Why you should build donkey bridges

Linking new information to what we already know makes learning easier.

The little boy on a Paris street excitedly pointed out “le moto” to his mother. She gently corrected him that it was “la moto”. As I was walking behind them, I not only learnt the gender of motorbike in French but now had an image to easily remember it: the mother (feminine) was right. Merci !

Remembering the gender of French words — particularly ones I don’t use so much — is a pain. And knowing the German word often doesn’t help: der Tisch but la table, die Brücke but le pont, das Motorradbut la moto.

So I also memorise word gender by picturing a la noun in pink and a le noun in blue.

I know the colours are clichéd, but they’re easy for me to remember.

Which is the crux of mnemonics.

Mnemonics encode new information by linking connections, ideas, images, letters and situations to old information. And this makes it easier to absorb and recall what we’re learning.

Some people create memory palaces, others draw pictures on their flashcards, while others use keywords or songs or catchphrases.

Like the example of la moto, I often imagine scenes.

To remember that French uses the verb avoir (to have) to talk about age, I picture a happy girl holding a birthday cake with candles. She has a cake and she has 10 years old.

There are endless possibilities to devise mnemonics.

In German, mnemonics are called Eselsbrücken — donkey bridges — from the Latin pons asinorum.

They’re bridges that link one riverbank to the other for donkeys bearing loads to cross — an apt image!

So start building your own donkey bridges to help you absorb and recall new phrases and grammar more easily.

Need help coming up with some mnemonics? Let’s brainstorm together.

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