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How to remember words in a new language.
Memory techniques with the research behind them, and help with the parts of each language that slip first.
Memory techniques
- A memory palace for language learningHow memory champions use places to remember, what the research says about using it for vocabulary, and a lighter version built for thousands of words.
- Flashcards with picturesA stock photo next to a word does surprisingly little for adults. The kind of picture that does help, and how to make picture cards of your own.
- How spaced repetition worksReview a word just before you'd forget it, and the next gap can be longer. Why that works, and how many new words a day keeps your reviews manageable.
- How to memorize vocabulary in a new languageSeven research-backed ways to remember new words, from picking the right words to spacing your reviews, with what each looks like in practice.
- Memory hooks for vocabularySpanish arroz sounds like "a rose". That's the keyword method, the best-studied memory trick for foreign words, and here's how to write hooks that last.
- Sentence cards with one new wordA sentence where you know every word but one is the easiest place to learn that word. Why it works, and how to make sentence cards.
Mandarin
- How to remember Chinese charactersCharacters look impossible at first. How they're built, why learning them inside words helps, and the memory techniques that make them stick.
- How to remember Chinese tonesWhy tones are the first thing to slip, what the research says helps, and how to tie each word's tone into the way you remember it.
Japanese
- How to remember Japanese vocabularyEvery Japanese word has a meaning, a reading and often kanji. How to learn all three together, and memory techniques that make words stick.
- How to remember kanjiKanji are built from parts, read differently in different words, and easiest to learn inside vocabulary. How to make them stick.
- The 100 most common Japanese wordsThe first hundred words of everyday Japanese, ranked by how often they're used in anime, drama and film, with readings, meanings and how to learn them.
- What is furigana, and how to use itFurigana are the small kana written over kanji to show how they're read. When they help, when they get in the way, and how to use them on flashcards.
Spanish
- How to remember Spanish noun genderThe rules that cover most nouns, the exceptions worth knowing, and how to make each noun's gender part of the way you remember it.
- How to remember Spanish vocabularySpanish gives English speakers a head start. How to use it, which words to learn first, and memory techniques that make Spanish words stick.
- The 100 most common Spanish wordsThe first hundred words of everyday Spanish, ranked by how often they're used in films and TV, with their meanings and genders, and how to learn them.
Flashfriend and other apps
- An Anki alternative for learning languagesWhat Anki still does better, what Flashfriend does differently, and how to move your deck over without losing a single review.
- An AnkiMobile alternative for iPhoneAnkiMobile is a one-off purchase on iPhone. If you're learning Mandarin, Japanese or Spanish, here's another way to keep your deck on your phone, and how to bring your Anki history with you.
- Flashfriend and DuolingoWhat Duolingo is good at, how Flashfriend teaches a language differently, from words to sentences and grammar, and how to use the two together.
- Flashfriend and QuizletQuizlet is great for studying a set before a test. For a language you want to keep for years, here's how Flashfriend compares.
- Flashfriend and WaniKaniWaniKani teaches kanji through radicals and mnemonics. Flashfriend teaches the most useful words with pictures you make. How they compare, and how to use both.
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