SmileTalk

Saturday, 16 August 2014

Brain Connections

Many people have a false belief that your brain is a library that you can keep shoving books in and expect to remember. It is not, your brain is an amazing piece of tech that remembers things by their relevance to you. That's why if I say 9/11 you think of the twin towers and not what you were wearing. The brain sorts information and creates connections and things are more easily remembered when they have multiple connections.

When I started studying physics and biology I also took some time to learn some latin roots and it has been invaluable to me for remembering terms. In my head if I hear a word that has 'photo' in it I know that photo means light so when I see photosynthesis I see the two words photo=light synthesis=unification/construction/making something and then it is easier to remember that photosynthesis is how plants make their food from light.

That is just a simple example but their are much more crazy things, for example memorizing some of the periodic table. Harry Had Little Brilliant Bananas Coming Out From Near Nanna's Mouth And She Put Some Containers And Ketchup Sideways To Virtually Corrode My Feet Cos No-one Called Zoey.

And so on, the sillier the better because now I don't need to the silly phrase to remember but it certainly helped.

Even better than that Memrise lets you create flashcards that have silly pictures to help you remember as well as phrases. I remember the one for remembering the kanji for noisy and it had three women shouting (because the kanji for noisy contains three kanji for women). Very simple but still very easy to remember.

So remember brain connections are the way to learn!

Thursday, 7 August 2014

Learning About Learning

So you've decided to pick up a second language. That's great! But it's a big undertaking and learning how to learn can be half the battle! This is going to be a simple list of things you should read up on to maximize your learning potential.

How Your Brain Learns Things

Some people think that the brain is like a library and the things you learn are simply filed away. This is not quite how it works the brain uses connections to learn things. The more connections you have to something, no matter how strange and obscure the better.

Types of Learner

Not all brains learn the same way, you need to determine what type of learner you are. Perhaps reading out of books is how you learn or perhaps you need someone to read to you.

Flash Cards Are Important

Flash cards or flash card programs are easy tools to use when learning anything. You can download free apps on your phone (try memrise) that you can use anywhere just to refresh yourself. Doing this regularly helps you learn words.

The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

Writing is a powerful tool to help the memory, it forces you're brain to concentrate in ways that typing and reading cannot.

Artificial Immersion

One of the advantages of having smiletalk but when learning a language you need to set aside an hour a day where you immerse yourself in your target language. There are online radios where you can listen to your target language but be sure to try and read and write some too. During this time allow no English articles to clutter your space as it hinders learning.

Timing is Everything

Try and aim your learning sessions for a comfortable time in the morning, preferably just after breakfast where you are less likely to be disturbed or distracted.

Time Without Effort Equals Nothing

Only have short sessions of learning, longer than an hour at a time will lead to a dip in concentration and a hatred of the subject you are trying to learn. Spread your learning throughout the day and as long as you get your main session in the morning than don't pressure yourself.