1 . They say that children learn languages the best.     1    . We asked some of the polyglots (通晓多种语言的人) in TED’s Open Translation Project to share their secrets to mastering a foreign language. Several basic principles are as follows.

Get real. Decide on a simple, achievable goal to start with so that you don’t feel confused. German translator Judith Matz suggests: “Pick up 50 words of a language and start using them on people —     2    .”

Play house with the language. The more you invite a foreign language into your daily life, the more your brain will consider it something useful and worth caring about. “Use every opportunity to get involved in the new language,” says Russian translator Olga Dmitrochenkova.     3    , read kids’ books written in it, watch subtitled TED and TEDx talks, or live-narrate parts of your day to an imaginary foreign friend.

    4    . Dmitrochenkova has a great idea: “A funny thing like resetting the language on your phone can help you learn new words right away,” she says. Ditto for changing the language on your browser (浏览器). Or you can seek out more structured learning opportunities online. Dutch translator Els De Keyser recommends Duolinguo for its gamified (游戏化) approach to grammar, and Anki for memorizing vocabulary with its “intelligent” flashcards...

Make new friends.     5     — it will teach you to naturally express your thoughts, instead of mentally translating each sentence before you say it. Find native speakers near you. Or search for foreign penpals or set up a language connection online, where two volunteers help one another practice their own languages.

3 . “I wonder by my troth, what thou and I did, till we loved?” those are the first words of a poem by John Donne that I learned at school and I still know the whole thing today. It’s just one of many poems I've stored in my memory, ready to recite and relish whenever I please.

It seems that poetry learning has gone out of fashion, but I'm still a fan because it doesn't just breed a lifelong love of poetry.     1     So why not dig out a poem you love and use it to exercise and enrich your recall?

Step 1. Know that poems are designed to stick in your mind.     2     See how they leave you with memory-arousing images and how they surprise you by breaking the rules, and control your senses and emotions. These are all great ways to make information more memorable.

Step 2.     3       When you're learning a poem, try linking the last word of one line to the first word of the next. In my John Donne poem, one line ends with “see”, and the next starts with “which”, so I pictured a “sea witch”. Making links like these can also help with learning names, and many other kinds of information.

Step 3. Put in a performance. When you're practising a poem, read it aloud, as dramatically and emotionally as you can.     4    

Step 4. Enjoy yourself. Learning poems gives your memory a workout, which improves your mood and gets you into good learning habits. So reap the rewards! Have fun putting rhymes into your shopping list, using rhythm to learn names, or “performing” revision notes before an exam.

    5    And, in the process, you'll be making your memory stronger for everything.