Why Do We Forget Words So Quickly?

🌟 Episode Highlights

• We try to learn too much too quickly
• Emotional connection is key to memory
• Repetition through spaced intervals works best

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Transcript

Hello, hello! Welcome back to another episode. I have my question jar here, so let's pick a question and see what we get.

Today's question is: why do we forget words right after we learn them? So the first thing that comes to mind with this question is the forgetting curve. The forgetting curve is basically the rate at which we forget things over time, and it is amazing how quickly we forget things. It is frankly amazing, but also very frustrating. So I understand the emotional side of this question.

Why do we forget words right after we learn them? Personally, I think there are several factors that go into this. One is just how much we try to learn at one time. If you think about school, for example, we have to try to learn so much so quickly when we are in school, when we are students. And the type of memorizing, the type of learning, the type of remembering that we are expected to do in school—that's called rote memorization. Rote memorization is when you just have to put it in your head. You're just learning it without any attempt to remember it long term. You're just shoving it into your head. And this is often done for school. You cram. We use this word "to cram," meaning to shove something into a space that doesn't really have enough space for it. And we use this with studying. We use this word with school. You cram for an exam, for example. And this is related to rote memorization. It's just repetition, repetition, repetition without thinking about optimizing or efficiency. You just go over and over and over again. And this is very common in school.

We usually have to learn in that way—well, I wouldn't really call it learning. We usually have to memorize or study in that way because there's so much to learn and not a lot of time to learn it in, or there's so much to memorize and not a lot of time to memorize it in. Because, you know, in America, education is a little bit different. The culture around education is a little bit different in America from other countries, and I'm specifically thinking about Asian countries: China, Japan, Korea. I know from my students that the culture of education is very different in countries, for example, like China, Japan, Korea. Here in America, education is a little bit more blasé. Blasé meaning not very serious, very casual.

The reason I bring this up is because when I was a student, I didn't spend a lot of time studying. I got good grades, but I didn't spend time studying. So I would usually study the night before. I would cram for an exam the night before. And so that creates this condition where you're trying to put a lot of information into your head in a very short period of time. Now, when you're doing this with a language, people try to cram a lot of information into their heads in a very short period of time. A lot of people try to sprint where they are trying to learn, I don't know, 20 vocabulary words a day, every day. I think that's a big factor of why we forget things so quickly. We try to learn too much too quickly.

But also, there's another factor, and that is how our brains remember things. Our brains—they're very impressive things. Very impressive. Our brains are amazing. It just shocks me how amazing our brains are. And one of the things that our brains do so well is filter. Our brains are like filtering machines. Our brains pay a lot of attention to things that are going to help us, things that are very relevant to our survival. Now, something like learning a language is typically not tied to our survival, so we remember things that are very important. Now, how do we know when something is important? Usually there will be a physical or emotional response to something.

We do see this in language learning. I've heard from polyglots—so people who have learned a lot of languages to a fluent level—I've heard polyglots talk about the random words that they remember. And if you pay attention to the context that these polyglots remember these random words in, it's usually in the context of a very emotional event. So emotion is, I think, a very important factor in how we remember things. So why do we forget words right after we learn them? Because the word comes at us and then slides off, unless that word triggers some kind of strong emotion.

Now, another factor that goes into this is repetition. Why do we forget words right after we learn them? Because it's probably the first time we've seen the word. And if it doesn't cause an emotional reaction, or if it doesn't connect to something else that we already know very well—and connections are very important; that's another really big, helpful way to remember vocabulary, is to create connections to things you already know—but if it's just coming at you and you don't have an emotional response and you don't make a connection to something else, then it'll just fall away and your brain won't catch it.

However, the more times you see a word, the more times you interact, the more likely you are to remember something. So this is where SRS comes into play. SRS stands for spaced repetition system. This is things like Anki. Anki is an extremely popular resource for language learners. It's free, and it's a pretty sophisticated system. So the spaced repetition system, or SRS, is based on the forgetting curve—so the rate that you forget words over time. What an SRS aims to do, its goal, is to give you or show you this word right when you're about to forget it. That's another thing I've noticed in these conversations about memory. If you can give your brain opportunities to start to forget and then remember, recall, the more likely you are to remember a word long term. So SRS is like an engineered opportunity, a series of opportunities to almost forget and then recall the information.

So this is something I've said quite a bit recently: language learning is a numbers game. The more you hear a word, see a word, use a word, the more you will remember, or the longer you will remember it. So language learning is a numbers game.

Now, when it comes to memory techniques, I think that will be a separate video. The question here is: why do we forget words right after we learn them? And I think that those factors are a part of it. There's no emotional connection. We learn too much too fast. And we don't have enough repetition. Those are the three things that I think are the most important when it comes to forgetting right away.

But I'm curious: what do you use to learn vocabulary? Do you use things like spaced repetition systems, like flashcards, Anki, things like that? Or do you take a more natural, organic approach, maybe just by listening a lot—podcasts, videos, movies? Let me know in the comments. I'm very curious. I like to learn as much as I can about different methods of learning.

Also, if you have a question, make sure to comment, and I will put your question in the question jar. If you are listening on an app like Spotify or a podcast app, I recommend going over to YouTube and leaving a comment so that I will see your question. And while you're on YouTube, make sure you check to see if you're already subscribed to my channel. YouTube is the first place I put all of my content, so if you want the latest, the greatest, here is the place to get it.

As always, thanks for listening, my friends. Until next time. Bye!