Complete memorization of texts

First of all, this is NOT my idea! I cannot take credit for it. But I believe it can be a very effective method. If you don't believe me, check out Uncle Polyglot, the super multilinguist who told me about this method. He is a Japanese living in Singapore, and is fluent in many languages, of which I am particularly impressed with are his English, Mandarin, and French. His blog is mighty informative so I urge you to go take a look, especially his videos are a great source of edutainment.

The reason why I think this method should be very effective is similar to why I think taking notes (during classes, seminars, meetings, etc.) in foreign languages (which I wrote about previously) is an effective language learning exercise. Just like you need to understand what you are hearing before you can translate it in your head when taking notes in foreign languages, you should understand a text fully in order to memorize it. Of course, one can argue that it is not a necessity, but understanding the text will make it much much much easier to memorize it. Also, going through the exercise of memorizing requires "repetition". There's no better way to make new words stick. Repeat profusely.

Thanks Uncle Polyglot for a great idea!