In his second language hacking post, author of Fluent in 3 Months Benny Lewis shares a top tip for nailing vocab.
Mnemonics
How do you measure success in language learning? Perfect grammar? A native-like accent?
Neither of these is nearly as important for beginners as learning the right vocabulary. The richer your vocabulary, the more ideas you can express – even if you have a strong accent or don’t conjugate correctly.
The most powerful way to learn vocabulary fast is to use mnemonics. Mnemonics are a technique that lets you link hard-to-remember vocabulary to easy-to-remember stories, images or ideas.
You’ve probably been using them your whole life — remember learning ROY G. BIV to memorise the colours of the rainbow?
Don’t just try to memorise a new word by saying it over and over to yourself. It will never stick, and besides, that’s boring! Instead, use your imagination to find memorable ways to link the word to a catchy idea that you won’t forget.
Benny Lewis’ new series of conversation courses for beginners are available now.
