Problems remembering Polish vocabulary

Cześć!

Hi, all this is my first post, have had about 6 Polish lessons so far and all going pretty well. It is still early days but I am happy with my progress so far. My main problem though is remembering vocabulary. I will often look up a word in my dictionary to realise that I should have know it all along! Any tips on remembering new words. I am thinking of putting post it notes on objects all around my flat :)

Any tips greatly received.

Olly

You can use a vocabulary training program for your computer. I recommend one with "spaced repetition" (meaning the program will keep track of when words need to be revised) such as Anki: ichi2.net/anki/. There are also others, e.g. Mnemosyne: mnemosyne-proj.org

My memory isn't great either. Repetition was the key for me. When I started learning I used this "fill in the blanks" quiz. There are thousands of words on there. Goethe Verlag

goethe-verlag.com/tests/EO/EO.HTM

The answers are at the top of the page, but as you progress you can always scroll the page down so that you can't see them.

Thanks for the links they sound great, will try them out over the weekend, might stop me looking less crazy trying to repeat words on the train to work :)

Reading stuff in foreign language helps a lot, so try some Polish books, but choose simple ones or ones specially designed for such occasion, like there used to be Penguin books with easier vocab etc. Ask in a good language bookstore.

Also watch TV in Polish, not only with English subtitles! This is on Polonia TV but any other channel is good; news programmes especially. TV helps because you see and hear at the same time.

Hey Olaf. Getting hold of some simple books sounds like a good idea. Strangely I seem to be quite good at reading and translating text. So perhaps the TV idea would be good to help hear the words more in use. Do you know if you can watch Polonia TV on the net in UK?

Magazines and comic books helped me quite a bit.

tvp.pl/strony/przegapiles-w-tv-zobacz-w-internecie

TVP online.

To remember a word, you need to see it, say it and write it down 7 times in total. This is what I've been once told by my English teacher and it works for me perfectly.

Thanks for the TVP link convex. Have found some dual language polish/english books on Amazon but the comics idea sounds cool, sure the pics will help ;)

Yes Mira, I think you are right I sure do remember words more that I have written and repeated. Often words that I can associate with a situation seem to stick in my mind too...

This rule with 7 times really seems like a major oversimplification to me. Many words are very easy to learn for an English speaker, for example the likes of "edukacja", "preferować", "analizować" etc would probably require just one or two looks and you will remember them. On the other hand, if you were to try to memorize a word like "nauczycielka" or "księżniczka "it would probably take much more effort. It's all about having something to associate with that you already know well.

My vocabulary training program keeps track of which words I've forgotten the most times. The words which have been most problematic for me so far are "wierzchołek", "ogrodzenie", "zwiadowca" and "pojednanie", all of which I apparently forgot over 30 times (from English to Polish). There are many reasons why one may not remember a word, but in my case it's usually because it's similar to another word, or because I don't really see the logic behind it, or can't associate with anything similar.

Write words down several times is one of the best ways to remember them.

I remember that this was the only way to learn all names during the anatomy course. Just reading them over and over again wasn't enough.

Yes, some are similar and therefore much easier to remember.


I will certainly check out this training programme if it highlights words that you are forgetting the most, sounds like a great way to concentrate more on what you need to.

I use a flashcard system:

After each lesson, I put all the new words into a lesson, and go through this. It helps you learn the words really quickly, but getting them to stick is another story.

I found simply the best way (for me!!) to make words stick is to learn it with a phrase, e.g. If you wanted to remember kupić, you would learn: Chciałbym kupić książkę. I often combine a few words in a phrase, and this greatly helps me, as I associate a word with a situation.

Thanks for the link convex - any suggestions of what to watch?

tvp.pl/wiedza/jezyk-polski/slownik-polskopolski/wideo/anglojezyczne-skroty-31012010 - Pretty funny

tvn24.pl/fakty.html] - Fakty uses a lot of audio clips from normal people talking, that is, slowly so that you can understand them.

Panorama

tvp.info/panorama/wideo/31012010-2245 - is a bit faster using more voice overs.

szymon.plejada.pl - Majewski and kuba.plejada.pl - Kuba for Dailyshow-ish comedy with some sketch stuff thrown in.

The morning shows like Kawa na Lawe are also really good, as it's just conversation back and forth for the most part.

Thanks convex. I'll check them out later when I'm not at work ;)

Have had a few problems, with TV channels, but hopefully these will work, and yes after work ;)

Hi! It is possible, but I'm guessing it depends what network you're connected to - if it's cable tv o sthg else. Definitely it's broadcast so that you can watch from sattelite tv.

Merged: Most popular words / Vocabulary lists

Does anyone know of any vocabulary list of most popular words in Polish?

Any internet links would be helpful.

Thank you

Not quite a frequency list, but this PDF has a list of the most common words: polish.slavic.pitt.edu/other/minimum.pdf