Learn Vocabulary Fast 

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I would really like to see you in process learning your words. Could you do maybe a 20 min video "in the life of Steve" which is basically someone looking over your shoulder as you typically study?

"The learning process is a process of learning & forgetting, learning & forgetting".

"We learn words best in context" - So true. Keep going, sir. Your content is amazing!

Agree Agree and Agree! From personal experience I can say that one can learn 100 words a day (though it may take 2-4 hours). And what I did in this past month, is I started watching a French show in French with French subtitles, and what I did was to jot down the words and phrases from the show one day, and then the following day is for learning them. This gives me context, idea of the word's usage and a reason to learn and actually gives me useful words as oppose to random words from the dictionary. The show I watched was 'Extra-French' watched 13 episodes and using this method you could finish it in just 26 days. Interestingly and unsurprisingly I had to learn as much as 150 words/phrases from the first episode but halfway through the show, the words to learn in a day dropped down drastically, by the latter half of the show I would have only around 60-80 words/phrases, simply because a lot of the words used in latter episodes were already learnt in the beginning days. Now you may think that's a lot of words! But with such context and understanding of words through a show, it is really easy trust me. After some days of getting used to this method you might be able to learn 60-80 words/phrases an hour! I started this method less than a month ago and am already able to understand fair bit with French subtitles (still need to work on my listening skills) but in terms of vocabulary this method is great. EDIT: THE SHOW IS ON RU-vid, WITH FRENCH SUBTITLES SO YOU CAN DO THIS FOR FREE.

When I don't have the motivation and the will to continue my German learning process, your videos are always here to help me. Thanks for everything.

A lot of people underestimate the ability for the brain to learn new information. The big issue is in retaining that knowledge, which comes down to things like use and re-studying. There is a lot of scientific research into this area, of which John Dunlosky was involved in a large-scale evaluation of hundreds of these studies in order to see the most powerful methods for long-term retention of information. I highly recommend folks watch his talk "Improving Student Success: Some Principles from Cognitive Science" over at the Associate Dean of Science Academic YT channel wherein he discusses the more notable methods. I would also recommend folks check out Barbara Oakley and Terry Sejnowski's work.

Im trying to learn 30 chinese words every day. I'm sure i forget most of them, but they're in my brain somewhere, and when i see them in a book or something it will come to me just a little easier. The best thing to do is to try learning words through memory, and then read, write and listen and as you encounter the words again they will start to stick. You are correct that learning words is the most important, you just cant do anything with words, who cares if you have mastered the grammar if you can only say 3 sentences, most of the time even if your grammar is bad you understand or be understood by throwing the correct words out, the grammar comes more naturally and passively later. Grammar is picked up (though still study it), words are not picked up easily and need to be intentionally memorised at least once because they will start to passively stick.

I totally agree with you, Steve. Context, practicing sentences, and relearning over and over again.

We don't just forget words. We also forget ideas. This video is 3+ years old, and I've probably watched it before. But it gave me good insights and useful suggestions for my current (right now, today) language learning in Mandarin. Thank you.

So true. I probably learned more words through immersion and simply encountering them frequently than through just writing down sentences.

I couldn’t have said it any better. Great teacher Kaufmann . I am learning 15 new words per day averagely. I feel comfortable with this number and there’s real noticeable improvement whenever every 2months have past. I’m looking forward to having proficiency in English one day .

I agree with you Steve. Because, the learning process consist in learning and forgetting, the strategic to acquire vocabulary is use word in diferent situation or contexts.

Abundant, continuous, and consistent reading coupled with frequency is the best mechanism to learn new words. Using this approach you'll never resort to forcing yourself to memorize and learn new words, because they'll automatically get acquired after a certain number of repetitions in different contexts.

Steve Kaufman is the king of linguists.

If you are a native “romance language” speaker... or if you speak a romance language then you already know tons of words in English since the day zero. What you have to do is learn how to pronounce them, some of them have similar pronunciation and many others not so similar.

Best lesson i've ever seen. I've been learning english for 2 years and i feel like increasing my vocabulary every single day. Thank you for those tips❤

I'm new in the world of languages😊 .. And I really have bad English, but when I found this channel I was really excited and encouraged .. And though I barely understand English , I took advantage of Steve's tips.

I've been creating flash cards with words in six different languages. It's a great way to build vocabulary and makes it easier to remember in bulk as many of the words in the romance languages are so similar. But the real gains come from listening to fluent speakers and reading, you're able to absorb much more that way. There is only so many words you can learn in one week without forgetting or burning out. Keep listening and reading and you start to acquire the words naturally as many words are repeated and quickly stick.

I think this boils down to "acquisition" vs "learning". Unfortunately in a teaching setting (Lida Baker being a teacher) one need to be able to constantly prove that their methods work. The most common way of doing this is through testing (in language learning it has traditionally been through testing vocabulary). And this speaks volumes about contemporary teaching regimes. Memorization of vocabulary =/= a language learned. Language is a living thing and cannot be treated like subjects such as mathematics.

Your words are so inspiring and watching your videos I feel like there is someone out there who really understands me and thinks the same way about language learning!

You just diagnosed my problem and plateau that I have had in Spanish for years. THANK YOU! Geez... this is so obvious and yet I just NEEDED to hear it. Thank you Steveeeeeeeeeeeee!

You are right, Steve. Creating flashcards takes too long and sometimes are not even effective. During these 4 years of studying Chinese, I realized that flashcards work best for nouns and verbs that you can define with an image (I use gifs for verbs). Sometimes it can also help you learn a simple grammar structure. But for abstract words, they take too long and help too little. In the future, I will only use Flashcards for nouns and verbs that I can define with images (also concrete words such as pronouns: I, you, he, she, etc) and let context and exposure to the language do the rest. I realized that this flashcard making process for abstract words is really painful and unhealthy for language learning. Often I feel down for spending so many time revising words, but I am so used to it that I feel that if I skip this and watch or read something in the language I want to learn, I will not improve. I must say I am kind of a Flashcards-dopehead.

I wish I didn't know English so I could learn it from your channel. Very interesting, repetitive and also very very informational

Steve! you're a genius I've done everything you said and it worked in a remarkable way.

Your videos are always worth it watching. I've been following you since 2011, when I started using lingQ, and I always get something of value from your videos. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us ;)

I really appreciate this video because I have been struggling with remembering words and always feel I failed if I forget a word that I learned and I wanted to use. Thank you so much for giving these sincere and helpful tips for learning foreign languages! Best wishes!

Yes. When I am doing dishes, making the bed, walking the dog, driving ... I find plenty of time each day for listening. Most of my "listening only" is with Pimsleur right now

Thank you for your videos, Mr. Kaufmann. I only discovered you late last year and your outlook on language learning really struck me as interesting, and it's really helped me. I've always been interested in other languages, but became disillusioned with every attempt I made over the years. Using your advice I've been using your techniques for French which I started a few months ago, and the process has been so much more enjoyable. I took 4 years of French in high school and got nowhere, but now I read the news everyday. My listening needs a ton of work but it's coming along.

I completely agree with you. I started reading novels in japanese and now I have an amount of vocabulary that I never thought I could have.

Context is really key. It's just like playing an instrument; I noticed that there are certain pieces, especially those more to the complex side, that I learned on the guitar and that I can only play if I start from the very beginning or at least from a "checkpoint" where there isn't much going on. If I try to play them starting from some random part, I just can't. Languages are also like that, yeah, it's made of words, but the words depend heavily on context, both for meaning and for your ability to actually speak the language. So learning isolated words without them being in the context of an actual sentence is way less useful than learning them within sentences.

Thank you a lot! Very important information :) Thank you again Steve!!!

With my experience in Thai, for example, (which is a language that was very different from anything else I knew), it's very easy to learn new words - I can learn them very quickly without much effort. I like to speak a new language whenever the occasion arises rather than wait until I know about X number of words. With a language like Thai, all it takes is some creativity to make use of however many words you know. The first time I spoke Thai was only about 2 weeks after I started and survived ~15 minutes of small talk with a native speaker

I am indebted to you, Steve. Thank you very much for your work and for sharing your knowledge so generously 🙏😊

This unfortunately doesn't work for everyone. I used to learn English language exactly like you described in the video and I was making no progress at all, constantly forgetting the easiest words. It finally helped when I started writing words I want to remember on a masking tape and sticking them to a wall in my room, so I could see them everyday. While speaking I often encounter a brain fog when I know the word I want to use but I can't remember it for some reason, like if it was standing right in front of me, hidden behind a curtain that I can't shove away. So I guess it's just a matter of what type of learning suits you the best.

I was lucky to have a teacher at my first step of learning German and he used this method and after three months I knew more words that I couldn't have imagined.

I admire your background. So many books, my God! I wish someday I also accumulate so many books and hopefully be able to read 95% of them

You're absolutely right. My English is at proficiency level and I believe that exposure to authentic input is the best way to learn naturally.

My native language is Quechua. I learnt English and Spanish. You help me a lot in English. Thamk you very much

When I was in middle school I would watch German TV all the time. I would come back from school, turn on RTL2, watch anime and do my math homework. A few years ago I decided to try reading a book in German and I was very surprised that I actually understand most of it. I've acquired a lot of passive vocabulary by simply watching TV. I want to do the same with Japanese but I guess I just got really lazy because I don't bother turning on videos or podcasts in Japanese to listen to while I do something else.

In my small town in Indonesia, I don't have frinds who could speak English, even no one who could speak English, thats why when I start interesting to learn English, I bought English dictionery and memorize English every single day. Only in couple months O almost memorize all the words in dictionary, so I try to combine from one word to another words. Next I try to find someone who could speak English and practice my English, now I also try to make some basic English video and upload to RU-vid Channel. Thanjs for great motivation

I´m Brasilian and I want to learn English, I study 20 words a day, I know six hundred words now it´s very good you learn 20 words a day it´s better

I find that reviewing is the key to long term remembering of vocabulary. The more I review, the longer I remember and eventually it just beecomes a part of me.

I learn 20 new words or so per day in English, it take me 1h per day. I've been leaning this words and putting them on my Anki dack.

Key issues with vocabulary learning are always the proper context of usage and retention in long term memory. First one can be tackled with extensive reading and listening, second one with SRS systems and usage in writting and speaking. In my view all those methods have to be combined. Yes, passive learning matters a lot but knowledge of a foreign language is a practical usable skill, so we cannot learn vocabulary without actually using it, putting it into practice, making an active effort to speak, listen and write. Passive knowledge is a good starting point for expanding our knowledge.

I don't care what they say about 3-5(somebody says 20-30) words a day. Because i myself was learning 100 German words per day,even though it took roughly 5-9 hours. I agree it may be inefficient, because in the end of the day what matters is how many words from those 100 will stay in the long term memory. So, important part of the learning process were: 1. To repeat learnt words after days( I used what's called "interval repetition"). 2. To use other resources of learning for example reading (after learning 100 new words in one day you can imagine how drastically my comprehension of a text in German was improved).

Yes, I agree with you, it is better to learn new words through content, to know how they are used, tank you

That true, a couple months ago i started to learn Swedish and i already know German and English fluently, evrything was easy. P.S. Im italian😂

Thank you so much steve for such a golden advice .I'm from Iran and love to learn English very well.God bless you

Spot on! Thank you not only for these helpful insights but for sharing your enthusiasm, "Nothing great was ever achieved with enthusiasm" -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've been learning by listening a lot and just cramming. I think I crammed grammer for a month or two and picked up a lot that way, but now I can structure things and use words i have learned properly, even if it doesn't always sound natural to a native speaker. What I do is I look up vocabulary as i think "idk how to say that", or if I hear a word several times that I don't know by listening, i look for the translation and add it to cards. Every week I'll have at least 30 new words, and I have been studying about 200 at a time. That is, I'm still studying words from weeks ago. And oddly this has helped with conprehension, because once I've studied one enough I can pick it up more easily when I hear it. Sometimes I hear things and I'm fine. Sometimes I wanna pull my hair out. But what is most satisfying is I heard a voice note my girl sent me helping me practice from awhile ago, I thought it was SOOOOO fast back then. I understand it now perfectly, only heard it that first time and about a week ago, and how I could hear it was so different that it is fucking astonishing. And I realize she was going easy on me. I still feel nervous to speak to strangers but I know if I keep going I'll be at that point probably very soon.

thank you very much ,this is the best idea i have ever known,dont focus on learn 2 or 3 words a day,focus on messive reading and listening.

感谢考夫曼先生的视频，对语言学习很有帮助

Thank You very much,you helped me a lot!! A great Thanks from Hungary,from BUDAPEST!

"No you can't because someone else who's an expert said you can't." I think this is a fallacy of some sort.

Thank u so f**king much I’ve already figured out that this is been more effective for me. I mean I bought this notebook and try to do the Baker way with flash cards writing down which word and I just forget all in the end of the day !! I’ve been followed this method unconsciously by reading and listening, now I know what I must do to don’t learn the language but live the language I’m soooo happy !!! Thank u again so muchhhh !!!

We need multiple context!!!! That is true! For example I study German right now. When I come across the word "austreiben" in the text about plants and trees the meaning is to "sprout", in other text about social life it means "drive out". Two different meanings at first sight! And it has also other meanings. SO WE MUST LISTEN AND READ DIFFERENT TEXTS.

Steve has found that the learning process is a process of learning and forgetting and learning and forgetting. No doubt he has found that to be true from experience. In order to break that cycle, you have to substitute learning and reviewing for learning and forgetting. I never hear Steve talk about the importance of reviewing, so I have to assume that he does very little reviewing and the natural consequence of that is forgetting.

ありがとうございました。本当に役に立ちます。LINQも使ってみて素晴らしいだと思います。

4:20 "because our power grows" Yes... I want to become the servant of the dark lord of languages and language learning! XD It made me crack up a bit.

Exelente,dinamico precioso material para meu aprendizado .Obrigado Sr Steve

I tried to learn words the way some teacher suggest, but it was so slow and boring that I soon gave it up. I do agree with you one can learn much more than a few words provided that you have a good strategy, interesting contents and you enjoy the journey.

20000 words in 2 months!!!!! I doubt I even have that many in my native language after 30 years! Wow well done!

Steve if you want to learn Arabic through music I suggest to you (Kadim Alsahir كاظم الساهر ) He has great modern standard Arabic songs listen to ( أحبيني بلا عقد) ,(هل عندك شك)

For me, more precisely, learning words does not necessarily come from the content, it can be from any source. The key is to go through some content to strengthen the memory and make it usable. It doesn't matter because most words we can't even think of where they first came from.

I agree with every word 100%

I learned the 150 HSK 1 characters and words in two days. I forget some occasionally, but it’s only been two days, so I’m not disappointed.

Thank you so Sir keep continuing for it much because I leaned many words by your way

Hi Steve! What I'm doing when I want to memorize a word is to find and write a phrase with this word that has an interesting meaning for me. I.e. "lösen" in german. I found the following phrase: "Das Leben läuft darauf hinaus, Probleme zu lösen".

Great video! I do the same thing. I don't like learning words as a separate process. The best way to remember new words is remarking these words in context. Then you can look through these words one more time and that's all. Later you'll see these words in another context and they'll be familiar. The more different context you use, the better. words are memorized by themselves. cards are absolutely unnecessary unless you like cards 😉

Kind of exciting, only ten words a day will give you 90% of the used vocabulary of most any language in only one year, assuming that you learn the most common words

I study English for my entrance exam. I'm surprised your language skills!! I don't listen this video yet, practice with your videos!! I'm sorry my English is not good at🙏 英語でコメントするのって難しい！！

Great instructive videos! As an avid language learner myself I can relate to most of what you say except for the amount of words for a comfortable command of a language. 20k is really an unbelievably great number of words, most of which are totally unnecessary as only around 600-1000 are used in 99% of every daily communication (slang included). I would say 6k is an extreme lot for proficiency. The rest is just icing on the cake, great achievement but not necessary really.

This is really eye opening. I have always been convinced that I can learn at most 10 words a day. I want to ask about the review and recording process. Do you think it is important to keep a keep every single word I learn in a notebook along with its definition?

Me too I love to watch all your topic.

My listening it is quite good, but my skill to write and speak it seems Rusty and stagnant.

Steve you are just the best!!!

All correct, I have done this methods, and worked

You make a excelent job to share your tips and experience with us. Videos extremaly useful

You said to be comfortable in a language you need 20-50 thousand words as measured on Lingq. Given your experience with so many languages on Lingq, at what number of known words would you say you usually find you’re very comfortable speaking, where you could reasonably describe yourself as “fluent” - or can these two things not really be related? Thanks.

Cảm ơn Anh rất nhiều thank you so much

شكرًا لك على هذا الكلام

Tatoeba.org has plenty of sentences.

I agree. Also it depends on the level I have to shift the focus of enriching my vocabulary from passive to active intentionally. Otherwise I keep talking primitively too long and people wouldn’t take me seriously or in a sense look down on you.

i completely agree without hearing the counter argument thats how I learned English for 10 yrs. incidentally i didn't do the same with Russian becuz i dont have trustworthy resources or those that are specific.

For me, context means pictures and scenarios. It boils down to repetition but enhenced with diversity

Eu pretendo usar tua técnica para aprender português, obrigado

You’re obviously right on this!

perfect example of a word that requires alot of contexts to learn is the spanish word ya. also the german word genau. a language's favourite words, heavily used words, really require this most.

This is pure gold זה זהב בשבילי

you're always inspiring language learners

Yeah, but deliberate acquisition of a small set of words positions you to begin the process you’re talking about. At least, it gives _me_ motivation; being able to identify ありがとう in a reading just _feels good._ & so does remembering how to spell it 😅 I’ve learned the hiragana and a handful of words by playing a game called *Learn Japanese RPG: Hiragana Forbidden Speech* (Think Typing of the Dead, RPG-maker style) It was only after that introduction did the usefulness of LingQ click for me.

Thank you! I'm in the process of leaning to speak spanish right now and this helped me refine my plan to reach fluency. I spent a lot of time in the beginning working on learning verb conjugations and grammar structures, but now I'm lacking in my knowledge of Spanish vocabulary, hopefully by the end of next month I'll have made some pretty decent ground.

God bless you and your family

I have understood all words you have spoken in the video. How many words probably do I understanding in English?

Thanks for your videos

M. Steve, by along years , I studied english language but I didn´t to speak fluently english. Therefore, I hope, to learn with you and yours videos....yes vocabulary .....I would like to talk with you sometimes..it is possibly ?? by whaaps ?

Steve says we learn words best in context and he calls that learning passive vocabulary. Other people have suggested the same thing. The context provides a hint about the meaning of the word but doesn’t necessarily define it. So it is just a memory hack. The question is, are you learning the meaning of the word or learning a clue as to the meaning of the word. Learning the meaning (of the word) and learnng a clue as to the meaninng of the word are two quite different things. I have to dispute that by learning context you are learning word meaning. I believe it is simplier and more accurate to cut to the chase and learn lists of words and their meanings. That is not an easy thing to do but there are no false understandings based on contexts that occur with this route. Just my opinion. I might define a boat to be a water going vessel that can be hauled on a ship. Using the word boat, I might say the cruz lines largest ship conained twenty boats. That context suggests to me that boats are seamen. See the problem that learning in context has caused?

I would love to see you doing the process

I think it doesn't matter how much words we acquire a day what matters is at least learning new words a day even though it's 10 words a day not necessarily strain your brain to learn as many words as possible you don't wanna get yourself stressed out in the end just take one step at a time and relax enjoy the process 3 or 4 hours a day is the minimum.