Vocabulary Notebook

Having a wide vocabulary is essential for becoming a good translator or interpreter.

In high school it was sufficient to have a little notebook and write the German word in one column and it's English "equivalent" in the opposite column.

As university student it is no longer sufficient to think of learning vocabulary as reviewing easy one to one equations. We ought to internalize words so we can use them in appropriate contexts, juggle and play with them.

My vocabulary notebook consists of for parts.
1.) definition and explanation
2.) collocations
3.) don't confuse x with y
4.) spelling and pronounciation

I know, not very creative headings but I decided to go for a "nomen est omen" stragedy.

The definition and explanation section resembles the clasic high school vocabulary notebook. Just, instead of two columns there are seven columns. The first one, well, for the word. The second for a definition. The third for a good example sentence (vocabulary.com is a true blessing concerning that). The fourth for the German "equivalent(s)". The fifth for strong collocations. The sixth for other elements of the same word family. The last for synonymes.

The collocations section contains strong collocations of words that I already now.

for example: the discussions are still only in intermediate stages

The don't confuse x with y section is all about distinguishing between two words that have some kind of connection.

Last but not least, words that I have difficulty spelling or pronouncing with, or words that are somewaht extraordinary are collected in the spelling and pronounciation sheet. The middle column is left empty which enables me to use the print off as a work sheet.

Well, that is how I divided up my vocabulary notebook.

Cheers,
Anna