Mental Imagery as a Powerful Learning Tool

Learning Blog #3

Objective:  To better utilize my mental imagery regarding French.  This includes not only mental pictures, but any imagery caused by sound, smell, taste and kinesthetic experiences.  I believe images are powerful - especially pour moi.  Having traveled throughout Germany this week, I experienced many sights, sounds, tastes and kinesthetic images to help make new connections and help with retrieval and recall.

Method:  While traveling to tourist sights (that have any French element at all), I will take mental (including all senses) pictures linking me to that sight.  I will draw a picture, make note of a smell or taste, or video a kinesthetic experience to help with recall/retrieval later.

According to the Open System Theory in the CIP model,  my human mind (an open system) is like a computer from which I will be interacting with the realities outside myself by visiting Germany this week.  I will no doubt acquire information from the outside (input) and use that information to act on the world in some way (improve my French accent by seeking French speakers to emulate).  I expect to have an even  greater appreciation for the impact of this cultural exchange in helping me gain a better understanding of Europe as a whole.

I will try to record as many interactions (whether verbal or written) with the French language that I can.  I will translate (hand written in my travel journal) as many phrases as I can!

I'm hoping to avoid cognitive overload because I now know that my mind is like a bottleneck - I must slown down and simplify whenever possible.  I'm hoping to add words to my vocab that are very similar to their English counterpart to avoid overload.

.….    .....….  
After having spent a week in Germany thus far, I have to say that my original plan had to be thrown out for a new one!  My schema of European languages had to be tuned this week:). Oh my was I wrong to think that I would be exposed to a decent amount of French while traveling!  There were hardly any French speakers and the only tourist site that included any French translations was at the concentration camp in Dachau.  Further tuning about European language took place as I realized that English is the universal European language spoken everywhere.  I knew that already but it just clicked half-way through the trip.

It definitely has to be that way since there are so many different languages spoken in Europe.  It was an enriching experience to go on a couple of biking tours through Berlin and Potsdam and converse with people from Copenhagen and Japan that I would never otherwise be able to do.  I so admire that in people when I travel to different countries!  Their example motivates me to take the time and commit to learning another language.

I wish I could add some pictures with this post of all the wonderful sites I've been lucky enough to experience, but all I have is my cell phone!  I will add some pictures with my next post when I'm back in the states.

Like I noted earlier, I was able to find a few French phrases en Francais  that I will translate below:

Poussez - Push
I saw this all over on the bathroom doors.  The fact that I can combine this new word with a setting and image has allowed it to enter my long-term memory.


"Je me refugie a l'ombre de tes alles" - found on a bronze plate in Dachau.
"I refuse in the shadow of your gone."
Huh?  Yo Google translate, that doesn't really make sense!  I think I get what this phrase really means without Google translate because I was so moved by the location where I saw the phrase: Dachau.  It was such a moving experience for us to walk through the hallowed grounds of this concentration camp with my part-Jewish sister-in-law.  I knew it meant "I will never forget."


"Un pou, ta mort" - found on a Nazi propaganda poster
"A louse, your death"

This basically describes what would happen if a prisoner got caught with  lice.  It was once believed that typhus fever was spread by lice so these posters (I'll have to include a picture  with my next post) were placed around the camps as a warning.  Awful.

"Dachau - un monde sans pitie"
"Dachau -  a world without mercy"

"Les puissant et les victimes"
"The mighty and the helpless"


It was a sobering way to add a few more new vocabulary words to my French repertoire, but I know I will more easily recall or retrieve these new words/phrases because of the mental and kinesthic
memories that were created this week.