Hey /lang/, I'm learning Japanese. I can remember grammar alright, but vocab is kicking my ass. I review with a flash card program on my computer, but it doesn't seem to help much. The words slip my mind after a day or two of not reviewing those specific ones.
What exercises do you do to help solidify vocab, regardless of language? Any general suggestions for memorization of 50+ words a chapter are much appreciated!
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Anonymous2007-10-19 0:32
Vocab is for suckers. In reality, the Japanese communicate amongst themselves chiefly via a loose system of paralinguistic grunts and hand gestures, tacking on a "desu" here and an "arimasu" there to trick foreigners.
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Anonymous2007-10-19 1:21
Like >>2 says.
These are known as onomatopoeia and typically consists of one or two syllables repeated once.
For people learning a real language, there's something called mnemonics...
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Anonymous2007-10-19 1:39
Using any materials that you enjoy, i.e. anime, tv dramas and such will greatly enhance your ability to remember them, because you'll remember the sentences they're used in. That will only to help you remember better, you still need to do the boring memorization.
Note: memorizing something as boring as the dictionary doesn't work, I have tried.
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Anonymous2007-10-19 1:57
srsly, just try to find some way to remember the wrod. like syuumatu, a shoemat in front of the door where you curl up for the weekend... kangofu, see that body, that walking, wiggling can of tofu?
aim for vivid pictures, silly, ridiculous, perverted, obscene, disturbing...
i mean...surely you won't forget that fukyou = depression
Using flash cards won't help much at all. The only real way to solidify vocab words is to use them. If you come up with sentences for each word you'll be much better off because you'll have a contextual idea of where and how the word is used. Basically your brain isn't going to retain all these new words unless they have a concrete practical use.
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Anonymous2007-10-19 15:18
Generally, what I do is use a flash card program on my computer to review the words for a day or two. Then do the exercises in the book. Finally, as I'm performing my other obligations during the day, I try to make sentences about what I'm doing, regardless of how simple they are. So, flashcards are a good way to get off the ground, but useless on their own.
just relate the word to something in your life. for example: when you're cramming the word for post office, think of your post office. this way it's more than a word...even if just a tiny bit so.