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Color: Can it help you learn a language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5977 days ago 396 posts - 542 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 1 of 27 17 October 2008 at 8:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Does anyone use color to help them study? When I did German at school we were told to use colors to help us learn the gender of words. I never did this because I thought it was silly but some of my class mates did. A couple of years ago I found this Greek website and it also uses color to distinguish irregular verbs from regular ones. What do you think? Is it a useful tool or just a waste of time? Edited by John Smith on 17 October 2008 at 8:34am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6594 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 2 of 27 17 October 2008 at 8:58am | IP Logged | ||
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I've never done this, and this is the first I've heard of someone else doing it, but it sounds like a good idea to me. I think it is especially helpful if you are a particularly visual sort of learner.
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| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6381 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 3 of 27 17 October 2008 at 9:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I attempted using colors to help me learn the gender of German nouns, but I found that it often hindered me more than it helped. I used red for masculine, green for neuter, and blue for feminine. The problem was, when I would try to remember the word, I'd have another "piece" attached to the memory - was the word red, green, or blue? And then if I remembered the color incorrectly, I obviously ended up with the wrong gender as well.
I abandoned the practice, and have found that the best way to become proficient at knowing the gender of German words is to simply learn a lot of German words. You get a feel for it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Northstar Newbie China chineseontheairRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5839 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: Mandarin* | Message 4 of 27 17 October 2008 at 9:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Adding some colors, makes your eyes shining, brain refreshing.
If you can have a little fun, why don't try? You gotta nothing to lose. trying is believing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| AntoniusBlock Diglot Newbie Sweden Joined 5858 days ago 31 posts - 36 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 5 of 27 17 October 2008 at 10:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Colour is a basic tool in the mnemonic toolbox. For instance, I believe the MT mandarin course uses colours to mnemonically code for the tones in mandarin.
So sure, it can be useful. However, not every mnemonic tool is for everyone, and there are many mnemonic alternatives besides using colour. Making empirical tests is the only way of finding out what works for you and what doesn't. One personal empirical test is worth a thousand internet opinions. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| maya_star17 Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5850 days ago 269 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 6 of 27 17 October 2008 at 1:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not a visual person, so no, I don't use colours to learn languages... except for when I'm learning the words for the colours themselves. I look at random things and practice saying "this is red, this is yellow, this is blue, etc."
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Autarkis Triglot Groupie Switzerland twitter.com/Autarkis Joined 5887 days ago 95 posts - 106 votes 4 sounds Speaks: German*, English, French Studies: Italian | Message 7 of 27 17 October 2008 at 3:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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AntoniusBlock, what can I say. You're right. :)
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| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5977 days ago 396 posts - 542 votes Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 8 of 27 18 October 2008 at 2:21am | IP Logged | ||
Why did you choose blue for feminine words? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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