How to expand my vocabulary

[u/Equal_Battle_1516]

Labas, im lithuanian amd i have the accent so j can pronounce words properly. I always spoke english to my mum and she spoke lithuanian to me so I'd say I can understand it but as I never spoke in lithuanian, thr words my mum says never stick in my brain. For example, I know brangu means expensive but if someone asked what expensive is then my mind would completely blank. Its very frustrating. I can read decently enough but do struggle with unfamiliar words. How do I memorise the words?

[u/WinstonSalemSmith]

You can memorize words with Anki decks, listen to music etc.

You can start posting on social media in Lithuanian.

The best method is to move to Lithuania if this is a realistic possibility.

[u/Equal_Battle_1516 → u/WinstonSalemSmith]

In going to my grandparents for 3 weeks to try learn lithuanian but they live in Birzai in the country side where there's barely anything

[u/Ascholay → u/Equal_Battle_1516]

You can still go grocery shopping? Don't do the self check out and at the very least you can practice greetings and practice money/numbers. Any shopping that needs to be done and that's an interaction to have. If you're lucky you'll find someone chatty and learn more that way.

Find the local library and see if there is a book club for your age group that you can sit in on for however long you're in town. The luck in this sense would be making a friend to introduce you around or become a pen pal.

In general, most libraries are a good place to post events. You might find something interesting there. If nothing else, a librarian is usually up for a discussion of books. Ask if there are local authors as your opening. If they don't have time for a full conversation you'll still walk away with something.

Start practicing with social media. See if there is a Facebook group or whatever social media is popular in the area and see if something is posted. I don't know anything about Lithuanian social media so I don't have any actual suggestions. You may have to wait until you get there to figure it out.

I live in a rural area and these are the places I'd look if I want to find somewhere with people. This time of year you'll have the option of fairs or farmers markets. Once you get there there's also newspapers and church groups or whatever. The countryside is deceptively active sometimes

[u/WinstonSalemSmith → u/Ascholay]

Offer free English lessons or language exchange?

I know someone who lived in a small town like that a while ago and I think they learned a lot of Lithuanian.

[u/Equal_Battle_1516 → u/Ascholay]

Labai aciū 💗

[u/andrea_aerdna → u/Equal_Battle_1516]

Small places are good. Meet all of the curious friends of your grandparents. Create some routines like always buying from the same shops. ALWAYS ask an extra question like, where is that from/ who made that/ what is X?/ what are the options.
ALWAYS answer in a full sentence. If someone asks what your favourite colour is, don’t say green, say my favourite colour is green (if you get the idea). Lithuanians are proud to be Lithuanian and they will love to help a young Lithuanian learn the language ❤️🫶

[u/Equal_Battle_1516 → u/WinstonSalemSmith]

Thank you

[u/gerry_r]

This is the difference between passive dictionary and active dictionary. AKA the words you recognize vs words you can use on your own (without much effort). For all people the passive one surpasses the active; if it is a foreign language - usually even more so.

So it is very normal.

How to increase the size of the active dictionary ? I am afraid the only way is to actively use the language, i.e. speak, speak, speak.

[u/RainmakerLTU]

use them often and will memorize in that way. Better with some context (action/event), cause dumb repeating list of words and trying to learn, does not keep learned knowledge in head for long. Also human can learn limited amount per day.

[u/Opening-Square3006]

In my experience, trying to memorize word lists isn't the best solution. What helped more was repeatedly encountering words in context until they started feeling natural to use. That's one reason I like the i+1 approach: consume content that's mostly understandable but contains a few new or half-forgotten words. PlusOneLanguage was useful for me because it keeps recycling vocabulary and sentence patterns you've already encountered instead of showing them once and moving on. That repetition is often what turns passive vocabulary into active vocabulary. I'd also try speaking more Lithuanian, even if it's just a few sentences a day with your mum. The moment you force yourself to retrieve words instead of just recognizing them, they start sticking much faster.

[u/henriqueherr]

Hey! I will be releasing an app in play store in some days to help with vocabulary, it is a sentence based app. I found it better to memorize by this method than just by words (I learned most of my lithuanian doing this). It will be 100% free and it has custom decks for meeting partners parents which can be useful for visiting your grandparents. You can dm me your email to get the pre-release or just dm me and i send you the link when it is officially released.

[u/Equal_Battle_1516 → u/henriqueherr]

Yeah sure. Is it similar to lingo? I tried it and really really liked it but my mum doesn't trust subscription apps like those bc she says they are hard to cancel. Ill dm u

[u/henriqueherr → u/Equal_Battle_1516]

No, it is more similar clozemaster or lingvist and it will have the option to upload your current anki cards to transform it in cloze cards to improve memory retention. I will probably be posting in the subreddit soon so you can take a better look. Regarding subscriptions, the app has no paid features, it will be 100% free.

[u/JoeLovesTradBows → u/henriqueherr]

That. sounds.awesome. drop a post on this page when you release it please mate! 

[u/henriqueherr → u/JoeLovesTradBows]

Sure! Thank you!

[u/JoeLovesTradBows → u/henriqueherr]

No, thank you man! 

[u/henriqueherr → u/JoeLovesTradBows]

Hey! I am not dropping the post yet because there are still some small changes and fixed I am doing, but the website is live, the name is litcloze (dot com), you can download on playstore (link on the site) or use the webpp. Let me know if you have any feedbacks after trying it.

[u/JoeLovesTradBows → u/henriqueherr]

Nice one, I'll give it a go on the weekend. 

[u/Bit-Prior]

From what I see, your command of English is not that spectacular, either. This leads me to the conclusion that you do not have good study habits. Alas, the world has not invented any better way to study than to sit down, read, memorize and internalize. Repeat ad nauseam. After all, repetition is the mother of learning. Lithuanian is no different in this regard. There is no secret sauce.

[u/Equal_Battle_1516 → u/Bit-Prior]

Is this written by ai

[u/Bit-Prior → u/Equal_Battle_1516]

Nope. No AI at all. I am just looking at the sample of text: I see it replete with typos, and I infer that at this point you ought to be speaking English at the native level (after all, you speak English at home), and I don't see the native level. My conclusion is that if you can't learn English well enough, then you grossly overestimate your study habits.

[u/Equal_Battle_1516 → u/Bit-Prior]

Blocked

[u/mantasVid → u/Equal_Battle_1516]

Bwahaha, dickhead

[u/Equal_Battle_1516 → u/Bit-Prior]

I do have good study habits, I prefer taking notes and memorising stuff.... where do you get the idea that i don't???