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One of the most frequent questions received during my time teaching English would have been, "How can I try and improve my memory for new English words?" With one of the most commonly heard ailments being expressed, "I always seem to forget words I'd learnt". I can fully appreciate the pain and frustration students feel regarding this. For some reason I am able to remember words in Japanese, which I haven't used for 10 years, far easier than if I am asked to remember the Chinese word that I practiced last week in class. It makes me 'bakka' – which is the Japanese word for 'fengzi' - or crazy. I remember my old girlfriend's phone number from 18 years ago – yet still have problems remembering my own current phone number. To get to the heart of the matter, I think it is a good idea to look at the work of a "brain expert", an English fellow by the name of Tony Buzan. According to Buzan our brain and its capacity is virtually limitless allowing us to remember all sorts of things. What is important is the ability to make connections, to make memory bridges, from past known knowledge to presently being learned knowledge. Buzan uses the metaphor of a jungle to describe the brain and the cutting of plants to make a walking path to describe something that is learnt successfully. Our memory is like this path, with the more we use information – the better cleared the path and the less likely it will be forgotten. Whereas like in the jungle, if you don't cut the trees often enough the path gets lost amid the trees, so too with our memory – it needs to be constantly used. | 
