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Color: Can it help you learn a language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Morada Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5830 days ago 22 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin | Message 17 of 27 23 October 2008 at 8:06pm | IP Logged | ||
i'm not sure if German is the same as Spanish, but i found that if i tried to assosciate an aspect of the verb in English to being a male or female thing in Spanish, the gender stuck, for example. El reloj- a watch is worn by a BUSINESS man- el being a masculine noun, or la palabra-word....women talk too much :) (i have license to say this I'm a woman! ) It's these bridges and associations that allow our brain to remember things. i think for everyone they may be different. Some people like the simplicity of relating something to a color, but other people need to relate it to something goofy they will remember, while others simply have to remember it straight out, because no association seems to work for them. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| pitwo Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6094 days ago 103 posts - 121 votes  Speaks: French*, English | Message 18 of 27 23 October 2008 at 9:09pm | IP Logged | ||
Wow that's interesting --- I had never realized we give gender to the countries as well ! Anyway, colors don't do much for me unfortunately. When I was learning German getting correct genders was a bit difficult.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6207 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 19 of 27 24 October 2008 at 11:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Tony Buzan likes his "mind maps" to be as colourful as possible, I suspect because colours can be useful as a memory trigger. Using colour in language-learning probably stimulates the memory better.
If I don't use colour, I try to make words and phrases I want to learn stand out in other ways. For example, I might write useful vocabulary in larger than usual letters and in softer, darker pencil than the standard HB. Or I might use thick felt tip. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6173 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 20 of 27 24 October 2008 at 12:28pm | IP Logged | ||
I do this also with Spanish. With Spanish it is usually intuitive which nouns are masculine and feminine. But some are not. For example, when I learned the word for day (el dia), i just learned it with the "el". Now, even though it ends with an "a", for me to say "la dia" just sounds wrong. You have to learn each word anyway, why not attach the article from the start? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Pandameisje Triglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 5814 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English, Dutch*, German Studies: French | Message 21 of 27 24 October 2008 at 3:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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I never thought of using colors to distinguish between masculine and feminine, but I feel it could be a good idea to try. Usually I learn very well with colors and visual aids, so there's a large chance that it could help. Either way it won't hurt to try.
I suppose it all depends on what type of learner you are.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7081 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 22 of 27 24 October 2008 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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I like the idea. I will be trying it.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| chelovek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6022 days ago 413 posts - 461 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 23 of 27 25 October 2008 at 3:54am | IP Logged | ||
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You'd probably have more success with smell. If I recall correctly, your olfactory sense is directly linked to your memory-center. I'll need to double check that, but...sounds right.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5270 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 24 of 27 29 September 2010 at 12:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am a visual learner so I find colours an excellent tool to use in language learning. When I make French word lists, I make masculine nouns green and feminine nouns yellow-orange. This way I only have to look at a word once and the next time I see it written in black, I can easily see it's colour in my mind and I know what gender it is. I used to get genders mixed up all the time but since I've started doing this, I hardly ever get a gender wrong anymore. I also use colours for verbs, different verb tenses and I'm going to use them to learn cases for Old English as well.
I was a bit hesitant to use colours at first because I have synaesthesia and I was afraid the gender-colour was going to mess with the word's real colour but I find I can easily switch off the gender-colour and it doesn't influence the word's real colours at all. Actually, feminine words have feminine colours and masculine words have masculine colours remarkably often. So often in fact, that I've developed an instinct for the gender of a word, so I can often guess what the gender will be before I look it up. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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