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On memory palaces...
Feb. 27th, 2013 10:53 pmI've been reading a monograph on the use of memory palaces for language learning (and am just too lazy to hie myself downstairs to get the title) and decided to give some thought to a question that has bothered me from time to time: When devising mnemonics for foreign vocabulary, is it more important to create mnemonics that allow you to recall the foreign word for a meaning you intend to express, or to recall the meaning of the foreign word. Or are both of roughly equal importance, and if this is the case, how best to approach this kind of "mnemonization."
Personally, I think mnemonics that enable the recollection of the foreign word for a meaning you want to express are of paramount importance. This observation is based on my academic and practical experience with French and Russian, and I'm finding it to be the case currently with Spanish, which is by far my weakest language (the extent of my "formal" training in Spanish was following along with Miss Smith in 6th grade, as she guided us through the pages of a paperback titled See It And Say It In Spanish).
Not long ago, I picked up a copy of the tantalizingly titled Aprende un Idioma en 7 Dias, by Ramón Campayo. I find that I can understand at least 1/3 of the text based on a combination of whatever stuck during 6th grade, whatever I have absorbed through the process of "social osmosis" (e.g., exposure to signs, especially advertising and warning), the occasional similarity of Spanish to French (e.g., sin duda ~ sans doute), and context. This, in the fact of the certain knowledge that I could not stumble my way through attempting to reproduce any of the content if left to my own resources.
Unfamiliar words in written text can either be inferred from context (not a method that guarantees 100% accuracy, but entirely workable), or can be asked about in the course of conversation, so I think the question of the preferred "direction" of mnemonization is, to a first approximation, answered.
Cheers...
Personally, I think mnemonics that enable the recollection of the foreign word for a meaning you want to express are of paramount importance. This observation is based on my academic and practical experience with French and Russian, and I'm finding it to be the case currently with Spanish, which is by far my weakest language (the extent of my "formal" training in Spanish was following along with Miss Smith in 6th grade, as she guided us through the pages of a paperback titled See It And Say It In Spanish).
Not long ago, I picked up a copy of the tantalizingly titled Aprende un Idioma en 7 Dias, by Ramón Campayo. I find that I can understand at least 1/3 of the text based on a combination of whatever stuck during 6th grade, whatever I have absorbed through the process of "social osmosis" (e.g., exposure to signs, especially advertising and warning), the occasional similarity of Spanish to French (e.g., sin duda ~ sans doute), and context. This, in the fact of the certain knowledge that I could not stumble my way through attempting to reproduce any of the content if left to my own resources.
Unfamiliar words in written text can either be inferred from context (not a method that guarantees 100% accuracy, but entirely workable), or can be asked about in the course of conversation, so I think the question of the preferred "direction" of mnemonization is, to a first approximation, answered.
Cheers...
