| When students think of learning a foreign | | | | of "calls made." |
| language, the first thought is of books, exercises, | | | | These words begin to stick once you see them |
| audio cassettes and all the rest. Those are all | | | | again and again. Before you know it you'll |
| important and fundamental to learning but the | | | | recognize the Spanish word just as quickly as the |
| time comes when you need to spice things up a | | | | English one. |
| bit. | | | | Tip # 3 - When you have downtime, take out |
| After all, you need to maintain your studies over | | | | your cell phone and start hitting buttons. - You'll be |
| a long period of time. In order to do this, it's | | | | surprised at all the vocabulary you can learn by |
| necessary to change things so that your interest | | | | just playing with the different menu items. Some |
| level remains high. After all, most people have the | | | | things you'll recognize immediately and others you'll |
| initial desire but lose interest due to, among other | | | | be able to guess just by where you find them. |
| things, a boring routine. | | | | As you probably know, the more contact you |
| That's where things like a cell phone come in | | | | have with the language the better. That is |
| handy. | | | | particularly true of vocabulary. Seeing a word for |
| It's the perfect addition to your study materials. | | | | the first time and then not seeing it again is a |
| You have it with you day after day, you are | | | | recipe for a very limited vocabulary. You have to |
| familiar with how it works and you can use it to | | | | get the repetitions needed to help move the |
| practice whenever you have some downtime. No | | | | information into long term memory. |
| need to have your books by your side or be in | | | | You also need to see things in context. With a cell |
| your car to listen to tapes. | | | | phone, you begin to see relationships between |
| Let's take a look at how to add your cell phone | | | | words of the same category. For example, the |
| to your study toolchest. | | | | category "llamadas" is "calls" in English. Contained in |
| Tip #1 - Set up your cell phone to use the | | | | this category are "llamadas hechas" (calls made), |
| language you'd like to study. - Go to the menu, | | | | "llamadas recibidas" (calls received), "llamadas |
| find settings, locate language and change it to | | | | perdidas" (calls missed), just to name a few. |
| Spanish, Chinese, whatever you would like to | | | | You have a goldmine of related words and |
| learn. If you ever get stuck you can go and | | | | phrases that can double your vocabulary almost |
| change it back. | | | | overnight. Why not take advantage of it? |
| Tip #2 - Take a look at the buttons you normally | | | | It's one of the ways you can keep your learning |
| push and begin associating those items with the | | | | fresh and interesting. And that's important |
| new vocabulary. - This is a great way to master | | | | because boredom is a big problem with language |
| simple words and phrases with little or no effort. | | | | learners. You need variety and a cell phone is one |
| For example, each time you open up your cell | | | | way to get it. |
| phone you'll see, (in the case of Spanish), | | | | Don't fall into that trap. Grab your beloved cell |
| "mensajes" instead of "messages", "juegos" | | | | phone right now and start hitting some buttons! |
| instead of "games" and "llamdadas hechas" instead | | | | |