Helping you to think your way to an excellent life!
The Major System Using Mnemonics for Exams

Learning Foreign Languages

Foreign languages are the ideal subject area for the use of memory techniques: the process of learning words is essentially a matter of association - associating what is initially a meaningless collection of syllables with a word in a language that we understand.

Traditionally this association has been carried out by repetition - saying the word in ones own language and the foreign language time and time and time and time again.

This whole tedious way of acquiring vocabulary can be eliminated by three good techniques:

  1. Using mnemonic techniques to link foreign and own-language words: the Linkword technique
  2. The Town Language Mnemonic
  3. The hundred most common words.

Systems Needed

Before we explain how to remember vocabulary, you will need to understand the principles of:

  1. 1. The Roman Room memory system
  2. 2. The link memory method.

Explanation of Language Mnemonics

1. The LinkWord Technique

The LinkWord technique uses an image to link a word in one language with a word in another language. The following are examples of use of the LinkWord technique: 

 English:French vocabulary
      rug/carpet - tapis -  image of an ornate oriental carpet with a tap as the 
                            central design woven in chrome thread
      grumpy - grognon -    a grumpy man groaning with irritation
      to tease - taquiner - a wife teasing her husband as she takes in the 
                            washing.

The technique was formalised by Dr. Michael Gruneborg. LinkWord language books have been produced in many language pairs to help students acquire the basic vocabulary needed to get by in a language (usually about 1000 words). It is claimed that using this technique this basic vocabulary can be acquired in just 10 hours.

2. The Town Language Mnemonic (Editor's Choice)

This is a very elegant, effective mnemonic designed by Dominic O'Brien that fuses a sophisticated variant of the Roman Room system with the LinkWord system described above.

The fundamental principle rests on the fact that the basic vocabulary of a language relates to everyday things: things that are typically found in a small town, city, or village. The basis of the technique is that the student should choose a town that he or she is very familiar with, and should use objects within that place as the cues to recall the images that link to foreign words.

Nouns in the town

Nouns should be associated to the most relevant locations: the image coding the foreign word for book should be associated with a book on a shelf in the library. The word for bread should be associated with an image of a loaf in a baker's shop. Words for vegetables should be associated with parts of a display outside a greengrocer's shop. Perhaps there is a farm just outside the town that allows all the animal name associations to be made.

Adjectives in the park

Adjectives should be associated with a garden or park within the town: words such as green, smelly, bright, small, cold, etc. can be easily related to objects in a park. Perhaps there is a pond there, a small wood, perhaps people with different characteristics are walking around.

Verbs in the sports centre

Verbs can most easily be associated with a sports centre or playing field. This allows us all the associations of lifting, running, walking, hitting, eating, swimming, driving, etc.

Remembering Genders

In a language where gender is important, a very elegant method of remembering this is to divide your town into two main zones where the gender is only masculine and feminine, or three where there is a neutral gender. This division can be by busy roads, rivers, etc. To fix the gender of a noun, simply associate its image with a place in the correct part of town. This makes remembering genders so easy!

Many Languages, many towns

Another elegant spin-off of the technique comes when learning several languages: normally this can cause confusion. With the town mnemonic, all you need do is choose a different city, town or village for each language to be learned. Ideally this might be in the relevant country, however practically it might just be a local town with a slight flavour of the relevant country, or twinned with it.

3. The hundred most common words

Tony Buzan, in his book 'Using your Memory', points out that just 100 words comprise 50% of all words used in conversation in a language. Learning this core 100 words gets you a long way towards learning to speak in that language, albeit at a basic level.

Click here to see the 100 basic words.

Summary

The three approaches to learning language shown here can be extremely effective in helping to learn a foreign language, in terms of pointing out the most important words to learn, showing how to link words in your own language to words in a foreign language, and showing how to structure recall of the language through use of the town mnemonic.

The 100 basic words

 The 100 basic words used in conversation are shown below. These typically comprise around 50% of all words used: 
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. goodbye   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
From: 'Use Your Memory', Tony Buzan, BBC Books, London, ISBN 0-5633-37102-1 Mind Maps

References

The Major System Using Mnemonics for Exams

Return to Memory Techniques page

Return to Mind Tools home page

Hits on this page since 10 January 1998:

Hits on Mind Tools site since 10 January 1998:

© Mind Tools Ltd., 1995-8