How to learn vocabulary FAST

Have you ever wondered how some people memorize a full deck of cards in under five minutes, while you forget a word five minutes after hearing it?

Any memory champion will tell you this has nothing to do with innate ability or some “superior brain capacity” bullcrap. It’s only a matter of technique.

So what do most people do?

They repeat words endlessly: gatto = cat, gatto = cat, gatto = cat…

Guess what? It doesn’t work.

And if you think it does, all it tells me is that you’ve never tried to learn a non-European language — one whose sounds are so foreign that your brain doesn’t even have the slightest pathway for the new word to stick to.

Do you know how to say “art gallery” in Japanese?

美術館

hiragana: びじゅつかん (bijutsukan)

Good luck repeating that — plus another 20k words like it — until they stick.

So what do memory champions actually do?

They create a STORY. They turn meaningless data (like the 6 of hearts) into something the brain can engage with and hold onto.

Let’s apply that to 美術館.

“Bijutsukan” is completely foreign to me — I can’t link it to anything directly.

So I break it apart:

Biju — reminds me of the French word bijou (jewel) 💎

Tsu — I’m passionate about dogs, and this reminds me of the Shih Tzu 🐶

Kan — lucky coincidence: cane (shortened to “can” in some idiomatic expressions) means dog

Now I can put it all together, and link it to meaning. Make it personal.

Imagine a shish tzu, who wanders around the National Gallery with a very expensive diamond necklace.

Make your story come alive by using all five senses.

Imagine walking down the corridors of the National Gallery. You feel the quiet echo of footsteps on the floor beneath you. You see paintings on the walls — some familiar, some you don’t even know how to describe. Then, you notice a small dog. It looks completely out of place. Concentrate on the dog. What would it feel like to pet it? How would it bark? Oh, look! It’s wearing your grandma’s shiny necklace. 💎

Excellent. You’ve done it.

Feel free to come back to this post tomorrow and tell me if you still remember how to say “art gallery” in Japanese 😉