How to remember Chinese words and characters? Repetition.

There is no royal road to learning; you can’t buy knowledge. The hammer to hammer characters and vocabulary into your brain is repetition.

But Repetition doesn’t have to be boring! In fact, the more interesting the repetition the more likely it is to be remembered. We don’t remember boring experiences well, and certainly not gladly.

We remember music best because of rhythm and rhyme, because of emotional intensity, and also because of repetition. Watch Chinese movies. Listen to and learn Chinese songs.

Keys to remembering vocabulary and characters:
Repetition
Exposure – immerse yourself as much as possible in the language you are learning.
Meaning – information which is significant is likelier to be remembered.
Emotion – link words to feelings
Music – music raises emotional intensity augmenting likelihood of memory. Mnemonic
Biography – relate that which you wish to remember to that which you have personally experienced
Eselsbruecke – use mnemonics, limericks, witticisms and jokes as memory hooks
Relate new words to known words, new characters to known characters.

Associate characters with biographical, spatial, and social experiences.
Relate new information to known information.

I personally don’t use memory palaces or biographical memory. I link new information to known information. Rhythm rhyme and repetition and relating new to known are how I remember best it seems.