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.
I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to decide how to organize the data for this series. It all started as flashcards in the Anki system. Every day I would create a few new cards and study some of the older ones. It was great, because I could keep track of a cartoon image, a caption, and both the English and Norwegian headwords all in one place. But now I’m seeing some issues.
When I first started creating these cartoons, I was using them for my own learning and it didn’t matter if they were a bit rough around the edges. They worked, and that was good enough for me. But now that I’ve decided to actually publish them, everything has changed…
