One of the greatest challenges of a musicologist with English as a second language is that his/her vocabs need to be built. As for me, the relatively small library of vocab makes me check the dictionary often. I'm not satisfied with my current efficiency in digesting academic materials. (Neither am I satisfied with my analytical skills, but that's off topic for here.) I'm reading 60-100 pages of academic materials now on average, and that's the summer capacity. I'm sure that the semester will push me forward and I'll be stressed but delighted at the same time.
Moreover, it confines the prose that is used in academic writing. Without JUST THE RIGHT WORD (which I often struggle to find), writings could sound stale. Sometimes the word is ThErE... but it's just out of reach and I couldn't remember the word that is lost somewhere in my mind.
When I was in primary 5, I wrote down all memorable Chinese phrases that I encounter in the literature I read. Many of whom involves old-Chinese, 4-word idioms, well-balanced phrases and delightful metaphors. My Chinese writing flourished for a few years, and eventually wilted in the 3rd year of middle school, since I stopped the practise (apparently for no reason. Laziness is a retrospective conclusion.)
A few years ago, I started writing down English vocabs onto separate sheets, in the attempt to extended my dystrophic vocab library (in a scholarly standard). No result: the sheets are just hanging there. A few months ago, when I need to study for the GRE, I used sheets as well as flash cards. But still, my library expands in a really slow rate. I still keep the habit of writing down vocabs in separate sheets, and by now, many vocabs I wrote down recently have been encountered before, but I just don't remember them. From today on, I'll try to post these vocabs onto the blog.
Please give me some tips on memorizing vocabs!
No comments:
Post a Comment