The Parallel Themes of Language Learning – image credit

There is much to be said about learning languages in the realm of methods, strategies, theory, drills, resources, etc.

And there are a million opinions – some held with unbending strength – as to which of each of these is the “best”.

But regardless of your thoughts on all in the aforementioned list, there are two parallel themes that I believe need to shape the core of your personal plan to master the target language of your dreams.

If you can work to be consistently growing in each of these, you will move forward with a gratifying sense of success and end up with reaching your goal to master the language.

I write extensively about this in The Everyday Language Learner’s Guide to Getting Started which is part of the Fly First Class Guide Series, but I wanted to introduce you to the ideas here and in so doing, I hope to empower you to be more effective as an independent language learner.

Too often, one of the biggest challenges that the self-directed language learner encounters on the language learning is in answering the question “What do I need to learn?”

I’d like to begin to answer that today.

One of the biggest challenges that language learners encounter is in answering the question – “What do I need to learn?”   – Tweet That

What Do I Need To Learn

There are two basic themes as to what we need to learn.

Within these two themes we find all the constructs of the language we wish to master – the words, phrases, grammatical structures, cultural background and the sound system used to represent the language.

The first theme is found in the immediate needs – those things we need to know right now in order to function in the language.

The second theme is found in the foundational needs – the meat and potatoes of the language.

When we can create a plan to work on both of these in a steadily expanding degree of mastery, we will be successful.

Immediate Needs

The first area of focus should be on your immediate needs.  These are the things you  need to be able to do with the language will allow you to survive!

They are the day to day tasks that you need to be able to complete.

They are ever expanding from their source which is based firmly in your reality, your real life.

You can begin of course with a phrasebook that will give you a whole host of phrases that well allow you to interact with enough of the language to meet your basic needs.

The second place to begin is with a question – What do I need to be able to do with the language that I am not yet able to do?

By answering this question, you will always have something toward which you can work to master.

Anytime that you interact with a native speaker and realize you are far from where you would want to be in that particular task, make note of it so you can come back to it later and work on it.

Immediate needs are really about accomplishing tasks, not conversation.

You need to eat, to make a reservation, to use an ATM, to find a restroom, to give greetings and to take your leave.

These immediate needs should be the focus of much of your study so that you can create a gradually expanding corpus of tasks of which you can complete with a fairly high level of proficiency.

Foundational Needs

If your goal with the target language is to improve your vacation experience as you travel to Russia say, for two weeks, you may not need to go further.

The basic phrases of any phrasebook will get you a long way and help you survive your vacation.

But if you want to go deeper, if you desire to move toward quality conversations and the ability to move off the beaten path, then you will certainly need to add a second track of your personal journey to learn the language – the foundational needs.

Languages are build on three things really – words, grammatical structures, and sounds.  Phrase, proverbs, culture and body language are certainly apart of this list as well, but the former three make up the bulk of the language necessary to understand and to be understood.

These are the foundation of the language.

On the self-directed language learning journey you need also to begin at once in building a strong foundation.

You need to daily add new vocabulary to your usable collection of words in your mind.

You need to begin to explore, understand and use the basic grammatical structures of the language.

And you need to work to re-teach your mouth and mind to work together to make the new sounds that inevitably reside in this new language.

Moving Forward

When you can work to create a learning plan that incorporates both of these themes, you will feel more success and move forward in a steady and purposeful manner.

Are you doing both?

Are you daily identifying the most critical tasks that you need to be able to accomplish in the language while at the same time ensuring that you are growing in your understanding of the basic building blocks of the language?

If you are, congratulations.  You are well on your way to being a successful everyday language learner.

Question: What tools or strategies do you use to work on either of these two themes?

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If you enjoyed this post you will also enjoy my Fly First Class Guide Series – a great collection of guides, workbooks, lectures and more that will empower you to be a self-directed language learner.

For less than $20, this could be the most important investment you make toward mastering your target language!

Click Here to Learn More!

The inspiration and new ideas I get whenever I am able to interact is always amazing.

And over the last few months I have been hearing a bit of the story of one of the readers of the blog – Gaby Cortinas.

Gaby’s story is interesting, inspirational and a lot of fun – and it is not just because he is an opera singer.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down with Gaby and ask him a few of the questions I have been wondering about:

• How singing opera benefits the language learning journey
• How it has been to raise two trilingual kids
• How Gaby would advise a new language learner

Those are just a few of the questions we talked about in our interview.

Resources and Ideas Gaby Talked About

Say Something In . . .

Moses McCormick

Luca Lampariello

Open Culture

Activities and Strategies for Everyday Language Learners

image credit

You know what your problem is, it’s that you haven’t seen enough movies – all of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.  -Steve Martin

Movies.  They have become a tremendously influential piece of our culture – of nearly every culture around the world.

They have the power to move us, to entertain and to educate.

Nearly everyone has a favorite movie, a favorite genre of movies and perhaps, a favorite actor or actress.

We all love movies.

And that is why movies can and should be a part of your personal plan to master your target language.

You need to find dubbed movies.

Dubbing is when a movie provides a soundtrack in a different language from the original.

Dubbing comes in many forms, from subtitles to voice over, but all can be useful for learning another language.

Why Dubbed Movies

Movies dubbed into your target language can be a useful activity because they provide a number of great components that will help you engage the language more effectively.

When you watch a movie dubbed into your target language that you have previously watched in your native language, a number of things happen that create a better opportunity for you to get a lot of comprehensible input.

[read more about the importance of comprehensible input]

You’ve Got Mail – image credit

Background Knowledge

One key component of a dubbed movie that you have seen before is the presence of background knowledge.

You know what is going on in the story line.  You are able to anticipate where the dialogue is going.

In many cases, you know what the characters are going to say.

All of this leads to a greater chance that your mind will make connections from target language utterances to their meaning.

Context

Movies made in your native language provide more context for the dubbed voiceover.

You will understand the setting of each scene and what should and would be said in the interactions that take place on the screen.

There is less cultural confusion to get in the way of connecting meaning to what you are hearing.

This of course means that the use of the target language will not be completely authentic, but for this activity, the focus is on building a foundation of sounds (pronunciation), structure (correct grammar usage) and vocabulary (words).

You do need to expose yourself to authentic use of the language but that is another activity.

Content

A good film contains somewhere around 50,000 words.

In that sense, movies provide massive amounts of content.

In a dubbed movie, you are hearing the words spoken in the target language, but you are also seeing the words spoken – that is you are seeing the context and interactions that take place while you hear the dialogue.

This creates rich content for the language learner.

Not all movies are created equal however.  Some movies will have greater linguistic content than others.

When learning Turkish I bought the Pixar movie Wall-e.

Oops.  862 words.  Not much content there.

High Interest

An important aspect of dubbed movies is your ability to watch movies that you really enjoy.

When we enjoy something, when we are interested, it is infinitely easier to sit down and put in the time.

When we are bored, we change the channel.

Do you have an all time favorite movie?  Find it in your target language.

Language learning is a bit of an unexpected journey at times - image credit

 A Few Challenges

There are of course a few challenges that come with the dubbed movie.

Often in the course of translation, what is said in English in a two second utterance, takes four seconds in the target language and in order to avoid the old kung fu action movie dilemma of lots of mouth action with no sound coming out, voiceover artists need to speak at what for many language learners is an unintelligibly high rate of speed.

A second challenge and one that I think is a bit over rated, is that translations are not always perfect.  No they are not, but I say who cares.

I am looking for context rich comprehensible input and if 90% of the translation work is good, that will far outweigh the 10% which is poorly done.

And besides, even the bad translation is probably a grammatically correct sentence that makes sense.

I remember sitting through a movie in Tijuana, Mexico once and realizing pretty quickly that every swearword was translated to the Spanish word for ‘thing’ – cosa.

Imagining people saying, “Thing you!” and “Holy Thing!” and “Thing It!” was pretty entertaining but hardly got in the way of me learning a whole load of new Spanish from the movie.

The Biggest Challenge – Finding Them

The biggest challenge in using dubbed movies is of course in finding them in the first place.

First of all, not all countries have robust dubbing industries.  Most do subtitles but not all do the work of voice overs.

Some countries just do voice overs for kids movies.

Smaller tribal languages probably don’t do movies at all.

[One exception is the Jesus Film which has been dubbed into over 1,000 languages and can be watched free online.  Find your language here.]

Here are a few ideas for locating dubbed versions of your favorite movies.

1.  If you live in country or are traveling to the country where your target language is spoken, just locate a DVD shop and pick up a suitcase full of your favorite dubbed movies.  Make sure and have the salesperson show you a bit of the film first to make sure it has voice over dubbing.

2.  Find movies online.  Using Google Translate, get the translation for “Watch Movies Online” and do a basic search with the translated phrase.  This will take a little bit of searching, but you should be able to find a few sites on which you can watch dubbed movies.

3.  Expat Forums.  A great place to find dubbed movies is through expat forums.  These forums are used by those living in the countries where your target language is spoken.  These are on the ground experts who can help you find the movies you are looking for.  Simply search for “expat forum (country name)”.

Some Viewing Suggestions

Watching a movie dubbed into your target language – a movie you are familiar with and have watched before in your native language – is a great activity for language learners.

But you can do more.

Here are a few suggestions for maximizing the movie experience:

1.  Watch a movie two or three days in a row.  This increased exposure will create higher and higher levels of engagement.

2.  For beginners.  Write down the words that you hear and understand.  This will help you stay engaged longer.

3.  For intermediates.  Write down phrases and words that you hear that you do not yet know.  (Feel free to use the rewind button).  Look these up and add them to some system of review so that you can learn them.

4.  Watch the movie with a native speaking friend.  Chose certain scenes to discuss.  Retell these scenes to one another.

5.  Chose one scene to watch and master.  Using the rewind button, learn every word, every phrase in the particular scene.

Movies Are Fun

Movies can be a fun way to increase your level of engagement with your target language.

Mixing entertainment with learning is a great recipe for putting in more time.

And putting in more time is one of the major challenges that we everyday laguage learners often struggle with.

Do you regularly watch dubbed movies as part of your language learning routine?

Turkish Movie Sites

• http://www.kure.tv/Anasayfa
• http://www.diziizle.net

Italian Movie Sites

• http://www.italiafilm.tv/index.php
• http://www.piratestreaming.com/
• http://www.piratestreaming2.org/

Spanish Movie Sites

• http://www.sipeliculas.com

Help the EDLL community out!

Share your favorite sites to find movies in your target language and I will add them to the post.

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If you enjoyed this post you will also enjoy my Fly First Class Guide Series – a great collection of guides, workbooks, lectures and more that will empower you to be a self-directed language learner.

For less than $20, this could be the most important investment you make toward mastering your target language!

Click Here to Learn More!

Neil Rees is both of these.

Neil has learned to varying extents a handful of languages and has worked over the past years to train others to be self-directed, community based language learners.  His experience and common sense approach to helping others learn how to learn languages is apparent from the get go.

We covered a lot of ground in the interview and I think it is one of the most informative and helpful yet!

Enjoy and feel free to interact in the comments below.

The Questions We Cover

1. Let’s begin by having you tell us a little bit about your own language learning journey?  When did it begin and what languages have you been learning?
2. As a lover of languages, what led to your transition from learner to teacher?
3. When teaching the course on becoming a self-directed language learner, what is the biggest hurdle you find you need to help your student overcome?
4. What surprising insights have you discovered as you have worked with people to help them become self-directed independent language learners?
5. You also specialize in phonetics.  What is phonetics and why is it important?
6. Why do you think learners should spend more time focusing on good pronunciation?
7. Do you have a favorite drill or activity that you could share with us that the EDLL community could begin with?
8. What is one piece of advice that you would give to a beginning language learner?

Resources Mentioned

Stumbling Out of Bad Pronunciation (article)

The LAMP book by Tom and Betty Sue Brewster*

Phonetic Charts – If you do a basic search you can find a chart of the sounds of your target language.  By comparing this to the chart of your native language you will find the sounds that do and don’t exist in one or the other.

To find yours, simply go to a search engine and type in (target language + phonology).  So for example, I typed in “Turkish Phonology” to find the chart below.

Wikipedia has most phonology charts.

All of these charts may seem a bit high browed and academic and indeed they use what is called the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to give a normalized representation to all of the sounds.

Don’t worry too much about learning the IPA, but do look at the places in the target language chart where there are sounds not found in your native language.

Then you can do a little research on that particular sound, search for it on Youtube and read more about it online so that you can begin to notice the difference and understand where and how the sound is formed.

Let’s Look At Turkish

In order to help you see how you might analyze your target language, I have a picture of the Turkish consonant sounds (phonemes) and the English sounds below.

I have highlighted a few sounds on these charts.  The sounds marked with green are sounds that don’t exist in English according to the chart.  I may or may not know what these sounds are initially, but by clicking on the sound symbol on the chart (if you are looking at it in Wikipedia) I can learn more about them.

Doing a further search for the name of these sounds on Youtube should lead you to videos giving examples of each sound.

The sounds highlighted in pink you will notice  have the same symbols as the English, but are in different locations on the chart.  This is because, while the sound is essentially the same, a Turk will make the sound differently than an American would.

If we take the “f” sound for example, as an American, I make this sound by placing my lower lip against my upper teeth to say ‘fan’ or ‘free’ or ‘leaf’.   A Turk would make this same sound by placing both lips together (like making a ‘p’ sound) and simply letting the air flow freely as they said ‘fakat’ or ‘futbol’ or ‘offf’.

Hopefully seeing these charts will help you begin to understand how you might use them to learn about the different sounds in your target language.  You can do the same with the vowel charts.

Understanding and knowledge are an important part of mastering any new skill.  Hopefully Neil has given us some of both as we continue on this language learning journey.

*Affiliate Link

Want to listen to just the audio of this interview and others?  They are available to subscribers in the language learner’s toolbox.

Subscribe Now

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Good Food, Good Learning! image credit

Today’s guest post is from Lizzie Davey, a language learner and writer at Languages Abroad.  Enjoy!

Travel and food go hand in hand, so incorporating the local cuisine into the language learning process is a great way to discover the traditions and culture of the native-speaking country whilst picking up new vocabulary and learning how to interact with locals along the way.

Plus, food is a vital part of life for us mere mortals, so integrating it into your learning schedule is very much a necessity.

Think about when you land in a new country for the first time; a country that you might not know the language of.  Chances are, you’re hungry and you want to grab a bite to eat.

What’s stopping you?

My guess is it’s the language barrier that’s holding you back from trying some of the local cuisine – or anything, for that matter.

You might be worried that you won’t be understood and end up with something you don’t like, or you might be embarrassed that the seller will laugh at your incompetence.

There’s always the point and hope method, but wouldn’t it be great to be able to order something native to the country with add-ons and everything and not be surprised when it turns up?

Food is often a central point in many countries; it’s there when families break bread together, it’s there at cultural events and festivals, it’s one of the best conversation starters, and it’s a great opening for learning about a culture and its language.

But using food as a language learning tool is not just a brilliant way to hone your conversational skills and delve into the customs of a new place; it is also a fun and sensory approach that will help you retain more information than a text or audio book.

Food activates all our senses

Food is one of the only things in the world that uses all five senses to engage people; touch, sight, smell, sound, and taste.

There’s the texture of fresh bread, the vibrant colour palette of Thai cuisine, the aromatic smell of herbs and spices in a curry, the sound of sizzling prawns on a hotplate and, of course, the explosion of all of these things in the taste when it finally touches your tongue.

Utilising all of the senses ensures that whatever it is will remain in your memory for longer than if you were to only use one or two because when one sense forgets, there is always another that leaps to recall when it is activated.

Have you ever caught the scent of something that reminds you of the past, something that instantly reels you back to another part of your life?

I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Our senses are more powerful than we think, and they create strong connections with the brain to remember the things we have touched, seen, smelt, heard, and tasted with vibrant accuracy.

Using food to revise vocabulary improves your chances of remembering it at a later date. Rather than trying to use one or two senses like sight and sound when practicing phrases, words, and sentences, use all of them; whilst reading one thing, eat a piece of cake and whilst reading another, have a spoonful of flavoursome soup.

By activating all your senses at the same time, you are instantly increasing the number of memory triggers. When you need to remember that word or phrase in the future, you can use your senses to take you back to when you revised it.

And of course this method is extremely successful when learning the vocabulary for different food products.

If you have a real-life version of the food in front of you and can touch it, smell it, and see it, you are significantly improving your chances are storing the word in your mind than if you were trying to memorise it from a list in a book.

Food is familiar

Food is something that connects everyone; it’s something that the world has in common.  Everyone needs to eat and everywhere has places to buy food, like restaurants.

Regardless of where we are in the world, restaurants tend to operate under the same method – customer chooses food, chefs cook food, customer eats food. Whilst there may be variations from place to place, the bare essentials are the same.

This makes food a beacon of familiarity in a country that might otherwise be completely alien to us.

We know what a restaurant is and what we are supposed to do there, which instantly makes us feel comfortable and more confident in what we are doing; two things that are necessary for progressing in a language.

And, because we are in a familiar setting, we will be able to make connections between words – which words are usually seen on a menu, for instance, like starters, mains, desserts, and so on.

We know where these are usually found on a menu, and can therefore begin to recognise them in the new language and start making connections with the foods listed below them.

Ordering food is a familiar action, too. Once you have learned the names of food using the sensory approach above, you can easily put them into a sentence.

Most conversations with a waiter go the same way – waiter asks what you would like and you respond with your order.

Once you have nailed the basics of this interaction, you can do it again and again which builds up confidence, plus you will learn different responses and questions in the process.

Reward yourself

Food not only helps you ingrain a language into your brain and gives you confidence in speaking, but it is also a great motivational tool.

If you find you are lacking the drive to do your homework or can’t bring yourself to practice conjugating verbs because you can’t stop thinking about that leftover Chinese take away in the fridge, use it to your advantage.

Tell yourself that you can eat it once you have done a certain amount of work as a small reward.

Giving yourself rewards makes you feel more confident that you are getting somewhere with the language and recognises that you have actually achieved something and, well, a food reward is never going to disappoint!

If this isn’t enough motivation to incorporate food into the language learning process, just remember that you will get to try delicious new food along the way!

And, if it’s not possible for you to visit the native-speaking country to feast on local cuisine, you will always be able to find a suitable restaurant near your home where you can familiarise yourself with the menu and, of course, try some new foods.

Was this article helpful?  Take a moment to share it on Twitter or Facebook!

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Author Bio: Lizzie is currently getting to grips with the Spanish language, something she has wanted to do for a long time.  She also writes about fun ways to learn a language at Languages Abroad and documents her personal travel adventures at Wanderful World.  In her spare time she likes to drink tea, enjoy the outdoors, and check out art exhibitions.

The second was the first international postcard, coming all the way from Lew who is a PeaceCorp worker in Macedonia!

Very cool!

Send your postcards to:

Aaron Myers

102 N Main

Marion, SD 57043

USA

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I’ve been working on my thesis project (officially) for now more than 2 months.

In the process, I can’t help but realize that language, like anything, is a skill.

Say you want to learn German. Well your *skill* at German may well depend on your skill at language learning.

This post is about the best way to improve at a skill; language learning or other.

Learners who have lots of experience at language learning may figure out German quicker or take more pleasure in it.  Learners who are learning a “foreign” language for the first time may struggle a bit more, but that’s OK. We all do in the beginning.

The point is, it doesn’t matter whether this is your 2nd, 3rd or 10th language.  It all boils down to how much you use it and what importance you give it within your personal life.

For example, I’ve always enjoyed programming. I’m not a formally trained programmer, but the more I program and make things, the better I realize I get at programming.

The same goes for sports or working out or trying to lose weight.  At some point, you have to stop wondering how to do it and stop trying to plan too much of it and get down on your knees and start crawling.

There is no magic formula, there is only time.

Here in Sweden, I speak to many Swedes; sometimes in Swedish. [Sidenote: Swedes are annoyingly good at English to a point where it can be very hard to get any Swedish practice with them.]

The topics are conversational and not so deep.  I ask them about their hobbies or full time work and them about mine.  When I mention that I speak 6 languages, they are surprised, after which I’ll tell them how much time I spend learning languages.   About 1 hour on-and-off every day;  not the same language and seldom from the same one website or technique or app.

But I put time into what I love doing and I get better at it.

I’m writing this post after reading an inspiring article (about programming) from Hacker News: [21 nested callbacks] in which a wonderful line caught my eye:

Learning to program is largely about learning to learn—and the best way to learn is to do.

This applies to language equally.  Your *skill* at language learning will not get better by learning about language learning (well, maybe marginally).

It’ll get better as you learn languages. And by this I mean to live a language.

Don’t just hit the books.

Language becomes relevant as the people who live in it, events that happen in it become important to you.  Benny from fluentin3months.com recommends to “Speak from Day One”.*

My research is also showing that the best motivator is by far: NEED.

Sadly, need is not something you can invent.  With my thesis, I intend to simulate need and bring back the fun in language learning: the satisfaction of hearing a sentence and understanding the gist of it for the first time.

I also want to do some of the planning for learners, so they don’t have to do it and they can concentrate on language rather than on endless lists of flashcards.

You can check out Aaron Myers’ book [Activities and Strategies for Everyday Language Learners] from which I learned about the Six Pillars of Successful Language Learning.

This guide has been an invaluable tool and guide so far in my endeavor to create a great language learning experience with lin’guage™.

In the end, most of us language learners won’t require a translator’s skill in a language, but enough to understand what’s going on in the world around us and to inquire about it.

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Alexis Morin, originally from Montréal, is an Interaction Design Master’s student at the Umeå Institute of Design working on his thesis about in-country language learning.  This post is a reflection culminating from years of language learning as well as in-the-field language learning research.

More information about the thesis can be found at: http://2013ixd.tumblr.com/
Personal website: http://alexismorin.com/
Interaction Design Portfolio: http://cargocollective.com/alexismorin             Twitter: @carignanboy

*Speak from Day One is an affiliate link for EDLL.

I had to do some investigating and found FluentU to be a very exciting new language resource for Chinese language learners.   So exciting that I knew I had to get FluentU founder Alan Park on for an interview.  Alan does a great job introducing people to FluentU in the interview and shares a whole lot of other great insight and encouragement along the way.  Enjoy!

(CLICK HERE IF YOU CANNOT SEE THE VIDEO)

What Language Is Next?

Would you like to see FluentU develop this great platform in your target language?  If so, Alan and his team have created a new form so that you can tell them what language you want them to develop next.  Let your voice be heard!

Here is the link: http://chinese.fluentu.com/blog/2013/04/09/free-early-access-fluentu-other-languages/

FluentU Links

You can find out more about FluentU at any of these links:

FluentU

FluentU Blog

FluentU Blog Chinese Learner Interview Series (for some inspiration!)

FluentU on Facebook

FluentU on Twitter

Alan on Twitter

Resources Alan Mentioned

Hacking Chinese (and the Slow Then Fast article)

Yo You Chinese

Skritter

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Who should I interview next?   I’d love to hear your suggestions.

I’ve been receiving quite a few postcards from the EDLL community and it is encouraging and exciting to know that so many folks are reading the blog and finding real value in it.  I continue to look for ways to create a more robust resource for language learners across the globe.  Let me know your ideas!

I’ve decided to share two postcards today because I’ve found four in my  mailbox in the last week and a half.

The first comes from Orlando, Florida where Renee works for Disney World!  You can read her thoughts below.

Traverse City

Our second postcard today comes from Traverse City, Michigan and is from long time reader and a past guest author on the blog, Gail Brown.  For those of you who have been around here a while, you’ll remember Gail’s fantastic guest post Language Learning Through Soap Operas.

What about you?

Do you want to see your postcard shared here at EDLL?   Send it to the address above and share what it is that keeps you reading the blog and feel free to share your blog or website as well.

If you are looking for ways to grow your vocabulary, today’s guest post by Kerstin Hammes will give you a great new tool to do just that.  Kerstin writes at Fluent Languages and is a great resource of information and new ideas.  Enjoy!

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“Oh, I know this word….

“Arghh…..let me think….

“I can’t even think of a related one!

“It’s on the tip of my tongue!

I suspect you know what I’m referring to by now – that frustrating thing that happens when you’re trying to express something and the words just won’t come to you. So. Annoying.

I often work with language learners who are stuck on this one, so first of all: Don’t worry, you’re not alone.  There are some exercises that you can use to target fluency and vocabulary specifically.  Aaron already set the ball rolling with his tips on sentence extensions and transformations, and today I will add another one for your arsenal.  If you like structured exercises, this one will be great!

How the exercise benefits you

Word field practice is aimed at helping you develop a bigger vocabulary in your chosen field.  It’s really useful when you know you’ll be speaking about a particular topic or you can tell you keep getting stuck in the same place.  I’ll outline a simple version for you and add a bunch of tips on expanding the exercise to really take full advantage of what it does.

How to do the exercise

Now that we know it’s great, let’s get started.  I tend to recommend pen and paper for most of my exercises, but a good mind-mapping tool will work just as well.

1) Decide on your field – what is the subject you would like to learn words about? Make sure you pick a topic that isn’t too restricted or general.  For example, photography is fine but if you pick art you might be adding words forever.  And “my CV” is fine, but expanding it to job interview question standards may add a nice challenge.

2) Note down the ideas this question brings up – who are the groups of people involved, what sections are there in your topic, what can you do with the things you use for it, how did you become interested in it?  You can do this in your native language. We are looking for 3-6 headings.

3) Move into target language.  First, jot down a list of words you know which relate to the topic.  It’s useful to be indiscriminate at this point, a bit like brainstorming.

4) Work out the word types: nouns, adjectives, verbs and so on.  If you haven’t got many in one column, make sure you even them out by adding new ones.  Related words like a noun and the verb that you can make out of it are absolutely fine.

5) Now try and answer the questions using your words.  Make yourself write full sentences, and structure them differently.

This exercise is designed to get you using your dictionary, so don’t hesitate to write down lots of words in your own language without knowing what they are in the target language.  The finished product should be a reference tool you can always come back and add to – your personal vocabulary guide.

How to do more of the exercise

Tip 1: Use this as a growing project which you return to many times over the course of a short period.  I would recommend 10-15 minutes with the table every day for a week or two, and you can add in revision sessions (new sentences with the words you’ve got) and dictionary sessions (expanding the vocab).

Tip 2: If you’re keen on building vocabulary but very confident constructing sentences in your target language, you may not need to limit yourself to word types.  Instead, treat it like a 7 day brainstorm: add a set number of related words every day, then challenge yourself to make the longest possible sentence using all of them.

Tip 3: Set up the exercise in a targeted way.  One column will look for adjectives, one for nouns, the next for verbs.  Knowing which word type is which will guide you through putting the words to good use.

Tip 4: Once you have exhausted your dictionary, get a thesaurus and see what other words there are.  This is especially useful if you want to build an excellent vocabulary, or if one word just won’t stick in your mind and you want another one with a similar meaning instead.

This exercise lends itself really well to working with a partner, because you’ll be able to bounce ideas around and learn from each other as you go along.  But if you are a lone and independent learner, you’ll still feel the benefit.  I would recommend you set yourself a target score and share your achievements proudly on the internet (but then, I’m an extrovert!).

The main thing is that you have fun and make it your own thing, of course.  If that’s the case, then welcome to the word gym and may the full force of vocab be with you!

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Kerstin Hammes is a native German speaker and has lived in the UK since 2003.  She’s passionate about languages and has studied English, French, Italian, Latin, Spanish and Russian.  Kerstin writes the language learning blog at Fluent Language and teaches students of German, French and English as a Foreign Language as a tutor and coach.  You can say hello to her on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.