How to Memorize Words Quickly?
Make a weekly learning plan for the first two months. That means determining the number of new sticky notes for each week. Keep in mind that at the beginning, one number = one word.
For the first week, start by placing a note on all the things you have lying around at home. Just write the new word without the translation. By pronouncing the foreign word for each thing when you see it, you’ll absorb this everyday vocabulary very quickly.
To learn verbs easily, put stickies on your shower door! When you stick them to the outside, write the foreign word on the inner-facing side and its translation on the other side. Say the words out loud while you’re shampooing and translate them in your head. While you’re drying off or brushing your teeth, you can do the same from the opposite side.
Put sticky notes above your bed and make yourself read them out loud a few times before turning off the lights. The things you hear just before you fall asleep are what you remember the best.
Assign every room in your home a particular vocabulary theme and fill it with those notes. For example, when I say a number or a color in English, I immediately visualize … my living room.
Sticky notes are often used for to-do lists. So, if you’re going to do it anyway, do it in the language you’re learning!
Write your shopping list in your new language on a sticky note, little by little throughout the week. Don’t wait until right before you have to go to the store! (Then you won’t be bothered to actually do it.) This technique is a sure-fire way to retain new vocabulary effectively: There were quite a few times where I found myself in the supermarket and had forgotten what several of the words meant, but I ended up finally remembering some particularly difficult words in their context!
Getting back to basics, if you use a vocabulary book you can use stickies as a way to hide words. Pretty useful, right?
To effectively maintain your motivation for learning a foreign language, use the Kanban method. Draw three columns on a wall: to learn / learning / learned. In the first column put all your stickies for the coming week. In the middle column, put the words you’re having trouble remembering. And in the last column, put all the notes that you feel you’ve really learned. What’s more gratifying than seeing hundreds of sticky notes accumulate week after week and concretely visualizing your progress?
