How do I increase my vocabulary, /lit/?
I come to you as a former loser NEET - I dropped out of the eigth grade and spent 4 years doing absolutely nothing but playing video games.
I grew tired of my NEET life very quickly and grabbed a job at a fast food place, and now I'm beginning to see and fully feel the truly negative effects that my lack of education has done to me.
I have very basic "advanced" words under my belt. I read a novel and I have to frequently go and look up words in the dictionary, and not only that - but in the actual workplace, I have trouble trying to convey to my coworkers what point I'm trying to get across.
Really fucking blows.
How do I increase my vocabulary?
Also, I remember back in school I was a very good speller and used pretty big words ahead of my vocabulary, but I feel like my skills in that department have degraded from misuse... Is that actually a thing that happens?
>To the mods: I feel like /lit/ is the best place to ask this question, as it's too high cut for /adv/(see? I don't know how to fucking convey what I'm trying to say). However if a moderator disagrees, I will gladly accept having this taken down and having to remake it on /adv/.
Read more and pick out words that you don't understand, look up their definition, then study them enough so you can effectively use them in everyday life. and yes, your skills can degrade over time if you don't put hem to use, hence the addage - "if you don't use it, you lose it."
>>7841768
keep reading and keep looking up words in the dictionary. dont be afraid to ask people what a word means when they speak. stop playing video games and movies. or at least cut back.
start going to your local library a few times a week.
>>7841768
Read more. Sorry for the loser answer but that's honestly the only way I can truly learn new words.
Everything said and really I just like trying to define words with a proper definition or at the very least a synonym before moving on, if I cant I look it up. There's probably a lot of words that you marginally know in the sense that you've seen it here and there and you understand how it works in context but it just remains ineffable.
Also, I found reading also helped me develop my thoughts quicker and speak longer strings of ideas and thoughts more fluidly and coherently. I'm only in a community college but everyone calls me smart so it's like, "I just read, you should try it".
I think the easiest way to go about it is a kindle because you can just tap on the word and you immediately get the definition. If you're really dedicated, e-books are not a bad investment since you can just download almost everything for free.
>>7841768
Memrise has some good advanced courses that will help you increase vocabulary, anon. Give it a try.
>>7841768
I hate people like you.
>>7841888
Why?
>People like you
Is also very vague.
Can you go into detail?
It's obvious that you're baiting me for response, so I'll bite it. I'm interested in what you have to say.
>>7841892
School dropouts. Why the fuck would you dropout in the 8th grade.
>>7841898
I can think of a whole mess of reasons for someone dropping out of school mate. The public education system is fucking complete and total garbage for one. It's a giant cess pool of asinine bullshit. Tell me otherwise. I'll gladly laugh.
I am not trying to say that I'm smarter than anyone for dropping out of school, I have been saying quite the opposite actually, but I'm clearly not stupid enough to sit here and mass generalize every single dropout as being some type of a degenerate asshole like you are.
Shit, REAL reasons I can think of right now for someone dropping out are:
>Medical disorders,
>Mental disorders,
>Homeschooling(and I mean REAL homeschooling),
>Disappointment with the public education system
My reason for dropping out was a little bit of all of the above.
>>7841909
Read more. Read every day for at least an hour. Quite gaming and watching television. Read, read, read. Slowly, but surely, you'll develop a good vocabulary. Eventually, try writing. That will help as well. You'll realize how small your vocabulary really is. In the long run, as long as you keep reading, you'll be fine. You'll even develop a superior vocabulary. Just persevere. Become a patrician mate.
>>7841915
Quit*
>>7841768
I'm currently studying for my graduate exam which some sections reqiure study of more advanced vocabulary. Some I do not know.
I recommend trying for your GED if you don't already have one.
Anyway, I was looking for the fastest way to learn vocab and the basic answer is flashcards. Just like in 5th grade.
The trick is to pick a short lean definition you easily understand. As few words as possible. This is better than trying to remember a drawn out and possibly multiple sentence Webster's definition. Study about 10 a day,or whatever you're comfortable with, adding 10 each day to your pile.
My source of words come from test prep books I've checked out from the library, online sites that list the "most common GRE vocab", and words I don't know when casual reading.
So just do the same but start with GED vocab and advance from there. I use a dictionary app on my phone to save words I don't know for later. It helps alot.
>>7841939
How do I use flashcards?
>>7841939
>>7843488
hopping on these two because i want to give actual advice to people looking to increase their vocab.
Step 1: Buy both sets of GRE vocab flash cards from Manhattan Prep on amazon ($10 each)
Step 2: Manually enter the information from these cards into the app ANKI (yes, you have to do it by hand, but you only need to do 10 a day or so)
Step 3: learn 5-10 words a day through ANKI by reviewing them at the start of the day and then forcing yourself to use them throughout the day either in writing or in speech
Para-Step 4: Look up the dictionary definition for every single word that you don't know when you are reading and write it down in the margins.
Optional step 5: keep a rolling dictionary as an excel file and add new words to it as you learn them.
it works.
