Learn Italian
The best way to memorize Italian words is by using memory techniques. The edge that the link-word technique has is how an Italian word is linked to an English word by using matching sounds between words. Let me give you an example on how to use these techniques.
English word = plank
Italian word = l’asse
Imagine a PLANK of wood being maneuvered by LASSIE the famous dog. Strange, but it causes your mind to remember the words. It does not even have to be exact. Focus on the sounds created when pronouncing Italian words, for it is the key to the link word technique.
Here is another Italian word for you: As you read the example, try to imagine as if you are exactly where the scenario is happening. Retain the key words in your mind, which are the capitalized words, and retain the significant details. Think about it several times and let it sink in until you can recall it without reading.
English word = baseball cap
Italian word = il berretto
Imagine a BASEBALL CAP buying a BERET TO disguise itself. Strange, but it causes your mind to remember the words. It does not even have to be exact. Focus on the sounds created when pronouncing Italian words, for it is the key to the link word technique.
We learn to do by doing. Tables of prepositions, lists of conjunctions, catalogues of nouns and verbs, vocabularies of important words–none nor all of these can teach us to speak idiomatically. We must actually put ourselves through the paces of speaking. “It is, moreover, intense effort that educates.”1 We should aim in our language learning, not so much to acquire knowledge as skill. Now, skill in the use of any member of the body depends on its unconscious control, on its automatic working. Consequently, we must by intense repetition enable our organs to utter, unconsciously and automatically, in the new language, the sentences that express our thought.
Learning Italian can be fun and easy…and then you have a great place to visit!
