Someone asked me this question about how to learn English vocabulary:
“How do I learn English vocabulary in 2020?”
Honestly… what a strange question.
The answer is: The same way as you would have done in any other year.
I guess the question expects recommendations for some kind of new-fangled app or something, but honestly, I’m yet to see anything like that which truly impresses me.
They’re all sexy for the first day or two.
Then what happens?
You get bored and never go back to it.
Some things don’t change with time, you see.
How to learn words… or anything else in English
If you want to improve as someone who’s already reached a fairly high level (high enough to read this email), two things need to happen:
- Focused, intensive learning.
- Extensive relaxed using as often as possible.
If you do that, learning words−or anything else−is easy.
Do you really need to learn more words, anyway?
The problem, though, is that for most people just studying more vocabulary won’t help them to improve in English much. It’s how you combine what you have into chunks that matters. People learn lists of random words, try to plug them into their grammar rules… and then wonder why they can’t use any of it in conversation. They learn big words thinking it’ll make them sound clever, but it doesn’t. And because they learn like this, they create bad habits.
The real reason why you struggle is that what you’re doing is fundamentally different from how human beings actually speak.
Yes… all else being equal, more words are better.
But what is important is how you combine those words into chunks, then use them without overthinking or translating in your head.
How to learn in chunks?
Luckily for you, I have a free training that will show you how to learn in this way, so you can speak better (without needing to cram your head full of words you won’t use anyway).
The place to go is here:
Best,
Julian Northbrook