Mnemonic Techniques in Learning Russian
Learning the Russian language can be a very tricky task. The Russian lexis is vast, extremely diverse and has a long story that is reflected in each word; syntax is complex, with many types of predicates that could be conjugated with only specific grammatical forms of subjects and, at times, the differences are so subtle that they become hard to explain. Grammatical gender is something non-native speakers may struggle with for a long time since the only way to tell masculine and feminine words apart is by looking at the ending of a word, which sometimes may be the same like in “мама” (mother) and “папа” (father). However, the true horror is Russian grammar.
Russian grammar always has a special place in every pupil’s heart. The dreaded word “orthogram” (which is, I believe, used only in Russian) haunts young students their whole school experience. But what’s so special about the grammar of Russian? Every language has its grammar! Well, the Russian curriculum is built in such a way that students each year will learn almost the same topics, but delve deeper and deeper into them. Before graduating, they are expected to develop a deep understanding of grammar, its rules, nuances of these rules and exceptions from them. The problem is, if you are not going to dive into the full historical process, these rules often make no sense. How are we supposed to learn them? Here is where mnemonic techniques come to play.
I’m sure many of you are familiar with mnemonic techniques, but if not, here is the quick introduction. A mnemonic technique is a trick that turns an abstract idea into a complete association, a vision, a picture – something that you can easily remember. Mnemonic techniques are used for easier retrieval of information from our memory. The technique can be executed by, as stated earlier, creating a memorable picture in your brain or, which may be easier, rhyming the information that you need to remember. Luckily, the Russian language is very sensitive and open to rhyme.
Rhyming is a very convenient way to remember, for instance, the spelling of a difficult word. Let’s take a salad vinaigrette dressing (which is tricky in English as well), in Russian it looks like “винегрет”. The first two vowels are unstressed, so they are in a weak position and we can’t trust the way they sound. To help us remember how these vowels are spelled we could use a kind of similar word “билет” (ticket), which sounds very similar, has the same vowel sequence (е after и) and is easier to remember. And so it makes no problem to create a rhyme: “same as билет spell винегрет”. The other way to remember how a word is spelt is by creating an association. Imagine that we need to remember the double “л” in “стеллаж” (rack). We should take a word with “лл” that we are sure to remember and connect them. We could use “холл” (hall): “стеллажи в холле” (racks in the hall).
If we need to remember a sequence of letters (like sonorous sounds) or words (different exceptions) my favourite way to do so is writing a small sentence. To remember sonorous sounds (м, н, л, р, й) I always ask my students to come up with a small phrase with each word starting with these letters, something silly like “моя няня любит рисовый йогурт” (my nanny likes rice yoghurt). The task is easier if we already have words that we need to remember, we just have to connect them in some way. Here are the exceptions from the spelling rules of alternating roots “раст/ращ-рос”: ростовщик, отрасль, Ростислав, Ростов, росток. Try to do it yourself! My go-to version is “Ростовщик Ростислав везет в Ростов отрасль ростков”.
I always recommend these methods to my students and encourage you to try these for yourself! The only limit is your imagination. The best thing is that these techniques can be applied not only to studying languages but to any other subject, and more importantly, in everyday life.
Mr Viacheslav, Russian Language and Literature.
