Learning a language isn’t just about grammar or listening to conversations — it’s about remembering words, conjugations, and expressions for the long term.
But here’s the catch: our memory forgets fast!
Luckily, there’s a proven, science-backed method to fight forgetting and make your learning much more efficient: spaced repetition.
🧠 Why We Forget (and How to Fix It)
Psychology studies show that when we learn something new, our brain keeps it for a short while… then starts to forget it if we don’t review it.
That’s what’s known as the forgetting curve.
The good news? Every time we review a word, we reactivate the memory — and the more we review it at the right moment, the stronger it becomes.
That’s exactly where spaced repetition comes in!
⏰ How Spaced Repetition Works
Instead of reviewing your vocabulary over and over on the same day, this method suggests reviewing it at increasing intervals.
For example:
- Day 1: learn 10 new words.
- Day 2: review them once.
- Day 4: review again.
- One week later: review again.
- Two weeks later: a final check.
Each time you recall a word correctly, your brain strengthens that connection and stores it longer.
The result: you remember much more, with less effort!
The 5 Wallets Game: Turn Vocabulary learning into a Fun Challenge
Learning vocabulary can sometimes feel repetitive… but with the 5 wallets technique, it becomes a real game!
Imagine you have five small wallets (you can even buy them for a few bolivianos at La Cancha in Cochabamba 😉):
🪙 Wallet 1: where you keep the new words you’ve just learned.
Every day, you open it and review those words.
If you answer correctly, the word moves to wallet 2.
If you’re wrong, it stays in wallet 1.
Every two days, you review wallet 2.
If you get it right, the word moves to wallet 3; if not, it goes back to wallet 1.
Then:
- Wallet 3: review every 4 days.
- Wallet 4: once a week.
- Wallet 5: every two weeks.
The golden rule:
👉 No matter where a word is, if you forget it, it always goes back to the first wallet!
When a word finally “graduates” from the fifth wallet, it’s yours forever — part of your active vocabulary!
This simple system helps you review words just before you forget them — the true secret of spaced repetition. And best of all, you can adapt it to your own pace. The more you play, the faster your Spanish grows!
🌎 A Method You Can Use Anytime, Anywhere
One of the best things about spaced repetition is how flexible it is. You can practice anywhere and anytime — on the bus, while cooking, or during one of our Spanish lessons (in-person or online).
Just a few minutes a day are enough to keep your “vocabulary wallets” active and your memory sharp.
Learning becomes natural, part of your daily life — and your progress will be visible before you know it!
📚 Scientific Evidence Behind the Method
Here are a few key studies that confirm how effective spaced repetition really is:
- Enhancing Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention: The Role of Spaced Repetition in Language Learning — Thai university students recalled ~80% of words after 10 days and retained most of them 18 days later. (Thai Journal Online)
- Learners’ Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Spaced Learning Schedule in L2 Vocabulary Learning (Lotfolahi & Salehi, 2016) — students using spaced schedules retained far more words than those who studied everything at once. (SAGE Journals)
- Replication and Analysis of Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve (Murre & Dros, 2015) — a modern confirmation of Ebbinghaus’s classic work showing how fast we forget without review. (PMC)
- Enhancing Human Learning via Spaced Repetition Optimization — shows that optimized spaced repetition algorithms can significantly improve vocabulary retention. (PNAS)
- The Effectiveness of Computer-Based Spaced Repetition in Foreign Language Vocabulary Instruction (Chukharev-Hudilainen & Tatiana) — just a few minutes a day with digital spaced repetition tripled long-term vocabulary retention compared to traditional methods. (CALICO Journal, Equinox Publishing)