“Now, what was that word…” How many times have you said that to yourself? Lots, I bet. I know from my time studying French that learning a word and being able to remember it are two very different things. It’s easy to remember something when you’ve just learned it, but how do you fix it in your memory so that you remember it two, three or four weeks later? Mnemonics that’s how!
What is Mnemonics?
It’s simple really, it’s just another word for a memory tool. Maybe you use some already. Have you heard “Richard of York gave battle in vain” for the colours of the rainbow, or the word HOMES to remember the names of the great lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior)? But, mnemonics don’t have to be the first letters of whatever list it is you are hoping to memorize; they can be made up of anything you want to use. For example, a great way to remember the number of days in each month is with the rhyme, “30 days hath September…” But you could also use the knuckle mnemonic – where each knuckle and the dip in between is a month, the protruding knuckles are the months with 31 days .
Mnemonics for Learning a Foreign Language
If you want to learn new vocabulary, visualisation is a great tool. It’s easy to use and very effective. You simply associate an image, it can be anything you want, to the word you need to remember. To go back to my experience of learning French for some examples, I made it simple by choosing a word in English that sounded similar to the word I wanted to remember to create an image, this in known as ‘linking’. For example, I used the image of a carpet with a tap pattern to remember the French word for carpet which is tapis. I used the image of a goose making a loud ‘waa’ sound to remember the French word for goose, oie.
The 100 most used words
Something else to keep in mind is that, according to Tony Buzan in his book ‘Use your Memory’, there are only about 100 words that you need to learn to achieve a basic working conversational knowledge of any language. These words are:
| 1. A,an
2. After 3. Again 4. All 5. Almost 6. Also 7. Always 8. And 9. Because 10. Before 11. Big 12. But 13. (I) can 14. (I) come 15. Either/or 16. (I) find 17. First 18. For 19. Friend 20. From 21. (I) go 22. Good 23. Good-bye 24. Happy 25. (I) have |
26. He
27. Hello 28. Here 29. How 30. I 31. (I) am 32. If 33. In 34. (I) know 35. Last 36. (I) like 37. Little 38. (I) love 39. (I) make 40. Many 41. One 42. More 43. Most 44. Much 45. My 46. New 47. No 48. Not 49. Now 50. Of |
51. Often
52. On 53. One 54. Only 55. Or 56. Other 57. Our 58. Out 59. Over 60. People 61. Place 62. Please 63. Same 64. (I) see 65. She 66. So 67. Some 68. Sometimes 69. Still 70. Such 71. (I) tell 72. Thank you 73. That 74. The 75. Their |
76. Them
77. Then 78. There is 79. They 80. Thing 81. (I) think 82. This 83. Time 84. To 85. Under 86. Up 87. Us 88. (I) use 89. Very 90. We 91. What 92. When 93. Where 94. Which 95. Who 96. Why 97. With 98. Yes 99. You 100. Your |
If you have any great ways of remembering new words, do let me know so I can pass on your wisdom next time.
