Language Memory

Here is the reading system I devised and now adapting to the study of foreign languages:

Mod N Reading System

Long time ago I planned and attempted to study German language and bought a dozen of basic level books and a few of intermediate and advanced. Now I repeat this attempt because I have a goal: to be able to read volumes of “Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg”.

The reading system is supplemented by listening to VocabuLearn CDs when I cannot read while commuting.

More on this later.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LanguageMemory.com -

In the past, 5 years ago, I was writing down any new word I encountered while reading technical books together with their IPA pronunciation. I remember that greatly reduced my pronunciation errors and improved my vocabulary so I almost never see unknown words now in technical and science books. The downside was slow reading. A few years ago I started reading non-technical books, for example, about history and philosophy, where I see some unknown words. Usually I skip them and most of the time I infer their meaning from the context. As I read these books while commuting to work on a train I started today to mark unknown words in them with a pen. This doesn’t decrease my reading speed because I process marked words later on this blog.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LanguageMemory.com -