How can I utilize new words?

[Drakai]

Althought I'm more or less confident in my English I'm not a native speaker, and I'm still pretty young to consider myself "really good" at English. I'm learning a lot of new words, slang words, sayings and such almost everyday but I feel like some of those that I've learned are being lost in the depths of the bottomless abyss that is human memory. How can I integrate those new words into my writing or even day to day talking (maybe even thinking?) so that they won't be forgotten? Is there a certain method you use and would recommend?

 

[wulfsbane]

Hmm... well this is kinda tough for me to give an answer on since I can't easily relate to your situation. (I'm a native english speaker.) But as far as sayings and slang stuff, I suppose you'll just pick that up as you spend more time around native english speakers and get better at the language. To be honest, though, depending on what you're writing, you may not need to use modern english slang in your writing. For integrating them into your day to day speaking, I don't really know what advice to give, other than the more time you spend around english speakers, the easier using the sayings will become, and the better you will remember them.

Sorry if this wasn't much help, but I figured I'd at least respond.

 

[jastius]

Oxford English dictionaries have a dictionary of English slang. You can also get a dictionary of common phrases.
Another source would of course be movies for slang phrases.
You could start a computer file with the choice phrases worked up into sentences and paragraphs. Then sprinkle them over your writing like cinnamon sugar.

 

[Cathy M.]

Listen. The best thing you can do is listen.
At least, that's what helped for me.
I had to write a short story with a Russian character for class once. For about two months I did nothing but listen to and watch documentaries, television shows, and read books with characters in them who were Russian.
English is my first language and boy did I learn a lot from simply listening.
I also had the luxury of knowing a couple of people who live in Russia who were more then happy to supply me with the frequent phrases and slang.
So, that's what I did. I'm not sure if that will help you at all but at least I put it out there!

 

[Abernovo]

Listen. The best thing you can do is listen.
At least, that's what helped for me.

This, most of all. Listen, and read. And, never be afraid to ask a question of us who have English as a mother tongue (bearing in mind that there's more than one (or two, or three) form of English).

I can relate, as an English speaker abroad.

 

[The Judge]

The best way to improve a memory is to use it! So, every day pick 4 or 5 new words and keep repeating them to youself, then at the end of the week give yourself a test as to how many you can recall. Obviously, keep a list of all the words somewhere -- create your own personal dictionary, but not only with definitions, but how you saw/heard the word used (ie transcribe the sentence if it's from a book).

I always found I could remember things better** if I wrote them down as I said them (long hand, not typed -- that's important) or if I sang them to a tune.

Then start to use them -- if you and your friends are all talking English, make a game with them of using a new word every day. Better yet if you can talk to/listen to English speakers themselves.

Be a little more careful about using the words in your writing until you're sure you know what they mean and how they are used, though -- it's all too easy even for native English speakers to use new words incorrectly.

And as Aber says, always keep asking here.



** in those days when I could remember things...

 

[Phyrebrat]

Work in inner city London schools ... I have discovered a rich new sub-genre of english since I began teaching in 2006. Some are ghastly, some are straightforward (and often resurrected from an older english vernacular) and some are delightfully funny.

The thing is, I think a lot of them may be particular to region - in this case London - as when I have been in Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle, the kids there use a different palette of equally rich slang. I think the ones which stem from Jamaican patois or Nigerian/S.Leonean pidgin are more ubiquitous across the UK, however. In any case, I am sure there is an urban dictionary you can read online.

I cursed myself to oblivion last week when I used 'innit' contextually and without thinking.

I was giving directions.

I was mortified...

pH

 

[doglim]

Work in inner city London schools ... I have discovered a rich new sub-genre of english since I began teaching in 2006. Some are ghastly, some are straightforward (and often resurrected from an older english vernacular) and some are delightfully funny.

The thing is, I think a lot of them may be particular to region - in this case London - as when I have been in Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle, the kids there use a different palette of equally rich slang. I think the ones which stem from Jamaican patois or Nigerian/S.Leonean pidgin are more ubiquitous across the UK, however. In any case, I am sure there is an urban dictionary you can read online.

I cursed myself to oblivion last week when I used 'innit' contextually and without thinking.

I was giving directions.

I was mortified...

pH

The regional thing certainly applies. It could help develop characters from different regions (even in a created world) if they had different slang.

I don't think I could understand a lot of what somebody from the noth-east would consider slang, as they would use terms I'm not used to.

I found out many people didn't know what 'Trev' or 'gurt' meant when I moved away from home either.

 

[AMB]

Doglim: there are people who don't understand gurt???

Drakai: this is GWD, so my advice is to write. Pick a few words or phrases at random, scribble them down with their meanings, then write a short story (or even just a scene) that uses them correctly. Repeat with the next lot.

You could use this as an extension of TJ's advice. Keep the stories with the rest of your notes.

 

[doglim]

Doglim: there are people who don't understand gurt???

Ha! There are indeed.

I live in East Anglia now and use the phrase 'gurt lush' every now and again (just for a bit of fun). I get very odd looks. Maybe that's just because I look odd, but I'm putting it down to the language.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

In any case, I am sure there is an urban dictionary you can read online.

Watch out for those online urban dictionaries, though. They'll give you the impression that practically every word in the English language has a second meaning which has something to do with sex or genitals, so that you'll be afraid to write anything.

 

[Dream Walker]

If you simply cannot remember the slang phrases, perhaps the old name memory recall trick would be of help? Simply use the slang phrases three times in conversation.
Even if it does not work, it should make for some interesting conversations.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Watch out for those online urban dictionaries, though. They'll give you the impression that practically every word in the English language has a second meaning which has something to do with sex or genitals, so that you'll be afraid to write anything.

Um, don't they?

Firstly, I think, choose your region. Writing anything, but particularly slang, in dialogue needs an ear for the language. I enjoy dialogue and find it pretty straightforward to write but I would struggle to write a book in an eg american voice. But Irish, Scottish, Northern english, Queen's english, holywood blockbuster, no problem...
Once you've chosen the region go and read/watch stuff with that idiom. I woudn't attempt a west of Ireland accent without reverting to Macken/ Synge/ Friel. Interestingly, two of them are playwrights and I use plays a lot to get the sense of a voice. Also, look at really good dialogue writers for the region and see what they use. But, honesty, without knowing the accent/ the ear I think slang is always difficult.

 

[chrispenycate]

Another problem with slang is that it dates a document. Language evolves anyway, and stories from the forties and fifties have already 'quaint' feel to them, but argot is not only geographically limited, it is temporarily bounded, too; anything that was written for a century hence (not uncommon in SF) in beat cant has dated almost to joke levels. So, you might say, has the science on which the story was based, but that is inescapable, while its jargon is unpredictable; but a particular slang (though individual words like 'cool' may keep cycling back like a hula-hoop {would a hula-hoopy ride a penny farthing? No-one knows}), reading a novel in a particular slang is a snapshot in spacetime. Unless you are ready to do a Burgess on us and create a complete, internally consistent language almost from scratch, you are putting a date stamp on your work.

Although my mother tongue is English (UK), actually, since I have lived the last forty years outside English speaking territories I wouldn't dare attempt slang; already my style has diverged enough from the presently spoken version that it seems almost as archaic as Shakespeare (there is always a temptation to couch my work in iambic pentameter); this is not merely my deep-seated pedantry but the general tendency for isolated groups (in this case, an extremely small group of one) to speciate, and become incapable of meaningful interaction with the general population.

There is something to be said for classical Arabic and its belief that nothing worth thinking (for language is not merely {merely!} a way of transmitting information between individuals, it is the structure in which all thought is organised) has occurred since the Q'ran was finalised. But not convenient for writing science fiction.

 

[HoopyFrood]

{would a hula-hoopy ride a penny farthing? No-one knows})

I see what you did there

 

[Astner]

Well, you can download the New Oxford American Dictionary and Thesaurus to look for synonyms of words you're using, and then look up how they're used either by going by the example in the dictionary or Googling it.

Another way is to read a lot.

Let's examine the title of the thread. While it's grammatically accurate it sounds unnatural due to its structure. "Utilize" isn't trivial—something you'd rather use in a report than when talking to your neighbor—so it's better written non-personally, i.e. "how to utilize new words," but then again the term "word" is trivial so aesthetically it may be substituted with "terminology" or "expressions" depending on what you're after.