Don't be ashamed to forget!

Every day as I tear through my German lesson I am asked to translate an English phrase to German and I forget the German verb that I need to use. Nouns and common terms don't slip my mind as easily as verbs (remember that I group my flashcards by nouns, verbs, and commons). The problem with verbs is that they are more abstract concepts than nouns. It's easier for me to remember the word information (die Auskunft) then to remember the verb explain (erklären). In fact, I never needed a mnemonic device to remember die Auskunft, but I still struggle to recall the one for erklären: "Explain to me again why I have to have an ear clearin' if I always can hear ya loud and clear." One problem is that it's hard to make a mnemonic device for a verb. Notice that the "Explain to" part of my sentence is fairly optional. I always remember the "ear clearin'" part (what I call the actual device). In fact, my mnemonic device for the noun version of the word, die Erklärung (the explanatory statement, or explanation), is easier to remember: "My previously clogged ear clear(ly) rung after his explanatory statement". Notice that here "after his explanatory statement" is more necessary to the mnemonic device being a complete thought than "Explain to". Put another way, it's easier to translate a German noun into a significant part of a mnemonic device sentence than a German verb, and that's likely the same for any language. I could probably retool the first mnemonic device to be better associated with the verb: "Ear clearin' explains why grandpa's hearing goes in and out". In this sentence explain is a fundamental part of the sentence, so I'm more likely to association "Ear clearin'" with "explain". Keep this in mind when you write mnemonic devices, especially for verbs. It's ideal that the device is a fundamental component of the sentence. You might have less of a problem if you draw pictures instead of using sentences, since it's easier to see an image holistically than a sentence.

What I really wanted to explain is that when I do translation exercises, I forget a lot of words that I've learned. Forgetting a word should never be embarrassing while learning. It should be a revelatory opportunity to reacquaint yourself with the word. When I can't remember a word I go to my flash cards and search for the word in English. I'll usually find one obvious match, or I just guess which one in the results my exercise is looking for. Upon seeing the English written, I tried to remember the mnemonic device before peering at it below the word. Hopefully, just a few words of the mnemonic device will remind me of the German word. Sometimes I have to parse the sentence carefully to identify the actual device (e.g. Ear clearin'). I then try to say the German word based on the device and my recollection. Finally, I look at the other side of the flash card and verify the German. I may have said it slightly wrong or gotten it dead on. The next thing I do is add the German word to a word list for that day. At the end of my session I'll make a sentence out of triplets of words (as explained in recent posts). I often forget the word's meaning by the end of the session, so the sentence gives me another re-acquaintance with it. If I suspect that I'm frequently forgetting the same word I can search my sentence flaschards (I make one flashcard for each sentence exercise) to quickly count how many times I've forgotten a word during my exercises.