I’m a user of memory journeys… I don’t do static palaces, I need to be moving.
I have used them to great effect learning psychology studies and history. I need to memorize some 2000 words of written french (ie 6 mini texts) for an exam in may.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to use the memory journey in conjunction with something like a language?
What do you think the steps should be?
I understand that I have to find something that works for me. I’m just looking for general suggestions!!
Thanks
First of all, imo, the palace is the same technique as the journey. One is using (sequential) spaces and locations that one knows.
Now whether these are rooms in a house or palace or whether this are locations along a journey, to me is, in my opinion, a matter of preference.
I already have said a lot of things about learning languages, for example here:
My position is that I do not use the palace nor the journey technique to learn languages.
I just link the foreign word to the non-foreign.
I also think that linking the foreign word to the non-foreign is the best idea, but i am not sure what’s the main issue of yours folb. Like do you know french good, or is it a problem for you to just learn the text? Because in my opinion first you need to understand the french text and later on to remember it, it will be the same method that you use for remembering normal text, translation you will use on the spot or do some small mnemotricks, but it should be quite similar as i am recalling from my experience.
Or maybe i somehow don’t understand you correctly;)
I wouldn’t actually memorise this completely verbatim, but rather I’d get a general idea of what’s going on and what I’m talking about, but use your knowledge of French grammar to reconstruct it correctly.
So what I’d imagine for that paragraph:
Me pouring a jug, and lots of little old French people come out of it (Pour les anciennes générations francaises), onto a very high copy of an old book (élevées sur les textes historiques), where upon arriving on the book, they see an author (pick any famous author, or maybe a famous artist if it makes more sense for your brain to remember, ) carving a shape into the old book (un caractere en commun se culptait, fondé par les grands artistes de la littérature francaise). Then I’d learn the authors by rote.
Then I’d do a bunch of of teenagers trying to hide behind a glass screen, dressed 70s or 80s style (Les adolescents du passé, nauraient pas pu se cacher derriere un ecran), but their age and sex is obvious to you (emphasise stereotypical characteristics of different ages and sexes); with one of those “don’t do this” signs painted across the glass screen - you know, like the ones on “no smoking” signs. (ou choisir un pseudo sans référence a leur age ou sex).
That said, when I did French at school, all I did was play video games with French people and chatted online with them for a year, and assimilated the language that way. Ended up getting 97% on my exam without having to pre-memorise any written passages; could just freeball it.
Surrounding yourself in and engaging with the language >>>>>>> using mnemotechnics to learn a language, IMO. Of course, mnemotechnics are useful for the rote learning involved with learning foreign languages, nothing beats the proficiency that comes with actively using it (with lots of mistakes, undoubtedly!) over and over again.
