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Noel van Vliet

Noel is the founder of Smart Language Learner. When he isn't learning languages or writing about it, you can find him enjoying the good life of Costa Rica, where he lives with his wife and 4 children.

Vocab Wars #3 Testing Smart Flashcards + Long-Term Results of Vocab Wars #1

That what’s close to us is easier to remember.

So it makes sense to couple those things to new information we want to learn.

Let’s say I want to learn the word refrigerator. If I happen to have a big, blue and rusty fridge, a good way to learn this word would be with a sentence like this one:

My refrigerator is big, blue and rusty.

I can then stick this sentence to a flashcard, with the word’s translation on the other side.

This is what Smart Flashcards are all about.

Is Writing Sentences With Pen and Paper a Good Way to Learn Foreign Vocab?

Would you remember more writing something down as opposed to just typing it?

Studies suggest: Yes.

And it makes sense:

Typing is just pushing some buttons, while writing involves creating the shape of the characters on your own.

It’s also slower, which exposes you the material for longer at a time.

So then, I thought, it could work with language learning as well.

And that’s what I wanted to find out, albeit in a humble way.

I Tried to Learn 50 Foreign Words in 100 Minutes with Basic Flashcards – Here are the Results

Time for something new.

I always thought it would be great to run some tests and publish the results on Smart Language Learner.

You know, testing the efficiency of language learning methods and sharing the results with you.

Well, I’m going to do just that in a new series called: Vocab Wars.

In each installment, I’ll try to learn 50 new words in 100 minutes by using a different vocabulary learning method.

How to Make the Most of Your Foreign Language Trip

So you’ve decided to take the plunge.

You’re going on a trip to a country where they speak your target language.

Congratulations!

Learning a language on your own is one thing, interacting face-to-face with native speakers is another thing altogether.

But it’s great and exciting.

Here’s a Simple Way to the Win the Battle Against Learning Frustration

We all have tough moments in our language-learning journeys.

And as much as we would like, preventing them entirely is impossible.

Any kind of learning involves at least some pain:

Whether it’s study frustration, or embarrassment from pronouncing a word incorrectly in a conversation…..

No matter what you do, some frustration is inevitable in order to grow. You can’t learn something worthwhile without challenging yourself.

That challenge can be felt as a kind of pain, a frustration. A frustration that can quickly build up, and when it does, you just might want to throw all your learning materials into the trash can.

And if your learning material is digital, you might want to smash your Smart Phone into pieces as well.

The trick, then, is to not let that frustration get the better of you.

A simple shift of mind is usually enough to accomplish that.