503. How to learn vocabulary the RIGHT way

Not every single word in English is worth knowing. Sorry, English. Sorry, teachers. You are not doing it right. I'm sorry, but you— it's just, it's just not going to stick. Today I want to talk about vocabulary and question whether or not you are doing it right, because there are many, many, many methods to learning vocabulary. So many of them are not great, and some of them are good, but the truth is that learning new words is not always easy, especially if you don't use English regularly. So today I'm going to talk about what is the best way to learn vocabulary so that you can understand if you are learning it correctly, currently, or not. And if you do feel a gap, especially if you're learning a lot of words, then I want you to think about why that is. But before that, hi, if you're new to my channel, my name is Hadar. I'm a non-native speaker of English, and I'm here to help you speak English with clarity, confidence, and freedom, you can definitely check out my website at HadarShemesh.com and also follow me on social media for a lot of free resources and daily lessons. All right, so let's get started with talking about vocabulary. The thing is that it's almost always a real source of frustration—your willingness to know and to feel expressive and to have all the words like you do in your first language, and how limited you feel because the words just don't come out when you want them to, or maybe you just don't have the words in your brain, the words that you need. So first of all, let's identify the 3 vocabulary groups. Okay, the first group is your active vocabulary. What does that mean? It's the words that you don't have to think about or to retrieve. It's the words that are super easy for you to say without translating, thinking about it, searching for them. Words like 'Yes,' 'No,' 'Why,' 'Dog,' 'Cat.' I mean, of course, it depends on your fluency level, and that list of words improves and expands with time, but your active vocabulary is the words that you don't need to search for when you're speaking. Okay? And the bigger that group of words is, the more fluent you are, the more expressive you feel. Okay, so that is what we want to focus on. Then there is the group of passive vocabulary. These are the words that are not easily retrievable, that you cannot say really quickly without thinking about. These are the words that you have to think for a moment, and usually you don't remember them in the moment you actually need them. These are the words that you feel like you know when you get stuck, and then only later you come up with them. These are the words that you know but Sometimes you don't even know where to search, but if you were to hear them, you would know what they mean. Okay, so these are the words that when you hear them, you know, especially if you hear them in context. So they're not completely new, but you can't easily retrieve them. So what does that tell us? It tells us that you know a lot more words than you are capable of using. So far so good? So group 1, active vocabulary, easily accessible. Group 2, words you know but those words are not accessible. That's the tricky group, okay? We need to handle this group, we need to manage it, we need to work with it, we need to move words from this group to that group. Then there is the next group, which is words you actually don't know but you need to use. Okay, the third group is the words that you don't know, you wouldn't recognize if you heard them, but you need them because you use them quite regularly and frequently in your first language. Now, this group is smaller because usually when you hear words that you need, your brain tends to categorize them in the right place, to remember them. So the second group, the passive group, is always bigger, but then there is the group of words that you really need, you need to know. Here there is learning to be done, okay? And then there is the fourth group, which is the group of words that you don't know in English, but you also rarely use in your first language, okay? I'm going to give you an example. When we first moved to Barcelona, my daughter, who doesn't speak Spanish, she started taking classes for learners of Spanish as a second language. And then she would get these papers, worksheets, with like 100 drawings of different clothing items, and each of them has a different freaking name that I don't even know. Not in English and not in my first language, not in Hebrew. I do not know these words. I just call everything a shirt and everything pants. That's it. No, but on this page you had all these different names and all these different options and versions of names for this type of shirt and that type of shirt, and if it's short and if it's long and if it's buttoned down. And listen, I don't disrespect it. Like, I think native speakers use all these words seamlessly, but my daughter who cannot, you know, even express how she feels, she doesn't need to know all of these options because there are more important things for her to learn. So the priority of what it is that they teach you in school is sometimes really strange, honestly, from experience also as a Spanish learner and seeing what is taught in English apps or vocabulary apps or online or on Instagram, right? I'm like, why do people need to know all these words if they still struggle with more basic words? So Group 4 are the words that you barely use in your first language and that you don't know in English, and this group we're not going to talk about because I do not encourage you to expand this group. Do not waste your time on learning more words that you don't even use in your first language. Agreed? Agreed? If not, it's okay, you can continue learning group 4, but I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna say that, you know, I don't want you to come back to me in 1 year telling me that there is still a gap in your vocabulary because I don't want to say I told you so. The good news is, going back to what I wanted to say before, is that moving words from group 2 to group 1 is a heck of a lot easier than learning new words and integrating them. So the more work you put into turning your passive vocabulary into your active vocabulary, you'll spend less time learning words. It's going to be more seamless and easier and more effective. So you'll feel like your vocabulary is expanding without learning new words. So the idea is to recognize the words that you learn and how you learn them. And this is where we're going to get to whether or not you're studying, you're doing it right or not. So first of all, ask yourself, what are the words that you're learning? Are these words that you actually need, okay, that you actually use? Or are you taking lists from the internet because someone thought that these are words that you should know? Or maybe an app that you paid for, and that app thinks that these are words that you should know, and then you're like, I don't, I don't 'When was the last time I used this word in my first language?' Right? If that is the case, start being more critical around what it is that you're learning and trying to learn. Not every single word in English is worth knowing. Sorry, English. Sorry, teachers. But not every single word, depending on the stage that you're in. I'm taking into consideration that you are probably busy, you want to improve, but it's not like you have 2-3 hours every single day and you want to see results fast. Okay, this is kind of like my typical student, someone maybe you've immigrated to an English-speaking country and, you know, life's busy, you don't have a lot of time focusing on the nuances where you still feel limited expressing yourself in very basic things or more important things or speaking up at work or— so that's the thing. The second thing is how do you learn these words? Here is something very important to remember. When you learn a word and you see— so you see it written and then you see the definition. When you see a word and you just see an example and then you memorize it, maybe you think about it a few times, you maybe say it to yourself a few times, it's not gonna last, it's not gonna stick, you're not going to remember it. You're going to remember it in the moment and and then it's going to probably be hard for you to retrieve it or to remember it. When you have a word, you have to hear it in context first, and you have to say it out loud several times. Because when you see the written word, you know that English spelling and pronunciation, they do not correspond. So if you don't know the actual pronunciation, you might feel timid or limited when trying to say it because you might not be certain about the pronunciation. So the first thing is that you need to build confidence saying it. So you want to repeat it again and again and again and again, okay, just out loud with the correct pronunciation. For that, you'll have to go to the dictionary or ask a person to tell you how to pronounce this word. So that is the first part, saying it out loud, almost like chewing on the word, and then being able to understand or confidently say the word without feeling like you're putting in a lot of effort. Okay, if it's a phrase, to say it connecting the words together, all that. And then you want to see it in context, so you want to see it in example sentences and to say them out loud again and again and again and again so that you build confidence using that word in context. And then you want to create your own sentences. Now, if you are skipping this part, which I bet most of you do, so Most people, what they do is that they learn the word, they see the definition, they look at it in example words, maybe they answer a quiz if they remember, and that's it, right? They don't try to force themselves to create sentences, to create speech, language with that word. And that is the part that is most important, because if you don't do that, you're not making new connections in your brain. It's not enough to say it once. You need to say it 2 times, 3 times, until you feel pretty confident saying the word and saying it in context. And unless you do that for the word that you're trying to learn, you are not doing it right. I'm sorry, but you— it's just, it's just not going to stick. And let me tell you this, even if you do that, it may not stick still. You need to come back to it and you need to try and deliberately use it when speaking freely and fluently. So all of that is a different topic, it's about intentional practice. I'm going to talk about it in a separate video, but for now just understand that you need to create sentences and speak freely trying to use this word that you're trying to learn. And here's the thing, quality is more important than quantity. Okay? If you are prioritizing quantity, you are probably doing it wrong. If you're trying to learn lists of 50, 100, 200 words, and I'm not talking about, you know, very early stages of learning a language where you really need to learn a lot of words to be able to even say one sentence, right? No, I'm talking about more experienced speakers of English. If you're just like sitting there trying to memorize lists of words it's not going to work. It's more important that you focus on 10 important ones, and those 10 could be from your passive vocabulary or the third group of words that you don't know but you need. Okay, and those 10 words, if you learn them diligently and methodically the way I explained, you are going to be able to use them seamlessly and quicker than memorizing 50 and forgetting most of them. I'm all about practicing less and seeing better results. This is why I developed my English practice community Beyond, which is all about implementation and effective practice, and I'm going to link to it in the description because we have vocabulary classes where we implement that method there. So our students learn using that method, so they learn how to learn vocabulary. Plus they learn, you know, awesome vocabulary according to the monthly themes, and that is also a lot of fun. So definitely check it out if you want to improve your vocabulary and fluency with me inside Beyond. So that is it. If you want to find out more about vocabulary learning, if you want to find out more about working with me, I'm going to link all the information in the description. Remember that It's possible for you to speak English with clarity, confidence, and freedom. Even if you feel like you've hit a brick wall when it comes to improving your English or your vocabulary, sometimes you just need to change direction. Sometimes you just need to change the method that you've been using. Whatever it is that helped you get to where you are today, you know, if you feel stuck, change it up. Try new things. And what I want to offer you is some of those new things, especially if you haven't worked with me just yet and you are new to this type of conversation and work. All right, so I hope this was helpful. Uh, check out all the resources, definitely download the free vocabulary planners. Thank you so much for watching. I really, really appreciate you, and I believe in you, okay? So you should believe in yourself too. Have a beautiful day, and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye!