How does human memory retain words of different languages?
There are really two ways to go about it. The first is rote memorization with translation. Basically you memorize words and phrases in a foreign language and associate them with the equivalent meaning in your own language. Since memory is based on association chains, this will work for a while, but will most likely break down over time if you don’t use the information. The second way is to think in the foreign language. You do this through immersion in the foreign language and culture. Basically, you learn and speak the language WITHOUT translating it to your primary language….just like you did when you were a child learning your primarly language. This is more difficult because our first instinct is to just memorize and translate. Immersion and thinking in the foreign language, though, will lead to fluency in the language and you won’t lose as much skill as you will with translation.
