|
 |
Method of loci questions | ||
Tags: Memory | Vocabulary learning | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| bobok Tetraglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 4983 days ago 14 posts - 17 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Russian | Message 41 of 89 24 July 2011 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Hello everybody,
First of all, actually I did read 'moonwalking with einstein'. In this book I actually found the method of loci. By the way, it's a great read. Read it if you're interested I would say. Secondly, I'm thrilled that my post has so many replies. It's very interesting to look at this from another point of view. I haven't posted in a while because I flew to Russia the day before yesterday and in the disorder of that I haven't thought about my topic. I want to thank everyone for posting because it's a great help to me. (And of course I'm in russia to learn russian. ;) ) Right now I'm trying to learn all the russian words I'm missing with the method of loci, although there are indeed some difficulties with them because the words I now still don't now are mostly descriptive. (Like: define, impressive, indepence etc.) Because of this I admit I've lost some of my trust in this method, although I remember that Josh Foer (the author of moonwalking with einstein) also encountered this problem. (And of course I read this book in English ;), there probably isn't a dutch version anyway.) I have another question to add however. In some replies are references to remembering numbers and words for example, but I want to make clear that I have no intention to learn anything else with this method than words. Doesn't anybody think that by focusing solely on words I might be able to effectively use the method of loci earlier than normal? I'm eager to hear all of your opinions again, also, I'm sorry for the possible mistakes in this reply. I wrote it in quite a hurry because I'm terribly bussy here with all my russian friends. Friendly Greetings of Bobok! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| bobok Tetraglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 4983 days ago 14 posts - 17 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Russian | Message 42 of 89 24 July 2011 at 9:28pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Forgot to add the following:
Phonetics and grammar won't be a problem if I decide to use the method of loci. (For russian at least.) I'm already pretty familiar with russian grammar and phonetics. I want to use it solely for learning all the words I already know for example in English or dutch, but miss in russian. I thought that maybe the method of loci would be a quick way to reach the level in russian that it is also possible to have philosophical or intellectual conversations. (Although now i realize that those words would be almost all descriptive...) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6677 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English | Message 43 of 89 24 July 2011 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
If you are studying Russian, you might check this mnemonics method:
http://mnemotexnika.narod.ru/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| jean-luc Senior Member France Joined 4962 days ago 100 posts - 150 votes Speaks: French* Studies: German | Message 44 of 89 25 July 2011 at 12:14am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
I don't understand that, how can you learn a language without memorising the vocabulary and grammar ? Edited by jean-luc on 25 July 2011 at 12:15am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Josh Cohen Newbie United States mnemotechnics.org/ Joined 4878 days ago 35 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, Esperanto | Message 45 of 89 25 July 2011 at 8:16am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
Repeating something over and over in order to remember it is a memorization technique. It's relatively inefficient though.
Memory techniques don't erase your ability to think clearly. You don't unlearn the structure of nouns and verbs when you use a mnemonic image. During review, if you see that you have remembered something incorrectly, you modify the mnemonic image. I've never seen this problem. Well-designed mnemonics actually have the opposite effect--strengthening knowledge of how the words and grammar are constructed.
Linkwords is the only system I've seen that does something similar. The technique I described is basically an expansion of linkwords.
Using mnemonics doesn't affect your ability to think. If you are memorizing through repetition, you still have to say, "comida = food". You do the exact same thing with mnemonics, except much more efficiently. Edited by Josh Cohen on 25 July 2011 at 8:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Josh Cohen Newbie United States mnemotechnics.org/ Joined 4878 days ago 35 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, Esperanto | Message 46 of 89 25 July 2011 at 8:28am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
Words for abstract concepts should be converted into visual images. It gets a lot faster with practice. Think of the word and then look at what the first association that comes into your head is. "Impressive" might be someone pressing something -- a printing press. There is still the beginning of the word, so you might make it an imp pressing something with a printing press. The "something" could be the mnemonic image for the Russian word. "Define" could be the rock band Def Leppard and fine sugar. The band could be dressed up as chefs on a TV cooking show, sprinking the finest sugar on the mnemonic image for the Russian word. For "independence", I think of Independence Day in the US: put the mnemonic image for the Russian word on some fireworks and shoot it into the sky.
I don't know if it matters. Any practice of making associations to create visual images will increase your speed. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Josh Cohen Newbie United States mnemotechnics.org/ Joined 4878 days ago 35 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, Esperanto | Message 47 of 89 25 July 2011 at 11:05am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
One quick edit to a mnemonic image from a previous post:
For "martillo", I personally wouldn't use "Marty-loaf". I just saw that it's martillo. I would do it phonetically, depending on the Spanish accent. "Marty yo-yo" or "Marty show-girl" (Argentina)... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6013 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 48 of 89 25 July 2011 at 12:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
Quad erat demonstrandum. You have just confused "repetition" with "rote". You can repeat something in variation. Have a look at what Michel Thomas did -- every individual element of the language was repeated, but no individual prompt was ever repeated as the elements were combined in different ways. This way, you never answered a prompt by memorising a phrase, but instead you learned the principles and applied them each and every time.
I'm not talking about "unlearning", I'm talking about "learning wrong in the first place". You learn what you teach yourself, and if you teach yourself improperly segmented syllables and morphemes, that's what you learn.
Similar to what? Every example I've seen of a language mnemonic is a bad mnemonic -- every single one. Are you referring to the pony on a mat? Because you yourself said you agree with the technique slucido uses for hammer (if not the mnemonic itself). And I think that's a bad mnemonic technique too, and I've already explained why.
I'm sorry, but I don't see how that comment relates to the quote above it. I said that you shouldn't make your own mnemonics. Why not? Because if you haven't learnt the word yet, you have no way of knowing what would be an appropriate mnemonic for it. Or in other words, you cannot teach what you do not understand. The whole point of education is that a teacher who already understands the topic is able to structure new information in a manner that is both correct and easy to learn. This principle applied to mnemonics means you need someone else to make a suitable mnemonic for you. So when mnemonicists tell me that we have to make our own mnemonics and that we shouldn't rely on other people's mnemonics, I say there's something very wrong with the whole concept of mnemonics. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
