Let’s say that you want to memorize vocabulary in a new language. For example, I want to know how to say a few Japanese words:
Yes - Jai No - Iie Thank you - Arigatougotzaimasu I’m sorry - Gomennasai Excuse me - Sumimasen
Imagine entering your house and a man breaks the entrance with a karate chop shouting Jaaaaaaaaiii! The karateka is nodding a yes with exaggerated head up and down movements. Then, an almost invisible lady appears with a plate. There is some horrible food. Imagine this repugnant dish with the greenish color, and its putrid odor. The karateka shouts Iiiiiiiiiiieeeee! and saying no! with exaggerated head movements again.
The karateka enters the house, finally. In the living room, your aunt Arianna, nicknamed Ari, is surprised by the intruder and throws him a cat which in Spanish is said gato. You try to move to the dining room, aunt Ari says Go!!!, and Saito from Rurouni Kenshin enters the scene with a piece of meat in his hands using it like a mallet that in Spanish is maso, shouting uuuuuu!!!. A big banner with a thank you appears behind.
Saito is about to attack but the karateka has a card up his sleeve calling his men: Go, men. A horde of miniature men Naaah! enter to face Saito. He runs away saying I’m sorry!! Saito enters a bedroom, a sumo wrestler wanted to pass through the door but Saito is obstructing, and the sumo claims his right to pass using a mallet maso in Spanish, y says Excuse me.
As you can see, for remembering with the memory palace we create a story, the crazier the better, and we place it in a location that we know well, as your house, school, office, a path you walk around often, or any place that you know well.
Why does this work? I don’t know. But, I have seen it worked for many people, and it worked for me. This technique has been useful for learning a language. But, I have read about people using this technique to remember science and math formulas. Furthermore, there are memory competitions where individuals memorize a deck of cards in less than a minute (the current record is around 16 seconds for memorizing 52 cards, from Mr. Mullen! Yeah, crazy!). How is that useful? It does not look like it, initially, but this could be good brain training.
As you can see, I’m a fan of Rurouni Kenshin. Anyways, who cares? The fact of the matter here is to choose images that are meaningful for you. And that is different for each person. The more horrible, uncommon, even sensual the images are, the easier you will remember it.
The images do not need to describe the words perfectly, but give you an anchor for you to remember.
If you want to know more, I recommend mnemotecnia.es in Spanish and mullenmemory.com in English.
Cheers!