By Vanuhi Vartanian | Research Analyst & Operations Director for ToTalk Armenian, LLC
One of the best ways to help you learn Armenian is through memorization. BUT, not so fast. This is not the type of memorization you and I did when we were children.
This type of memorization is a method called “Spaced Out Technique” by a German psychologist named Hermann Ebbighaus.
He coined the term “the forgetting curve” to show that it’s not enough to just memorize something one day, then never repeat it again. When you memorize anything, especially a language, you retain the information within your short term memory and will forget it later.
For example, let’s say, you teach your child the word khndzor (խնձոր). He learns that it means apple that day. The next day, you ask your child to tell you the word of apple in Armenian. He cannot remember because this is traditional memorization and it is not the best technique to help you learn Armenian.
The only way that they will remember kndzor is apple is through spaced out repetition.
Even if your child repeats the word khndzor one thousand times in one day, if he or she does not repeat it the next day, the week after that, the month after that, and six months after that, they won’t retain the information forever.
The key is not only repetition but repetition through a period of time.
The best way to learn Armenian is through spaced out repetition.
As shown in the graph above, the best memorization technique to help your child learn Armenian and remember it for the longest amount of time is the spaced-out memorization method. Continuously review your child’s vocabulary words once a week at first, then once a month for six months.
ToTalk has made this easy for you— with our custom flash cards! Our flashcards are a great tool for your child to learn Armenian through memorization!
Here is an example of a flashcard used during lessons. You can find more of these flashcards (for free!) on our Instagram or Facebook pages.
The flashcards match the vocabulary words and pictures of each lesson in our workbook.
