Hello Reader,

Next week's podcast will feature the most common mistakes I've noticed people making this year as they've practiced for the CELPIP so you hopefully won't make them.

But today I wanted to share one of the best CORRECT or right things to do that I've noticed when it comes to vocabulary building.

Are you ready?

When you hear or learn a new word in English, immediately use it. (After, of course, you're sure what that new word means!)

The best and fastest way to learn your new word, and make it completely yours so you can use it whenever you want to, is to quickly use it in a conversation.

And the more times you can use your new word in a day, the better!

Just this week I was working with a client on a speaking task where they were trying to convince a friend to move into the city to be closer to their work. Their response was something like: "If you move downtown, you won't have to drive to work and then home again at the end of the day, losing a lot of time in traffic."

Agreed! Spending hours in traffic trying to get to work, and then more hours in the same traffic trying to get home IS a terrible waste of time! (I've been there!) In Mexico City, I would often spend 2 to 3 hours a day commuting.

Ah-ha!

Did you see that new word I used?

Commute was the exact vocabulary word my client was needing to express their idea more effectively, and so I shared it with them. Their response: A few minutes later, they shared another attempt at their answer with me - and guess what new word they used?

Commute!

And they used it correctly, too!

They recorded the same response two more times because they wanted to improve a few other spots in their answer, but guess what word my client used each of those times?

Yep! Commute!

And that's the secret to building your vocabulary: immediately use any new word you hear as often as you can as soon as you know what it means.

Goal: to own that new word. (Never memorize it!)

Over to you: what new word have you heard today that you are going to start using today?

Last week's podcast:

In case you missed it, you can listen to last week's podcast episode about reading task 2 right here 👉 Hiding in Plain Sight: Tips for Tackling CELPIP Reading Task 2.​

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Aaron