Symphony of A Word

The orchestra within your mind

If you are learning a foreign language and are looking for a guide on how to achieve and maintain fluency, I highly recommend Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner. The book examines the neuroscience of our memory systems and how we can leverage them to learn and master foreign languages more effectively. Wyner also discusses many techniques for developing fluency such as flashcards, SRS, and practicing pronunciation. For me personally, the most memorable concept I learned was the "symphony of a word" and its application in memorizing new Chinese words.

Learn more about SRS here!

How to Supercharge Your Memory

1. Orchestrating the Symphony: A Language Learning Concept

To understand the “symphony of a word”, let's use a simple example: the word “dog”. When you say or think of this word, some other words may come into mind - cute, loyal, man's best friend, high maintenance. In my case, I think of my cockapoo Witzki, how he is very friendly with other people, and all the happy memories associated with him. This network of words - cockapoo, friendly, happy is the “symphony” that is created in my head when I see the word “dog”. Each of these links contribute to solidifying the word dog in my memory.

Now let's explore what happens when we learn the Chinese word for dog, 狗 (gǒu). We see 狗 and immediately translate it back to English. This is where the connection typically ends. All of the other nuances and associations we have with the English word dog are not present when we see 狗. We do not know what the words are for cute, loyal, or man's best friend so our only link is 狗=dog. The limited network makes it harder for our brain to learn and initially accept this new definition of dog.

Let's move to a more complex example. One word that was difficult for me to memorize was 羽绒服 (yǔ róng fú) which means down jacket. I constantly forgot the tones of these characters because my only link was 羽绒服=down jacket. To enhance my memory recall, I decided to apply the "symphony of a word" technique by thinking of words associated with down jacket: feathers, wings of a bird, maybe even badminton. I then looked up the Chinese words for feathers 羽毛 (yǔ máo) and badminton 羽毛球 (yǔ máo qíu) and noticed all these words use the same 羽. By establishing these associations, I gradually built more memory links and ultimately memorized the word. These examples illustrate how powerful the "symphony of a word" technique is in our native language and how we might be underutilizing it in learning foreign languages.

2. Navigating Challenges: Symphony Technique in Practice

There is a small problem that arises when using the symphony technique in the above examples to improve our memory recall. If we recreate our symphony using the English definition of a Chinese word, it may not always be accurate. This is because Chinese often has multiple words to express the same concept found in English but are used in different contexts.

In Asian culture, it's customary to remove shoes when entering someone's house. 脱鞋 (tuō xié) is “take off shoes” where 脱=take off and 鞋=shoes. Great, now you learned how to express the verb take off in Chinese! You might think you can apply it universally and start building your own orchestra for this symphony, such as the following:

1. 脱衣服 (tuō yī fu) “take off clothes”

2. 脱眼镜 (tuō yǎn jìng) “take off glasses”

3. 脱外套 (tuō wài tào) “take off jacket”

4. 脱手表 (tuō shǒu biǎo) “take off watch”

5. 脱裤子 (tuō kù zi) “take off pants”

6. 脱口罩 (tuō kǒu zhào) “take off mask”

Uh oh. Half of these examples are incorrect. Why is that? It is due to “using the English orchestra to play the Chinese symphony”. In English there is no difference when we say take off our shoes or take off our glasses. However, Chinese has distinct verbs for certain items, such as taking off glasses 摘眼镜 (zhāi yǎn jìng). 脱 and 摘 both mean take off in the English sense but 摘 is specifically used for taking off accessories, so the correct phrases are:

1. 摘眼镜 (zhāi yǎn jìng) “take off glasses”

2. 摘手表 (zhāi shǒu biǎo) “take off watch”

3. 摘口罩 (zhāi kǒu jiào) “take off mask”

Allow me to share a personal example. I learned 精彩 (jīng cǎi) several months ago and it translates to "wonderful, splendid". For homework, my tutor asked me to make a sentence with this word. Around that time, I went to Singapore for vacation, so I wrote 我的新加坡旅游很精彩, i.e. my vacation in Singapore was wonderful. While this makes perfect sense in English, it does not align with proper Chinese usage. This is because 精彩 only applies to certain scenarios that typically involve watching something, e.g. movie, competition, concert, or an event. For example, 我觉得2023年英雄联盟全球总决赛很精彩 = I thought the 2023 League of Legends World Championship was wonderful. Since I only thought of 精彩 = wonderful from an English perspective, I used it incorrectly to express my wonderful vacation. To correct this misunderstanding, I learned to associate 精彩 with words like 比赛 (bǐ sài) “competition”, 电影 (diàn yǐng) “movie”, 活动 (huó dòng) “event”.

After reading Fluent Forever, I've now adopted a practice of creating a symphony, particularly from a Chinese perspective, when learning new words. By looking at example sentences or discerning the appropriate usage of the word, I can gradually commit it to memory. Chinese is rich in words that may seem interchangeable in English but are used in distinct situations. In English this occurs as well, for example “scaredy cat” but not “scaredy dog.” As native English speakers we have grown accustomed to these phrases through constant exposure and having a philharmonic orchestra playing our symphony. Likewise, we can learn to build our own orchestra for the Chinese symphony of words.

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Looking Ahead

1. Apps for learning Chinese recommendations and which ones I still use today.

Got any feedback or suggestions?

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Best,

Eric