How to really Learn vocabulary part 1

In this series we are going to be looking at ways that we can enhance and improve our learning and perhaps crushing some of the myths about learning techniques that we learnt in school. Every day we meet people with different techniques for learning vocabulary, but most of them revolve around some pretty shaky ideas, those being 'if you write stuff down, you've learnt it.' If only things were that simple ... This rarely works, due mainly to the fact that some important steps have been missed out - those being, actively learning the vocabulary and then actively using it. Let's put this in prallel with sport, to illustrate the idea. Imagine that you are a huge cycling fan and you love the Tour de France and you would like to experience the grueling (look that one up if you like) hardships of a day riding in the mountains of the Tour de France. So, you get all the magazines about the Tour and mountain cycling, you have the maps and you have read all the technical stuff on hydration and nutrition during a massive climb in the Pyrenees mountains in the south of France. You have even chosen your mountain, Le Col du Tourmalet - wow! that's a big one, and have bought a fabulously expensive 'S-Works' bicycle for the climb.  You've seen the videos and read all the information, but that's as far as you go - THAT is how a lot of people learn - they don't go the final mile of training before getting on the bike after weeks of muscle and stamina building. They don't prepare for the day that they will be climbing Tourmalet on their bike. OK, they know all about Tourmalet, Le Tour de France and mountaing cycling - but they have no guarantee of ever being able to achieve the ascent of a mountain on their bicycle. Listen to the podcast, N°1 in a series, to get some ideas to improve your learning.