Vocabulary, Vocabulary, Vocabulary!

Learning the vocabulary is an essential part of learning Nepali -- and any other language, for that matter. Compared to the other stuff, such as grammar, pronounciation and sentence formation, learning vocabulary is much less complex and much more straight forward. Not easy, though. And althought there are some smart ways to do it, it still requires brute force. But I've realized how inefficient my methods have been so far. Basically what I've done is:

1. Read word lists -- such as those in a dictionary.
2. Copied word lists -- by writing down other word lists.
3. Organized word lists -- into different subjects.

And of course repeating, repeating, repeating...

But honestly, it has required L O T S of time and not given me much benefit. I just figured that I wasn't good with words and language. But now I know I was wrong! There is much better ways of learning vocabulary.

The smart way
The 'secret' to learning vocabulary is simple: Involve your brain! You need to store the words you are learning in your long-term memory, and you're simply not doing that when you learn words one by one. Instead, just learn 7 words at the time. How I do that is by first finding 7 Nepali words that I want to learn. Usually I read a text in my 'base' language, Danish/English, then think about how I would say that in Nepalese. When there are words I don't know, I look them up in Nepali and write them down. Here, for instance, are the latest 7 Nepali words I've learned that way:

1. dhatu
2. nåksa
3. jånjir
4. ådål-bådål
5. bimira
6. læsilo
7. ghochnu

After I've found these 7 words, sometimes I've already forgotten the meaning of some of them. But I try to remember. Now I'm actively using my brain, you see! I go through the little list a few times until I know all of them. The important point is to resist the temptation of writing down the translation of one word, when you remember that one. You have to remember all 7. Then, in one go, I write down the translations:

1. metal
2. map
3. chain
4. change
5. rash
6. sticky
7. to sting

Then I stand up, go into another room, take a glass of water or something, and then return and sit down. Do I still remember the words? Well, I cover the first column of Nepali words and try to remember. I have to use my brain again now. If I remember all 7 words, fine, I write them down in Nepali again in a third column. If I don't remember all of them, I try, using my brain, looking them up, until finally I think I remember. Then wait another minute, see if they're still there, and write them down again.

That method really works for me!

I learn 7 words every morning, 7 every evening. That's a hundred new words every week! My target is to learn 5000 Nepali words, and with the 1000 I already know, that should take me 10 months. And knowing 5000 words is going to get me pretty far, I think! That's actually a vocabulary equal to some native speakers!

Still, it requires brute force and many small repetitions. But the method is much more efficient than anything else I've tried!