Opposite Learning

Do I mean forgetting? Not at all! I mean learning vocabulary of opposite meaning at the same time. So if you’re going to learn the adjective beautiful in your target language - then learn ugly at the same time. If you’re going to learn big, learn small…

(If you’re slightly concerned about the axes, worry not! That’s my symbol for opposites. I’ll explain my reason for this later in the post…)

Why learn this way?

Because our minds thrive when they learn new information in a context - that is, no word is an island. Words work together to signify meaning. Our conception of small is understood as opposed to our conception of big. If I were to ask you what boring means, you may say something along the lines of not very exciting. Well there you go…

This technique works especially well with adjectives. But you can also use it when learning verbs and prepositions…

and nouns…

OK, I’ll admit some of those opposites were a bit of a stretch. But as long as they’re not a stretch for you then that’s fine.

How to learn with opposites?

Opposite flashcards

A cool way to put all of this into practice is to write vocabulary lists full of opposite words. Then, when making flashcards, instead of writing the translation on the flip-side, write the opposite. You’ll be surprised how much having two opposite words jogs your memory. Best of all, we’re not relying on our native language at all. 

Opposite sentences

As I said earlier, its all about context. At Ihsan Arabic, after just a few lesson, I encourage my students to learn new vocabulary through writing lots of short sentences with new words. I love it when my students integrate opposites into these sentences:

The man is tall and the boy is short.

So what’s all this about axes?

The word for opposite in Arabic is:

عَكْسٌ - (aks)

It has nothing to do with axes but it’s definitely an easy way to remember the word! Anyhow, I’ll leave you with a short sentence using this word. Do you know what it means? Do you agree? 

إن عكس الحب هو اللامبالاة