Exactly What To Do To Learn 1,500+ Words Every Month (I Just Did It)

Summary

In this video, the speaker discusses the importance of vocabulary acquisition in language learning, sharing their personal experience of learning over 1,500 new words in a month across eight languages. They highlight their focus on Arabic and Spanish, using tools like Link, Migaku, and Chachi PT to create Anki flashcards for efficient learning and review. The speaker also emphasizes the use of spaced repetition and visual mnemonics to enhance memory retention, providing a practical example with the Arabic word 'ashat' to illustrate this technique.

Takeaways

• 📚 Learning a foreign language requires a vast vocabulary, with fluency often associated with knowing over 30,000 words.
• 🗓️ The speaker learned 1,500 new words in the last month, focusing on Arabic, Spanish, and Sanskrit.
• 🌐 The speaker studies eight languages daily, but devotes more time to some languages based on personal motivation and current classes.
• 📘 The speaker is particularly focused on improving Arabic to read higher-level literature and is currently studying a simplified version of 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'.
• 🛠️ The speaker uses several online tools and services for language learning, including Link, Migaku, Chachi, and Vocab Tracker.
• 🔍 Link is favored for its dictionary quality and ease of use, allowing the speaker to export words for study in Anki.
• 🎨 Migaku is appreciated for creating visually appealing Anki flashcards with color coding and audio features.
• 📝 Chachi is used for languages not supported by other tools, such as Sanskrit, due to its ability to create exportable files for Anki.
• 🔄 Anki is essential for spaced repetition, optimizing the review process by focusing on words that need more practice.
• 🔑 Creating 'hooks' or mnemonic devices is crucial for memorizing new words, with visual mnemonics being a personal favorite method.
• 🌅 An example of a visual mnemonic provided by Chat GPT for the Arabic word 'ashat' (meaning 'shown') involves imagining an ash-covered rock shining at sunrise.

Q & A

How many new words does the speaker estimate is necessary to achieve a high level of fluency in a foreign language?

The speaker estimates that learning 30,000 words or more is necessary to achieve a high level of fluency in a foreign language.

How many new words did the speaker learn in the past month according to the script?

The speaker learned approximately 1,500 new words in the past month.

What languages is the speaker currently studying?

The speaker is currently studying Spanish, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Tuu (a Chinese language), Korean, Sanskrit, and Arabic.

Why is the speaker focusing more on Arabic at the moment?

The speaker is focusing more on Arabic because they are in an Arabic class at Professor AR's Language Academy and want to improve their ability to read higher-level material.

What tools or services does the speaker use to learn new words?

The speaker uses Link, Migaku, and Vocab Tracker to learn new words, and also mentions using Chat GPT to create visual mnemonics.

How does the speaker use Link to learn Arabic?

The speaker uses Link to input text and click on words to learn their definitions, and then exports the unknown words into a file to import into Anki for spaced repetition study.

What feature of Migaku does the speaker find particularly useful for learning Spanish?

The speaker finds Migaku's feature of creating Anki flashcards with audio and color-coding words (masculine in blue, feminine in red) particularly useful for learning Spanish.

Why did the speaker switch from Vocab Tracker to Link for Arabic?

The speaker switched from Vocab Tracker to Link for Arabic because Vocab Tracker's dictionaries were not as good, and it required more administrative tasks like copying and pasting definitions, which the speaker prefers to avoid.

How does the speaker use Anki to review and remember new words?

The speaker uses Anki's spaced repetition system to review words at optimal intervals, ensuring that the material they struggle with is shown more frequently than what they already know well.

What is the speaker's strategy for creating hooks to remember new words?

The speaker uses visual mnemonics, often created with the help of AI like Chat GPT, to create memorable hooks for new words. They also mentions studying etymology and word origins as other methods.

How does the speaker feel about the importance of reviewing words after initial learning?

The speaker emphasizes that reviewing words after initial learning is crucial and likely constitutes the bulk of the effort required to master vocabulary.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Learning Vocabulary in Multiple Languages

The speaker discusses the importance of vocabulary acquisition in learning a foreign language, emphasizing the need to learn thousands of words to achieve fluency. They share their personal experience of learning 1,500 new words in the past month across eight languages, with a focus on Arabic, Spanish, and Sanskrit. The speaker is particularly invested in improving their Arabic skills at Professor AR's Language Academy and uses various online tools and services, such as Link, Migaku, and Vocab Tracker, to facilitate their learning process. They also mention their use of Anki for spaced repetition and review, highlighting the efficiency of this method over traditional review techniques.

05:01

🌐 Utilizing Language Learning Tools and Techniques

This paragraph delves into the specific tools the speaker uses for language learning, such as Link for Arabic, Migaku for Spanish, and Chachi PPT for Sanskrit, due to the lack of support for these languages in other tools. The speaker appreciates the features of these tools, like color-coding and audio integration in Migaku, and the comprehensive language support in Link. They also discuss the significance of reviewing learned words and the benefits of using Anki's spaced repetition system, which optimizes the review process by focusing on the most challenging material. Additionally, the speaker touches on the use of visual mnemonics to create memorable 'hooks' for new words, even leveraging AI to generate these mnemonics when necessary.

10:02

🌅 Creative Mnemonics and Language Learning Insights

The speaker concludes by sharing a personal mnemonic strategy for memorizing the Arabic word 'ashat', which means 'shown'. They use a visual mnemonic created by Chachi PPT, involving an ash-covered rock shining at sunrise, to remember the word's meaning and grammatical ending. The paragraph reflects on the speaker's theory that familiarity with a foreign language's sounds and patterns can make word memorization easier over time. They admit to not using mnemonics for every word, reserving this technique for particularly challenging ones or new languages. The speaker also provides links to the mentioned tools for interested viewers and expresses gratitude for a new microphone gifted by a friend, hoping it improves audio quality in their videos.

Keywords

💡Vocabulary

Vocabulary refers to the set of words known to a person or in a language. In the context of the video, learning a foreign language is heavily dependent on expanding one's vocabulary. The speaker emphasizes the importance of learning thousands of words to achieve a high level of fluency, as evidenced by their personal experience of learning approximately 1,500 new words in a month.

💡Fluency

Fluency in a language is the ability to speak or write it smoothly and effortlessly. The video script discusses the concept of fluency as a goal, where the speaker aims to learn a substantial number of words to be able to read books and understand most, if not all, of the vocabulary used in the foreign language.

💡Spaced Repetition

Spaced repetition is a learning technique that involves increasing intervals of time between subsequent reviews of previously learned material to exploit the psychological spacing effect. The script mentions Anki, a software that uses spaced repetition to help the speaker review and remember new words effectively.

💡Anki

Anki is a flashcard program using spaced repetition to help memorize information. The video script describes how Anki helps in the learning process by tracking reviews and showing flashcards at the right intervals, which is crucial for retaining the newly learned vocabulary.

💡Language Learning Tools

Language learning tools refer to various resources and software that facilitate the learning of a new language. The script mentions several tools such as Link, Migaku, and Chachi PT, which the speaker uses to learn and review vocabulary in different languages.

💡Visual Mnemonics

Visual mnemonics are memory aids that use images to help remember information. The speaker discusses the use of visual mnemonics, or 'pneumonics,' to create hooks for remembering new words, providing an example of how they used an AI tool to create a visual mnemonic for the Arabic word 'ashat'.

💡Chat GPT

Chat GPT is mentioned in the script as an AI tool that can create visual mnemonics for language learners. The speaker uses it to generate images that help in memorizing new words, demonstrating how AI can assist in the language learning process.

💡Migaku

Migaku is a language learning tool that creates Anki flashcards, particularly useful for languages like Spanish, as mentioned in the script. It is highlighted for its ability to add audio and color-code words, which aids in the memorization process.

💡Chachi PT

Chachi PT is another tool used for language learning, specifically for creating files that can be exported and imported into Anki. The script mentions its use for languages not supported by other tools, such as Sanskrit.

💡Language Motivation

Language motivation refers to the drive or reason behind learning a particular language. The speaker discusses their motivation for learning Arabic due to being in a class at Professor AR's Language Academy and wanting to read higher-level material.

💡Literature

In the script, literature refers to written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit. The speaker expresses a desire to progress from reading children's stories to real literature in Arabic, indicating a deeper engagement with the language.

Highlights

Learning a foreign language requires mastering a vast vocabulary, with fluency often associated with knowing 30,000 words or more.

The speaker learned approximately 1,500 new words in the last month, focusing on Arabic, Spanish, and Sanskrit.

Arabic was the primary focus with 1,222 words learned, followed by Spanish with 251 words, and Sanskrit with 107 words.

The speaker studies eight languages daily, including Spanish, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Tuu, Korean, Sanskrit, and Arabic.

Korean and Tuu receive less study time due to a lack of strong motivation, while Arabic is prioritized for improvement.

The speaker is enrolled in an Arabic class at Professor AR's Language Academy, aiming to read higher-level materials.

The speaker uses tools like Link, Migaku, and Vocab Tracker to learn and review vocabulary effectively.

Link, created by Steve Kaufman, allows users to input text and click on unknown words for definitions and tracking.

Migaku is praised for creating visually appealing Anki flashcards with audio and color-coding features.

For Sanskrit, the speaker uses Chachi PT because it's the only tool that supports the language among the mentioned ones.

Anki's spaced repetition system is essential for reviewing and retaining newly learned words.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of creating 'hooks' or mnemonic devices to remember words more effectively.

Visual mnemonics, such as those created by Chat GPT, can aid in memorizing words that are difficult to remember.

The speaker demonstrates how to use a visual mnemonic for the Arabic word 'ashat' meaning 'shown'.

As language proficiency increases, it becomes easier to remember words due to familiarity with the language's sounds and patterns.

The speaker recommends Link, Migaku, Vocab Tracker, and Chat GPT for language learning, providing links in the description for further exploration.

The speaker thanks Mike for the new microphone, hoping it improves audio quality in the video.

A call to action for viewers to subscribe for more language learning tips and insights.

Transcripts

perhaps the biggest part of learning a

foreign language is learning

vocabulary you have to learn thousands

of new words in my opinion you have to

learn maybe 30,000 words or more to be

considered at a very high level or a

fluence level or a level where you can

read books and be able to understand uh

most if not all of the words so this

past month

I counted up how many new words I

learned and I came out to about

1,500 words in the last month it's

probably a been more than that but I

just looked at the languages that I'm

focusing more

on so I I found that I studied 1,222

words in Arabic 251 words in Spanish and

107 words in Sanskrit now the

interesting thing about this is I

actually study eight languages each and

every day and those are Spanish German

Japanese Mandarin tuu which is a Chinese

language Korean Sanskrit and Arabic so

as you can see I spend more time on some

of the languages than others for example

at the moment Korean and tuu don't get a

lot of study time just because I don't

have a very strong motivation to learn

those languag is at this time uh I'm

spending a lot of time in Arabic because

I want to improve my Arabic because I'm

in the Arabic class at Professor AR's

Language Academy and I want to be able

to read material and stories which are

at a higher level right now we're

learning uh we're reading Alibaba and

the 40 thieves but it's a children's

version so it's simpler and I want be

able to go through these children's

stories and eventually make it up to

real literature in Arabic I mean that is

real literature but I mean literature

for adults so I also continue my studies

I learned some Spanish Sanskrit as well

I'm taking a class at The Language

Academy but it's not as uh the pace is

not as fast so I don't learn as many

words per week so how do I learn this

may words

in a

month so there are three maybe four

sites or services that I use they are

link migaku Chachi and vocab tracker and

I use Link right now for Arabic link is

a site created by Steve Kaufman and

basically what it is is you can put a

text into it and then you can click on

the words it'll tell you you the

definition but it'll also record the

words that you click on that you don't

know so that later you can export them

and then I like to put the export into

chat GPT and chat GPT creates a file for

me that I can then import into Ani so

that I can study the words in Ani and

Anki will keep track of the reviews and

show me the flash cards at the right

intervals to review them properly

I used to use vocab tracker vocab

tracker.com for Arabic but the problem

with vocab tracker is that although it's

free although it's free the dictionaries

they use are not very good and I found

that I had to use chat GPT to look up

the words and then copy and paste the

definition or the translation of the

word into vocab tracker and that kind of

annoyed me because I'm not into

administrative tasks I want to spend all

my time or as much time as possible

learning the language and going through

foreign language material I don't want

to spend as much time doing

administrative tasks like copying and

pasting or uh looking up words and that

kind of thing so although vocab tracker

the benefit is that allows you to use

closed deletion flashcards in ankey I

did switch over the link just because uh

the definitions or the translations are

right there they use good dictionaries

and it's very clean it's very quick that

way for Spanish I used to use vocab

tracker as well but now I use migaku

migaku is great because it creates

beautiful ankey

flashcards uh it can creates audio in

the flashcards as well as color code the

words so that in the case of Spanish uh

masculine words are colorcoded I think

in blue and feminine words are in red

with other languages like German they

also have neuter in Gray and Japanese

they have it colorcoded by the pitch

accent Mandarin Chinese they have it

colorcoded by the tones so that's very

useful and I like that a lot um for

Sanskrit though I just use straight

Chachi P because link doesn't have

Arabic migaku doesn't have um Arabic by

the way which is why another reason why

I use Link Link has Arabic I should say

migaku uh has Spanish but not Arabic and

then Chachi PT I use for Sanskrit

because none of these not even vocab

tracker has

[Music]

Sanskrit so that's the reason why I use

Link now I highly recommend it because

it has a lot of languages it probably

has the language you're studying but if

you don't see your language in link or

migaku then you can always use Chachi P

PT to uh create a file which you can

export and then import into

Ani so the important thing to say here

is that even though I learned 1,500 plus

words in the last month uh learning is

just the first step probably the bulk of

the effort comes in reviewing the words

after you've learned them for the first

time so what that involves for me at

least is use saying Anki because Anki is

a spaced repetition system with an

algorithm that shows you the material

that you have the most trouble with more

often than the material that you already

know very easily and that's a real

benefit over just reviewing by reading a

book or going over your notes because if

you just read a book you are just uh

reviewing the material almost at random

and it's not optimized to show you the

material that you need the most help

with more often so that's why I like to

use eny plus eny just keeps everything

in order and keeps track of everything

and you don't have to figure out where

your notes are which material you want

to review you just open eny and it's

there plus eny also has an app for the

phone so I'm able to review words even

when I'm out and about if I have a

really busy day I can review words even

when I'm waiting for dinner or I'm in a

line or something something like

this so there are many ways to learn a

word uh but for me the most important

thing is that you have a hook a hook

that you can attach the word onto which

will help you remember it and people do

this in various ways some people study

the emology of the words so they see uh

uh maybe they look at similar

words um like in English we might have

politician but we also have politics we

also have policy so you kind of group

the words together see how they're

similar the similar meanings you can

also study where the words came from

what the original words were my personal

favorite way of creating a hook to learn

the word is to use visual neonics which

is something I've talked about in my

other videos but I'm just going to give

one example today because the other

videos really give a better uh sample of

them so go watch those videos if you

want to know more but I decided to pull

a word from my Arabic deck this is a

real word that I'm studying and I put it

through chat GPT and I asked chat GPT to

create the visual pneumonic just to show

you that you don't even need an

imagination anymore to come up with a

nemonic you can just have ai do it for

you so the Arabic word is ashat ashat

and this means shown like the past tense

of shine I think the phrase that

disappeared in was

as which means the shown the sun the sun

shown um but we're going to just try to

remember ashat which means shown and the

ponic that Chachi BT came up with

was

visualize an ash covered rock so that's

where we get ashra

uh and so you want to really picture Ash

on a rock to get

Ash and you want to imagine it suddenly

shining or suddenly shown brightly when

the sun came up with the sunrise so the

sunrise will help you remember that the

meaning is shown because the sun shines

and then you want to remember Ash

covered rock for

ashrock now the last part the full word

is

ashat but the at at the end is just the

feminine singular third person ending

for a verb so that you can just remember

for because you have to use it for every

verb uh I guess the masculine version

would be Ash without the T at the ends

but this we have ashat because Shi the

sun in Arabic is a feminine noun so it

came up as ashat but the important thing

is you just have to remember Ash

ashra to remember shown because the

grammatical part the at at the end

you'll just remember when you learn

Arabic because you have to do this for

every verb to get the singular third

person feminine ending so that's how I

remember or how I would remember that

the word for shown in Arabic is ashat I

just imagine an ash covered rock with

maybe uh like light shining beneath the

Ash and that the ash covered rocks

suddenly shown brightly with the

sunrise so that's basically how I do it

I will say I don't do pneumonics for

every word that I

learn some words you just get like that

you just know them right away so you

don't need to use visual pneumonics also

so my theory is that the more that you

study a foreign language the more used

to or more accustomed you get to the

sounds and the configuration of the

Sounds in the language and that makes it

much more easy makes it easier to

remember the words just because there

are certain patterns to The Sounds in

the foreign language that you only get a

real um instinctive memory or sense for

as you remember more and more and more

words in the foreign language so for

that reason I don't need to use visual

neonics for every word that I come

across some I just know right away some

I just get a sense of because I've sted

so many words before however if it's a

new language or if it's a word that I

really have difficulty remembering uh

then I use the visual neonics and either

I'll use my imagination to come up with

it or if that fails me just go to chat

gbt and I ask chat gbt to make a visual

nemonic for me and that works pretty

well so that's how I do it that's how I

learn 1,500 plus words in the last month

and I think I've been learning around

1,000 new words every month uh you can

check out another video I made where I

said I learned I think 21, 56 words in 2

years and that goes over some material

you can check out but that's how I do it

uh by the way if you also want to use

Link or migaku or vocab tracker even or

chat GPT uh I'm going to put links in

the description below so you can go

check out those services and maybe

you'll find them useful I will say link

is more geared towards a reading whereas

migaku is more geared I think they're

trying to make it more for videos like

watching YouTube videos videos and then

finding the words from uh the Clos

captions of the V YouTube videos but

they do have a version for reading you

just have to use the Legacy version of

migaku to get to the Reading part but I

do highly recommend it because they make

great flashcards for an so if you're

interested look for the links in the

description below and by the way if you

haven't noticed I have this new mic that

my friend Mike gave me and so I'm hoping

that the audio was better on this video

we'll see but thank you Mike for being

so kind as to get this mic for me I

really appreciate that anyway if you're

not subscribed already consider

subscribing because hey it's free and

you might learn something that gets you

to fluency faster thank you so much and

we'll talk again soon