Using Imagination: A Tip on Memorizing Words in Foreign Language

Have you struggled when trying to memorize words in a language you were trying to learn? It is frustrating. Sometimes it feels like no matter how many times you repeat the word, and translation for that word, you still can’t easily recall the word.  But there is a way. This particular way uses our brains’ tendency to remember ordinary things in an odd or creative way, a way that stands out in our minds. This way of learning a foreign language is by word “association”. What do I mean? Recently I was reading a chapter on food in my Spanish textbook and I was trying to memorize food stuffs. The words “legumbres”, “frutas” and “tomates” were easy to remember because they sound almost the same as the words in English. “Legumbres” are almost like “legumes”,  “frutas” sounds  like “fruits” and “tomates “ are just like “tomatoes” -- plain and simple. But what about words like “mantequilla”, which means butter, “los guisantes”, which means peas and “al horno”, which means baked? How in the world do you remember these? The key is using imagination to come up with an odd picture involving the word you are trying to memorize.

Take, for example, the word “mantequilla”. What English word(s) does it sound like? To me, it sounds like two words, “man” and “tequila”. Now I need to come with an odd picture involving words “butter”, “man” and “tequila”. I can picture a man made out of butter drinking tequila. Next time I try to recall word “butter” this picture will most likely come up in my mind. Man plus tequila equals butter. Now I can quickly recall the Spanish word for butter.

Now I will take the next Spanish word “los guisantes”. This word sounds like “geese” and “ants” to me, but it means “peas” in Spanish.  I need to come up with an odd picture involving geese and ants and peas. Why not to put geese and ants together, roaming around eating peas. Not quite odd enough? Make the ants the same size as the geese who eat from the same buckets filled with peas.

The third word I am trying to learn is “al horno”, which means “baked”. With a little bit of a stretch “al horno” sounds, to me, like “horn in the oven”. In real life it would be odd to see a horn in the oven, baking away; this is an odd picture that stands out in my mind. So the next time I try to recall the word, “baked”, the picture of a horn in the oven -- “horno”-- will come up.

You get the idea. Maybe you would like to try this method and see if learning new words in a foreign language is easier. This method is one way you might use your imagination to increase your new vocabulary in a foreign language.