Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Hello everyone. My name is Marzena and today, we will learn 10 Ways to Remember Words.” So here we go.
1. Powtarzanie “Repetition.”
Powtarzanie means “repetition.”
So for example, you can say,
Powtarzenie jest najlepszą metodą na zapamiętywanie. “Repetition is the best way to memorize.”
And that’s true. Actually, you know, some people say that you have to repeat a word maybe five, six, seven and sometimes even up to 12 times to really truly remember it. You have to see it in different sentences. That’s actually what’s working. So remember to always repeat whatever you learn.
2. oglądać telewizję z napisami “To watch TV with subtitles.”
So another very good thing is just to watch TV with subtitles. And you can say,
Często oglądam telewizję z napisami. “I often watch TV with subtitles.”
That is a very good thing to do if you, for example, watch it in Polish and then you have subtitles in Polish and you can kind of try to match these words with the sounds you hear or you can even try subtitles in English but still listen to Polish and oh okay, I know this word. Oh, that’s this one within English. That’s a very nice thing to do. Or do it the other way around.
You can watch TV in English and then have subtitles in Polish and try to match between the words.
3. Cwiczyć poprzez pisanie “To practice by writing”
So for example, you can say,
Ćwiczę nowe słowa poprzez ich pisanie. “I am practicing new words by writing it.”
Ćwiczę nowe słowa poprzez ich pisanie or in other words, “practicing by writing” it’s a very good way to memorize new words. As people say, you know, it’s your hand that will remember it and that is true for languages with different alphabet but that’s actually true for Polish as well. Even native speakers when they go to elementary school, they practice all those difficult spellings by writing it many, many times until we remember it until we memorize it.
4. Czytać na głos “To read out loud”
So for example, you can say,
Wieczorami czytam na głos ulubione książki. “I read my favorite books out loud in the evenings.”
That’s another good way to practice new words and not only new words, to practice grammar as well. Of course, your reading skills. I remember when I was studying different foreign languages and I did study a little bit when I was in high school and then, when I was at the university, all my teachers kept on reminding me to practice it and to practice, to read out loud. So I did it before bed. Before going to bed, I was reading out loud like the short dialogues and it really helped me. It helped me remember not only the words but the sentence structure and also the sound. The sound, the rhythm from the language.
5. Tworzyć powiązania pomiędzy słowami. “to create associations between words.”
That’s another good way to do it and another good way to memorize something.
So for example, you know the word dom which means "house," in case you didn’t but everybody probably know the word dom, and you hear this new word which is domownik. You don’t really know this one but you kind of know this dom part. So if you connect it to the house and there is -nik, maybe you know pracownik with the same ending -nik, and pracownik is a "worker", so a person. So there is house and the person, pracownik, so it’s a person living in the house. Any person living in the house, domownik.
6. Zapamiętać poprzez słuchanie “to memorize by listening.”
So for example, you can say,
Najlepiej zapamiętuję poprzez słuchanie. “I memorize the best by listening.”
For some people, that’s true. So, some people are better with reading and some people are better with listening and you need to try a lot of different stuff to find your thing and don’t really stick with one thing even if it’s easier for you to maybe memorize by reading, try memorizing by listening as well to learn this down, to remember that, to memorize the pronunciation and the other way around as well.
7. Czytać proste teksty “to read simple texts.”
So for example, you can say,
Czytam dużo prostych tekstów. “I read a lot of simple texts” and that would be actually my recommendation to you whenever you study any language, Polish and any other language actually. It’s very good to just read simple text. Don’t use your dictionary. Just choose very, very simple text. If you really cannot get it, if it’s too difficult and you really have this urge to grab a dictionary and check this word and that word and many, many other words. Then, you are not really reading. So choose a very, very, very simple text that you actually know, most of the words, like 95% and try to go through it and believe me, you will learn grammar that way, you will learn vocabulary that way. That’s the best way to learn new things without actually learning. Or actually without doing anything. That’s a very good thing.
8. słuchać piosenek z tekstami “to listen songs with lyrics.”
For example, you can say,
Codziennie słucham piosenek z tekstami. “I listen to songs with lyrics every day.” And if you really like music, that maybe a way of studying new words or remembering new sentences, phrases for you because of the melody. This has just come into your head without trying to memorize it very, very hard. So be sure to try that one too.
9. Rozmawiać z kolegami “To talk with friends”
For example, you can say,
Używam nowych słów rozmawiając z kolegami. “I use new words when talking with friends.”
And of course, that’s the best thing you can do when you want to practice. So if you want to practice language and once you memorize something, it’s very important to practice it. If you don’t, if you don’t try to practice, if you don’t try to use it, it is just a simple word. You maybe memorize but you cannot use it. You cannot do anything with it and so it’s useless. So why did you even spend this time trying to memorize it. So be sure to practice, practice, practice. Use the words you’ve learned. So don’t be shy and remember, even native speakers, when they were like one-year-old, they couldn’t read the language. So why are they so good right now because they were practicing. Practicing for like 20 years, 30 years. So be sure to do that too.
10. Grać w gry “to play games”
Grać w gry, so “to play games”
And you can say,
Gram w gry po polsku. “I play games in Polish”
So some people don’t like to study with books and that’s okay. Some people don’t like reading too much. That’s okay too but if you don’t do anything, that’s, well, a problem because you are not learning the language. And if you are really, really motivated and you want to learn the language but you don’t really like to read, you don’t like to talk too much, then you can try something simpler or maybe more fun like playing games and there is a lot of very, very famous Polish video games or games in Polish, like, you can try The Witcher, for example, and if you already passed it, you can try it again and just do it in Polish in the language of the game and just have fun.
Okay. That’s all for today and today, we studied 10 Ways to Remember Words. Thank you again and see you next time.

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