| Picture Dictionaries | | | | language. A teacher or a textbook author does |
| Picture Dictionaries are books that differ | | | | not come close to the effectiveness of the |
| significantly from what you would expect from a | | | | communication professionals in the agencies. So |
| regular dictionary. They are made up of different | | | | while you may not like to be bothered by ads in |
| themes - such as "At the airport" or "in the | | | | your own language you should take a look at |
| supermarket". They will show many pictures - | | | | them in the language you want to learn. Certain |
| mostly things and situations that fit this specific | | | | phrases will store themselves in your brain |
| theme and mention the words below the picture | | | | instantly remain in your memory for a long time. |
| in English and German - and maybe many other | | | | Most of them are short, funny and easy to |
| languages. You might think this is just for kids. But | | | | remember. Anyway, it is advertisement isn't |
| any adult can get such a great deal of information | | | | it?Picture Associations |
| out of a picture dictionary. It makes learning fun, | | | | When you hear a word in German that does not |
| visual and context sensitive. Most people learn | | | | resemble anything you know in English try to think |
| better in a visual way. So these mostly 2-sided | | | | if this word reminds you of anything funny or |
| themes will help you tremendously because they | | | | strange that your know. The more unusual the |
| summarize the most relevant vocabulary for a | | | | association the better. Consider the German word |
| theme clustered together with pictures that are | | | | 'Kissen' which means 'pillow'. Just think of yourself |
| fun to look at and to browse through. I use them | | | | kissing your girlfriend/boyfriend on a pillow. This |
| myself regularly and it just doesn't feel like you | | | | association makes sense and is easy to |
| are learning - it's as relaxing as going through a | | | | memorize. The best thing: It involves emotions. |
| magazine. But the amount of content you pick up | | | | Emotions are a great accelerator for memorizing |
| this way is amazing. Think of it: It resembles | | | | and remembering things. It doesn't even have to |
| much more reality than learning pairs of printed | | | | be positive emotions. Negative feelings work as |
| words. A word is just an abstraction of something | | | | well. Anything that is not boring will make you |
| real. So when you are learning vocables you are | | | | remember the words you wanted to |
| dealing with two abstractions tied together. | | | | remember.What You Should NOT Do |
| However, we tend to think in pictures. Your mind | | | | Although it might seem tempting DO NOT use |
| has to do two things: Translate the picture in your | | | | music and song lyrics to learn a foreign language. |
| mind to an English word, translate the English | | | | Most songs contain either a form of dialect, |
| word into the German word by looking up that | | | | inappropriate slang or rude language. Many songs |
| word pair you memorized. So when you look in | | | | play with language by falsifying it and twisting it |
| picture dictionaries you get the words associated | | | | around. Some use very old-fashioned and |
| directly with pictures in your mind.Sometimes a | | | | poetry-style language. So don't use it.Don't read |
| picture dictionary is the only way to explain a | | | | German newspapers. Most of them are very |
| certain thing to a non-native speaker, because in | | | | political and use a terminology which is extremely |
| many situations we cannot explain what we mean | | | | hard to understand. The sentences are extremely |
| even in our own language - particularly certain | | | | long, so usually when you get to the end you |
| types of food or special technical | | | | cannot remember how it started. Newspapers are |
| terminology.Advertisements | | | | clearly for the advanced language learner. So |
| Another unusual way to learn German - as well | | | | please stay away from them in the beginning.The |
| as any language is through advertisements. Why | | | | author operates his own web site on learning |
| ads? Because ads are made by professional | | | | German. |
| marketing experts for just one thing: Transport a | | | | |
| message clearly and quickly and get in your | | | | A Quality index of resources for learning German |
| memory and make you remember it. That's | | | | on the net. |
| exactly what you want when you learn a | | | | |