The importance of finding and using language learning memory hooks

This summer, I learnt a thing or two about the importance of using language learning memory hooks to help us remember French words, expressions and sounds.

After so many months of lockdown, it was a delight to spend 3 weeks of les grandes vacances with my young niece and nephew. They live in Paris with their maman and it had been tough for my brother and parents who had not been able to see them as regularly as normal over the past year.

There was a lot of catching up to do! We had family BBQs, birthday celebrations, games of cricket in the garden, lots of ice cream, and paddling pool fun!

One day, my nephew (9) told me, with a big grin smiling over his beaker, how much he liked Nannie’s elderflower cordial. I can never remember how to say elderflower in French, and he did not have a clue so we decided to look it up!

Le sirop de sureau – bien sûr !

Use language learning memory hooks from your own experiences to help you remember  vocabulary.

Finding the French for my nephew’s new favourite drink made me reminisce about my childhood summers spent with family in France. I loved the new tastes and smells. For my brother and me, the elderflower cordial equivalent was le sirop de grenadine ! We would be allowed a large serving of this before dinner whilst the grown-ups enjoyed an apéritif. It was so refreshing after a day on the beach. I can still taste the metal of the stainless steel tumblers that belonged to my French great-aunt!

In the early 1980s you could not (easily) buy grenadine in the UK. Nor could you find Carambars, Orangina, and Hollywood bubble gum (in all flavours and colours!). We would stuff our bags with these treats to bring back for our friends to try. The pots of fromage frais travelled less well. This was, after all,  an era when the only yogurt-type dessert available was “Ski”!

Forward wind to the noughties and my children would bring back bags of “Tagada Fraise” and “Malabar” (you know, the bubble-gum with free tattoos?!). Here in  2021, my little nephew seemed so sophisticated with his taste for English elderflower!

Together, we decided that we should not forget the French word “sureau” again! Then it dawned on me…

As a kid, I would help my mum gather elderflower and elderberries for her infamous homemade wines (another story for another day!). The elderflower trees (or are they plants?) would grow along the canal, sur eau (over water!).

At last, I had found a “hook” to help me remember this rarely-used word. I had also linked it to beautiful childhood memories.

Make links to create memory hooks

If we can link French words or expressions with words in our native tongue, images, or our life experiences then we are much more likely to remember them. As we get older, this becomes even more important – we have so much more to remember in our busy brains! We must use all the tools available to us to help to learn and remember French words.

I hope you agree with me that learning a language is so much more than just words, it is a whole-body experience, a sensory delight that excites us to discover and learn more! If you could choose one food or drink to “bottle” your love of France, I wonder, what would it be?

les grandes vacances = the summer holidays

le sirop de sureau = elderflower cordial

le sirop de grenadine = grenadine cordial