How much space does my brain have for new words?

If you’ve tried to begin learning a new language and felt defeated about forgetting “my name is” as soon as you learn it, you’re in good company. This doesn’t mean you’re just automatically “bad at languages.”

So how does memory work, and why do some things seem to stick while others are gone the next day?

Watch the short video below to learn how your brain actually decides which information to keep, and which to throw away — and learn how to hack your language-learning so you can capture those words that you really need to memorize. Linguist Kaitlyn Tagarelli, PhD, discusses how three different types of memory play different roles in your language learning. She’s from Mango Languages, a company that you might want to look into for their homeschool language options! https://mangolanguages.com/homeschool/ INSERT AFFILIATE LINK

Tagarelli discusses how your working memory only has a limited amount of storage space, and some people naturally have more than others. Declarative memory is for events that you are recalling, or facts that you can recall. Procedural memory is more like muscle memory. All of these are useful and play different roles when you’re learning a language, so don’t worry if you lack in one area. A different type of memory can make up for it!