The Power of Personal Mnemonics in Language Learning

How does a multinational clothes store help me with directions? Read on.

Remembering words in a second language can be at first difficult to remember. I have this problem remembering Japanese words and I always ask other Japanese language learners how they do it.

The best way is just use the language over and over until it’s second nature. That doesn’t always help at the beginning. For example, I was learning the Japanese direction words. “Ue” was easy to remember as it’s first ‘letter ’is the same as “up”, “ue = up”. And, “shita”, I connected as the opposite of “ue”, “shita = down”.  I could remember the Japanese words, “migi” and “hidari” but I kept mixing them up.

As usual, I talked about this with another Japanese language learner and he asked if I had heard of H&M. I said yes and he told me his method to remember “left” and “right” in Japanese.

Put your hands out, ‘reading’ naturally from left to right, “H”&“M”.

“HIDARI” & “MIGI”! Eureka moment.

I knew this trick would have helped me in the beginning but by that time I had learnt how to drive IN Japan. I quickly learnt my hidari from my migi!

Use whatever tips or tricks to help you remember foreign words. If it works, it works!

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