Improve Your Memory And Learn A Foreign Language
Learning a foreign language is a good method that one can use to practice techniques in
improving the memory. Learning a new set of vocabulary is often a matter of association of a
nonsensical set of syllables with a counterpart in your own language.
Normally, most people have related foreign words by repeating it over and over again. You can
improve this laborious way of learning by using two main techniques:
1. Use Mnemonics
This is a very simple method of using the association method. You can use images to link a word
or phrases in your own language and its counterpart in the foreign one.
As an example, in learning English-Spanish vocabulary:
English: apple – Spanish: manzana – you can associate the last letter of manzana to the first letter
of the word apple
English: olives – Spanish: oliva – just eliminate the last letter and pronounce it as olive
This kind of mnemonics was popularized by Michael Gruneberg as the LinkWord technique. Dr
Gruneberg also published language books that aid language students in learning vocabulary sets
needed to speak fluently. It is believed that using the LinkWord Technique, you can learn a new
vocabulary set in just a day or two according to your needs.
2. The Town Language Mnemonic
This type of mnemonic technique is a combination of the Roman Room System with the
Linkword Technique. This technique is based on the fact that the regular vocabulary of a
language relates to common things – things that you normally find in a town. In using this
technique, choose a place that you know. You can use objects within the town as cues to
remember the pictures that relate to the foreign vocabulary.
For example, in learning nouns, you can associate common words to the most relevant locations.
You can relate the word for a book with an image in a library. Words for fruits can be associated
in a fruit stand. You can also find a market inside the town where you can learn foreign names of
vegetables.
In learning adjectives, you can relate common words to a garden or a park. Words such as green,
fragrant, dark, large, hot etc can be easily associated to common objects in the park. You can
also find a public pool or a pond or even people and describe what you see.
If you want to learn verbs, you can learn it all in a gym or a sports center. Most activities in the
sports center can be associated with foreign words for walking, dancing, jumping, swimming etc.
If you are learning a language where gender is important, an effective method is to recall it by
dividing into two main categories. In one group you can code data on male gender nouns, while
on the other group you can associate information on female gender nouns. If the language has
other gender, then associate proper groups. You can associate these divisions with roads, ponds,
lakes, rivers. Simply relate the picture with a place in the right group of the town.
Another easy way of remembering foreign words is to memorize the 100 most common words in
a language. Just point out the most important words that you need to learn. Also you could show
how these words are related into your own language.