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Nouns in the town
Nouns should be associated to the most relevant locations: the image coding the foreign word for book should be associated with a book on a shelf in the library. The word for bread should be associated with an image of a loaf in a baker's shop. Words for vegetables should be associated with parts of a display outside a greengrocer's shop. Perhaps there is a farm just outside the town that allows all the animal name associations to be made.
Adjectives in the park
Adjectives should be associated with a garden or park within the town: words such as green, smelly, bright, small, cold, etc. can be easily related to objects in a park. Perhaps there is a pond there, a small wood, perhaps people with different characteristics are walking around.
Verbs in the sports centre
Verbs can most easily be associated with a sports centre or playing field. This allows us all the associations of lifting, running, walking, hitting, eating, swimming, driving, etc.
Remembering Genders
In a language where gender is important, a very elegant method of remembering this is to divide your town into two main zones where the gender is only masculine and feminine, or three where there is a neutral gender. This division can be by busy roads, rivers, etc. To fix the gender of a noun, simply associate its image with a place in the correct part of town. This makes remembering genders so easy!
Many Languages, many towns
Another elegant spin-off of the technique comes when learning several languages: normally this can cause confusion. With the town mnemonic, all you need do is choose a different city, town or village for each language to be learned. Ideally this might be in the relevant country, however practically it might just be a local town with a slight flavour of the relevant country, or twinned with it.
3. The Hundred most common word
Tony Buzan, in his book 'Using your Memory', points out that just 100 words comprise 50% of all words used in conversation in a language. Learning this core 100 words gets you a long way towards learning to speak in that language, albeit at a basic level.
Summary
The three approaches to learning language shown here can be extremely effective in helping to learn a foreign language, in terms of pointing out the most important words to learn, showing how to link words in your own language to words in a foreign language, and showing how to structure recall of the language through use of the town mnemonic.
The 100 basic Words
The 100 basic words used in conversation are shown below. These typically comprise around 50% of all words used:
1. a, an 2. after 3. again 4. all 5. almost
6. also 7. always 8. and 9. because 10. before
11. big 12. but 13. (I) can 14. (I) come 15. either/or
16. (I) find 17. first 18. for 19. friend 20. from
21. (I) go 22. good 23. goodbye 24. happy 25. (I) have
26. he 27. hello 28. here 29. how 30. I
31. (I) am 32. if 33. in 34. (I) know 35. last
36. (I) like 37. little 38. (I) love 39. (I) make 40. many
41. one 42. more 43. most 44. much 45. my
46. new 47. no 48. not 49. now 50. of
51. often 52. on 53. one 54. only 55. or
56. other 57. our 58. out 59. over 60. people
61. place 62. please 63. same 64. (I) see 65. she
66. so 67. some 68. sometimes 69. still 70. such
71. (I) tell 72. thank you 73. that 74. the 75. their
76. them 77. then 78. there is 79. they 80. thing
81. (I) think 82. this 83. time 84. to 85. under
86. up 87. us 88. (I) use 89. very 90. we
91. what 92. when 93. where 94. which 95. who
96. why 97. with 98. yes 99. you 100. your
From: 'Use Your Memory', Tony Buzan, BBC Books, London, ISBN 0-5633-37102-1 Mind Maps
Nouns should be associated to the most relevant locations: the image coding the foreign word for book should be associated with a book on a shelf in the library. The word for bread should be associated with an image of a loaf in a baker's shop. Words for vegetables should be associated with parts of a display outside a greengrocer's shop. Perhaps there is a farm just outside the town that allows all the animal name associations to be made.
Adjectives in the park
Adjectives should be associated with a garden or park within the town: words such as green, smelly, bright, small, cold, etc. can be easily related to objects in a park. Perhaps there is a pond there, a small wood, perhaps people with different characteristics are walking around.
Verbs in the sports centre
Verbs can most easily be associated with a sports centre or playing field. This allows us all the associations of lifting, running, walking, hitting, eating, swimming, driving, etc.
Remembering Genders
In a language where gender is important, a very elegant method of remembering this is to divide your town into two main zones where the gender is only masculine and feminine, or three where there is a neutral gender. This division can be by busy roads, rivers, etc. To fix the gender of a noun, simply associate its image with a place in the correct part of town. This makes remembering genders so easy!
Many Languages, many towns
Another elegant spin-off of the technique comes when learning several languages: normally this can cause confusion. With the town mnemonic, all you need do is choose a different city, town or village for each language to be learned. Ideally this might be in the relevant country, however practically it might just be a local town with a slight flavour of the relevant country, or twinned with it.
3. The Hundred most common word
Tony Buzan, in his book 'Using your Memory', points out that just 100 words comprise 50% of all words used in conversation in a language. Learning this core 100 words gets you a long way towards learning to speak in that language, albeit at a basic level.
Summary
The three approaches to learning language shown here can be extremely effective in helping to learn a foreign language, in terms of pointing out the most important words to learn, showing how to link words in your own language to words in a foreign language, and showing how to structure recall of the language through use of the town mnemonic.
The 100 basic Words
The 100 basic words used in conversation are shown below. These typically comprise around 50% of all words used:
1. a, an 2. after 3. again 4. all 5. almost
6. also 7. always 8. and 9. because 10. before
11. big 12. but 13. (I) can 14. (I) come 15. either/or
16. (I) find 17. first 18. for 19. friend 20. from
21. (I) go 22. good 23. goodbye 24. happy 25. (I) have
26. he 27. hello 28. here 29. how 30. I
31. (I) am 32. if 33. in 34. (I) know 35. last
36. (I) like 37. little 38. (I) love 39. (I) make 40. many
41. one 42. more 43. most 44. much 45. my
46. new 47. no 48. not 49. now 50. of
51. often 52. on 53. one 54. only 55. or
56. other 57. our 58. out 59. over 60. people
61. place 62. please 63. same 64. (I) see 65. she
66. so 67. some 68. sometimes 69. still 70. such
71. (I) tell 72. thank you 73. that 74. the 75. their
76. them 77. then 78. there is 79. they 80. thing
81. (I) think 82. this 83. time 84. to 85. under
86. up 87. us 88. (I) use 89. very 90. we
91. what 92. when 93. where 94. which 95. who
96. why 97. with 98. yes 99. you 100. your
From: 'Use Your Memory', Tony Buzan, BBC Books, London, ISBN 0-5633-37102-1 Mind Maps