I’ve written before about how I memorize vocabulary such as here and here. To start with the usual disclaimer, everybody has different learning styles so what works for me may not work for you and vice-versa.
To summarize, the way I learn vocab is by sheer volume and in context. Reading, in particular, is how I learned most of the vocabulary I know. And boy is there a lot of vocabulary to learn. I know enough Kanji at this point that I can pretty much guess the reading of words most of the time. So I look up a lot of words and very quickly. Now, can I say that I’ve completely memorized all those words? Not by any means, but they’re definitely in my brain somewhere, one step closer to memorization until the next time they come up.
Here’s what my recent dictionary history looks like. Yes, after 10 years since I started my website for learning Japanese, I’m still learning all these words. Now, should you memorize my words? Absolutely not, you should encounter your own words in context of whatever you’re reading or hearing.
先達
散会
セキセイインコ
実直
硬直
一抹
達観
投擲
剛勇
精進
打診
際どい
儚い
轟く
咀嚼
靡く
求心
やんわり
被る（こうむる）
反芻
追憶
匙を投げる
博愛
修辞
慈しむ
粗悪
慇懃
冬来たりなば春遠からじ
曲解
訓告
しっぺ返し
すっぱ抜く
武勲
ぷっちぎり
驀進
弛緩
嘲弄
暇乞い
闖入
牧歌
寸劇
出鼻
帳（とばり）
うなだれる
真摯
ふてくされる
親睦
戯れ
丁々発止
明晰
憐憫
なまじっか
迸る
山彦
稚拙
おべんちゃら
喧騒
剛健
自負
軋轢
どんぴしゃり
しらばくれる
刹那
うたた寝
etc, etc.
Boy, learning a language is a lot of work. Share some of your dictionary history in the comments!
I like reading posts where people put up lists of words that they have learnt recently, it makes me happy as there are some that I already know, but there are some which I’ve never seen before which motivates me to carry on reading until I do see them!
Most of these come from the 春日 novels. The author’s vocabulary really amazes me. Maybe I’m easily impressed because my vocabulary is so small 🙂
Is 春日 the author’s last name or a series name? I tried to look them up on Wikipedia JP and was not finding anything to do with books.
See http://www.guidetojapanese.org/blog/2011/07/25/what-im-reading-today-4/
Wow, I actually love anything that has time travel in it too, so maybe one day that will be something I might read. Thanks! 面白そうですね！
Wow, the only one I’m sure I’ve seen before out of those is 刹那.
This makes me want to go read more Japanese right now. Great post. 🙂
That’s good, I didn’t know any of those words! And it’ll be a while before I internalize most of them. I was particularly surprised by learning a new reading of 暇 in 暇乞い since it’s a Kanji I learn almost a decade ago similar to a recent word I learned 忙しい (as in 忙しない and not いそがしい)
lol, I think I wrote my name as something else before. <.<; can't remember
I hardly read in japanese… I think I've learned 50 words from reading. Half if not more were katakana words. My time is mostly spent learning words from dictionary. I've studied ~600 kanji and memorized ~5,000 vocab words. Towards the end of December, That number will jump up 2,000~3,000 words. So, I've been using an e-dictionary. It's really useful, Tagaini Jisho. One can sort vocab based on known kanji. Will take a break from learning by grade school ordering. Currently, completing the 4th grade level. 😀
I'm starting to read more often. Very soon, I'll have to review old verbs… for sentence writing. I can read verbs and understand them, but forget when to use them. The fix is, to write more ofter. (sentences and paragraphs)