Improving your Vocabulary – One Tip a Day
Whether you are working in a reputable environment or a small setup, your communication skills are what take you to higher positions. Where I live, the official language is English and we find people talking and writing good English very knowledgeable and smart. I have to admit that these things add up to a person’s personality and you want to keep listening to them. I started writing back in 2012 and I didn’t have much idea about English vocabulary. To be honest, I feel that I still don’t have much idea. So I decided to get deeper into it and find out ways to improve my vocabulary and expand it as much as I can. Here are some of the tips I found to be useful:
Read as much as you can:
I was already expecting this to be on to. Even when I talk to people with good vocabulary, it’s evident that they are regular readers and most of them really are. According to readers, the more they read, the more they get a chance to come across a variety of words and find meanings to it. Moreover, it’s also a reference to how to use these words in sentences because a lot of times we translate a word into English and use it in a sentence in the wrong way.
Keep a dictionary with you at all times:
You never know what you may come across throughout the day when you are stepping out the door. Along with a few other important things in your bag, a small dictionary is a must too. It doesn’t have to be in physical form necessarily. The aim is to look for the meaning of words as soon as you come across them. This can be done on the internet too. Take your phone out and don’t only look for its meaning but also its pronunciation, synonyms, antonyms and how it should be used in a sentence. In other words, dissect it right away!
Write it down if you can’t immediately look for its meaning:
This is a very effective way not just to learn something new but also to keep it in mind forever. I know a guy who was so enthusiastic about expanding his vocabulary, he would read books and newspapers and highlight the words that he didn’t understand and start searching its meaning. With time, he actually had a collection of so many journals and all of them contain words with their meanings and their use in sentences.
One word a day keeps the cycle running:
So let's assume that you don’t get much time to read and you need another solution. As a starter, you can set an aim to learn one word a day. Take ten minutes out of your schedule and open up the dictionary randomly. The first word you come across is your word of the day. Repeat the process of understanding the words meaning and finding its use in a sentence. Also, don’t forget to write it down so, In a way, you will be making a dictionary of your own.
Get involved in word games:
If you find all the above ways boring, there’s another fun way to go about it and that involves cool word games! Start with scrabbles, crossword puzzles, boggle, word jumble and other similar games. You can choose to play with a mate who is good at and with time, you won't even realize how fast you are improving your vocabulary!
wow! great post