Is learning how to write important?

Today, I questioned whether I should learn how to write Thai. If my goal is just conversational, that should be an easy ‘No’ right? However, when I was learning Korean, I found myself retaining more just by learning how to write the language. This led me to remember about the different learning styles.

The main learning styles are:

• visual
• auditory
• kinesthetic

There are many others but these are the more popular ones. Initially, I thought I was just a visual learner, hence being able to see the words was important to me. Then when I sounded out the words, it helped me even further. And when I wrote them down, that took me to a very different level. Suddenly, I have a physical relationship with the words. If you haven’t already guessed, sounding out and writing down is just the next 2 learning styles.

What I’m trying to say is this - the more learning styles you employ, the more “hooks” there are that you can rely on when trying to recall a word. The more hooks there are, the easier it is to recall, and when the hooks work together, the memory of those words will then be securely tethered to your brain.

If you know what type of learner you are, great! Even if you don’t, it doesn’t really matter. Just use as many as you can, and you’ll find that you will suddenly gain a lot of helping hands. Just to whet your appetite even further, try these other hooks:

• smell (imagine smelling the word)
• emotion (imagine what kind of emotions the word invoke)
• location (imagine where in space the word relates to. It can be an imaginary space)
• size (imagine the size of the word relative to others)
• human relationship (imagine the word as different people you know)

You’re only limited by your imagination!