Any tips to actually memorize yellow words? Please don’t suggest this horrible flashcard system 
So far I got more than 4500 yellow words, but I only learned about 1000.
2 Likes
Just read a lot. Maybe review the lingqs before and/or after a lesson if you want to accelerate your vocab retention a bit. I currently have over 20,000 lings and only about 5,000 known words.
4 Likes
I also dislike using flashcards. I think they should only be used if there is specific vocab that you absolutely need to know (for an exam or something). Otherwise, I prefer to just rely on reading.
I mark a word as yellow and pick a definition that makes sense in the context of what I’m reading. Whenever I see a yellow word, I try to guess at the meaning in context. I read the whole sentence around it, and think about what has already been said in the story/article, and use all of this information to guess the meaning. Then I click the word and view the definition I saved for it. If the definition matches, then I make it known. If the definition doesn’t match, I think about whether the definition makes sense in context. If it does, then I leave the word as unknown, and keep reading. If the definition doesn’t match the context, I add to the definition to make it fit the context.
If I come across a known word and I can’t remember the definition, I mark it as unknown. I don’t worry about forgetting words. If they are important, I will learn them when I see them again.
I don’t worry about “active vocabulary” because activating vocabulary is best done through writing and speaking. I also don’t worry about whether my saved definitions are “correct”, I just keep reviewing them and modifying them until I have seen them enough to have a clear idea of their meaning. If I am really confused, I can always use a dictionary or ask a native speaker.
With my method, I set about 1 known word for every 10-20 words of reading (in Ukrainian), but I’m sure it’s different for different people. I have about 23,000 LingQs and 7,000 known words, so your statistics don’t seem unreasonable. You might just have higher standards for “known” words.
P.S. I don’t even bother with the (1, 2, 3, 4) system because this takes time away from actually reading. I prefer to use the simplest system possible that lets me check whether my understanding is correct. That’s why I just use “known”/“unknown” with nothing in between.
3 Likes
I also hate flashcards. I used flashcards like crazy when I was learning Hebrew, but it is just way to boring of a way to spend your time. I personally never try to memorize words. I just read tons, and eventually after re-seeing the same words over and over your brain just remembers them.
My advice would be to just keep reading and dont worry about it. Your brain will just pick up the words through seeing the words in different contexts. Good luck on that German Milena!
3 Likes
I agree…In my opinion, flashcards aren’t feasible long term…I think they can be good in the beginning or as someone mentioned for reviewing for a test, but you spend so much time reviewing once you get to a certain number of words that it is extremely prohibitive. Heaven forbid you take a day or even a week break and you end up with thousands of cards to review (my experience with Memrise). Reading and listening, to me, seems a far better use of time…you are reviewing, and it’s in context which is far more useful. And there isn’t any “system” forcing you to review words on some timeline.
Anyway, with that many yellow compared to learned, maybe either the content is too difficult, or maybe you need to repeat some of the content you’ve already been through and not read as much new content. I think Steve in his videos has often said articles with maybe 10-15% new words is the magic number. If you are reading content with much more than that, then you are needing to look up everything and it’s hard to make sense and remember the words in that article. Whereas with a new word every couple of sentences, you have more of a chance of actually learning that new word in context. Repeat reading and listening is necessary still imo because some of those words you aren’t going to see very frequently so you may need to boost that frequency by repeat reading and listening. Listening is very helpful for this. Listen in the car, listen while working out, etc.
1 Like
I normally take content that is 20 - 25 % when the percentage is yellow. I will try your advice, seems reasonable. I read about all kinds of topics so I do not generally encounter older words so much…
2 Likes
I sometimes will read content with that much, but I find I have to spend a lot of time with it, unless it’s a short article. I like to read about different topics too, but I do try to re-read and listen to the content until I’m down to just a small number of yellow words left in that piece of content. I mostly move on when I’m too bored with it, or I feel like repeated readings and listenings aren’t helping with the remaining words. (No sense wasting time…Maybe I’ll encounter later and my brain will be ready for those words at that time).
1 Like
In my opinion if you are not encountering the “old” words again it is because they were not that frequent,
that is, they are not that important. If a word is important and useful, it often recurs.
2 Likes