Learning new words

One of my all-time top tips has to be the wonderful software program "Phase 6", which can help you learn your new vocabulary.

I met the programmer at a trade fair in Berlin several years ago and started to use his software myself to improve my German vocabulary. Then it was very simple. Now he has made a lot of improvements:
- better graphic design
- vocabulary sets from leading publishing houses, such as Cornelsen
- you can link in pictures and sounds

How does the software work? Well, it is like the old system with little cards and a tray to hold all the little cards. You write a new English word, with the German word on the other side. Then you put it in the tray. After a couple of days you look at the word again and try to remember what it means. In total, you need to do this 5 times. If you remember the word 5 times then the word is in your memory and you won't forget it again.

But the computer can organize these cards in a special way. So after the first time, it waits a few days then shows you the card again. After this it waits a whole week. Then two weeks. And so on. The time until each 'phase' gets longer, which helps your brain to remember the words for a long time.

You can read about it in German at:
http://www.phase6.de/

or in English at:
http://www.phase-6.com/

And here is a story about a bus ride in Poland – this is the reason why the programmer wrote his program!!
http://theroyaltreatment.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/phase-6-for-long-term-vocabulary-memory/