# Memory palace for foreign vocabulary - Adding new words **URL:** \ **Category:** Language Learning\ **Created:** [March 2, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memory-palace-for-foreign-vocabulary-adding-new-words/71650 "2022-03-02T18:06:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Luka](https://forum.artofmemory.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@Luka](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/Luka)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memory-palace-for-foreign-vocabulary-adding-new-words/71650/1 "2022-03-02T18:06:34Z")
Hello, everyone! I’ve been learning Greek in the last few weeks (re start actually) and I have also been using Anki to review words and phrases that I encountered. It’s been a great experience because the material is much more fresh in my mind and I can use them more easily. Since some words are difficult to grasp I started using mnemonics for the most dificult words with some sucess (it’s not easy to come up with good asociations on the spot). Anyway, I was reading through the forum about memory palaces and I have an important question. I see that most people use palaces for each letter of the alphabet due to the fact that it helps to remember and to understand the morphology of the words (I’ve been doing this intuitively). So my question is: Do you have to know how many words you are going to learn in advance in, e.g, the letter “H”? How can you add new vocabulary between to words that are already there in a room? I asume that once a word is “placed” in a spot it stays there, correct? Thanks for the help. ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_360](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/daniel_360/32/8886_2.png) [@Daniel\_360](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/Daniel_360)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 7:03pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memory-palace-for-foreign-vocabulary-adding-new-words/71650/2 "2022-03-02T19:03:12Z")
Not a direct answer to your question, but I’m good at learning languages, and never used memory palaces. Other people I know who learn languages easily, including serious polyglots, use different techniques. Flashcards, individual mnemonics, and actually using the language as much as possible when learning the grammar, are the most common important techniques. Memory palaces are great for quick learning when recall is allowed to be slow. Language learning doesn’t require such great learning speed, but **does** require lightning-fast recall. For this reason, I would use flashcards as your main strategy, and random mnemonics for any flashcard that doesn’t stick quickly. You could potentially learn parts of the body by using your body as a memory palace and e.g. hold something in your hand that reminds you of the target-language word for “hand”, but even that I think is less efficient than just using flashcards/Anki. ---
**Author:** ![Luka](https://forum.artofmemory.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@Luka](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/Luka)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 7:27pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memory-palace-for-foreign-vocabulary-adding-new-words/71650/3 "2022-03-02T19:27:05Z")
Hello. I’ve seen your responses to this types of questions before. Yes, I’ve been learning languagues for a long time too and I have never use mnemonics sistematically but latelely when using Anki I thought I’ll try it since many greek words were difficult to get right. I was failing many times when the flashcards appeared and I was a bit frustated. So I gave it a try with mnemonics on the spot (I knew about the technique for a long time), and I got some success. I think it’s a good idea to have it sorted alphabetically since all the words with similar prefixes would appear and reinforce themselves. My question is about how to add new words an maintain such arrangements. I was hoping that an experience mnemonist would anwswer me. PS: I intent to use mnemonics as a tool to ease my way into long term memory functionality, when using flashcards you are prompt regulary and they become part of your working vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![bjoern.gumboldt](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/bjoern.gumboldt/32/16747_2.png) [@bjoern.gumboldt](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/bjoern.gumboldt)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 7:31pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memory-palace-for-foreign-vocabulary-adding-new-words/71650/4 "2022-03-02T19:31:38Z")
Are you talking about Ancient Greek? ---
**Author:** ![Luka](https://forum.artofmemory.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@Luka](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/Luka)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 7:34pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memory-palace-for-foreign-vocabulary-adding-new-words/71650/5 "2022-03-02T19:34:51Z")
No. Modern Greek. Thanks for the observation.