How to study one-off words

I've made note of this before, but it's really hard to study the language and culture lessons in this course. This is my third time through the whole thing and I'm still struggling; not with the grammar, but with the one-off words that are thrown into the examples. They make it so hard to focus on the grammar when there's a word I don't know in every sentence!

Does anyone have a recommendation for learning these words? I don't usually have trouble with vocab in this course because the context and repetition make it easy to remember. But these one-time-only words in a lesson about past tense or conditional mood don't stick with me. Flash cards don't help either, because of the lack of context.

I'm tempted to make worksheets for myself with made up examples, but I feel like that's a lot of work outside of a product I paid for.

HI NicholasL23

I agree with you the grammar lessons are tricky.  I use text books as well as the grammar and culture lessons. I got so stressed by the grammar lessons and the overwhelming content, that have just decided to chill about it and it will eventaully stick. Repeating a lesson helps, boring and frustrating, but it does help. I go back to lessons I struggled with and vocab a few times. Not necessariy in the first week, but after a bit of time has passed. It is quite amazing what one forgets. I revisit even the basic lessons after awhile. Putting up a word on a card on the bathroom mirroe helps or on the fridge. Depends too why you are learning. I love languages, so for me this is fun and I hope to visit there one day. Different if you have a deadline. 

Enjoy yourself

Sebongela

Thanks for the tips! I'm definitely relearning a lot of what I'm revisiting, but these random vocab words are driving me crazy! Maybe I should make a big list of them and focus on one at a time with the bathroom mirror trick!

Hi NicholasL23

You have made me smile. I get the frustration, but think how many years it took you to learn your home language. And even then there are lots of words you don't know. I am learning German as well on Rocket. I was battling with some vocabulary a while ago, not on Rocket on Babbel and Memrise. Just could not remember them. Recently came across them in Rocket German and suddenly my brain made the connection. So somewhere it is there even if you don't think so, but in another lesson you will come across them and you will have a aha moment. Just enjoy it because somewhere the synapses in your brain are taking it in.

A presto

Sebongela

Hi Nicholas

I agree with sebongela.  She and I have previously exchanged a number of posts about grammar, where we were both frustrated with our respective difficulties in grasping it.  For my part, I decided to just stop trying to analyse it and go with the flow and guess what - it stopped being a problem.  I had actually grasped far more than I realised, all through Rocket's context training.

In regards to your issue with random words: That's what's going to happen when you speak with native speakers.  I've had such issues, and we both communicated fine despite that.  I then take the word, and subsequently practice it in a sentence that either Rocket subsequently throws up, or usually, that I construct myself.

I've read a number of articles that confirm my own experience - that lists of words without sentence context is next to useless.  That's my firm experience over learning a number of languages, anyway.

You're learning on a subtle level every time you study.  Just keep going, and enjoy!

Chris

Buon GIorno ChrisM108

Yes, it never ceases to amaze me how our brains recall stuff. I have used the list method on a mirror, but frankly not my favourite. Did use it for some Spanish verb conjugations. It took me awhile to get essere and stare in Italian straightened out. Not so much the usage, but  the conjugation. (Similar to the Spanish ones) Not doing Spanish at the moment. Have not used Rocket for that. Am using Duolingo and Coffee break for Swedish, but taking it very slowly. Our weather is horrible at the moment, so been home mostly, so ideal to do Rocket language. Our Omicron numbers also crazy, so have stayed away from socializing, as some of my friends have health issues. Again a good reason to keep my learning up to date and my brain active

Sebongela

Ciao Sebongela

I hope the weather improves for you soon.  One other sign of the benefits of going with the flow with language learning: Increasingly, I'm not translating Italian into English in my head when reading a sentence.  I just get it in Italian.  That's going to be a big help when talking with native speakers.  I'm certain that not over-analysing grammar is a great help in achieving this.

A presto

Chris

You guys made a very good point that I should take to heart… I don't need to know every word, and I'm likely to come across a lot of words I don't know in conversation.

It still bugs me that these words slow me down in the grammar lessons, and it will be hard to let it slide, but I think it's more important to focus on the words I need than to be held up by words that aren't as useful right now.

Sounds line an excellent plan to me, Nicholas.  Taking your comments, here's a few links that may prove useful:

https://onlineitalianclub.com/a-word-about-frequency/

https://onlineitalianclub.com/hundreds-of-italian-verbs-to-learn-and-one-great-way-to-remember-them/

https://onlineitalianclub.com/italian-vocabulary-lists-and-exercises/

In balance though, learning through immersion and not being concerned about every word and detail, are the most important things I feel, because it's all about effective communicatiion in our chosen language rather than exam-like perfection.

Ciao

Chris

Thank you for sharing those resouces! I saved this page to refer back to them.