Remembering words with mental images

[Stu]

This may sound like a crazy idea but I used it in teaching physics a lot and I think it has lots of applications in foreign language learning. The basic ideas is to learn a new piece of vocabulary by forming a mental image of a new word. For example I memorised the word trapicheo by forming a crazy mental picture of someone chewing a giant mouse trap. Another example: the recent word tanatorio for morgue. I formed an image of rows of beds in a sanatorium and each one containing a corpse - but gruesome I know but it works. The interesting thing is that after half a dozen recalls the need for the mental image tends to fade. So how would you exploit this on your website? How about inviting suggestions for images and taking the best ones and constructing an ever-growing list of words with suggested images. Might be worth trying it with just a few for each podcast.:rolleyes:

[richardksa]

Colgar - To Hang. Rows of hanging toothpaste.

Fontanero - A plumber. A Fountain Hero. My Plumber son likes that one.

Apenas - Hardly. Not going to tell you how I remember that one!!!!

[Ben]

This is a great idea, let's see how it goes here in the forum first! Richard - :D:D

More below please!

[richardksa]

Ladron - Thief. The thief came to my house with a ladder on his back.

Some words you learn instantaneously, in this case by embarassment. I was talking to a Spanish lady of a certain age and in sympathy with something she told me I used the mild English expression "Oh dear". She blinked and sat up in her chair. "What did you say?", she asked. She thought I had said the Spanish word, "j*d*r". It was my first palabrota, and a good'n. I will not forget it.

[Edith]

Caja de ahorros = savings bank. To me, ahorros (with a rolling r!) sounds like a bunch of humming bees, and bees are into the savings business too, saving honey. Sounds far-fetched, but it works for me!

[Catica]

I should try to use mental images more often, but one word I've remembered with an image is "molarse", from the intermediate podcast number one. It was very easy: "Me mola el mole".

[tilda]

This may sound like a crazy idea but I used it in teaching physics a lot and I think it has lots of applications in foreign language learning. The basic ideas is to learn a new piece of vocabulary by forming a mental image of a new word. For example I memorised the word trapicheo by forming a crazy mental picture of someone chewing a giant mouse trap. Another example: the recent word tanatorio for morgue. I formed an image of rows of beds in a sanatorium and each one containing a corpse - but gruesome I know but it works. The interesting thing is that after half a dozen recalls the need for the mental image tends to fade. So how would you exploit this on your website? How about inviting suggestions for images and taking the best ones and constructing an ever-growing list of words with suggested images. Might be worth trying it with just a few for each podcast.:rolleyes:
Yes, this sounds like a brilliant idea. The other suggestions in the forum are great examples of this.