Traditional tools for learning foreign language vocabulary usually employ simple L1-to-L2 text translations (shoe = sko), and sometimes they’ll add an image to illustrate, but the way this material is commonly presented completely ignores how memory actual works. Fortunately, I’ve got an idea for how to change that…
When language tools offer an illustration, the image usually shows the subject in complete isolation, like this shoe.
But that’s not how memory works. Memories are forged by linking ideas together. Your memory of a shoe is not an idealized shoe floating in a white void - it’s a messy confluence of related concepts: feet, socks, laces, learning to tie your shoes, your first pair of soccer cleats, blisters on your heel, a shoe-print in the sand, etc. Memory is a tapestry woven from such connections, and making memories is easier when you have all of that messy context to work with.
Compare that floating shoe image to this one. Which one is more interesting? And if an image is more interesting, it’s also much more likely to be memorable.
You’ve probably already experienced this for yourself. If I say the phrase “Tank Man,” you probably already know what image you’ll see here, but nobody knew that phrase before they saw that image, and now everybody remembers it. That’s the power a memorable image has to burn new words into your brain.
So the idea in this project is to present foreign vocabulary in a way that exploits how memory actually works, using interesting, memorable images, paired with caption text showing the word in use, and adding the secret sauce of humor, to make things, not just memorable, but Unforgettable.
With much of my attention on WebSmith lately, Unforgettable has slowed a little but it hasn’t stalled. The more nouns I add, the harder it is to find the next one, but I keep finding them. And I keep reviewing and improving the ones I’ve got. Current tally is 472 cartoons, with only 22 in the “needs work” pile. At this rate, I hope to be finished the writing phase and get it off to an editor by the end of March.
I’ve been working on my Norwegian noun cartoons for several months now, and I’ve amassed quite a few of them. 390 at present, and I’ll probably hit 500 before I run out of steam. So far, it’s just been me, sitting in my office, reviewing a few cartoons each day on my own, and maybe adding a few new ones when I trip over another noun I should probably know, but I had always planned to share them. Originally I was thinking in terms of flashcards, but then today I realized that the collection would make a great book.
Designing the printed book has slowed down lately as I’ve wrestled with practical issues. How many pages? How many cartoons per page? How big should the pages be? Soft cover or hard? Full color or black and white? But I think I made progress today.