didn't know what it meant. So I tell you: 'navet' is the French word for turnip. And you write it down in your notebook : navet = turnip. If you were in a language class, you would end up with a couple of pages of new words, most of them unrelated. Even if the discussion sticks closely to the subject of vegetables, or food in general, it's still pretty hard to remember the word. But if I make a mind map with the central theme 'vegetable' (which is légume in French, by the way), I could then draw a branch with a picture of a root, then sub-branches with some root vegetables I know. By adding little images, it's easy for me to know what each word means without having to translate each time.