Hello, do you, like me, have a hard time learning new languages? Is it exhausting and frustrating to try again and again, but with no progress being made?
What is a mnemonic system? Simply put, it’s the brain’s natural way of making connections and it works especially well with languages.
Instead of rote memorisation (rote learning is a memorisation technique based on repetition), using mnemonic techniques will help you memorise and recall foreign words more efficiently than ever before.
How does it work? The table below shows how it works. For this example, we’ll look at the Polish language to visualise and convert English to Polish words, then cement the translations firmly in your mind for easy recall.
| English | Polish | Phonetically (Sounds Like) |
Remember |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Brother | Brat | Brat | Brat: Imagine the brother being naughty, turning the TV Channel over, shouting, generally acting like a brat. |
| The Sister | Siostra | Show-Stra |
Show: Imagine the sister, singing in a show.
Stra: Sounds like Straw but without pronouncing the end letter W. Imagine her trying to drink via a Straw, whilst singing. She’s not very sucessful, in the same way Stra doesn’t successfully sound like Straw. |
| The Mother | Matka | Mat-Ka |
Mat: Imagine the mother on a mat in the middle of a busy road.
Ca: Sounds like Car without the r at the end. Car horns blaring, frustrated drivers trying to move around her. |
| The Father | Ojciec | Oiy-Jets |
Oiy: Imagine the father shouting ‘Oiy’ to you, to get your attention…
Jets: …of the Jets flying overhead. |
Above displays only a few examples, mainly to show how the system works. More to the point though, you need to make up your own associations for this to work correctly for you. Use the cloud area below to build your list of translated words.
