[DaGeek]

Tengo un problema. Mientras mi gramatica no es demasiado mala (no es asambrosa, sin embargo, jaja), mi vocabulario es horible. Tengo muchas palabras que necesito memorizar para mi clase de español, y tengo un tiempo difícil memorizandolas. ¿Cómo lo haces? ¿Hay caminos muy efectivos que sabes?

[darfaz]

There's really no magic bullet for vocabulary building. What works for one person may not work for someone else. There are the usual suspects for helping to memorize vocabulary: flash cards, online games, writing words out. Those can work if you know the words you need to have memorized.

If you just want to know more words, I think a good thing to do is to read a lot of different stuff in Spanish. Newspaper articles, books, poetry, magazines. Then if you see a word you don't know more than once, look it up. That can help because if its a higher frequency word, then you now know what it means.

Again though, there's no easy way to do this but to practice.

[Dr. Worm]

Personally, I have a freakishly good memory, at least in some respects. For me, using flashcards or just looking at a vocab list for long enough would be enough to effectively memorize words. But "memorizing" words is ultimately not what you want to be doing. Which is to say, it is fine for helping you pass a vocab test in your spanish class, but matching activities and fill in the blank and direct translation of individual words is not really the ultimate goal of language learning, and you will run into trouble. For a very relevant example, "camino" means "way", and it is all well and good to memorize it as such, but it does not mean "way" in the sense that you meant it in the title of this thread, and "estando" means "being", but is not gramatically correct in the thread title. Both of these errors are the result of a direct translation from memorizing words (camino = way) and rules (-ando = -ing). So if your goal is to memorize words from a vocabulary list to pass a vocab quiz in a controlled Spanish class, my advice is very different than it would be to actually become a better spanish speaker. As darfaz mentioned above, flashcards, writing words out, matching activities, and gap-fill activities all help to memorize words by rote. Which has its place. As they say, repition aids learning, repition aids learning, repition aids learning.

Ultimately though, to acquire language rather than learn language, you need exposure to it in a natural setting, and then you need to produce it. Just like a new word in English, if you are exposed to it a few times in natural contexts, and then you start using it yourself in similar contexts, you know the word, what it means, and how to use it, even if you might struggle to come up with a definition of it (e.g., try to define "sadness" without using the words "sad" or "happy". You don't have a memorized definition of it, but you know what it means and how to use it.)

Natural exposure and production of language can come in a couple of forms, and as you're aware, actual immersion in a Spanish-speaking country is a great way. Barring that, I acquired the most Spanish through reading and writing. My degree in Spanish literature required lots of reading and lots of writing in Spanish, and that is what I attribute most of my vocabulary skills to. Which makes some sense. My advice to anyone who wants to expand their vocabulary in English is exactly the same: read more and write more.

[DaGeek]

Originally Posted by darfaz

There's really no magic bullet for vocabulary building. What works for one person may not work for someone else. There are the usual suspects for helping to memorize vocabulary: flash cards, online games, writing words out. Those can work if you know the words you need to have memorized.

If you just want to know more words, I think a good thing to do is to read a lot of different stuff in Spanish. Newspaper articles, books, poetry, magazines. Then if you see a word you don't know more than once, look it up. That can help because if its a higher frequency word, then you now know what it means.

Again though, there's no easy way to do this but to practice.

I've been trying to learn more by way of websites, songs, movies, etc. It's been good so far. I don't like memorizing vocab very much anymore, a lot due to Dr. Worm's reasons.

Originally Posted by Dr. Worm

Personally, I have a freakishly good memory, at least in some respects. For me, using flashcards or just looking at a vocab list for long enough would be enough to effectively memorize words. But "memorizing" words is ultimately not what you want to be doing. Which is to say, it is fine for helping you pass a vocab test in your spanish class, but matching activities and fill in the blank and direct translation of individual words is not really the ultimate goal of language learning, and you will run into trouble. For a very relevant example, "camino" means "way", and it is all well and good to memorize it as such, but it does not mean "way" in the sense that you meant it in the title of this thread, and "estando" means "being", but is not gramatically correct in the thread title. Both of these errors are the result of a direct translation from memorizing words (camino = way) and rules (-ando = -ing). So if your goal is to memorize words from a vocabulary list to pass a vocab quiz in a controlled Spanish class, my advice is very different than it would be to actually become a better spanish speaker. As darfaz mentioned above, flashcards, writing words out, matching activities, and gap-fill activities all help to memorize words by rote. Which has its place. As they say, repition aids learning, repition aids learning, repition aids learning.

Ultimately though, to acquire language rather than learn language, you need exposure to it in a natural setting, and then you need to produce it. Just like a new word in English, if you are exposed to it a few times in natural contexts, and then you start using it yourself in similar contexts, you know the word, what it means, and how to use it, even if you might struggle to come up with a definition of it (e.g., try to define "sadness" without using the words "sad" or "happy". You don't have a memorized definition of it, but you know what it means and how to use it.)

Natural exposure and production of language can come in a couple of forms, and as you're aware, actual immersion in a Spanish-speaking country is a great way. Barring that, I acquired the most Spanish through reading and writing. My degree in Spanish literature required lots of reading and lots of writing in Spanish, and that is what I attribute most of my vocabulary skills to. Which makes some sense. My advice to anyone who wants to expand their vocabulary in English is exactly the same: read more and write more.

Who are some good authors to start reading on? I want to learn where/when to use what grammar in context (such as "camino" and "estando"), but I'm not at the level where I can just read any advanced book in Spanish. I'm not at "See Jane run" level or anything, but I'm not familiar with all conjugations (maybe this'd be a good way to learn them?). What would you recommend?

Sorry for the long delay in replying, by the way.