When you are looking around for some professional help to learn a new language or enhance your vocabulary and sentence structure in your own language you will often find some teachers and teaching professionals who encourage memorization and vocabulary first as a way to learn it. They believe you shouldn’t have to look up words and meanings in order for them to be memorized.
I would like to give you a couple of more efficient memory tips to help you memorize faster and retain it longer, but in a different way. Our brains are not wired to learn from lists (called the phonebook method), where you have to repeat the word a few times for it to “stick.” By the time you move on to the next word or series of words you will have forgotten the previous ones.
The most effective way to retain what you are learning is to associate the word with something you are familiar with – through your senses. Imagery is the vocabulary learning process. When we listen to a description, or see a picture or video, we put an image in our heads that links it to the word. For instance: When we hear the words “apple pie” we may be reminded of the hot apple pie sitting on the counter at your grandmother’s house. You not only picture the image of the pie in your head you actually can smell the apples and cinnamon coming out of it. That is imagery.
As children many of us were taught words by having flash cards shown to us. We were to read the word, or see the picture and then give your parent or teacher the word the picture represented. If you saw a baseball bat you would say, “bat,” if you saw a balloon you would say the word and maybe the color. Flashcards are good learning tools, where the pictures and the words work together, and excellent for learning language through imagery. You can even get digital flash card online, some for free; that you can tailor to the language you are learning — as well as other subjects.
Another memory tool, “language mnemonics,” allows you to build a “visual bridge” in order to associate the word with the image. In learning a new language, building a visual bridge will help you associate the new word with a corresponding word in your native tongue. For example: the word “pan” means bread in French. This is a simple association, since you can visualize a piece of French bread baking in a long pan. When you think of “bread” in French you will automatically think of bread in a pan, which links them together in your memory.
When using mnemonics you should make the images as visual, and as humorous, as possible. Make it colorful and crazy, humor imbeds the image deeper into your memory and makes it easier to lock in for a longer period. You also will find you are learning quicker, and more, because you are having fun doing it.
By allowing yourself to have fun and let the words flow naturally, you will not only enjoy learning language skills you will retain them. Make the use of interactive tools, repeat the words often, and make learning a memory game, not just something you feel you need to do.
My name is Ron White, two-time USA Memory Champion. Your senses are important when trying to learn a new language, or to improve your vocabulary in your native tongue. As a memory expert I highly recommend people use the information I have provided above. It will not only improve your language skills, it will add new brain cells and connections to enhance your memory.
Sources:
Articlesbase.com – How To Memorize Words Faster And Better, by Michael Gabrikow – https://articlesbase.com/best-project-management-software-for-education/
eHow Family — How to Memorize Fast and Remember More: http://www.ehow.com/how_4921171_memorize-fast-remember.html
