Supermemo and the English dictionary

Achab   Monday, November 15, 2004, 08:08 GMT
Hello,

this is for those who have an interest in testing new ways to develop their vocabulary knowledge, and for Supermemo users.

I read the articles on this website on how to read (the pause-and-think method) and what to read to augment one’s vocabulary, and I totally agree. The best way for learning new words is to read useful and fun texts, to think a bit of new collocations, new word clusters, new expressions, new terms, new structures, etc. that you find in them, and then taking note of those new things maybe, so to review them later, perhaps adding them to your Supermemo collection.

Now, what about, as a side way to develop one’s vocabulary, memorizing the ENTIRE English dictionary (say the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English) by creating a Supermemo item for every single entry?

Do you think it is, by using a CD-ROM dictionary of course, humanly possible? Do you think it is useful?

(Do not misunderstand me: I am not suggesting to stop augmenting your vocabulary through imput, like reading, watching subtitled movies, etc. And I am not suggesting to stop creating your personal Supermemo collection with the new words you find while reading. I think of the idea of learning the entire English dictionary as a SIDE project, not as a substitutive one!)

(By the way, wouldn’t it be great if it will be the publishers themselves to distribute Supermemo collections of their entire dictionaries/books? They could add to the CD-ROMs they often include a SuperMemo collection regarding the text. It would be terrific, wouldn’t it?)


Best,
Achab
Boy   Monday, November 15, 2004, 12:18 GMT
I'd rather plan out better things to do in my life(like looking for a beautiful girl as my life partner in town) than to memorize the whole dic with a danged feckin' SM. Well, It's a good software to memorize words but it is not a genie or something..What if your computer were crashed after a year or so and your whole work would be dumped. By the way, words come and go.. there is no end.. that's why you see a new edition of a dictionary after a short span of time..you'd be better off to add and memorize words that you encounter while listening and reading.. you'll be sure that you'll see these words again .. after all they are used before.. but adding and memorizing words randomly from a dic will always make you feel edgy whether you will encounter them or not in a real life English. This is just my two cents, though!
Achab   Monday, November 15, 2004, 13:34 GMT
>> I'd rather plan out better things to do in my life(like looking for a beautiful girl as my life partner in town) <<

Well, I don’t have to ramble on the streets to find a beautiful girl since I’m already engaged with one. Anyway I don’t think the sentence of yours that I quoted above is the kind of point you should use in a message board dedicated to study how to learn languages, Boy. Although I wish you good luck in your search for the soul mate.

>> What if your computer were crashed after a year or so and your whole work would be dumped. <<

Huh? A sharp Supermemo user makes backup copies of his collections now and then.

>> you'd be better off to add and memorize words that you encounter while listening and reading.. you'll be sure that you'll see these words again .. after all they are used before.. <<

I thoroughly explained that my idea of adding to Supermemo all the entries of an English dictionary is not to be meant as SUBSTITUTIVE to adding the new words you encounter while listening and reading, but as a SIDE way to augment one’s vocabulary.


Best,
Achab
Boy   Monday, November 15, 2004, 16:47 GMT
Achab,

I was just being funny there..my apologies.. Yes.. it is possible to add words from an electronic dictionary to your SM collection..you can add and memorize them.. yes.. sure.. you can start it as a side project. Why wait? In both cases, you are performing the same task, adding and memorizing the words. In this particular case, you have to choose words direct from a dictionary without performing tasks of reading and listening..wanna be a shakespeare in future,eh? Anyway, I wish you good luck!
Achab   Monday, November 15, 2004, 18:18 GMT
Well, technically speaking it is possible to completely “itemize” a CD-ROM English dictionary (better a learner’s dictionary), but what I’m interested in is to understand whether:

-- it is humanly possible to memorize such a great multitude of stuff
-- It is useful to do so

As I explained, this is to be meant as a side, not substitutive project to develop vocabulary to other methods like reading and paying attention to new words encountered (and maybe adding them to Supermemo).

What does Tom think about this? Is this just a crazy idea?


Achab
Tom   Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 02:18 GMT
-- it is humanly possible to memorize such a great multitude of stuff

Piotr Wozniak probably has over 500,000 items in his collection.
About 200,000 would be enough to "itemize" all the entries in the COBUILD dictionary.

The main problem would be motivation. It's kind of obvious that it's more fun to read 50 sentences which are connected and form an interesting article than 50 random sentences from a dictionary which are not connected in any way.

-- It is useful to do so

It's always useful to get input. But I think there is no reason to read sentences you don't care about. There's some interesting content out there.
Achab   Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 09:42 GMT
Thank you for your answer. I will think a bit about it before embarking on a project like this.

>> Piotr Wozniak probably has over 500,000 items in his collection. <<

500,000 English language items or 500,000 items considering other subjects too?


Best,
Achab
Tom   Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 15:40 GMT
500,000 items in total.