Choose words that will help you move forward!
To make sure you’re really focusing your energy on the right set of words, the next question you should ask yourself is: will learning this particular set of words help me move forward? Will it help me make progress towards my goal?
Always do the things that will help you move closer towards your specific
goals – everything else is a distraction!
Unless, of course, you’re at a point where you don’t want to or don’t need to make progress anymore (e.g. if you’re fluent enough to read a novel without setting yourself any goals because you’re treating it purely as leisure).
Learn words which will have the biggest impact
You’ve probably heard about the 20/80 rule (also known as the Pareto Principle) by now. When applied to learning foreign languages, the 20/80 rule means that you should learn the 20% of words that you will be able to use 80% of the time.
For example, if your goal is to be able to have a conversation about your family, explaining what they do and what they’re like, what are the 20% of words that you will use 80% of the time? What are the most common words in the language you’re learning? These are the words you should be focusing your energy on.
How do you know what they are, though?
One way to go about finding out is to simply look it up online. There’s no point reinventing the wheel. The internet is full of frequency lists.
The most common verbs/nouns/adjectives in Russian, French or Spanish, or the most frequent Kanji in Japanese – search for it in your native or target language and you’ll be surprised what you can find.
