How to learn effectively new vocabulary in foreign language

As I have an opportunity to create a blog (which is the third time in my live) I want to take advantage of this and share some of my recent thoughts. Since I was a child I was keen on learning languages and I wanted to find an effective way of acquiring a new vocabulary. When finally I realized that it didn't exist I couldn't believe my own eyes. However, we must be aware about the reason why it is so difficult to find the best way of learning words. In this post I want to explain this idea.

 Firstly, everybody who wants to study something doesn't have to do that the same way. It is caused by different types of intelligence we are gifted with. We can distinguish a lot of intelligence, among other things:

- Logical-mathematical 
- Linguistic 
- Spatial
- Musical 
- Bodily-kinesthetic 
- Intrapersonal 
- Interpersonal 

Besides, we can usually encounter people who possess more than one type of intelligence.It is an interesting issue because thanks to these components we can discover what is the best option of learning for us.

Now, we can disscuss  different ways of memorising words depending on our skills.Why it is so important? As one method can work for kinesthetic learner, it hasn't to be suitable for an audile or visualizer. At this point, definitely, we should realize what type of learner we are and find out which option is the best in order to enjoy the learning process.

One essential clue we have to take into consideration is that if some rules don't help us, it doesn't mean we can manage the challenge. Simply we have choosed wrong. Therefore, don't worry and let's discover some tricks!

1. Flashcards

The first image shows how the flashcards look like. These days the mayority of students have heard about this method and probably have tried it as well. It is a very easy and pleasant form of studying, however it is also laboroius. Why? The only thing we have to do is to prepare small sheets of paper, write down a word on one side and the translation on the back side. It seems simple but it takes time to prepare a round depending on how many words we want to memorize. The next step is to look through our flashcards trying to remember the equivalent in second language. If you want to study this in the funniest way, try out coloured paper or felt tip pens in different colours. It can stimulate your brain to associate words easier and quicker. 

2. Words in cotext

Very often last generations studied vocabulary in the most popular way - by looking at a long word list. In this situation we rely on a translation on the other side. For example we prepare two columns of words, the first one in the language we study and the second in our native language. If we want to check out how much we remember, we just cover one of the columns and try to translate the words by ourselves. Despite the fact it is a plain way of preparing the list of vocabulary, we should be aware of the fact that a brain is able to memorize at once from 5 to 11 elements. It means that this technique can take too much time to fulfil the entire intention.
Because of this reason an alternative way of acquiring a long list of words is to put them into specific conext. The more related to us the context is, the easier it will be to pick up new words.
For example:

to loose a boat - przegapić okazję

"We were there three times and I never dared to ask his name. I have just missed a boat!"

3. Read as much as possible

I consider quite obvious that on some level there is a need to express our thought more precisely and we talk more often about abstract topics. Probably around level B1 we should focus more on passive comprehension skills. Reading a lot, we are more more exposed to living language and indeed we discover which words actually are in common use. The best option is to read about our hobbies and interests. Thanks to Internet, an infinitive source of information we can easily find ebooks, articles, stories, different kinds of forum and so on.

4. "Chat on deep water"

This technique is which I like the most. Its history is a little bit funny because I had used it before a Polish well-known polyglot Patryk Topoliński explained to the world how actually it works.

If you know the basics of a language you put into practice chat on deep water and enjoy the results. I'm going to show you in few steps how to deal with this thing:

1. Find an interlocutor who knows the language you want to study

2. Prepare a good dictionary and other sources of knowledge where you will find the words and rules you need 

3. Try to chat with this person about any topic using a dictionary/ dictionaries and supporting you with grammar books/sources

4. Everytime you are missing words, look up them in a reliable place and create phrases you would pronounce in a real conversation!
5. Remember that while you are looking for a word or a grammatical rule, your partner doesn't know about that! In that case the stress you experience during a conversation should be reduced :) 

6. The best option is to find a native speaker of a language you are studying or a person who knows a tongue pretty well. In this situation you can be sure that if you make any mistake it will be corrected and explained by your friend.