Learning New Vocabulary

This afternoon we had a great visit with friends in a village just north of Hanoi. On the way back into town, one of my friends asked me how I remember Vietnamese words that are new to me. That's a good question, since I hear so many new words and forget them so easily. Like the English idiom says, they "go in one ear and out the other."

But I have had some success. Usually it comes when I can use the word or phrase a lot for 2-3 days after I learn it. I try to do this when I learn a Vietnamese proverb. Repeating it often and asking if I used it correctly helps me understand and remember.

If you want to try this method, just think up ways to use your new English word whenever you can. For example, if the word is "compromise," make a sentence about two friends who had a small disagreement and had to compromise. If you read news about a policy dispute somewhere, you can say something as simple as, "They need to compromise." If your English-speaking friend wants to take the bus somewhere and you want to go by xe om, say, "Maybe we can compromise and take the bus there and xe om back." Even if there's no one around who can speak English, you can say it to yourself and it will help.

It's an added bonus if you have friends who are native speakers or experts because, after you use the word, you can ask, "Is that the right meaning?" They can help you fine-tune your understanding of the meaning and help you use the correct collocations.

Good luck! Remember, "có công mài sắt, có ngày nên kim." Did I use that correctly?

Writing Classes in Hanoi

How's your writing? Would you like to work on improving it? Beginning in mid-April I will be teaching two private writing classes. There will be a fee, but the class size will be limited to 5 students in each class so they can receive focused attention.

• First Steps in Academic Writing is a high-beginner level class which will focus on basics such as writing good sentences, paragraph structure, and different kinds of paragraphs. This two-hour class will meet twice a week for six weeks (Tuesday, 6:30 - 8:30 pm and Saturday, 9 - 11 am). Writing assignments will be given as homework. If you are interested, send me a message on Facebook, or text your email address to 01227350749 and I will send you the details.
• Improving Your Writing is for high-intermediate and advanced students. This two-hour class will meet once a week for six weeks (Saturday, 1 - 3 pm) and will focus mainly on academic writing tasks similar to some of the IELTS tasks. Writing assignments will be given as homework and students will spend a lot of time editing and correcting assignments in order to recognize and avoid mistakes. If you are interested, send me a message on Facebook, or text your email address to 01227350749 and I will send you the details.

 Classes will begin on 19 April and 23 April and run till 28 May.

Vocabulary Plug-in

Do you use the Firefox web browser? Last week I found out about a plug-in that helps you learn vocabulary. It's not perfect every time (words with multiple meanings complicate things), but it helps. It's called ming-a-ling.

After you install it, you can choose a word and ask it to substitute the word in the language you want to learn. For example, I can never remember the correct tone for mưa, so one of the words I've changed is "rain." Now, whenever a web page loads with the word "rain" on it, ming-a-ling changes it to Vietnamese. For example, here's Yahoo's weather forecast for Hanoi tomorrow:

       Tomorrow: Considerable cloudiness with occasional mưa.
       High 64F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of mưa 50%.

It should work the same way with Vietnamese to English and the words you choose will show up in English when you read a Vietnamese web page.

If you're having trouble remembering a word, give ming-a-ling a try.

Reading the News Vocabulary for Unit 02

Reading the News Unit 01 Vocabulary

 Here are some vocabulary words from Unit 01 of Reading the News. You can click through them as many times as you want to learn or review them. Leave a comment if you think this is helpful.

Press the double arrow to advance to the definition.
(Or click here if it doesn't work below.)

Pronunciation Website

Last week in the K37 speaking class, we spent some time on /ʤ/, a sound that's hard to make and even harder to explain how to make. I mentioned a website that gives more information about it. The University of Iowa in America put together a demonstration. Click here to go to the website and then click on the American flag.

Shorten Your Summary

Sometimes you may be required to summarize a text in a certain number of words. How can you make sure you have the most important information in your summary?

One way to practice is to start with a text and start deleting the parts that you think are unimportant. When you re-read the text, the overall meaning should still be clear if you've kept the important information.

Example:

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's navy fired warning shots to chase away a North Korean fishing boat that crossed their disputed sea border early Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said, in the latest flareup of tension on the divided peninsula just days before the Group of 20 summit in Seoul. The North Korean boat intruded on South Korean territory for about two hours before returning to North Korean waters early Wednesday, the ministry said. The fertile maritime border, the scene of three deadly skirmishes between the Koreas, is a key flashpoint because the North does not recognize the line drawn by the U.N. at the close of the 1950-53 Korean War.
          The firing comes just days after North Korea shot two rounds at a South Korean guard post in the Demilitarized Zone, prompting return fire from South Korean troops, according to Seoul military officials.South Korea is bracing for any possible North Korean moves to sabotage next week's Group of 20 summit of world leaders. North Korea has a track record of provocations when world attention is focused on the rival South.

 When you read what's left, the meaning should still be clear. In this example, you could remove a few more words and it would still make sense.

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's navy fired warning shots at a North Korean fishing boat that crossed their disputed sea border just days before the Group of 20 summit. The North Korean boat intruded on South Korean territory for about two hours before returning to North Korean waters. The border is a flashpoint because the North does not recognize the line drawn by the U.N. at the close of the Korean War.
          The firing comes just days after North Korea shot at a South Korean guard post, prompting return fire from South Korean troops. South Korea is bracing for any possible North Korean moves to sabotage next week's Group of 20 summit. North Korea has a record of provocations when world attention is focused on the South.

That reduces it from about 180 words to about 125. The meaning is still there and it makes sense. Now you just need to put it into your own words, which will simplify it and probably cut the word count even further.

          South Korea fired warning shots at a North Korean fishing boat that crossed their disputed sea border just days before the G20 summit. The North Korean boat was in South Korean territory for about two hours. The border is a trouble spot because the North does not recognize the border the U.N. drew at the end of the Korean War.
          A few days ago, North Korea shot at a South Korean guard post and South Korean troops shot back. South Korea is preparing for possible trouble from North Korea before next week's summit. In the past, North Korea has caused trouble when world attention is focused on the South.

 Here are two ways to practice it yourself.

• Find an online that's easy for you to understand. Copy and paste it into a new document. Then delete the unnecessary parts and read it again to see if the important information is still there and it makes sense. Re-write it in your own words.
• Photocopy an article from your textbook that you need to summarize. Cross out the unnecessary parts and read what's left. It should still make sense and contain all the important information that was in the original. Then re-write it in your own words.

On an exam, you could do the same thing a little differently.

1. Mark the parts that you think contain the main points.
2. Read only those parts and see if the main message of the article is there and it makes sense.
3. Write a topic sentence and then add the main points that you marked. Be sure to put the main points into your own words!