Parleo
A list of fifty words written in a notebook is forgotten in a week. Not because of bad memory, but because a list is an ineffective format. A word stays in your head when you encounter it several times at increasing intervals and pronounce it aloud at least once.
Why lists don't work
With a list, a person makes one movement: rereading from top to bottom. The first five words are repeated more often than the rest, the last ones are not repeated at all, and the order in the list becomes part of the memory — the word doesn't surface outside the list.
Plus, a list is usually not made up of your words. A top 100 words for travel is useful only until you need to say "my filling fell out" in a dentist's chair in Istanbul.
The reverse order works: a word enters your vocabulary because you stumbled upon it and needed it.
Spaced repetition: six dates instead of a notebook
The idea is simple. A new word is shown immediately, then after one day, then after three, seven, sixteen, and thirty days. If you answer correctly, the interval grows; if you make a mistake, the word returns to the beginning.
These six steps are exactly what we have built into our dictionary: 0, 1, 3, 7, 16, and 30 days. By the end of the chain, you will have encountered the word six times on different days – this is usually enough for it to no longer feel foreign.
The point of intervals is that repetition happens the moment you're about to forget. Repeating what you already remember is useless, and cramming the same thing five times in a row in one evening is even more so.
A card, not a translation line
A line like «reluctant — unwilling» gives you nothing: it is not clear where to put the word. So a card in Parleo has four parts: the meaning, an example in English, the situation it fits and a real photo.
The photo is not just decoration. During repetition, it's shown first, before the word, and you recall the meaning through the image, not through the Russian translation. This way, an unnecessary intermediary in the form of your native language doesn't stand between the English word and the object.
The situation in Russian answers the question of where this is even said. Without it, it's easy to learn a word and never be able to use it.
The word is caught where it was encountered
The most valuable word is the one that stopped you five minutes ago: in an article, in a TV series, in a chat. An hour later, you won't remember it.
On Android, a word can be highlighted directly in any app, and Parleo appears in the selection menu — the card will assemble itself. Two more ways: say the word aloud or type it in manually. Then it lives in the general list and comes up for scheduled repetition, with a reminder when a batch has accumulated.
How many words per day
Five to seven new words a day is a pace that can be sustained for months. Twenty-five new words in an evening looks like a sprint, but after three days you'll quit because the repetition queue will build up and become intimidating.
Count days without skipping, not words learned. Thirty days of five words gives one hundred and fifty words that you actually use, and that's more than "learn a thousand words in a month" provides.
Speaking aloud is a mandatory part
A word you've only read won't surface in conversation: recognition and reproduction are different things. Therefore, it's useful not just to look at the card, but to pronounce it, and preferably right away in a phrase.
The fastest way to check is to talk about where the word is appropriate and see if it comes to you naturally. If it does, it's yours. If Russian popped up instead, repeat tomorrow.
What to do right now
- Add three words from what you read today. Not from a "top 100" list, but from your own feed.
- Tomorrow, repeat them and add three more.
- A week later, try to build a conversation with them aloud — you'll immediately see which ones have stuck.
Then the system will remind you when to return to each one. You'll just have to maintain the habit, not remember the schedule.
Twenty requests are free: no card, no registration. You press the microphone and speak — Parleo responds with voice and shows errors.
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