with the bee, and I recall the bell he uses to fight it off. It then provides a cue to retrieve the full word. (Note that 'bee' in another language will use a different person and almost certainly a different image via sound, so no interference.) Harry Lorayne, the great memory man and magician, suggests that mnemonics are an aid to natural memory. So, for me, 'bell' is enough to retrieve the whole word. I've seen Benny Lewis suggest images for each part of the word; I don't think that's necessary. You help your natural memory, but you don't need to replace it completely. Give it a clear cue and trust it. You also want the method to be relatively quick, rather than making each word a multipart puzzle to find images for. Look for the natural suggestion by sound, and use that. You can also further enhance this approach via the use of a context. E.g., I would use Shatner on the Enterprise. (Not an extra stage, but rather an enrichment. No extra work is needed.) The aim is to create a context that 'controls' the cues around a word-image and around the activities of the person who organises and represents, symbolically, the language for you. This then gives maximum control over the encoding specificity principle - how you encode should be how you retrieve. In sum, then, we maximally enhance our natural memories by applying organising principles (a person) in a context (suggested or appropriate for the person) and with an image evoking the pronunciation of the word and often it's meaning. So, target word - suggests by sound an image in your native tongue (e.g., bell) - connect this image to the meaning/image of the target word (bee) - use a person and related context to be the key glue for your language (e.g., Shatner on the Enterprise) and the principle actor in the imagistic drama (useful if you learn lots of languages, as they will always be different people and settings), and that is that. It can be a lot quicker than it reads. You can eventually do this in seconds per word. And the method itself frequently learns a word without even recourse to needing to recall the person and cues. E.g., you will find you won't often need to hunt for a word; you will have learned it deeper and more quickly than a flashcard app can achieve. That's what real mnemonics are for. Maybe the above will help or interest others. :-) Good luck to all!

I'm glad I found your channel. I am Polish in love with italian language, culture, food, weather and generally people I am trying to improve my italian however I find it very discouraging as now I am back in Poland so no contact with live italian. However once I opened italian -italian dictionary I immediately closed it all discouraged with "this has no sense" in my mind . The reason for this was that the dictionary gives as explanation more unknown (to me) words so in order to learn what for example some verb means I end up looking up 10 other words and more as explanation ! Another thing is using polish-italian/italian-polish (or even italian-English! ) doctionary is of no use. Example: I was looking in English -Italian dictionary word for "AIM" (noun). The English dictionary gave me MIRA ! Which - now I know - is completely wrong because it's not AIM as goal, the word I meant to learn. My big request: what advice do you give me to improve my vocabulary so I don't forget it after 3 days as now I have absolutely no contact with native speakers like I had before. Thank you . Looking forward to hearing from you.

I don't know what exactly is going on here, but when I get far enough through the video, the sound starts to slow down and get a tiny bit distorted. Not sure if any of your other videos might have suffered from this but I mention it just in case nobody else has pointed it out. It's right around 12:20

Thanks a lot Luca for this useful information, thanks for sharing your polyglot wisdom with us. Regards from South America!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this Luca. I'm looking forward to your book as well.

I definitely agree with associating. When I was learning the Latin word for beer, cervisia, it helped to know cerveza in Spanish. :)

I love your pronunciation is so perfect!

I want advice on how to use my inner world to learn language better in a very detailed manner. To illustrate what I'm asking: Is there any way in particular that I should say the words in my head? Should I include visualizations in my head as I do this? Any particular artistic pattern I should use? What should the tone of voice of my thoughts be? Should I use only my own voice or should I put my thoughts in a variety of voices? Should I use just my own gender's voice or both? Are chants good?

Hi Luca, I try to watch just one video, but I can't do this... Your videos are awesome!!! It's very interesting, specially your tips for students, like me for example!! Thank you so much!!!

Super excellent discussion here! Thanks.

Thanks a lot for share with us this video Luca. It's incedible helpful for me. Israel

Thank you very much !!!

Right! I'm learning Chinese in Taiwan at the moment. Going to take that advice of giving up music while studying! I also had doubts about listening to music.

Lucas, obrigado pelas dicas! Engraçado, estou tentando aprender Russo, e esses dias me deparei com a palavra зеленый (verde). Por algum motivo, o som da palavra fez total sentido pra cor verde, até hoje não sei de onde meu cérebro tirou esse link haha

Thanks for the sharing. This actually helps me a lot learning a new language.. thanks

It's a bit robotic still, but how I use flashcards more effectively is with the anki app so it gives me spaced out intervals to review to help it go to long term memory, and I put in the sentence/context that I learned the word in, instead of only the word. I imagine the part I read or watched when I came across the word. I often get natural review of the word again in another context, but I like using the flashcards as another cushion to reinforce memory

This video is absolutely wonderful! Great job and thank you a lot! :)

OH MY GOD he is so right about remembering awkward misappropriation instances of words for the rest of your life.

you're so awesome it hurts! thank you so much for the detailed information!

I've never heard you speaking italian. Vorrei sentirla parlare italiano guardando una puntata con voi. bocca al lupo! Salutazioni da Parigi!

So helpful information. This video is exactly what I was looking for. Thank u a lot. By the way you speak so lovely!!!

WAO THIS REALLY HELPED ME ,SPECTACULAR

Hi Luca. Thank you for sharing your experience and inspiring us. I have few questions and hopefully you have time to answer me. I am currently trying to improve my Danish, German and English. Would you recommend to practice all three languages every day or rather a particular language on a particular day? can you recommend any tricks for remembering German articles? can you recommend a good way to find a language partner? maybe you know of any projects, groups etc where people help each other by learning. ( Maybe even some of users here can recommend me something or would like to help). Thank you so much!!!

Nice video! I agree with the ideas you presented in it. Can't wait for the book, Luca.

Oh I really like hearing you talk and the way you think. Awesome. Subscribed.

lol I learned the word "estafador" in spanish in only a couple seconds. I just looked at the word and remembered it and I have never forgotten it. Even after two months now

I had a wardrobe just like yours haha. Thanks for the tips!

Muito obrigado, Luca!

Will definitely be using some of these techniques. x Thank you.

Thank you so much

わあああ　とてもビクッリしました。本当におめでとうね。いっぱいの単語を学んだ。言いたのことはとても面白い。消化は何時も問題んですけど最近トルコ語の勉強のために沢山の新聞を読んだり、テレビを見たり何時も同じ基本的の語彙を使うけど話題は違えばとても難しいになる。医者さんについてのテキストを読みましたと大体３０の単語を覚えた。詰まり専門の話題は難しい。 所であなたにとってアジア言語と他の覚えたの言語の一番大きいの区別は何ですか。僕にとって一番大きいの区別は言う方です。　

This video was amazing. Very helpful. Keep up your great work!

love your videos, how you explain everything and mostly your diction, you motive me a lot! thanks! :)

I only have watched Luca's book in the Polish language, somebody knows if there is in English too?

thank you so much for the advices, that's help me a lot.

Sometimes people pursue something just because it gives them pleasure or a sense of personal enrichment. It doesn't have to have anything to do with "work". Some of us actually ENJOY it.

Sigue asi Lucaa saludos desde Peru , You are the best

tu acento es increible!

Luca, I have a question. Our teacher gives us new unrelated words every class. How do I learn them? The fact that they are unrelated makes it hard, but I have to learn them. Any suggestions?

Thanks Lucia, i think your methods will be helpful, keep it going !

Yes I really have to. i'm going to take the HSK. my current method of memorization is hard to explain, but in essence, it requires me to be able to write the characters in my mind very fast.

I think that learning the roots of a language and then actually "learning" the language is a lot better. So, you might lose 3 months without saying a word, but after that moment your learning process will turn out to be very organic and fast. That's why so many people learn related languages so fast without any given strategy (maybe 5 months to fluency). That's what I think of that.