How to Easily Memorize Foreign Language Vocabulary

Build a memory palace for your 2nd language

“The limits of my language are the limits of my world.”
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Proposition 5.6

I almost flunked Latin during my only semester of it in high school.

My memory was poor, and I couldn’t retain the vocab and grammar needed to pass tests, so I gave it up. Which is sad. Unlike the other languages on offer, I was actually interested in Latin. If I knew then what I know now, that wouldn’t have happened.

Just over two years ago — 23 years after that near flunking — I decided to teach myself Latin, and it’s going really well. I’ve made rapid progress by simply reading and listening to increasingly challenging material for 15 minutes, 5 days a week. It’s clear to me that it’s a numbers game — proficiency comes through volume. Grammar study, translation, and rote memorization of words aren’t what they’re cracked up to be.

That’s because languages aren’t facts to be memorized. Your brain is less like a computer’s hard drive and more like a story processor. It learns best through context, emotion, and repetition within a compelling narrative.

But encounters with “uncommon” Latin words have begun to slow me down, since I don’t see them enough to learn their definitions through random encounters.

That’s where memory palaces come in.

Second Language Memory Palaces:

Given the incredible memory boost researchers observe when subjects use memory palaces and elaborative encoding, these tools seem like a natural fit for foreign language vocabulary.

But does it work when put to the test? Yep.

Students learning Russian and Spanish did much better using elaborative encoding (sans memory palace) than through rote repetition¹².

But these studies only asked students to recall words after a few days. What about long-term recall?

Iranians learning English did much better³ with memory palaces and elaborative encoding than with rote repetition. They had an incredible 100% improvement in long-term recall.

So what does it look like to put these two techniques to use? Let’s get into it.

This article is part of my Memorize for Meaning course, which is for paid subscribers. But I don’t want an inability to pay my $50 yearly subscription fee to hold someone back from what I consider to be really valuable material. I’ve made subscription discounts available for those who need them.