How to learn Spanish without vocabulary lists

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How to learn Spanish

without vocabulary

lists Cramming vocabularies is not an efficient way to

learn Spanish. Certainly, there are more efficient

approaches to learn any new language without

studying boring vocabularies. Find out more about

different alternatives on how to learn Spanish in the

following paragraphs.

Learn more about how to learn Spanish

and the famous Birkenbihl-Method

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How to learn Spanish without vocabulary lists

Many “old” teaching styles still heavily rely on cramming vocabularies. However, this has been

proven to be an ineffective learning style. If you study from a vocabulary list, you will always try to

translate from your mother tongue into the foreign language and backwards. While this might be

okay if you want to write something, this certainly does not work if you try to understand a native

speaker or even want to speak the new language. It simply takes too much time to translate every

single word. The point is that foreign language should be recalled from memory without thinking

about it for a longer time. In addition, cramming vocabularies by hard does not help for your long-

term success. You should make use of another method to expand your vocabulary so that your

language knowledge is sustainable.

Several techniques exist that help you to remember words and phrases. Some effective learning

methods are described here.

Learn words in context

Studying single words from a list is boring, takes considerable time and does not help to recognize or

recall them in another context. One possibility to overcome this problem is to learn words in context.

Try to imagine in which situation you might use the word and write down other words that are

similar or can be used in the same situation. If your vocabulary is for instance “tenedor” (fork), you

probably also think about cuchillo (knife), cuchara (spoon), plato (plate), comida (food), cocinar

(cooking), cocina (kitchen), cena (dinner)… By making a list, a mind map or drawing a picture of the

situation, you remember the words in context easily. Of course, this takes time as well. However, you

will not only learn one single word, but a range of words. And the most important advantage: You will

know in which context to use the word.

Association technique

This technique is also called mnemonic. In order to remember a word, you come up with a short story

around the word. You might also recall a word that sounds similar in another language (can be a

vocabulary learning technique on its own) and then invent a story to remember it.

For example “hombre” – sounds like umbrella. Imagine a man (hombre) running through the rain

from his car to his house with an umbrella in his hands. Or “cena” – sounds like “schoener”

(beautiful) in German. Imagine a family sitting around the table eating their dinner (cena). This is a

beautiful (schooner) evening.

Many of your stories you will come up with are silly or even unrealistic. But the sillier the better! We

tend to remember silly stories easily. The drawback of this technique is that you need a lot of time to

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remember the words or phrases. Personally, I only use this method if I have already forgotten the

meaning of a word over and over again.

Decoding, active and passive listening

Another great way to learn a language without studying vocabulary lists is the method of decoding,

active listening and passive listening, called the Birkenbihl method. At first, you translate a Spanish

text word-for-word into your mother tongue. This will end up in a succession of words that make no

sense when read one after the other. But this meant to be, as the goal of this learning method is to

recognize and being able to recall foreign words without studying vocabularies by hard.

After this first step, you listen actively. This means to listen to the text while you, at the same time,

read the decoded text into your mother tongue. You will get used to the rhythm and melody of

speech quickly. The best way would be to find a Spanish native speaker who reads the text while you

record it. It is very important that the text is read by a native speaker, as you should learn the correct

pronunciation. In the case you don´t know any native speaker, it is possible to use the text of a movie

or part of a radio program.

After listening actively and having the feeling to understand the text well, you can move on to listen

passively. At this point you listen to the Spanish text while you concentrate on other tasks in your

daily life. You can listen to the foreign text on the bus, while you are cooking, in the bathtub or even

while you play with your children. The voice should be loud enough, but not too loud, so that you are

not disturbed in working on your main task. The subconscious will get used to the foreign text and

prepares you to speak the new language.

Now it is your turn to further work on your Spanish skills. You may decode another Spanish text,

listen to Spanish Radio, watch a Spanish movie or go on vacation to Mexico. The Birkenbihl method is

based on imitating native speakers and uses the subconscious to learn languages. There is even

computerized language learning software that is based on this best way to learn a language. Different

language programs for PC and MAC are offered by Birkenbihl Sprachen, for example.

The above described methods to learn vocabularies without vocabulary lists are all ways to learn a

language for the long-run. However, the most effective and time saving is the last one – the

Birkenbihl method. Try it out and you will see the amazing difference to learning from vocabulary

lists!

Learn more about how to learn Spanish

and the famous Birkenbihl-Method