Method24-Minuscule
@teacherpaul2018Many people ask, "How do I make new words stay in my memory? I read about them, but then I forget everything".
There may be lots of hyper-modern tricks to remember words, but in this business you either use something and it stays with you, or you don't use it and lose everything after a while.
I call this approach 'practicalizing'. I may look like something from XVIII century - whatever, I don't care. I just know it works. But it does require some effort, good results don't come completely free.
So, how it works. Let's say I want to plant the word MINUSCULE in my memory. The first thing that I'll is check what it means in any dictionary online.
The next thing I'll do is repeat it aloud 24 times. Why 24? I don't know, but I do remember the words which I 'twenty-foured' 20 years ago, like "paltry". I never use this word in my life, but I do remember it because I did repeat it 24 times.
But a word without a context is not useful. So I'll go and create contexts myself. 24 is 2 times 12, and 12 is the number of tenses in English. So, I'll create sentences with the word "minuscule", 2 sentences per tense. Let's go:
Present Simple
1. Minuscule offices are uncomfortable.
2. People don't like working in minuscule rooms.
Present Continuous
3. They're trying to move furniture into that minuscule room.
4. He's trying to finish his minuscule amount of food.
Present Perfect
5. I've just told him that his chances are minuscule.
6. The amount of money granted to the office was outright minuscule
Present Perfect Continuous
7. I've been practicalizing this word "minuscule" for a while now.
8. We've been discussing the issue and decided the chance of failure was minuscule.
Past Simple
9. I read about the word "minuscule" 5 minutes ago.
10. The entry in Longman Dictionary about "minuscule" was very instructive.
Past Continuous
11. I was doing something on my PC when a minuscule pig was shown on TV.
12. We were arguing about minuscule salaries on the market.
Past Perfect
13. I had already known other synonyms to "very small" when I found out about "minuscule".
14. If it hadn't been for online dictionaries, finding the meaning of "minuscule" would have taken a lot of time.
Past Perfect Continuous
15. Whatever he had been trying to do, he still could't find that minuscule mosquito in his room.
16. When the word "minuscule" entered dictionaries, they had already been updated regularly.
Future Simple
17. I'll never forget the word "minuscule" from now on.
18. I'll impress others with my knowledge of this advanced word.
Future Continuous
19. I'm afraid this time tomorrow I'll be doing some minuscule task.
20. So, we're meeting on Sunday - I have a minuscule but nice gift I'm sure you'll like.
Future Perfect
21. Tomorrow by 6 pm I'll surely have finished this minuscule poem.
22. I think when we arrive there, we'll have practiced the word "minuscule" for 1 hour.
Future Perfect Continuous
23. If you call me at 8 pm tomorrow, I believe I'll have been working in my garden for 30 min already.
24. In 5 years, I'll have been impressing people with my knowledge of "minuscule".
It took me some time, but not even an hour.
The result is more than satisfying - now I'm never going to forget the word MINUSCULE, even though I may not need it in my daily life. It is there, in my mind. Minuscule. Minuscule. Minuscule. Minuscule.
Plus I've produced a good deal of text which is also beneficial for me.
So I strongly advise trying this method. It may not have bells and whistles, or 'the atmosphere of fun and joy', but...
True fun and joy will come when you'll be impressing people with many rare or advanced words which you practicalized yourself, as well as with your fluency which is the result of regular generation of content (that is, writing many sentences).
MINUSCULE!