Comments

Hi Samantha, very interesting the use of adverbs at the beginning of a sentence, that's new for me. I have to give you my thanks. And about your question: I save a new word in my mind in two steps, I mean, the first is translating it, and the second is using it but not immediatly. Making sentences as soon as I learn it helps me to clarify the meaning, but to incorporate it in my vocabulary I need to use it after a while, repeteadly. have a nice weekend

I use to write the words down and then I try to memorise them. Actually I don´t like to translate the new words learned to Portuguese. I try to understand the context in English through English dictionaries looking the meaning of the words and at last when I don´t get at all of the meaning of the words I translate them to Portuguese, but just in last case. Well... if I could press the pause button of the remote control I would like to visit all our BBC Learning English friends who are with me in this joyfull learning adventure. Then we could talk personally with each other pratice our speaking skills, and why not everybody get together and meet Lidia in Russia? Once there we can taste the delicious plates that she describe to us and enjoy of each other company. Have a nice weekend. Ana Paula.

Hi samantha,looking back on the days alongside BBC BLOG,i find it becomes a necessary tool in my daily life.The passion of learning english is still a part of me.Now i am going on the self-taught way to keep up.admittedly,it is a harsh to do learning process--no lecture,no companion,no instruction.I must get through all these difficulties till my ecstasy.As far as i know,vocab.is the basic key to language.I usually learn some new words through passages then make notes on some important phrases so that i can memorise them or have a complete revision on next day's morning.On one hand,i am object to write one word over and over again without using methods like association ,imagination.On the other side,i must confess writhing can help you memorise words for a long while. Donot try to translate them except you are asked ,try PARAPHRASE.Take care.Most of my country are attacked by a strong cold stream from Siberian.

Dear samantha. yes, how time flies!here is another weekend.you are really an excellent teacher.i like the style of your teaching .it is so informative and instructive.i have learned some useful adverbs today.thank you.now it is time to answer your question.ilike to memorise the new words by writing them down and at the same time to read them aloud .sometimes i like to recite the whole sentence that contain the new words.yes,i learn the new words by translating them into chinese.i know it is a bad habit,but if i don't do that i can easily forget it.how should i do? i am looking forward to your advise . have a good weekend.

Dear Samantha, in my life I have observed that there can be two kinds of friends, these who have not been chnged, and these who changed totally. I meen that tere are friends with whose we feel ourserves the same as many years ago, and when we meet anothers we feel that we have just met strangers. And according to my experience it is not depends on how close the friendship was before. Best wishes!

Hi Samantha,thank you for your adverb class,I learned more useful information.I have recorded it on my vocabulary notebook,and I will try to use it in the future.So that is how I memorize the words,usually I will translate it to Chinese,which help me understand better and momorized profound. I do sympathise with you on the relationship evolution with my classmate,despite I have just graduated from university for less than two years.Less and less contact,admittedly.But if only we meet again,we feel so free and close and we talk continuously till the deep night.I am looking forward to the reunion of my class also,perhaps I will try to be the organizer,it must be a good job:)Why not try to organize it by yourself?Definitely there would be much difficulties,but why not try it?Life is endless,if we don't try to put our thoughts into practice,life would left us regreting and complaining forever.

Today I can say good morning, Samantha! It's an incredible, amazing, fantastic, sunny saturday morning here! Certainly, the time flies and the things change. I have good memories of my school, especially my school's female volleyball team. It was really good. We were all close friends and a great team. Unfortunalelly, each one has gone to different ways and has chosen completely different professions. One is an architect, other is a surgeon and many other ...lawyer, accountant... One of them is my best close friend from those days until today. Right now I am waiting for her to go to the gym together. It's the only time we can meet and talk. We always make jokes about our choices because I was good in mathmatics and she hated it. Now she has to deal with numbers everyday and I hardly ever use math in my profession. This team has a eternal place in my heart. My only bad memory is a match that we were winning and suddenly I had a twist in my ankle and my team had to play without me. My friends became emotive and we lost in an important match. What was very kind of all students was the support they gave me while I was resting my ankle at home. I received many letters saying that we were the champions apart from the result. Every time when I jump or run and feel a pain in my anckle, I remember those sweet days. I have also good memories from the university where I took part of a project which the aim was to fight against the social problems in Brazil using our knowledge. We volunteers from many professions worked together. We always had meetings to discuss the problems and solutions. Every contribution was welcome. Each group had to concentrate on one poor community. My group's community improved a lot. I was responsible for preventive programs in oral health. My role was to create solutions in this area for the population and give support to the rest of the team to help me to do that. We taught the community members how to make an alternative toothbrush for example among many other things. The most important thing we did for the community was a filter made of special stones because they didn't have water supply and most of the diseases came from the contaminated water. It was created by engineer students and the water was analysed by biology students. So we built together the filter for them. we gave it to the community in a day with a lot of celebration and emotion for us and the community members. This is unforgetable for me. Frankly, I must admit I had never heard about the word "bullying" until one day when I saw in a movie. As you know, we have much of the influence of american and british movies here. So, sometimes a see in the movies stories about bullying at schools and I've learned this word from movies as this issue, thankfulness, is not common here. This is just to show one of the ways I learn new words. I see in movies , in the news but rarely make notes. Please, nice readers, don't follow my example. I just don't like to stop and make notes about everything. I prefer keep on reading and listening new words and trying to understand the meaning in the context but I think it's a good idea making notes for one who has the patience. Byyyyyye and have a nice weekend.

Dear Samantha,I frankly say the past week I was very busy. Eventhough I read all your blogs,but I need some time to write to the comments. You live in a hevenly place on the earth. I can be able to picture your house and its surroundings in my mind. I love nature very much. When I was a child I lived very closer ro sea,early morning sunrise is a scenic view from my house. I miss everything now.

As probably everyone knows learning knew words is very tiresome and takes a lot of time. I usually write down every unknown word into my notebook and search for english definition first. I treat it as a additional exercise in learning english, but very often it doesn't bring expected results. Than polish explanation is needed. This gives me sens of certainty how to use a word properly.It is also very useful to write down a whole sentence in which a new word is used so as to " feel " a context of a word. Now it is important to pick up the word while listening to a radio or television because it easier sticks to your memory. The last step of learning new vocabulary is to use it in every day speech, which is the most difficult. But maybe some day, somewhere ... who knows! Let's hope :)

To be honest,I have taken times to learning English for eleven years. Learning English at school,University or even self-study have not to be an effective way, this is, in Thailand most of students are only using English in classrooms but they are never integrating all English skills together in outdoor .Right now, the ability may not be quite good. When I read an article , I usually do not know some vocabularies. Probably , I guess from the contexts and memorize a large number of new words. Hence, I would like to tell you about the methodologies that I usually memorize are having lots of ways .The first strategic memory is that categorize the same meaning in your notebooks as much as you can . Word function, adj ,adv noun ,are also useful when I practise to write. The second strategic memory is that create interesting mind map : device to help memory,within my understanding . That means you can create your pictures into circle, square ,and related in one group. Next, trying decorate with a variety of colour as you like. Ultimately,you can glue a piece of news words on the desks , mirror ,wall, or even every place that you can see. It is including efforted to use in every daylife for writing , reading ,speaking , listening. Actually, these are strategic memory how to learn new words. If teacher Samantha and my virtual friends have the best way to learn more, you able to share a trick to me via BBC WORLD SERVICES BLOG as well. NB. I would like to ask you about Punctuation. Please explain to me .I am looking forward to your answer. With warm good wishes...

Dear Samantha, I do keep a notebook for learning new words in English. I do find the method quite effective. I often carry the English exercise note pad with me, when I am traveling in the car or when I fly. During the journey it is good to go through the new words, even to say them aloud if the situation allows. At the same time one can think other words with a similar meaning, i.e. synonyms. I also do think what is a closest equivalent in Finnish.

Hi Samantha and all BBC English readers! I enjoy reading your “How Times Fly” writing. Here is my response to “Task” at the end of your writing: English is my second language. When I started to learn English at middle school in Vietnam, I created an index card for each new word: an English word was written on one side of the card, and a Vietnamese meaning was on the other side. I carried these cards with me, and took them out to learn whenever I had free time. During these years, I’ve kept learning English new words as I encounter them. First, I try to guess the new word meanings in the context; I look for this new word’s meaning in English and in my own language; and I learn its right pronunciation. Second, I create my own sentences with this new word. Third, I write it down many times to memorize its spelling.

Most of time I felt time flies so quickly that I had kept looking back to check what i hadn't accomplished and meanwhile looking ahead to remind myself of what is waiting for me. At the point of turning thirty, i suddenly realized I have already stepped into the next phase of my life, the age of stability and duty. Not anymore do i act like a disobedient teenager or student. Now, i am the one who, with kind of living experiences and stories, stands in front of the students,lecturing. Some of them are attentive and ready to learn, while some of them listen with suspicion of my authority or the accuracy of my description. After all, I am only thirty, the age in between, between inexperience and sophistication. This will be a very awkward period, during which i will have to establish my social status and learn to play politics. As a result, I can't help but wonder that "is it true that growing old means no escape from involving in bad social influences such as becoming more snobbish or mercenary? I have observed that people my age or my peers are inclined to being more money-oriented and practical. Dreams with no reciprocation in sight becomes worthless or overlooked. Adults having kid-like heart within are no longer praised or encouraged in reality but considered hypocrites who like "playing cute",phrase widely and negatively used in Taiwan.

Dear Samantha, Actually I was very busy last week,despite I read your blogs almost everyday. As you I cannot believe that how time is flying very fast. In my chilhood or when I was in college I didnot feel how the days pass by,after I got children there is always so much to do.I remember My husband and I took our oldest daughter to the first day of kintergarden,we feel like it happened yesterday.Now She is almost finishing first year of college.I think after our children go to college our life speed will slow down because they make us very busy. Even if they stay at home they need me for something.( specially girls need mother)How are your sons Samantha?I think they need your attention while they are at home. My kind regards.

Hi Samantha, You recommended some ways of memorizing new words. The first one, to keep a vocabulary notebook, is one of the methods I follow, although I rarely have time for reviewing them! In addition, It is helps me to make use of “burnt hours”, hours when nothing interesting can be done like time sitting in a taxi, of a day. The other one, transfer them to my own language, is the least recommended method by my English teachers. They believe that, by using this method while speaking, a translation process must be done for translating concepts of my first languages to the ones of English which results in an infrequent speaking. They think that learning new words method must be similar to the one of our first language that is listening to words in everyday discussions. However because we don’t use English for daily conversations, watching movies or listening to them is a good substitution. Thanks alllot!!

When I come across a new word, the first thing I do is to try to guess the meaning from the context & check with a good dictionary . Then it is time to mentally note down the usage, any other possible meaning, grammar or any irregularities thereof. If the word comes up again in a book or a mag, I look closely at the way it has been used in a sentence & sometimes imitate it when I write next time. That's it.

I am regret to find that you didn't publish a new blog today,what's the matter,Samantha? I wish you a happy day and looking forward to your new information:)

Hi, Samantha! I liked that you was dreaming a little in last blog. I see that you are exactly the young girl as your school collegue is! As you ask about vocabulary I don`t have a method here. I learned German in 1992. It was much easier. I had been attended a course for four months. I learned basic grammar there (about 10 lesson) and the course broke down. I exchanged letters a while (as blogs now).Then I visited Austria and communicated German only there. I always had a mini pocket dictionary in a hand and only read words everywhere. I can`t use this method now. I didn`t find equally tiny dictionary (what about fewer meanings for a word in English?) and wouldn`t be able to read from it now! However, I fixed German words well. They come first to my mind despite stopping to use them. My learning is mostly a chaos now!

Not surprising, I agree with you that time is flying. The idea of having a remote control for a life triggers me to remember a film called ‘Click’. Have you ever watched it? It is a very interesting film which is about a man get a remote control that can control his speed of life. However, the rewind button does not work. He strongly regrets about that he pressed the fast forward button at the end of the film because he thought that he skipped lot of time spending with his family. If I had a remote control that can control my life, I would like to press the rewind button to the beginning of my university life. If that happens, I can spend much time on my friends during the university life which is the most fabulous stage of life. If I can only press the pause button, I want take a rest because I am very sleepy now.

Hello Samatha! When I read your entry, I miss my friends very much. I have left school for 1 year, since then I haven't met my friend very offent. I remeber the day we learned together. That's the most beatiful day. Now, I always get in touch with my friends. We always chat to know what happend to each other,and know if my friends need help. I hope that, in 20 years latter, we still like now. To memory the new words, I always write them down. I think that, when I write it down many time, it is easier to remember the new words.If I see the new word for a long time afer I have learnt it, I think I will notice it. But i relise that, It's very quick forgeting a new word and Its meaning if we don't use it. Good bye Samatha. Thanks your blog.

Hello Samantha: I have my own way to learn English words. Before to go to sleep I open my dictionary at random page. Then I read all words from two pages. I read them aloud and write them down many times to memorize their spelling. Usually it is up to forty words ( I use the dictionary of 12,000 words ). When I come through all words, I close the dictionary and my copy-book. Next my step is to write as many words as I can remember. After that I check whether I wrote words correct and write those words that I forgot. It is important to take it easy, not to try to learn all words like as if your life depends on it whether you know them or not. It really is a good way to extend your passive vocabulary. You may not remember most of the words to say or write but yet you know them reading books. For my active vocabulary I have to write words down and revise them from time to time. My daughter studies English at school. Unfortunately, she’s not fond of English to say the least…I have to make a certain effort her to know something. We like to play English words. Rules are simple: she says any word and I must say a word beginning with the letter her word was ended. It is fun, first you run out of words beginning with “k”. Do not believe? Try to think at least of 15 words. It just seems to be easy! This game helps keep up a good spelling also. Thank you for the very good site!!! All the best!!!

Hi Samantha. I'm late. These days I have too many things to do. So I'm late to be here but I come now. I usually learn new words from the articles or films that I read or watch. I never just try to memorise a single word, I think it's hard. But if I learn a word through a text, it becomes easier for me. Of course, if I don't know how to read the word or the meaning of the word, I will look up it in a dictionary. I believe practice makes perfect!

it's very useful when reading advice' teacher on this site. DOnt you know i only learn enlish on my own so my listening comprehention is not good. i had tried my best to improved but it happended slowly. But i never give up to practice my english. cos it help me in my job very much. hoping that you ll help me improving my english ability in oder to enrich my languge.

It is very helpfull to me for learning english...in India. Most of the time I had read all the doucument & Information on this site.

I agree with all guys. when i learn i give a try to get in from the context.

Firstly,thank you for your recommends. I think translating the words into our own language is not such an effective way. trying to learn the words reading them many times before sleeping may be more effective.

Hi, my name is Elda Mendoza and I am taking the GED course, but I do not know much about English comprehension, I would like to have some help from you if you can

hello my name is jesus, right now I am studing english, sometimes I confuse to use adjectives and adverbs, but this job help me to learn..