23 super strategies to memorize foreign words more easily

Learning a language is impossible without memorizing new words. However, apart from boring and tiring methods, there are many simple and effective ways to learn unknown words.

O awesome.club published a list of really useful ways to memorize foreign words.

First, you need to understand how you best absorb information. If you are an auditory memory person, the method of reading the words over and over will not be as efficient as listening to the words, for example. And maybe you never realize that and continue spending hours in front of your notebook without understanding why you can’t memorize anything.

TRADITIONAL STRATEGIES

Take a notebook. Write the words in two or three columns: word/translation. Write down synonyms, antonyms and some examples of their use. From time to time, read your lists, just look at them, without memorizing them.

I don’t know how it works exactly, but for example, I never spent hours learning new German words, I just read my notebook every now and then. The teacher never gave us dictations or tested our knowledge of word lists. However, so far, I remember a lot of terms.

As a result, don’t push yourself, don’t try to absorb 100 words in 30 minutes, just review the material gradually. But it is important that, in addition to seeing these words in texts, articles, and in your notebook, you use them in some way.

This is the second most popular method. Cut out several cards or buy a notebook. On one part of the card, write a word. In another, its translation. More experienced users can even include examples. Review your cards one by one, and separate the ones that are already well memorized. From time to time, take a look at them to remind yourself. The downside of this method is that if you have to learn a lot of words quickly, you will spend a lot of time making cards.

To make the process more relaxed, separate the cards into groups of 10 and distribute them in various parts of the house, so that you can find them from time to time and remember what has already been learned. For this method to work for people with an auditory memory as well, the words must be pronounced. Since children are very fond of these cards, this method can become a fun game.

It’s a classic technique. Write the word you want to learn from time to time. It’s great for learning Chinese ideograms. The downside is that it is an extremely tedious method. Despite this, its effectiveness has been proven for centuries.

4. ‘Half Sheet’ Method

One of my favorites. Fold a sheet in half. In one corner write the word, and in the other its translation. You can check if it’s correct easily. As I am a person with a visual memory, the method works perfectly, as I can easily memorize which part of the page the word is written on. Disadvantage: Getting used to the sequence of words.

5. ‘Interior Designer’ method

If you are learning some specific vocabulary, mainly about a close subject, it is possible to create ‘labels’, using post it with the names of the objects. Pasting hard-to-memorize words onto your computer screen is also effective. The advantage of this method is that it is a fun way of learning. But it has the downside that the brain starts ignoring all these labels if they stick too long.

OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES

6. Group words according to grammatical characteristics

If you have a long list of words, the biggest mistake is to learn them without any system. It is possible, and even necessary, to organize and group these words. For example, write down verbs, grouping them by their endings, or separate nouns by gender (masculine/feminine). Words that do not fit into any category form a separate group.

This way, you’ll start to see the logic of the language you’re learning and memorize the words in relation to the others.

7. Group words by meaning

Write down and memorize a word and its synonym/antonym at the same time. This is a current strategy for both beginners and more advanced students. In other words, learn to say the word ‘good’ and see how to say ‘bad’. And if you learn how to say ‘so-so’, ‘perfect’ and ‘terrible’, it will incredibly enrich your vocabulary.

8. Group words by morphology

Organize the words by the root, for example, “employment/employment/employee”, and in this way you will learn several words at once that are related to each other and belong to different parts of the sentences.

It works great for those who have already learned several languages. When someone dedicates himself to studying several languages ​​within the same linguistic branch, he begins to see common roots between them. In fact, that comes with experience; over time, the need to learn a huge amount of words again disappears. At some point you realize you already know enough. And when you don’t see any meaning in a word, get an etymological dictionary to look up its origins. And while you do that, memorize the word.

Take a series of words you need to learn and make them a story (never mind how incoherent it is). In this way, you won’t learn 30 words, but 5 sentences of 6 words each. If you use your creativity, you can spend time learning in a fun way.

NON-TRADITIONAL STRATEGIES

11. Spaced Repetition (Repeats with intervals)

This technique of memorizing words consists of repeating the learned words at intervals that increase over time. It is possible to install an application on your cell phone that will automatically teach you words in a set order and with the necessary intervals. You can use a predefined list of words or create your own list. Advantage: words really stay in memory. Disadvantages: takes a long time. If you’ve already memorized a word, they keep appearing from time to time in different lists. The most popular application of this method is called Anki.
memrise.com

On the Memrise site you can also learn pre-determined lists or create your own lists. If it is not possible to memorize a word per category, you can use fun images created by the users of the site, who use mnemonic methods or use your own images. A new option has also been included in Memrise: In addition to listening to the pronunciation of some words, it is possible to watch videos with their pronunciations.
quizlet.com

You can create your lists and manage various ways to review your knowledge (tests, multiple choice, spelling, etc). It’s a good way for those who like to test their knowledge with games.

It is a portal to work with written language for those who already master the basics of the language. Each user writes a text in the studied language, and a native speaker of the language can correct it.

‘magic’ strategies

Magic strategies are widely used by advertising professionals and language specialists. In general, they are described as “secret special services techniques”, which, more directly speaking, are found in a multitude of books. And they usually charge a lot to teach these techniques.

Mnemonics is one of the most popular forms of learning, which consists of thinking of some fun and absurd word associations that you cannot memorize at all. Choose a word and associate with it something that must be very strong and alive, but that has a “key” to the meaning of each word.

FOR PEOPLE WITH HEARING MEMORY

Rule #1: Always pronounce what you are learning. If using cards, always read them aloud. When reading a word list, ditto. Listen to the words, because for you, it’s the best way to remember them. Of course, you’ll have to write them down too, but you’ll definitely learn them more easily than trying to memorize them silently.

You can listen to audio lists of words and repeat them along with the speaker. In general, good textbooks accompany audio content with word lists. It is also possible to listen to quality podcasts where there is a detailed analysis of each dialogue.
On the Forvo.com page you can listen to the pronunciation of any word as many times as you need.

This method is similar to the method of continuously writing words, and it is also very tedious and tiring. However, it is very effective: repeat out loud what you are learning from time to time. It is assumed that a word can be considered learned if you use it five times in a subject. So try to find 5 examples of usage for that word. Out loud, of course. You can also reinforce knowledge by writing it down. It’s a strategy for those who really don’t want to use any word lists.

If your vocabulary level is very high and you don’t have an urgent need to expand it, the simplest thing is to read a lot. You can mark new words and even write them down (it works better than any other strategy, but not everyone likes it). When reading, you learn about the context of the meaning of an unknown word, you ‘fill’ yourself with words that become a passive vocabulary. However, reading does not always help to activate these words, that is, to progress in language learning, in addition to reading, you must use some other method.

It is possible to read and make your word lists with the help of ReadLang.

IMPORTANT TIPS FOR EVERYONE

Learn words in context

Don’t learn a list of words just as it is. Always learn them in context, choose examples and expressions. Study with a dictionary.

Learn memory dialogs

Memorizing a few short dialogues or texts with useful vocabulary will help you remember and use certain words when needed. This will take time and effort, but over time, you will have a set of ready-made structures in your head that you can use with peace of mind.

Ask someone to rate you

Ask your spouse/mother/child/friend to ask you questions and assess how well they know the meaning of the words on their lists. Obviously, they won’t qualify you, but it will work as an element of control and discipline.

Learn what you really need

In one of my books, the word ‘hoe’ was found more easily than the words ‘short’ and ‘long’. Don’t learn this and other unnecessary nonsense until you learn really useful and up-to-date vocabulary.

How to determine what is current? There is a plethora of books and word lists, like “1000 most important words”. First, learn the most frequent words of a language, and then the ‘hoes’, not the other way around. If you still don’t know how to determine this, or if you don’t know personal pronouns well, it’s still too early to learn colors, no matter how much you want to.

Approach the learning process with creativity

If everything is bothering you, you can’t memorize the words and you want to close all your word lists, then give it a try! For some, drawings work, for others, walking around the house and saying the words out loud, and some speak…