Ten tips to build English vocabulary

Feeling overwhelmed trying to memorize so many vocabulary words? It doesn't need to be a daunting task! Check out these top strategies and practical pointers that can help you build your word power!
Connect: It's easier to memorize words based on a common theme. Make your own connections between words and possibly organize them in a spider diagram.
Write: Practically using vocabulary can help it stick in your mind. Write sentences with new vocabulary words or compose a story using a group of words or expressions.
Draw: Expose the artist in you by drawing pictures related to the words you study. Your drawings can help trigger your memory in the future.
Act: Get your moves on by acting out words and expressions you learn. Or, imagine and act out a situation where you would need to use them.
Create: Design flashcards in English and study them in your spare time. Each week make new ones, but continue to review all of them.
Associate: Assign different colors to different words. This association will help you recall vocabulary later.
Listen: Think about other words which sound similar to the words you're learning, especially complex words. Associate the other words with this new word to help you remember the pronunciation.
Choose: Remember that topics that interest you will be easier to learn. Therefore, carefully select words that you will find useful or interesting. Even the process of making the choice is a memory aid!
Limit: Don't try to memorize the dictionary in a day! Limit yourself to 15 words per day, and you'll gain confidence instead of feeling overwhelmed.
Observe: Keep an eye out for the words you're studying when reading or listening to English.

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Don't Panic the Skunks

Marlene, a mother of six children, walked into the house one day and spotted her children huddled together in a circle. When Marlene approached her children to see what the intense interst was, she could hardly believe her eyes. In the middle of the circle of attention were several baby skunks.

The shocked mother screamed at the top of her voice, "Children! Run, run, run!"

At the sound of their mother's alarmed voice, the children each grabbed a skunk and ran. The screaming and panicking set of the danger alarm in the skunks, of course, and each one off them dispelled its horrible scent. Each and every child became mercilessly doused with the hideous smell.

The lesson here is quite simple: The mother had caused the very chaos the she feared simply by

overreacting to the situation. We can learn a lot about people and their reactions from this story.

Allowing situtions to be blown out of proportion does not help to handle difficult situations or difficult

people, for that matter. Don't allow another's difficult behavior to consume your life. It may caouse th double

stress - or as it was this case, six-times as much stress!

Once we become adults, most of us recognize without a doubt that social skills are critical to success and happiness throughout life. We need to effectively work with others, resolve conflicts, communicate, and make and sustain relationships. Friendship is not a structured curriculum taught along with reading and math. Children usually learn the subtle nuances of social interaction through trial, error, and experience, and by watching the adults around them succeed in social situations. But, so do we! We adults must learn these things as well ... remembering to:

• 
  Effectively work with others - Assumptions are the termites of relationships. ~Henry Winkler
• Resolve conflicts - Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future. ~Paul Boese
• Communicate - When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen. ~Earnst Hemingway
• Make and sustain relationships - To know when to be generous and when firm—that is wisdom. ~ Elbert Hubbard

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You, too? Thought I was the only one." ~C.S. Lewis

Of course, it goes without saying (ha ha ha), that speaking too loudly will irritate your listener!
A smooth, easy cadence when speaking will endear your listener to you and what you have to say. Make a choice to use a natural, friendly and pleasant voice.
Be aware of your voice and how it sounds. When you have a smile in your heart, it reflects in the tone of your voice. Which brings me to CELL-PHONES!

Cell phones are a technological privilege that most of us, of course, find useful in our day-to-day lives. At the same time, however, many people agree that cell-phones have also created an unwanted intrusion in our lives.
According to a recent article in the Washington Post, a transit police officer arrested a woman who was disturbing the peace with loud cell-phone talk. She has been charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Sakinah Aaron had, in George Saoutis’s view, been talking just a bit too loudly into her mobile as she walked into a Metro station in Washington DC. He told the pregnant 23-year-old to lower her voice - and was promptly informed that he had no right to tell her how to speak. There followed a verbal exchange and some pushing and shoving before Aaron found herself stewing for three hours in a cell.
Eventually, she was released but the Transit Police say the officer was protecting the peace by removing a woman who had overstepped the boundaries of civil behavior because she was loudly cursing into her phone.
While some free speech advocates say it's the Transit Police who overstepped boundaries, others believe that when it gets to the point where people are not using proper speech etiquette, the proprietor of a closed space has the right to enforce the etiquette.

Here are a few guidelines to follow in cell-phone etiquette, which we can apply when speaking face to face with a person, as well:

Speak softly and gently so you may not disturb others
Keep your distance from other people
Keep you conversation private
Keep a civil and pleasant tone
Turn off your cell phone or put it on vibrate or in silent mode where it would be rude if a phone rang. (such as at the movie, or during church - for heaven's sake!)

Initiative:
One of the great advantages of the swan is its abiltiy to fly as a flock in a V-formation. Its speed would be drastically reduced were it not for the flock's ability to fly in this manner. The whistling swan is capable of attaining speeds up to 100 miles per hour.
It has been calculated that 25 birds flying in a V-formation are able to travel 70% farther than one swan flying by itself. This tremendous increase in distance is possible because the lead swan "breaks the trail" for the others which follow. Consequently, air resistance is lessened as each swan benefits from the upwash of the widening wake of the one preceding it. Less total lift power is required!
The lead swan has the most difficult task. When it becomes tired, however, it drops back and a new leader takes over, giving it an opportunity to rest. For some swans the great northerly return flight may be as long as 3,000 miles. Because of the initiative of one swan in taking the lead, the swans are able to relieve the pressure from others in the flock and greatly increase the speed at which they travel!

"A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm." -- Enrik Ibsen

"Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things." -- Jesse Jackson

"Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself." --Thomas J. Watson