What technique do you use to remember city names in foreign languages?

What technique do you use to remember city names in foreign languages? - Flowers Offered on 911 Memorial Day

When I try to remember where I traveled or where I have to go to catch a bus, train or something else, I always have great difficulties to remember city names if they are in a foreign language. The name just doesn't sound familiar and so I think it is more difficult to remember.

As a small example: I don't forget the name Auschwitz (the German name), but I always forget the Polish name Oświęcim.

Is there any technique to decrease these difficulties?



Best Answer

It's weird, but once I've been there and heard a foreigner say it - ie in their language, it makes more sense to me.

Perhaps it's the audio effect - reading it I have no idea how to pronounce it, but once you've heard something, you can at least make an (often horrific) attempt at saying it.

I especially found this difficult with Cyrillic, and often resorted to Google Translate - it has a great little phonetic button to sound it out, and then an audio for you to listen to. But sometimes nothing is better than just practising it with a local, then it'll stick in your mind :)




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How do you memorize words in a foreign language?

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  • What is the Mind Palace technique?

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    7 Insanely Effective Techniques to Memorize Vocabulary in a New Language




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