When you study new vocabulary, what do you do to memorize it? Habits that once served you well might not work the same for you as you become more advanced. It’s a good idea to have a variety of techniques that you can use to help you internalize the new language.
Rote Memory
Again, again, and again.
Do you write it over and over again? Do you repeat it a number of times out loud? That kind of repetition is called rote memory.
This memorization method can be helpful when learning an alphabet, vocabulary sets, spelling, and set phrases. Rote memory is especially helpful when you need to remember something, such as a phone number, just until you can write it down.
And that is the issue with this technique: it is mostly beneficial for the short term. The number of repetitions needed to ingrain something in your memory permanently is quite high, and in my personal opinion, there are better ways to use your time.
Spaced Repetition
Can you remember it later?
Spaced repetition is more about the spacing and less about the repetition. This method is fantastic for recall, i.e. getting the information out of your memory so you can use it.
The basis of this technique is that if you can recall something easily, you don’t need to spend as much time on it as things that are harder. If the easy things become difficult again, they should be looked at more often.
One way to set this up manually for vocabulary is to make flash cards for yourself and have a few different containers or separators. When I started doing this, I separated them by twice a day, once a day, once a week, and once a month. I looked at my twice-a-day cards with breakfast and dinner, my once-a-day cards with lunch, my once-a-week cards on Sundays, and my once-a-month cards on the 15th.
All cards start in the most frequent category. When you get the answer correct for a card, it goes into the next category. If you get it wrong, it moves back down to the most frequent category.
The problem with doing it in this way is that most of us aren’t completely honest with ourselves. We might think, “Yeah, that’s what I meant.” Or, “That’s close enough.” Or, “I knew that, I don’t need to put it back into the first category.”
It’s hard to recognize, but try not to do that. The more honest you are with yourself about whether you can recall it quickly and accurately the more helpful it will be.
There are plenty of apps these days to help you like AnkiApp, Quizlet, and Memrise. There are other apps and sites for specific languages, like WaniKani for Japanese (for English speakers), that you can find through an internet search.
Mnemonic Devices
You can remember how to spell this word if you like M&Ms because it’s M, n, em.
Mnemonic techniques can be used in so many ways. Basically, it is a tool to help you remember information. These tools include, but are not limited to, rhymes, songs, acronyms, phrases, sentences, brief stories, and images.
The point of using these things isn’t just to represent a straight forward definition. Whichever way you choose to remember the information, it should make you feel something — strange, funny, sad, angry, rhythmic, etc.
For example, many American students learn about the order of operations in math [(), ^, *, /, +, -] using PEMDAS or “Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally”. It stands for parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction. So, before you do math, you need to excuse your aunt. What’s wrong with her? That’s up to you.
One that I’ve made for myself is to remember the word 용기, Korean for courage. 용 sometimes means dragon, which is a pretty brave animal. 기 sometimes means machine. So, if I want courage, I need to turn on my dragon machine.
Songs are extremely helpful in memorization. Most of us have learned a song about our alphabet and actually sing it to ourselves when we need to discern alphabetic order. Why do we do that? We’ve attached the order to the song and, therefore, made it easier to recall in that way.
Systems like Memrise and WaniKani mnemonics along with spaced repetition to really boost your recall ability.
I hope these will help you while you learn a new language! Comment below if you have more memorization techniques.
Thanks for reading.
English Explanations 