Flash cards, especially spaced-repetition flash card apps like Anki, are widely recommended for memorizing vocab.
Some learners thrive with flash cards. For others though, flash cards can be a struggle. Even with just a small number of words, it can feel like nothing ever sticks. This can lead to frustration, stress, and giving up.
If you experience ADHD or dyslexia, it’s less likely that rote memorization via flash cards will be an easy process.
For those learners, is all hope lost? Not at all; flash cards are still a highly effective tool, when paired with the memorization technique known as **mnemonics**. This may already be a familiar technique for a lot of people here, but with mnemonics, we pair an image that appears very readily in our minds, with the actual definition.
Let’s look at およぐ (oyogu), meaning “swim”. What does “oyogu” sound like to you? Some beginners I’ve worked with think it sounds like “ogre”, or “yogurt”. Anything is fine, as long as it comes quickly to your mind.
Then, pair that word or image with “swim”. You might imagine an ogre swimming in a swamp; or a person swimming in a pool of yogurt! Nothing is too absurd or too silly.
When you see およぐ (oyogu) again, and that image of an ogre swimming or a pool of yogurt comes to mind, you’ll remember “swim”! I’ve worked with beginners who felt ready to give up on flash cards, grow their vocab into several hundreds of words by using this technique.
Other mnemonics I’ve seen used effectively include:
おそい (osoi, slow/late): Sounds like “oh sorry”, like “Oh, sorry I’m **late**.”
のむ (nomu, drink): Sounds like “no m(ore)”: “No more **drinks** for me, thanks!”
がっこう (gakkou, school): Sounds like “gotta go”, and you’ve gotta go to **school**!
こうえん (kouen, park): Sounds like “go in”, and you can “go in the **park**.”
ほん (hon, book): With a **book**, you can “hone” your skills!
These are just examples. The mnemonics that work best for your individual mind will vary.
If you’ve struggled with flash cards in the past, don’t give up! Use them with mnemonics, and watch as your Japanese vocabulary grows and grows. If anyone here has used mnemonics before, do you remember any of your favorites that have been helpful for you?
3 comments
This is often used for remembering kanji, but I haven’t seen it mentioned a lot for remembering the sound of the words.
I do this and find it soooo useful for the hard words that don’t stick. I really like to combo the sound with the kanji too. Like:
* 遅い = おそい = slow
I imagine an old man trying to slowly go down a ramp and he’s like “oh sorry” because he’s slow.
My only issue is when I mishear myself with す and つ lol.
I just use renshuu.org, it’s flashcards like Anki but with loads of user-contributed mnemonics and easy to add your own too. Easy peasy.