They fit in your pocket — you can use them everywhere, and if you ever studied a language you probably have used them before. Flashcards. They are a great tool to help you memorize keywords and phrases.
The principle is simple, you buy, or make your own cards. If you make your own simply take a sheet of paper, and cut it into squares. Bookstores usually sell hard paper empty cards in a little box that make great instants.
On the front of each card you write the word you want to remember and on the back the word in your own language. When you have a spare moment, in the train or waiting for the bus, you get them out of your pocket and shuffle through them.
At home you get can reverse it by looking at the back. Try to write down the word you are learning correctly, and then check your answer. Try not to look at the other side of the card !
Still cheating yourself? Get a computer to do the same thing — it flashes the words, and you type the answers. This can be a very fast and good way to repeat the same set of words over and over again until you perfectly remember them. And its completely honest.
If you want to just memorize a set of words — you can also enter them online in one of the many online flashcard sites. One website you can try is flashcardexchange.
September 17th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I think flashcards are a wonderful way to learn vocabulary. But most people don’t want or cant spend the tim cutting paper and writing out the cards. That is why I love the computer based flashcard programs widely avalible on the internet. Wordchamp does it so well. They let you read articles online and select words from those articles that you do not know and adds them to a practice list. When you are done reading, just click practice to find a set of the unknown vocabulary in flash card form. It is fantastic.
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