The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Challenge of the Week: Learn A New Word In The Dictionary
When it comes to learning a new language, it is not easy. There are some people who are great at it, but there are plenty of other people who must practice, practice, and practice until it starts to stick. Sometimes it may even help to live in another country where you are forced to use your non-native language, and this may help you to become much more fluent. As far as your own language, especially the English language, our vocabularies are very vast, but with so many words – over a million words in the English language, there are many words that we do not know or we do not use.
Having lived in another country, where the native language was not English, I was asked by non-English speakers: “How do you learn English and how do you speak it so well?” I gave them the same advice that I am about to give you.
You look for websites that send you English words and their definitions. Rather than study the word as if you are studying for a test, just familiarize yourself with the word, use it in a sentence or two, and move on. When you are just using it as an everyday word, it sticks more in your mind than if you were to study it and think of it as something that you have to remember. Writing it down may also help in remembering it.
A few years ago, I signed up for Dictionary.com and they have been sending me a few words per week. Sometimes I know these words, but the majority of the time, I am educating myself on a new word. Do I remember the word? Not all the time, but I do acquire some information about it, and if I see it again, I can usually recognize that I have seen this word before.
Receiving these emails from Dictionary.com has expanded my vocabulary to an extent and helps me to learn new words. I look forward to receiving these emails because the majority of the words they send to me help me expand my own vocabulary, whether in everyday personal use or in the professional business world.
Your challenge this week is to learn a new word each day on Dictionary.com that you never have seen or heard of before and learn the word and use it in a sentence, whether you use it in an email that you send to your boss or co-workers, or teach your family the word you learned. As an alternative, you can subscribe to the Dictionary.com website email list and have new English words sent to you a few times a week.
