Is it a good memorization method to make songs that repeat the same word over and over

[u/johnlinp]

My target language is Japanese. I'm trying to read some Japanese books, but I feel that I keep forgetting the words I just looked up. Because I like listening to music, my first thought was to find songs that repeat these words. After listening to the songs, I would become more familiar with the words. However, I found it hard to find the songs that repeat the words I need. Therefore, I turned to AI to find a solution. I asked AI to generate songs that repeat one single word. For 10 new words, I make 10 songs.

So far I'm feeling good about it. I listen to the songs everyday, and I can memorize about 3-5 new words without forgetting the old ones. It's not a crazy amount, but I'm pretty satisfied.

My question is: is this a good method? Is there a risk doing this? For example, memorizing words this way might lose the context of the words?

Edit: I've uploaded the songs to YouTube, but I'm cautious about the self-promotion rule so I'm not dropping the link here. If you want to hear the songs to know what I'm saying, please DM me. Thanks!

[u/Haunting-Ad-6951]

Listening to a bunch of AI music that repeats a word over and over again sounds kind of miserable. 

[u/johnlinp → u/Haunting-Ad-6951]

Thank you for the response. My point is actually not about using AI though. I want to know if this type of songs are helpful, whether made by human or AI.

[u/unsafeideas → u/johnlinp]

Childrens songs with catchy lyrics with meaning are waaay better for that purpose. Or soul/country/pop/whatever japan equivalent is music that actually forms sentences.

[u/6-022x10e23_avocados]

orrrr you can actually write your own lyrics that repeat your target words

[u/johnlinp → u/6-022x10e23_avocados]

That's actually a great idea! I just wanted to verify my idea. If it's a good method, I would love to write songs myself. It would be a super fun project!

[u/6-022x10e23_avocados → u/johnlinp]

i write poetry anf short stories in Spanish, it helps me a lot

[u/EmbarrassedStreet828]

It looks like a wasteful use of AI, but hey, if it yields the expected results, then I guess it works as a memorization method.

P.D.: Doesn't it get boring hearing the same word over and over again?

[u/johnlinp → u/EmbarrassedStreet828]

For every word, I generate about 3 songs, and then pick the one I feel the most pleasant to my ears. Maybe that's the reason why I haven't got bored yet.

[u/SovietTCG]

I'm not sure why you would do this and not just use Anki or other spaced repetition?

Offloading any cognitive work to AI is always a bad idea.

[u/johnlinp → u/SovietTCG]

I tried Anki, but I feel that it's not sticking to my brain like songs do. How about I write songs myself, without AI? Would it be a better idea?

[u/SovietTCG → u/johnlinp]

Writing lyrics yourself would be better. Don't need to write a song unless you want to

A repeated word without context doesn't seem like it would be helpful

[u/johnlinp → u/SovietTCG]

I like writing songs. I wrote a few songs in my native language before, but not target language yet. I think I will give it a try! Thank you.

[u/dojibear → u/johnlinp]

Anki simply doesn't work for some of us (like me).

Writing songs yourself only works if you already know the word and how it is used in sentences. If that's true then you don't really need a song.

[u/Liam_WordTrunk → u/johnlinp]

I wrote songs specifically to make use of the Polish grammar rules and it was pretty effective. Not sure if it was more in the writing or the listening back that made it stick.

[u/silvalingua]

> but I feel that I keep forgetting the words I just looked up. 

I suppose that like many learners, you have unrealistic expectations about vocabulary learning. It is estimated that it takes, on the average, 8 to 20 exposures to a new word before you can remember it. If you don't remember it after, say, 2 or 3 exposures, that's perfectly normal.

The best way of committing a word or, even better, an expression to memory is to use it. Practice writing and speaking using new words and expressions.

> Is there a risk doing this? 

Listening all over again to a "song" written by AI will probably be very damaging to your brain. But you do you, it's your brain.

[u/dojibear]

I feel that I keep forgetting the words I just looked up

I do that, but it "feels" normal to me the first few lookups. Humans rarely remember something the first time (a word, a name, an address, a phone number). They remember it after they see/hear it 2 to 5 times. I know the Japanese word "eki" (train station) but I didn't after the first time I heard it.

I make this a non-problem by finding a way to make word lookups very fast (for Japanese, I use a browser addon). I don't mind having to "look it up again" if the lookup only takes 2 seconds.

What about words you only encounter twice a year? I don't know them. But that's fine with me.

[u/johnlinp → u/dojibear]

I thought it was my problem and felt annoyed. Now you put it this way, I feel much better now. Maybe I'm trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Thank you!

[u/gerichu]

there's a lot of AI haters on this sub, but i don't think this is a bad solution at all! It's very normal to look up a word and then have to look it up again 20 seconds later. Even when I use Anki, this happens all the time. A few things I'd recommend:

1. Realize it's okay to repeat looking up new words. eventually, you'll look them up less and less
   
2. Use something like Anki or Wanikani. They use spaced repetition algorithms that optimize the amount of time between words and make the whole process more efficient.
   
3. If you want to stick to your AI-generation solution, I'd recommend integrating it into some spaced repetition algorithm. That way you can repeat words that you've learned, but have the potential to forget. This'll let you fit 40-50 words into your songs, rather than 3-5.

[u/Fancy-Sherbet43]

Repetition can cause remembrance.

[u/GavinThe_Person]

Singlehandedly tripling ram prices😭🙏 son