I hit a 45 day streak learning Chinese on DuoLingo, then I hit a wall. The little owl was telling me that I had learned 32 lessons, but when it came time to actually recall the vocabulary that I had tested out of, I was drawing blanks. I felt frustrated and discouraged. Why invest all those hours of time and effort if the vocabulary was just going to disappear from memory?
So, I decided to build a memory palace system to help organize the vocabulary as I acquired it. Here’s a YouTube video that walks you through how I’ve used this system to organize Chinese numbers in my memory:
The system relies on an old hack from memory sciences which assigns numbers to the corners and surfaces of a room. It’s a basic and very useful way of arranging information numerically in a memory palace.
Here’s a free link to the palace in the video so that you can use it for yourself. It’s 100% editable so feel free to customize it to your heart’s content. The software makes it easy.
After navigating this room a few times, you should be able to review Chinese numbers in your head whenever you want with minimal effort, helping you to lock the vocabulary into long term memory. If this is your first time learning something with a memory palace, I highly recommend you give it a try. Memory palaces are the best way to learn that you were probably never taught in school.