【经济学人】如何在家学习一门外语（2）

As for your initially meagre vocabulary, don't be shy about substituting an English word into your muttering- but look up the equivalent as soon as you can. (If you have a smart speaker, their "How do you say 'tree' in Spanish?" features are rather good. )

meagre adj.瘦的；贫弱的；贫乏的

substitute v.代替，替换，代用（for）

 Keep a list of handy new words on your phone, ideally in a flashcard app. Two more tricks might help you learn more of them. A frequency dictionary has thousands ordered not by the alphabet but how often they are actually used: this quickly gives you the few dozen critical, functional words（功能词）that glue a language together. To enhance your vocab, Memrise is another app that uses spaced repetition（间隔重复）to drive words home.  

handy adj.手边的，就近的；便利的；容易取得的；敏捷的

flashcard n.（教学用）抽认卡

critical adj.关键的，决定性的；危险的；临界的；鉴定的；评论的

New ones are repeated insistently until they stick（译为：直到你记住它们）, then occasionally thereafter as reminders. As soon as you can string a few sentences together, study in quarantine offers a consolation: a lot of language teachers are at home, too, and only a video-call away. For example, Sara, an Italian tutor in the Piedmont region, says her teaching hours have exploded.

thereafter adv.此后；在那之后   soon thereafter 不久以后

consolation n.安慰；慰问   consolation prize 安慰奖

explode v.爆炸；爆发；激增

Italki is a platform that links teachers and students for surprisingly low hourly rates; casual conversation practice is especially cheap, formal instruction slightly pricier.

hourly rates 小时费 （hourly fee）

 Find a highly rated （高评价）teacher and struggle through a half-hour's conversation, shame-free. They can use the chat function of video-call apps to write down words that elude you or that you haven't understood. 

elude vt.逃避，躲避    

elude one's understanding 使人不解  

elude observation 避人耳目

Afterwards you can add them to your flashcards. Finally, there is reading and writing. Keeping a journal can force you to write clearly those tricky bits you've been mumbling, making you confront half-learned material. 

keep a journal 写日记

As for reading, graphic novels （图画小说）are good for a realistic conversational style. And for no-nonsense written prose, find articles in the new language on Wikipedia on a subject you know well. 

prose n.散文；单调  adj.散文的；平凡的；乏味的

Being able to guess unfamiliar terms gives a heartening sense of progress. Browser extensions can make looking up words a snap（译为：轻而易举）. Just doubleclick a word with Google Translate enabled on Chrome, for example. 

term n.条款；地位，关系；措辞；术语；价钱   v.把……称为

heartening adj.令人振奋的

There is no way to learn a language without time and effort. What technology does is make that effort pay off faster. Just remember the goal —— interacting with native speakers in the flesh. You'll be out in the world again one day

pay off 回报

in the flesh 本人；亲自；以肉体形式