Memorizing words is the soul of learning, but no one teaches us how to remember words. Learners can only rely on rote memorization. They can't remember words, but they always forget them.
In fact, memorizing words is far less difficult than we think. The important thing is not to "memorize", but to "understand". This method has been widely used in Chinese and English education.
First, let's start with Chinese. How can a foreign friend remember the Chinese character "Hugh" when learning Chinese? It's OK to copy for 10 times, but if he can understand that the word "Xiu" is composed of a "person" and a "wood", which means "people rest under a tree", can he remember it quickly and not forget it easily?
There are also root and affix memory methods in English, such as the word subway. If we learn that it is composed of root sub (down)+way (road), which originally means "underground road", can we quickly remember, and can we also quickly remember the meaning of the word when we encounter the subtitle?
The same is true of Japanese. Recently, it's time for the Japanese level exam. Brother Dayu has prepared this secret for Japanese beginners to help students break through the difficulty of Japanese words.
The article was written by Zhang Ming, a Japanese doctor at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Mr. Zhang Ming has obtained full marks in the N1 exam and has many years of teaching experience. In his words, "throughout my teaching and research career, I have been committed to a topic - how to memorize words efficiently."
Although the examples in this article are Japanese words, the four methods introduced are common to all languages. Let's have a look at the students who want to learn the word memory.
It is easier for people to remember things with logic, but it is difficult to remember things without logic. The speed difference can reach 8 times.
Therefore, what we need to do is to find the logic in the language. Therefore, the best learning strategy is to use our knowledge and experience, exert imagination and creativity, understand the logic behind words, and change "rote learning" to "understanding memory".
For example, 'かみなりり [Lei]' is composed of 'God (かみみ)' (God)+'Ming (なりりりりり)' (Song), which is created from the meaning of "God's Song"‘ The word "marry (よめめめめめめめめめめめよめめめめめめめめよめめめめめ124. The meaning of "bride" is derived from "good woman".
Unfortunately, there are few such analyses in current teaching.
In order to enable more people to enjoy the benefits of "understanding method", I have referred to a large number of excellent research on the etymology of Japanese word roots, and applied the relevant theories of modern cognitive linguistics and language motivation to summarize the four ways to understand Japanese words.
First move: catch the root of the word
Memorize word roots through "familiar word association" and other methods, and then use word roots to memorize a large number of words from the same source, so as to achieve the effect of transforming the original into familiar, transforming the difficult into easy, and drawing inferences from one instance.
For example, in the initial stage, we learned the word "red". The word "かかか" is the root of the word "red, bright", by which we can remember cognate words such as かる〧い〧いるい "(bright) すすす" (proof).
Second move: Disassemble the internal structure
There are many compound words in Japanese, but they are represented by a single Chinese character, which makes people think that they have no reason to find them. In fact, as long as we disassemble the radicals of Chinese characters and find out the internal structure of these words, we can achieve the goal of rapid memory. For example, the meaning of "thunder" is extended from "god"+"god".
The third move: polysemous words grasp the original meaning
There are many polysemous words in Japanese, which have multiple meanings and are extremely complex and difficult to remember. In fact, although the meanings of polysemous words are ever-changing, they are all derived from one "original meaning". Grasping its original meaning, we can integrate its multiple meanings to achieve the goal of easy mastery. For example, 'げるる' has the meaning of "lifting", "giving something to others" and "frying". In fact, its original meaning is "moving up". Japanese people respect others very much. Others are the top, and they are the bottom. So 'げる' derives the meaning of "giving something to others".
The fourth move: association method
By associating Japanese kana with Chinese pronunciation, or making up stories and other methods to remember words, such as' whole ou '(neat and complete), you can associate it with Chinese "proper da". After all, etymology has a long history, and some words are not suitable for learners to use. Proper use of association can help learners remember words better.
Brother Dayu knows that the four short methods in the text cannot completely introduce the memory method of Mr. Zhang Ming, and it is difficult for students to master the method of memorizing words.
Therefore, Brother Dayu specially invited Mr. Zhang Ming to recommend a Japanese book "130 Japanese word roots that must be learned when memorizing words" for the students.
1. Scientific and effective: Carefully summarize 130 commonly used Japanese word roots, explore the context of word roots, and scientifically analyze the word composition.
2. Understanding and memory: Summarize the meaning of word roots in a concise and comprehensive way, and give examples of words and sentences to consolidate the understanding and memory of word roots and words.
3. Vivid and interesting: the combination of disassembling the word structure, grasping the original meaning of polysemous words, and associative memory method makes the word memory method flexible, vivid and fun.
4. Intimate recording: Japanese foreign teachers record authentic audio, words and example sentences can be read and memorized at any time.
(Statement: This article only represents the author's view, not Sina.com's position.)
