Make Your Own Dictionary to Help Yourself to Learn a Foreign Language Faster Than Ever

Make Your Own Personal Dictionary

If you can get your hands on a dictionary, a bilingual one or a target language only dictionary, you’ll be in the clover when learning English or another foreign language. Be sure to highlight new words you need from reading through a short target language magazine or newspaper article. Or you can make handy little flashcards with today’s group of words on one side and their meanings in English (or your Mother tongue) on the other side. Tuck a few of these in your pocket or purse to quickly refer to as you go through the day’s activities. You’ll pick up essential vocabulary on a daily basis. In scant weeks you’ll be using your flashcards less and less as you internalize the new vocabulary. When the first batch is “learned”, start another batch.

Remember, they say that you can never be too rich, too thin or have enough foreign language vocabulary.

Foreign language learner and British ex-pat Kate Peckitt now living and teaching in New Zealand relates, “When I was trying to learn Finnish it was just so different. I started making up one of those little spiral-bound note pads with new words and phrases from everywhere – from street signs to supermarket and store aisle labels, names and just anything I ran across in the course of my day.”

Be sure to include frequently-used phrases and useful sentences on your vocabulary flashcards too. Write grocery lists, appointments, diary entries, to-do lists and reminder notes in your new language. Keep at it. “Slow and steady always wins the race”, as Self-Improvement Guru Anthony Robbins quotes adding, “Most people over estimate what they can do in a year and they under-estimate what they can achieve in a decade or even a lifetime.”

He adds, “Most New Year’s resolutions fail because people tend to want to do it all overnight.”

Remember the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare? The key to success is taking small, but frequent and consistent steps.


For some of my greatest tips, tricks and techniques for quickly and easily learning virtually any of the world's 6912 living languages just go to:
http://www.escapeartist.com/e_Books/Learn_a_Foreign_Language/Learn_a_Foreign_Language.html

Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on the lucrative, fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign Language, get your copy of his no-cost, full multi-media, hypertext-linked pdf ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know” by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content and photos or images for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? Contact the author by e-mail for a prompt response.

How to Read Your Way to Better English or Foreign Language Proficiency

First stop, the Library

So, we’re improving our English or learning a foreign language are we? Then our first stop is the library. You’ll need to track down a decent grammar book in the target language and a variety of relatively short-length reading material in the target language too. Both of these resources may be readily on hand at the local library, and at little or no cost, as well. The grammar book will be a useful guide through those rough spots you’ll hit when the target language grammar differs substantially from English or your native tongue. But make no mistake, it’s not “the bible” and you shouldn’t overburden yourself with grammar rules and regulations. Your grammar book is a handy guide for occasional reference. Use it accordingly.

The Structured Type
“I’m an very structured type of person so I definitely needed to have a grammar book to help me with the structure of Dutch and then German which are very strict in their application grammar rules”, adds American ex-pat Kayleigh Garman now living and teaching English in Istanbul, Turkey. “That also let me go on to learn Danish using many of the same methods I’d picked up from studying and using my other foreign languages.” Kayleigh speaks seven languages now. He must be doing something right.

Cochimi or Kukapa, Anyone?
A copious variety of entertaining magazines exists in most major languages and unless you’re learning Cochimi or Kukapa, you should eventually be able to find something. Short, newsflash type articles are best at first. A newspaper, general interest magazine, the Bible, brochures, flyers, and even – oh yeah, comics can help you along the path to fluency in your new tongue.

Though you might be able to wade through one or more of these publications in a matter of a few minutes, your personal satisfaction at having done that will be priceless. Copies of foreign language magazines are available from newsstands, libraries, airline offices, consulates and embassies, bookstores, universities, language institutes, ethnic stores, shops, travel agencies and restaurants, by subscription and online.


For some of my greatest tips, tricks and techniques for quickly and easily learning virtually any of the world's 6912 living languages just go to:
http://www.escapeartist.com/e_Books/Learn_a_Foreign_Language/Learn_a_Foreign_Language.html

Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on the lucrative, fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign Language, get your copy of his no-cost, full multi-media, hypertext-linked pdf ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know” by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content and photos or images for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? Contact the author by e-mail for a prompt response.

Part 2 - Tools and Resources to Write a Thousand Articles This Year

Here are more key resources that are invaluable to almost every writer regardless of genre or topics. Let’s continue to look at what these additional ones are and then acquire them for our referral when researching information and writing a thousand articles (or more) in a year.

photo: ELT professional Pablo Lozano organized to write

4. An Almanac – For quick references to key facts and data on a broad range of topics and areas, you simply can’t beat an Almanac and Book of Facts. I even keep two or three older ones from previous years on hand for details regarding a specific year or time frame. I also take the time to tab index my copy for quick and easy reference to frequently-searched topics. Want to know how the population of a certain city or country has grown in the last few years? Need details on a cult figure of the 80s, 70s or 60s? Quickly researching this kind of comparative information is a snap with two, three or more back-issue year almanacs on hand. It’s especially easy if the almanacs are the same series.

5. An Encyclopedia – For a compendium of historic dates, facts and figures, you can’t be a concise encyclopedia. Whether on CD ROMs, online or in print, this essential reference is still useful and up-to-date if you’re using an online or digital version. There are many from which to choose, although one of my personal favorites is Encarta. It’s a good idea to have access to several different kinds of encyclopedias too. This will ensure adequate cover when quickly researching a topic for its principal facts.

6. Technical References – If you’re specialized at all, you’ll definitely need to pick up reference materials, likely on CDs, from a relevant professional organization or trade group. I’m an English as a Foreign language professor and Intellectual Development Specialist, so I need to have technical papers, research and articles on reference CDs acquired from TESOL, Inc. (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) and other trade groups in that field. Don’t forget to subscribe to a few key trade / technical or consumer magazines or periodicals you’ll need to help keep your finger on the pulse of things too.

7. English grammar and Other Reference Books – An assortment of specialized reference books can help you to, jumpstart ideas and topic lines as well as provide some good, general over view information. Writing references are always welcomed. As is a good English grammar book. This includes genre-related books too.

8. Online Resources – Not only are many of the above-listed resources available in print form, but are also available online. List and bookmark frequently-referenced websites including video sites, technical information sites,
writer’s resources and local, national and international news resources online.
Remember to include feeds for any foreign countries or cultures which are relevant to your writing.

Having any, most or all of these suggested resources available during your article-writing and production will greatly enhance your writing by providing you with ready access to key information you’ll need to craft, concise, informative articles. These are the types of articles that get noticed, get read and generate traffic and sales.



If you’d like to join my FREE “Write a Thousand Articles This Year” program, just contact me at writeathousandarticles@gmail.com and we’ll get you started, put you on track and keep you going along with the other dedicated writing professionals in our rapidly growing group. (I’ve just put some freshly re-charged batteries in my Uncle Buzzy’s cattle prod) Just think, a year or less from now, you’ll be the proud author of a thousand or more articles. And your “writer” friends? Gosh, they’ll just be sick with envy. And you? You’ll love every moment of it, you thousand-article-writing devil you.

Gather your Tools and Resources to Write a Thousand Articles This Year

We’re going to take our mammoth undertaking for this year, to write and publish a thousand new articles, and break it down into a number of smaller, non-intimidating, manageable process steps that will allow you to alter your current paradigms concerning what is possible for you to do. You may think of writing a thousand articles as a huge leap of skills, talent and accomplishment, which true – it is, but not so much so that you must feel it’s out of the question for you now. It’s most certainly is not. This can be critically important if you are involved in copywriting or article marketing.

An Important Early Step

Well up front you’ll need to set aside a place or space where you will consistently work. This was mentioned in a previous article. So you should have your writing nook ready. Now another important early step is to gather some of your most essential tools and resources together into or near your writing space for quick access. While exactly what these will consist of may vary a bit depending on what kind of writing you’ll be doing, there are some key resources that are invaluable to almost every writer regardless of genre or topics. Let’s take a quick look at eight of these are in parts one and two of this article and then assemble them for our frequent use and referral.

1. A Dictionary – You’re going to have to have not just one, but several dictionaries on hand for a variety of purposes. And not the little paperback ones either. I’m talking about full-fledged hard-bound volumes of American and British English. Toss in a Rhyming dictionary, too. If you work at all with another language or any vocabulary or cultural references to one, then you should also have at one good bilingual dictionary on hand.

2. A Thesaurus – Now another dividing point among many serious writers is their use of a word reference tool other than a dictionary. Some favor the old standby Roget’s Thesaurus, while more conventional, upbeat authors gravitate more towards a Rodale’s Word Finder. I have and use both, but definitely prefer the Rodale’s.

3. Book of Word Origins – This may or may not be commonly available, depending on where you live, but I’ve found this reference to be quite helpful on numerous occasions in writing for a wide variety of genres. This can provide some short, concise filler information to chip into a piece that might be initially too “thin” in some spots.

In the continuing part two of this article, we’ll suggest five additional resources which should prove invaluable in your quest to write a thousand articles (or more) in a year.


If you’d like to join my FREE “Write a Thousand Articles This Year” program, just contact me at writeathousandarticles@gmail.com and we’ll get you started, put you on track and keep you going along with the other dedicated writing professionals in our rapidly growing group. Just think, a year or less from now, you’ll be the proud author of a thousand or more articles. And your “writer” friends? Gosh, they’ll just be sick with envy. And you? You’ll love every moment of it, you thousand-article-writing devil you.