German Language Words: The Fast Formula for Memorizing New Vocabulary

Learning the vocabulary of a foreign language can be difficult if you rely on old-school repetitive techniques. There are thousands upon thousands of new words to learn, and this is especially challenging when you have many similar-sounding words with vastly different meanings. So, is there an easier way to do it?

You would have heard of speed reading before. This is a technique for reading where you basically force your eyes to skim quickly across the page. The reason it works so well is because our brains actually work better at that speed! When you read at a slow pace, your brain gets bored, and thinks about other things in between. (Not to mention switching off completely and falling asleep!)

When you learn vocabulary in a slow repetitive manner, your brain also finds it boring, and again, falling asleep is a common side-effect! This is why language teachers have become such strong advocates for memory techniques that allow our brains to work at the high levels they are programmed for.

The best memory technique for learning vocabulary is where you link a new word with a visual image in your mind. Some language companies have actually produced software programs that provide this visual image for you. To do this yourself, however, is just as effective. All you need to do is take a new word and think of an image that it reminds you of. Usually, this is in relation to the sound of the word. For example, the German word for table is 'tisch'. This sounds a little bit like 'tissue', so you might try visualizing a tissue on top of a table. The mental image must give you a clear idea of the real meaning of the word, which is why we need to have the table in this particular mental image.

What works really well for this is humour. If you can visualize something funny, you are much more likely to remember that image. The best thing about this technique is that it doesn't take very long at all. Personally, it takes me a little bit longer than 10 or 20 seconds to think of an image, but not much more than that.

I remember when I was at school, we were introduced to this memory trick by a consultant that the school had hired. I was absolutely amazed at what he was able to do. Each of the students in our class said their name, one at a time, until we had gone around the whole class. When we had finished, this guy recalled every single student's name perfectly! It was amazing.

The other great thing about this technique is that absolutely anyone can do it. Your mind holds onto these visual images (the funnier the better) and you can easily recall them later on. Try it yourself! You'll be amazed at how well it works, and how much quicker you are able to learn and memorize German vocabulary.

Steve Galvin is a language teacher and owner of leading German site http://www.easygermanlanguage.com, which is packed with free resources for anyone wanting to speak German the fun, fast and easy way. To ensure you get off to the right start, visit our website for all of our detailed tutorials on learning German language words.

Vocabulary Games and Practice: Different Ways To Study Vocabulary

Vocabulary games and practice can be interesting if done properly. There are various ways with which you can really make the exercise of learning new words exciting for children as well as for adults. The most common word game that is played by people is the one in which a key letter is given to the participants. In the first place you are asked to make four lettered words in which the key letter is present. The words which you make should be proper and ought to have meanings. In the next round you are asked to make five letter words and consecutively the letter count increases to six and seven respectively. With these kinds of vocabulary games and practice not only your stock of words improves but also your thinking power improves and becomes faster.

There are several vocabulary games and practice which you can find in the net and these games are used by classrooms to improve the stock of words of the children. When the students are involved in such exercises they do not feel the burden of learning. They are more excited about the fun part of the game and in the process they improve their stock of words. There may be several ways to improve ones vocabulary like reading books, taking professional classes and a lot more but these vocabulary exercises are really effective for a person who is trying to improve his/her stock of words. There are several websites which are dedicated alone to the improvement of word power. These sites always encourage people to improve their academic vocabulary with the help of vocabulary games and practice.

These vocabulary games and practice emphasize on the connecting of vocabulary with ideas or associating the words with different pictures. That way people are able to remember the words in a better manner. The games are so interesting especially in case of English language that people who do not have English as their mother tongue can benefit from these games to a large extent.

Songs can be a good practice to improve the vocabulary of children. When you sing a song especially in front of the children they gradually pick up the words which you use in the songs. In this process the children gets more involved in the learning processed in a proactive manner.

Some of the other vocabulary games and practice which can be used based on the age of the children are as follows. In the first place for children aged more than five years of age you can use the alphabet game whereby the first player names an object which starts with the letter "A". The word which he/she says should be something which they are able to see right at that moment. The game continues in the manner that the second player names an object with the letter, "B" and so on.

The word guessing game can be one of the effective vocabulary games and practice. In fact that is a good exercise of your mind as well. A player thinks of a word and announces the other players that the word has four letters. In response to this the other player tries to guess a word. If that word matches it is fine if not then the player tries to make comparison with the actual word thought of and the word which was given out by the other players. In this way the game continues for some time. This game can be played with children those are more than six years of age. The other game which is played is "find the letter game".

Faizarul Madznan is a CEO and Founder of http://www.BestProfessionalSpeaking.com, a public speaking and presentation skills website. Here, you'll get tips, analysis, insights, and strategies which helps you become a more effective speaker and a more effective communicator. Need to improve your presentation? Simply click here for free public speaking ebook and video access.