Week 9 Memory strategy

Creating ‘mems’ for difficult to remember words:  Although I have completed the Memrise course, I still try to spend a few minutes a day reviewing the vocabulary and grammar I learned by ‘watering my plants.’  I have created pictures or “mems” for some of the words that I still have trouble remembering.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well this technique helps to create a “memory” of difficult words.  A ‘difficult’ word for me is one that I cannot create my own mnemonic device for.  The process of selecting an image from the Internet and adding a catchy text helps me to ‘own’ the vocabulary.  I just created a ‘mem’ today to help me remember the present tense, 3^rd person verb rizíˈ ‘buy’ and its past tense, 1^st person form guzieeˈ.  To create a mem, I try to think of what the word sounds like in English and if there is an image to portray that.  I also try to think of a way to incorporate the “sounds like” tool with the actual meaning of the IZ word. So, rizíˈ sounds like ‘ritzy’ and guzieeˈ sounds a little like ‘Gucci.’  (It’s not always a perfect match, but better than nothing.)  Since the verb means ‘buy,’ I can imagine shopping at a ‘Gucci’ store in the ‘ritzy’ part of town.  I looked up images of Gucci stores and selected the one below and added a text that reads, “Tourists buy Gucci in the ritzy part of town.”  This ‘mem’ will now be shown on the course site to help others learn the word as well.

   

Tourists buy Gucci in the ritzy part of town.