People around the world dream of becoming fluent in another language or becoming experts in a professional field. Yet so few will ever develop the vocabulary needed to achieve these goals. Even with the best intentions and the best of instructors, people struggle to memorize enough material.

Why is vocabulary such a struggle? Many people blame a lack of time. Some claim that memorizing the words they need to know is too hard. Others try to learn by rote, desperately copying the words they need to learn hundreds of times by hand, or by playing repetitive language-learning videogames. The biggest excuse heard around the world is the saddest of all: far too many people claim that they have a bad memory.

I sympathize with this. I used to love claiming that I have a poor memory. In fact, the first time I studied a foreign language, I silently swore in English so vehemently about my “bad memory” that I would have been kicked out of class if my teacher had heard me speaking my frustration out loud. And he didn’t even know English!

I remained irritated with what I perceived to be my poor memory until I decided to do something about it. I studied memorization and ultimately devised the unique Magnetic Memory system described in my books. It is an easily learned set of skills based around the alphabet, one that you can completely understand in under an hour. It is a system that will have you acquiring countless vocabulary words at an accelerated pace. Instead of struggling to learn and retain one or two words or pieces of information a day, you will find yourself memorizing dozens of words every time you practice using my strategies.

It pleases me immensely to help people memorize foreign language vocabulary and specialized terminology, especially when people regularly describe to me how easily they were able to memorize their first 100 words in under an hour using the Magnetic Memory method. These achievements are thrilling to me, thrilling for the people who use the techniques and they will thrill you too.

Magnetic Memory Mondays

Newsletter

Volume 3

By

Anthony Metivier, PhD

For Memorizers Everywhere

WAIT!

If you aren’t already subscribed to this newsletter, send a blank email to learnandmemorize@zoho.com. As a subscriber to the prestigious Magnetic Memory newsletter, you’ll receive a free set of Magnetic Memory worksheets that will help you achieve your memorization goals. Whilst subscriptions are currently free for readers of my books, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be making this offer. Subscribe now and get the only information that will keep your memory magnetic for years to come.

Table of Contents

Where To Find 15, 000 Phrases To Stick Into Your Memory Palace – For Free

The Zeno’s Paradox of Memorization

Can Clicking Noises Help You Memorize During Sleep?

How to Use Superheroes to Memorize

Why Rote Memorization Is the Easiest Method In Town (When It Isn’t Busy Being The Hardest …)

How To Keep Dr. Forget At Bay

Harry Lorayne Enters The Fray

A Magisterial Memorization Book No One Ever Talks About

Memorization, Speaking & Self-deprecation

How to Memorize Spellings (Plus More on Self-deprecation)

Rote Memorization Done Right?

Your Memorization Questions for Harry Lorayne

How Things Went With Harry Lorayne

The Young And The Memorize-less

Memorization As An Act Of “Unhiding”

The Most Amazing Magnetic Memorization Equation

Memorization Architectonics

The Mnemonic Wizard

Kirk, Spock & The “Master Narrative” Of Memorization

The Great Memorization Software Hoax

How To Memorize Like Sherlock Holmes

The Great Memorization Software Hoax Continued

Breaking News: Music Can Be Memorized!

The Memory Software Hoax That Would Not Relax

The Shocking Truth About Using Maps to Memorize

Memorization Starvation

How to Find Memorization Rich Environments

About the Author

Where To Find 15, 000 Phrases To Stick Into Your Memory Palace – For Free

1  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  12˚  as  the  sun  goes  down  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    Depending  on  what  country  you  live  in,  today  is  the  day  where  you  can  find  many  street  festivals  and  other  activities  to  engage  in  with  respect  to  International  Workers'  Day.      Since  I've  been  involved  in  the  proceedings  in  Berlin  rather  intensively,  I'll  take  only  a  moment  to  send  you  something  cool.      It's  a  book  you  can  get  for  free  on  your  Kindle.      The  title:  

FIFTEEN THOUSAND USEFUL PHRASES A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF PERTINENT

EXPRESSIONS, STRIKING SIMILES, LITERARY, COMMERCIAL, CONVERSATIONAL, AND ORATORICAL TERMS, ... PERSONS WHO READ, WRITE, AND SPEAK ENGLISH  The  link:      http://www.amazon.com/Expressions-­‐Commercial-­‐Conversational-­‐Oratorical-­‐ebook/dp/B004TPLP1A    Now,  I  know  what  you're  thinking:    I'm  trying  to  learn  a  different  language.  Why  on  earth  do  I  need  a  book  filled  with  English  phrases?    ...  why,  indeed?    The  answer  is  simple.      If  you  read  my  newsletter  about  Queen  Elizabeth  about  a  month  ago,  then  you'll  probably  recall  the  concept  of  translating  out  of  and  then  back  into  your  target  language.      It's  a  great  exercise.  In  the  event  that  you  didn't  get,  have  lost  or  haven't  read  that  email  about  Queen  Liz  and  memorization  but  would  like  to,  I'm  starting  to  compile  last  month's  messages  together  as  a  PDF.  If  you  want  the  compilation,  

just  respond  to  this  message  with  "Send  me  the  second  PDF."  (It's  important  that  you  use  the  word  "second"  so  that  I  don't  accidentally  send  you  the  first).  I've  got  quite  a  bit  to  do  tomorrow,  but  I'll  send  it  to  you  just  as  soon  as  I  can.      As  you  already  have  or  can  read  in  that  issue,  Queen  Elizabeth  boosted  her  fluency  massively  by  translating  her  target  languages  into  English,  and  then,  after  having  her  translations  corrected,  translated  her  own  English  rendition  back  into  the  target  language.      With  15,000  Useful  Phrases  you  won't  be  doing  exactly  the  same  thing,  but  rather,  the  following  two  things:    1)  Encountering  English  as  an  entity,  i.e.  seeing  it  for  what  it  is:  a  collection  of  mutable  phrases  with  a  certain  immutable  set  of  fixtures.    2)  Finding  countless  words  and  phrases  that  you  will  want  to  know  in  your  target  language.      That's  the  real  purpose  of  sharing  this  resource  with  you.    Many  people  ask  me:  Now  that  I've  got  this  dedicated  system  for  memorizing  vocabulary,  what  is  the  best  vocabulary  to  memorize?      I  have  a  list  of  words  that  I  think  will  serve  them  will.  They  are  words  that  I  live  by.      However,  I  think  that  15,000  Useful  Phrases  will  also  keep  you  in  good  stead.  In  fact,  it's  even  better,  and  you  can  pick  and  choose  the  material  you  would  like  to  discover  for  learning  in  your  target  language  for  days  and  days,  if  not  years  to  come.  It  is  a  tool  for  fluency.  And  ...    ...  assuming  you  have  a  Kindle  device  or  app  ...    ...  it  won't  cost  you  anything.  Not  even  a  penny.      And  if  you  want  the  compilation  of  April's  newsletters  as  a  PDF,  all  you  have  to  do  is  respond  to  this  email  with  "Send  me  the  second  PDF."  I'll  get  it  to  you  as  soon  as  I  can.    For  those  of  you  who  might  want  it  for  your  Kindle,  bear  with  me.  I'll  have  that  done  by  this  time  next  week.      In  the  meantime,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  what  you  have  learned  about  memorization.  It's  the  best  way  to  deepen  your  own  understanding  and  to  help  make  the  world  a  better  -­‐  and  more  memorable  -­‐  place.  The  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember,  and  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.

The Zeno’s Paradox Of Memorization

2  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  12˚  as  the  sun  goes  down  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    In  some  ways,  building  Memory  Palaces  is  a  lot  like  advanced  math.  You  chart  a  course  based  on  a  predetermined  number  of  stations  and  then  you  move  from  coordinate  to  coordinate  with  a  developed  understanding  of  where  you're  going  because  of  "equations"  you've  used  to  construct  the  journey  and  place  your  words  along  the  way.      So  the  message  about  Zeno's  Paradox  in  this  nifty  video  isn't  all  that  unrelated,  especially  when  it  comes  to  matters  like  fluency  or  mastering  the  terminology  of  a  subject  area:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Z9UnWOJNY    One  of  the  things  that  fascinates  me  about  this  video  is  how  the  theory  manages  to  be  both  utterly  convoluted  and  completely  elegant  at  the  same  time.  The  idea  that  an  arrow  can  never  reach  its  target  even  though  it  definitely  has  done,  can  do  and  will  again  reminds  me  a  lot  of  Memory  Palaces.    For  example,  many  people  tell  me  that  my  approach  is  too  complex  and  involves  too  many  steps.  If  the  target  is  fluency,  then  they  feel  that  they'll  never  reach  it  because  they're  spending  too  much  time  on  "pre-­‐memorization"  activities.      But  really,  if  you've  using  the  worksheets  to  figure  out  all  of  your  Palaces  and  identify  a  journey  within  each  one,  you've  really  spent  only  between  1-­‐5  hours.  If  you've  been  reading  this  newsletter,  then  you  also  know  that  you  can  get  started  with  just  one  letter  in  one  Memory  Palace  ...    Speaking  of  which,  I've  just  compiled  together  all  of  April's  editions.  Many  of  you  have  already  requested  and  received  it  merely  by  replying  to  this  message  with  "Send  me  the  second  PDF."  As  with  the  first  edition,  you're  going  to  be  able  to  get  this  one  on  your  Kindle  device  too.  News  on  that  most  likely  tomorrow.      Anyhow,  what  I  think  is  missing  from  the  Zeno's  Paradox  story  is  this  (at  least  when  it  applies  to  human  activities):    The  journey  is  the  goal.  The  goal  is  the  journey.      When  we  are  memorizing  a  language  or  learning  the  terminology  of  a  profession  

or  studying  for  a  degree,  we  sometimes  forget  that  now  is  all  we  have.  Having  goals  is  great.  Goals  are  a  key  component  of  success  and  I've  talked  a  lot  about  using  them  to  succeed  with  respect  to  memorization  here:  http://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-­‐Memory-­‐Mondays-­‐Newsletter-­‐ebook/dp/B00C4Y44K2    (also  yours  for  free  by  simply  responding  with  "Send  me  the  PDF").    But  goals  are  only  stations  along  the  way  and  we  need  to  settle  ourselves  into  the  present  moment  and  really  enjoy  what's  going  on.      This  is  one  reason  I  don't  like  rote  learning.  There's  very  little  to  enjoy  about  repeating  the  same  word  over  and  over  again  -­‐  unless  you  happen  to  love  the  sound  of  it.      What  I  do  really  enjoy  is  using  a  dedicated  Memory  Palace  to  place  words  I  don't  know  using  vibrant,  silly  and  fun  imagery  that  makes  me  laugh  whenever  I  think  about  how  I've  learned  and  memorized  a  new  word  or  phrase.      Every  moment  of  it  is  fun.      So  yes,  Zeno's  Paradox  is  puzzling  and  fascinating  to  think  about.  But  let's  not  treat  the  use  of  Memory  Palaces  to  build  fluency  as  if  the  goal  both  can  and  cannot  ever  be  reached.  If  you  are  memorizing  the  vocabulary  of  a  new  language  or  the  terminology  of  your  profession,  then  you  have  successfully  strung  the  goal  and  the  journey  together.    Today.    Right  now.      As  we  speak.      In  Zeno's  Present.    That's  what  the  Magnetic  Memory  system  is  all  about.      Until  next  time,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  what  you  have  learned  about  memorization.  It's  the  best  way  to  deepen  your  own  understanding  and  to  help  make  the  world  a  better  -­‐  and  more  memorable  -­‐  place.  The  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember,  and  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.  

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Can Clicking Noises Help You Memorize During Sleep?

3  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  14˚  amidst  the  noise  of  construction  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    I  read  this  article  recently  and  wanted  to  share  it  with  you:    http://bodyodd.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/11/17693128-­‐clicky-­‐noises-­‐may-­‐help-­‐you-­‐memorize-­‐during-­‐sleep    My  preference  is  to  sleep  in  absolute  dark  and  in  the  absence  of  noise,  sometimes  with  ear  plugs,  even  if  there's  nothing  around  to  disturb  my  sleep.      Nonetheless,  I'm  a  scientific  minded  person,  so  I'm  going  to  give  this  a  try.  If  you  happen  to  give  it  whirl  yourself,  let  me  know  if  you  experience  any  results.      In  the  meantime,  I've  got  some  good  stuff  coming  up  for  you  this  month,  but  slightly  irregular  as  my  band  heads  out  on  the  final  leg  of  our  tour.  One  thing  I  would  like  to  do  is  create  more  YouTube  videos  for  people  and  respond  to  more  questions,  so  it  would  really  help  everyone  out  if  you  could  tell  me  about  anything  you  find  unclear.  I'll  then  make  a  response  either  by  video  or  prose.      Until  next  time,  get  a  good  sleep  and  make  sure  to  teach  someone  what  you  have  learned  about  memorization.  It's  the  best  way  to  deepen  your  own  understanding  and  to  help  make  the  world  a  better  -­‐  and  more  memorable  -­‐  place.  The  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember,  and  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.  

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

How to Use Superheroes to Memorize

5  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  15˚  and  quiet  as  a  house  with  no  windows  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    As  you  know,  I  am  always  dreaming  up  new  ways  to  increase  the  number  of  stations  in  individual  Memory  Palaces.  (If  you're  new  to  this  newsletter  and  don't  know  this,  read  to  "super  signature"  at  the  bottom  of  this  message  to  find  out  how  you  can  catch  up  for  free.)      A  lot  of  people  write  in  and  tell  me  that  these  methods  are  utterly  impractical,  convoluted  and  counter-­‐productive.    I'm  not  bothered  by  such  emails,  nor  am  I  discouraged.  I'm  an  idea  man  and  only  share  concepts  that  I've  actually  tested.  I'm  also  the  sort  who  feels  that  100  options  are  better  than  none  -­‐  and  the  more  options  we  have,  the  more  we  will  succeed  because  we'll  be  thinking  from  a  strategic  position  rather  than  a  reliant  one.  Never  rely  on  a  technique  when  you  can  leverage  it.  And  when  a  technique  stops  producing  results,  rest  or  retire  it.    But  mnemonic  skills  rarely  go  wrong  for  those  who  understand,  apply  and  practice  the  methods.  Unfortunately,  most  people  don't  do  make  the  effort.      As  I  wrote  in  the  first  edition  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  newsletter,  which  I'll  send  you  free  if  you  respond  with  "Send  me  the  PDF",  (or  grab  it  for  your  Kindle  here:  http://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-­‐Memory-­‐Mondays-­‐Newsletter-­‐ebook/dp/B00C4Y44K2)  far  too  many  people  give  up  on  a  new  skill  after  trying  it  only  once.      In  order  to  avoid  falling  prey  to  this  habit,  you'll  want  to  check  out  the  material  about  giving  it  the  good  ol'  college  try  in  that  first  newsletter,  so  please  don't  miss  it.      Now  onto  superheroes.      A  lot  of  people  have  talked  about  using  different  parts  of  the  body  to  store  information.    For  example,  if  you  think  of  your  own  head  as  a  Memory  Palace,  you  can  build  a  journey  with  a  large  number  of  stations  in  the  following  way:    1.  Top  of  head  

2.  Forehead  3.  Left  ear  4.  Left  temple  5.  Nose  6.  Right  ear  7.  Nose  8.  Upper  lip  9.  Lower  lip  10.  Chin    You  can  then  work  your  way  around  the  entire  body,  but  if  the  miniscule  body  parts  are  too  detailed  for  you,  try  scaling  it  down.  For  instance,  you  could  proceed  like  this:    1.  Head  2.  Neck  3.  Right  Arm  4.  Chest  5.  Left  Arm  6.  Stomach  7.  Right  Leg  8.  Left  Leg    etc.      Now,  I  don't  know  about  you,  but  I  only  have  one  body.      However,  other  people  have  bodies  too.  Including  superheroes.      So  imagine  this  possibility.      You've  got  a  Memory  Palace  in  your  house.  You've  got  a  bookcase,  either  real  or  imagined.  On  the  first  shelf  of  that  case  stand:    1.  Batman  2.  Superman  3.  Thor  4.  Hulk    etc.      If  each  of  these  had  ten  (or  more)  stations  each,  you  can  imagine  that  your  individual  stations  would  pile  up  rather  quickly.      As  for  how  to  actually  use  the  body  to  place  your  associative  imagery,  this  will  take  some  personal  experimentation.    

 For  myself,  I  just  use  the  ear  or  the  nose,  for  example,  as  a  place  to  "hover"  my  imagery.  They  are  little  more  than  locations  along  a  journey  and  it  is  more  important  for  me  that  they  are  there  as  concepts  than  as  actual  locations.  The  whole  point  of  the  journey  is  that  we  can  proceed  from  place  to  place  without  thinking  about  what  comes  next,  so  by  deciding  in  advance  to  always  start  with  the  head,  it's  a  relatively  simple  matter  to  wander  around  down  the  body  from  there.      What  if  you  don't  like  or  know  superheroes?      No  problem.    Ice  skaters,  politicians,  actors,  cartoon  characters,  toy  figures,  friends,  enemies  ...  the  possibilities  are  endless.      If  you're  an  experimenter,  give  this  method  a  try  and  let  me  know  how  it  works  for  you.      Until  next  time,  be  a  superhero  to  others  and  make  sure  to  teach  someone  what  you  have  learned  about  memorization.  It's  the  best  way  to  deepen  your  own  understanding  and  to  help  make  the  world  a  better  -­‐  and  more  memorable  -­‐  place.  The  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember,  and  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.  

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Why Rote Memorization Is the Easiest Method In Town (When It Isn’t Busy Being The Hardest …)

6  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  19˚  and  whispering  with  warmth  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    I'm  going  to  introduce  you  to  someone  very  cool  today.  It's  someone  I've  met  recently  through  my  efforts  with  this  newsletter  and  we've  been  talking  about  the  muscles,  the  misery  and  possibly  even  the  merits  of  rote  learning  recently.    Merits?  you  ask.  Well,  yes,  but  not  very  good  ones,  I'm  afraid.      Gary  Orman  is  the  man  behind  Learn  Thai  the  Rapid  Way  and  he  even  has  a  free  mini-­‐course  that  you  should  check  out  right  now  before  coming  back  to  read  what  he  has  to  say  about  rote  learning    Because  he  says  something  quite  shocking.      Gary  told  me  that  rote  learning  is  actually  the  easiest  path  to  memorization.      I  have  to  admit  that  maybe  he's  right,  albeit  in  an  ironic  way.      As  readers  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  newsletter,  you  know  that  I'm  always  going  on  and  on  about  how  strange  I  think  it  is  that  people  engage  in  rote  learning  because  it  consumes  so  much  time  and  requires  so  much  effort.    Don't  worry.  Even  though  I  think  Gary  has  a  major  point,  my  championing  mnemonics  over  rote  learning  is  not  going  to  stop.    So  what  makes  rote  learning  easier?  Read  on,  dear  Memorizers,  read  on.      Actually,  Gary's  given  me  permission  to  quote  directly  from  what  he  rote,  so  I'm  going  to  hand  things  over  to  him.  

 As  for  preferring  rote  learning,  it  is  the  easiest  way  to  learn  (and  teach)  anything.  Sure,  it  takes  longer  and  you  have  to  work  harder  to  remember  stuff,  but  the  crux  of  the  matter  is  that  you  don’t  have  to  think.  And  most  of  us  prefer  this  way  of  learning,  it’s  a  lazier  way.  What  most  people  don’t  realize  of  course  is  that  by  investing  in  some  active,  focused  creative  thinking  to  devise  a  scheme  or  mnemonic  hook  of  some  kind  then  the  overall  amount  of  work  is  reduced.  The  reason  people  don’t  realize  this  is  that  it  seems  like  a  huge  effort  to  produce  and  memorize  and  become  fluent  in  a  memory  scheme  (all  that  effort  just  for  one  word?).  And  in  a  way  they  are  right.  The  Palace  Technique  requires  a  big  step  back  to  prepare  the  scaffolding  for  storing  all  the  words  to  

memorize.  And  it  might  take  a  month  of  practice  just  to  be  completely  familiar  with  one’s  own  “palace”.  And  the  mental  effort  to  engage  one’s  imagination  and  walk  the  palace  path  is  considerable.  In  addition,  it  can  sometimes  become  more  confusing  than  just  trying  to  memorize  each  word  as  a  simple  one-­‐to-­‐one  correspondence.  But  in  my  research,  I’ve  discovered  that  it  does  pay  off  to  create  a  mnemonic  structure  of  some  kind.  If  you  have  a  list  of,  say,  400  vocabulary  words,  then  on  average  –  with  good  mnemonic  “movies”,  you  only  have  to  be  exposed  to  each  word  about  3-­‐4  times  (depending  on  the  language,  3  for  related  Romance  languages,  4  for  Russian,  Hebrew,  Thai,  maybe  5-­‐6  for  Chinese  or  Japanese)  for  it  to  be  fixed  in  your  long-­‐term  memory.  (You  do  need  to  refresh  your  member  –  using  the  spaced  repetition  approach  –  every  now  and  again,  otherwise  you  need  to  work  through  it  at  least  twice  to  get  it  back,  as  it  were.)  If  you  learn  vocabulary  the  “brute  force”  approach  then  you  need  to  be  exposed  to  each  word  at  least  20,  but  usually  30  times!  (More  for  Japanese/Chinese.)  But  if  you  used  a  spaced-­‐repetition  approach  then  this  can  be  reduced  slightly  to  15-­‐25  times.    20  times  doesn’t  seem  like  a  huge  amount,  but  if  you  multiply  that  by  a  couple  of  thousand  words,  which  is  what  you  need  for  a  basic  everyday  conversation,  then  it  means  working  through  at  least  40,000  instances.  Using  mnemonics  when  you’re  dealing  at  this  scale  starts  to  make  sense,  because  it’s  an  80%  reduction  of  mental  effort.   I  think  Gary's  point  explains  why  I  sometimes  get  nasty  reviews  from  people  about  the  memorization  method  I've  adapted  and  expanded  upon  in  order  to  help  people  acquire  the  vocabulary  of  other  languages.  The  method  I  teach  does  take  work.    However,  it's  work  that's  designed  to  be  as  effortless  as  possible  by  being  based  on  elements  you're  already  intimately  familiar  with  and  using  preparation  principles  that  will  strengthen  everything  you  do.  And  in  case  you  missed  it,  I  wrote  an  entire  email  to  you  about  what  "work"  means  in  the  context  of  memorization  and  why  it's  probably  a  word  I  need  to  replace.  Respond  to  this  message  with  "Send  me  the  second  PDF"  if  you  need  it,  or  get  it  for  your  Kindle  here:  http://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-­‐Memory-­‐Mondays-­‐Newsletter-­‐ebook/dp/B00CMCSF38    But  just  look  at  the  numbers  Gary  presents.  Merely  by  spending  a  couple  of  hours  developing  a  mnemonic  strategy  for  yourself  and  practicing  visualization,  you  can  reduce  your  mental  effort  by  80%.      There  aren't  many  supplemental  skills  that  can  boast  a  figure  like  that.  And  there  aren't  many  skills  that  are  as  rewarding  as  exercising  the  natural  capacities  of  your  mind.      I'm  going  to  be  signing  up  for  Gary's  mini  Thai  learning  course  today  and  suggest  you  do  the  same.  I  actually  have  a  reason  to  learn  Thai  (a  friend  lives  in  Thailand),  but  I'll  bet  that  his  ideas  will  benefit  anyone  learning  any  language.  Just  read  through  the  quote  above  again  and  realize  that  here  is  a  man  who  has  thought  this  stuff  through  and  through.      If  you  do  visit  Gary's  site  and  sign  up  for  the  mini-­‐course,  let  me  know  by  writing  

back  with  "I  signed  up."  I've  got  a  special  gift  for  you  just  for  doing  that.      Until  next  time,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  what  you  have  learned  about  memorization.  It's  the  best  way  to  deepen  your  own  understanding  and  to  help  make  the  world  a  better  -­‐  and  more  memorable  -­‐  place.  The  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember,  and  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.  Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

How To Keep Dr. Forget At Bay

7  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  19˚  and  bombastic  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    I  hope  that  following  yesterday's  email  you  had  a  chance  to  check  out  Gary's  Learn  Thai  the  Rapid  Way.  The  first  free  lesson  does  indeed  have  some  interesting  points  that  all  of  us  can  benefit  from  regardless  of  which  language  we're  targeting,  specifically  when  it  comes  to  understanding  the  physicality  of  speaking  a  foreign  language  (or  your  mother  tongue,  for  that  matter).  But  I'll  leave  it  up  to  you  to  find  out  more  from  Gary  himself,  since  he's  clearly  a  master  of  the  topic  with  respect  to  Thai.    Since  Gary  shared  all  those  impressive  numbers  with  us  about  how  using  mnemonics  ultimately  lessons  the  memorization  workload  by  80%  if  not  more,  I've  been  thinking  about  how  important  it  is  to  practice  memorization  daily.      Not  only  that,  but  it's  important  to  practice  memorization  in  an  effective  manner.      You  see,  the  Magnetic  Memory  system  is  not  just  about  memorizing  foreign  language  vocabulary.  It's  also  about  making  the  target  language  accessible  to  you  on  a  conceptual  level.      As  I  talked  about  last  month  (read  below  my  signature  to  find  out  how  to  get  last  month's  material  either  for  free  or  for  your  Kindle),  vocabulary  is  the  key  to  learning  grammar  and  not  the  other  way  around.  If  grammar  is  a  bicycle,  then  vocabulary  is  the  chain  and  the  breaks.  Unless  you  feel  like  pushing  your  bike  up  a  very  steep  hill  and  coasting  down  without  any  means  of  stopping  yourself,  then  understanding  the  grammar  of  a  language  alone  is  not  going  to  get  you  speaking.      Rather,  we  have  a  mystical  process  in  which  once  we  have  enough  links  in  our  vocabulary  chain,  we  can  actually  start  building  the  bike  of  grammar  as  we  move  along.  All  this  business  of  learning  definite  and  indefinite  articles,  etc.  becomes  so  much  easier  when  we  have  the  core  infinitive  lodged  in  our  heads,  stored  somewhere,  conceptually  accessible.      One  of  the  reasons  we  have  a  problem  with  articles  is  that  they  have  no  inherent  meaning.  For  example,  in  English,  "the,"  "a,"  "an"  and  once  in  a  while  "some"  have  no  inherent  meaning.  Foreign  language  speakers  forget  about  how  they  should  be  used  because,  even  though  they  belong  to  the  noun,  they  do  so  without  meaning  anything.  To  foreign  language  speakers,  they  are  completely  arbitrary.      Here's  where  the  Magnetic  Memory  "mission"  comes  in,  so  to  speak.  Besides  

giving  you  some  suggestions  about  how  to  associate  all  nouns  with  "bridging  images"  that  will  instantly  tell  you  the  correct  article/gender,  the  Magnetic  Memory  series  is  the  quest  to  give  you  tools  that  render  the  seemingly  impossible  possible  merely  by  taking  a  few  preparatory  steps  and  putting  in  some  practice.  Yes,  mnemonics  can  appear  appear  quite  complex,  and  I've  certainly  added  many  fine  details  to  the  mix,  and  yet  when  people  follow  these  principles,  amazing  things  happen  for  them.      But  the  truth  is  that  knowing  the  principles  I  teach  and  implementing  them  are  two  very  different  things.  I've  written  a  lot  in  the  last  two  volumes  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  newsletter  about  how  to  manage  your  time,  how  to  structure  different  Memory  Palaces  depending  on  your  learning  style  and  given  a  lot  of  motivating  material  and  general  knowledge  about  Memory  Palaces.  If  you've  missed  the  material,  read  past  my  signature  to  learn  how  to  get  it.      For  now,  I  want  to  suggest  that,  if  you're  not  already  doing  so,  get  in  the  habit  of  memorizing  at  least  one  word  from  your  target  vocabulary  every  day.  Use  one  of  your  predetermined  Memory  Palaces  in  order  to  so.  If  for  some  reason  you've  lost  your  worksheets,  just  let  me  know  and  I'll  be  pleased  to  resend  them  to  you.        Why  memorize  every  day?      There  are  at  least  three  reasons.    1.  Memorizing  every  day  will  keep  the  oils  of  your  mind  geared  (if  I  can  get  a  way  with  such  a  goofy  spoonerism).  Imagine  a  baseball  champion  heading  out  onto  the  field  after  a  long  winter  with  zero  practice.  Yes,  he  might  still  have  some  chops,  but  he'll  be  rusty  and  quite  possibly  ineffective.  Worse,  he'll  probably  suffer  the  next  day  because  he  put  himself  under  such  duress  without  being  properly  prepared.  It  doesn't  have  to  be,  but  it  could  well  be  demotivating.  Why  take  that  risk?    2.  Vocabulary  development  is  attracted  to  speed  &  consistency.  It's  true.  The  more  often  and  the  more  quickly  you  practice,  the  more  connections  you  see  and  the  more  you  can  leverage  those  connections  to  express  yourself  in  the  language  and  understand  what  you  read  and  here.  This  stimulates  even  more  excitement  for  further  practice,  and  thus  greater  results.  And  the  more  your  practice,  the  better  your  imagination  becomes,  the  more  vibrant  and  vivid,  and  with  such  incredible  magnetic  velocity.      3.  The  numbers.  As  Gary  shared  with  us  yesterday,  we  reduce  80%  of  the  workload  by  using  mnemonics.  We  also  increase  the  chances  of  retaining  the  vocabulary  by  100%  so  long  as  we  engage  in  rehearsal  and  don't  fall  prey  to  the  anxiety  that  can  arise  when  we're  unable  to  retrieve  a  word.      Let's  face  it:  we  often  can't  find  the  words  we  want  in  our  mother  tongue  either.  

It's  normal  to  forget  words  once  in  awhile,  especially  when  we're  hunting  for  the  "right"  word.  And  that's  where  having  an  advanced  vocabulary  really  kicks  in.  We  don't  always  need  the  "right"  word  because  we've  got  other  options.  We're  never  out  of  sorts  because  other  options  are  just  a  Memory  Palace  journey  away.      Look,  if  you  can't  find  the  time  to  memorize  a  word  from  your  target  vocabulary,  don't  fret  it.  Find  something  else  to  memorize  to  practice  the  skills  and  keep  the  techniques  fresh.  Memory  champions  do  this  all  the  time  with  random  numbers,  randomized  cards  from  a  deck  of  cards,  dates,  alphabetized  city  names,  etc.      Here  are  some  other  ideas  that  you  can  use  when  you're  out  and  about:    1.  Ask  someone  their  birth  date  and  memorize  it.  2.  Ask  a  cashier  their  name  and  memorize  it.  3.  Memorize  the  prices  of  the  food  as  you're  shopping  at  the  grocery  store.  Bonus  points  if  you  tabulate  while  you  memorize.  4.  Notice  license  plates  and  memorize  them.    5.  Memorize  street  names  as  you  walk  around  a  new  neighborhood  (I  would  say  as  you  drive  around  a  new  neighborhood,  but  that  could  be  dangerous).    6.  Listen  to  music  and  memorize  lyrics.  7.  Dig  in  your  cell  phone  for  the  most  important  person  you  know  and  memorize  their  phone  number  (because  chances  are  that  in  2013,  you  have  no  clue  what  it  is).    8.  Memorize  the  ingredients  of  the  soda  or  juice  you're  drinking  while  waiting  for  the  bus.  9.  Memorize  the  schedule  of  the  bus  you're  waiting  for.  10.  Memorize  the  color  of  the  clothing  of  the  first  10  people  you  see  while  finding  your  seat  on  the  bus.      There  are  countless  little  exercises  you  can  make  for  yourself.  Some  are  testable,  others  are  not.  But  all  of  them  will  increase  your  speed,  accuracy  and  the  power  of  your  imagination,  so  that  when  you  sit  down  with  your  dictionary,  your  mind  is  going  to  be  a  very  powerful  machine  indeed.  You'll  be  like  the  baseball  champion  who  spent  all  winter  lifting  weights  and  whacking  balls  instead  of  snoozing  in  front  the  TV.      Finally,  people  sometimes  ask  me  why  the  Magnetic  Memory  "Mondays"  newsletter  comes  out  (almost)  every  day.  Two  reasons:    1.  Monday  is  my  favorite  day.  Not  because  I  like  hearing  people  complain  about  it,  but  because  Mondays  are  new  and  fresh  and  filled  with  potential.  I  wish  every  day  was  a  Monday.      2.  I  want  people  to  remember  to  use  mnemonics.      It's  simple,  really.  The  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember,  and  the  

more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    So  until  next  time,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  It's  one  of  the  best  ways  to  make  the  world  a  better  place  (especially  on  Mondays).    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Harry Lorayne Enters The Fray

8  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  23˚  and  yet  strangely  dark  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    Yes,  I'm  going  to  be  interviewing  the  great  memory  master  Harry  Lorayne,  just  one  of  several  special  treats  I  have  lined  up  for  subscribers  to  the  Magnetic  Memory  Mondays  newsletter.    In  case  you're  unfamiliar  with  Harry  Lorayne,  here's  one  of  his  websites:    http://www.memoryimprovement.org/    One  of  the  things  that  fascinates  me  about  Harry  Lorayne  is  how  he  came  into  the  use  of  mnemonics.      As  readers  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  vocabulary  and  newsletter  know,  one  of  the  keys  to  the  Magnetic  Memory  system  is  relaxation.  I  "stress"  the  point  about  relaxation  because  so  many  of  us  find  the  memorization  of  vocabulary  very  frustrating  and  these  negative  feelings  hinder  our  ability  to  move  forward.      This  is  a  real  shame,  because  as  Gary  from  Learn  Thai  the  Rapid  Way  told  us  the  other  day,  using  memorization  techniques  lessons  the  workload  by  80%.    He's  not  the  only  one  who  thinks  this  way.      Do  you  remember  the  video  I  shared  with  you  last  month  with  the  German  professor  who  tested  mnemonics  with  German  language  learners?  He  found  that  students  who  used  mnemonics  scored  82%  on  average  in  comparison  to  the  47.5%  of  students  who  did  not  use  mnemonics  to  learn  German  vocabulary  and  grammar.  (If  for  some  reason  you  missed  the  link  to  that  video  and  the  March  newsletter,  just  email  me  back  with  a  request  and  I'll  be  glad  to  send  it  to  you.  I've  got  tickets  to  see  the  Melvins  tonight  -­‐  great  band!  -­‐  but  I'll  get  it  to  you  first  thing  tomorrow).      Here's  the  thing:  I  suspect  that  if  these  students  were  encouraged  to  use  relaxation  techniques  in  addition  to  mnemonics,  their  success  would  be  even  greater,  possibly  even  100%.      And  yet,  we  have  Harry  Lorayne.    

As  he  tells  the  story,  he  started  using  memorization  techniques  out  of  fear.  Yes,  Mr.  Lorayne's  father  threatened  him  with  physical  punishment  whenever  he  came  home  with  poor  grades.      That's  hardly  a  relaxed  state  to  be  in  when  using  mnemonics.    Not  only  that,  Harry  Lorayne  is  famous  for  memorizing  hundreds  of  names  in  front  of  large  audiences.  This  means  that  he  was  able  to  use  mnemonics  in  the  midst  of  shuffling  feet,  couching  throats  and  rustling  brochures  as  people  shifted  in  their  seats.      Amazing.      And  I'm  really  looking  forward  to  asking  him  about  how  he  does  it.      I've  got  a  few  other  questions  for  him  too,  but  he's  also  agreed  to  take  questions  from  you.  So  if  you've  got  something  you'd  like  to  ask  one  of  the  foremost  masters  of  memorization  techniques  currently  walking  the  earth,  send  them  along  to  me.  It  would  be  really  cool  if  you  let  me  know  your  first  name  and  where  in  the  world  you  are  so  I  can  be  like  a  real  interviewer  and  say  stuff  like  "...  and  this  question  comes  from  Mary  in  Marytown,  Maryland  ..."      I'm  going  to  be  doing  this  video  by  audio,  so  they'll  be  an  MP3  I  can  give,  and  I  thinking  I'll  also  make  a  YouTube  version  with  subtitles  and  have  it  transcribed.  That  way  the  interview  will  be  of  interest  to  those  who  prefer  to  read,  listen  or  watch.  Would  that  be  cool  or  what?      Until  next  time,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  It's  one  of  the  best  ways  to  make  the  world  a  better  place  (especially  on  Mondays).    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

A Magisterial Memorization Book No One Ever Talks About

10  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  18˚  and  as  Berlinesque  as  ever  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    Actually,  my  subject  line  is  not  exactly  true.  People  have  definitely  been  talking  about  Harry  Lorayne's  The  Memory  Book.      Is  the  be-­‐all-­‐and-­‐end-­‐all  of  memorization  books?  Hardly.      However,  123  Five  Star  reviews  are  rarely  wrong,  and  in  this  case,  they  are  definitely  right.      But  what  I  mean  by  saying  that  this  book  is  never  talked  about  is  that  I  rarely  find  it  cited  in  the  literature  about  memorization.  Yet,  the  book  features  amazing  chapters  on  association,  substitution,  memorizing  names  and  faces  and  of  course  vocabulary  ...  only  12  pages  on  vocabulary,  but  a  chapter  on  vocabulary  all  the  same.      But  that's  not  the  only  reason  you're  in  for  treat  when  you  pick  up  this  book.      That's  because  The  Memory  Book  is  actually  a  dialogue  between  two  Harry  Lorayne  and  Jerry  Lucas.  Instead  of  receiving  a  mono-­‐voice  lecture  on  the  topic,  you  get  two  points  of  view  and  the  feeling  that  you're  sitting  in  on  a  conversation.  As  many  a  great  detective  has  known,  eavesdropping  is  a  great  way  to  learn.      Which  is  exactly  what  I'll  be  doing  next  week  when  I  interview  Mr.  Lorayne.      In  other  words,  I'm  planning  to  keep  my  mouth  mostly  shut  so  that  he  can  do  all  the  talking.      And  I'd  rather  let  my  subscribers  ask  all  the  questions,  so  if  you've  got  any  for  Harry  Lorayne,  by  all  means  send  them  along  before  it's  too  late.    And  if  you've  read  Volume  1  and  Volume  2  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  newsletters  and  have  any  questions  about  the  ideas  contain  therein,  by  all  means,  send  them  along  too.  I'll  be  more  than  pleased  to  answer  them.      But  back  to  Harry  Lorayne  and  Jerry  Lucas'  The  Memory  Book.  Here  are  a  few  more  things  I  like  about  it:    1.  They  make  what  seems  like  a  complex  process  incredibly  simple.      

2.  They  inspire  new  ways  of  thinking  about  imagination  and  using  it  to  store  information  in  the  mind.    3.  They  don't  bother  with  "thinking  outside  of  the  box."  They  teach  us  how  to  think  inside  the  box  first  -­‐  something  that  is  sorely  lacking  in  classrooms  around  the  world.      4.  It's  good  for  the  soul.  Reading  other  people  with  a  similar  interest  in  positively  expanding  the  powers  of  your  mind  is  an  amazing  experience.      5.  It  is  an  important  book  in  the  movement  to  bring  us  out  of  the  dark  ages  in  which  mnemonics  remains  relatively  unused  in  comparison  to  times  of  yore  (I  know  there  are  some  historians  who  read  this  newsletter  who  will  probably  hate  me  for  wording  the  past  that  way,  but  alas  ...)    6.  Even  thought  it  was  published  way  back  in  1974,  The  Memory  Book  still  raises  new  questions.  I'll  be  asking  some  of  these  next  week.      Check  it  out  on  your  Kindle,  in  print  or  at  your  public  library.  You  won't  regret  it.    Until  next  time,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  It's  one  of  the  best  ways  to  make  the  world  a  better  place.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Memorization, Speaking & Self-deprecation

 11  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  17˚  and  heading  off  to  yet  another  stage  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    I  saw  a  great  band  last  night  and  had  a  great  discussion  with  some  friends  outside  the  club.      They  all  have  great  English,  and  yet  are  completely  self-­‐deprecating  about  their  skills.      It's  more  than  being  modest.      It's  actually  a  touch  destructive,  or  at  the  very  least,  regressive.      I  say  this  because  so  often  they  begin  a  sentence  in  English  and  then  stop  and  say  that  they  can't  explain  themselves.      But  they  were  doing  just  fine!      Of  course,  I  love  hearing  and  speaking  German,  so  it's  okay  if  they  pursue  their  line  of  thinking  in  their  mother  tongue,  but  I  always  find  it  a  bit  tragic.      Not  only  are  they  not  practicing  self-­‐expression  in  their  second  language,  they're  sending  themselves  (and  their  interlocutors)  the  negative  message  that  they  cannot  express  themselves  in  another  tongue.      Can  you  see  why  this  is  regressive?      Speaking  another  language,  particularly  when  doing  so  using  the  assistance  of  mnemonics,  really  requires  forward  movement.  Yes,  you  can  pause  and  consider  what  you  want  to  say,  but  it's  not  ideal  to  stop  and  say,  either  internally  or  externally  that  you  need  to  finish  your  thought  in  your  mother  tongue.      So  here's  what  I  started  doing  (without  coming  off  as  some  kind  of  Language  Policeman  or  something):      I  started  saying:  "Please  continue  what  you  were  saying  in  English  and  then  tell  it  to  me  in  German."      That's  it.      

And  it  worked.      We  all  won  because  my  friends  stretched  their  abilities  and  I  got  to  hear  two  very  different  versions  the  same  idea  enunciated  very  differently.    It  reminds  me  of  how  closely  things  such  as  mindset  and  the  words  used  to  express  it  are  so  closely  related.      Nonetheless,  my  point  is  that  when  we  are  learning  or  just  using  a  second-­‐language,  we've  got  to  be  a  bit  like  a  tank  or  a  rolling  ball  of  snow.      Sure,  you'll  crush  more  than  a  few  lilies  as  you  make  your  way  towards  comprehensibility,  but  you'll  stretch.  And  when  muscles  stretch,  muscles  grow.  You  might  not  feel  it  all  at  once,  but  one  day  you'll  wake  up  and  you'll  be  thinking  and  speaking  in  your  target  language  with  great  clarity  and  speed.    It's  the  same  thing  with  using  Memory  Palaces.  You've  got  to  roll  forward  and  go  through  the  motions.  Sure,  a  few  associations  will  be  weak  or  have  become  rusty  or  broken,  but  that's  how  you  learn,  that's  how  you  improve,  that's  the  friction  that  will  keep  your  memory  Magnetic.      Anyhow,  at  the  end  of  the  evening  we  all  decided  upon  something  I've  talked  about  before  in  Volume  1  and  Volume  2  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  newsletters.  It's  that  the  two  most  important  sentences  you  can  ever  learn  in  your  target  language  are:    "Please  correct  me"  and  "Please  repeat  yourself  slowly  and  with  clear  pronunciation  so  that  I  can  understand  you  better."      If  you  can  pepper  your  target-­‐language  conversations  with  those  two  sentences  while  maintaining  the  art  of  rumbling  forward  without  a  single  act  of  self-­‐deprecation,  you'll  be  fluent  because  Jack  can  say  Hammer.      Keep  sending  your  questions  for  Harry  Lorayne.  I'll  be  speaking  with  him  on  Wednesday  and  getting  the  interview  to  you  as  soon  as  I  possibly  can  thereafter.      In  the  meantime,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  It's  one  of  the  best  ways  to  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

How to Memorize Spellings (Plus More on Self-deprecation)

12  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  11˚  and  warbling  with  wetness  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    There's  a  particular  memorization  strategy  where  one  associates  numbers  with  objects.      For  example,  you  would  visually  link:      *  1  with  a  candle  *  2  with  a  swan  *  3  with  the  M  from  McDonald's  *  4  with  a  sailboat  ...    and  so  on.      If  you  wanted  to  remember  the  number  42,  you  would  then  see  something  zany  like  a  sailboat  chasing  a  swan.      I've  never  used  this  system  myself,  but  I  like  that  it  exists.      And  I  was  thinking  about  it  yesterday  while  working  on  a  new  concept  that  I  think  is  going  to  really  rock  your  swan-­‐chasing  sailboat  when  I  finally  release  it.      Part  of  this  new  concept  involves  the  memorization  of  spelling  in  foreign  words  and  complicated  terminology.      All  I'm  going  to  say  for  now  is  that  if  you  can  associate  2  with  a  swan  and  then  line  it  up  with  other  number-­‐images  in  order  to  recall  large  digits,  then  you  definitely  associate  letters  with  images  in  order  to  remember  the  order  in  which  they  should  fall  in  order  to  correctly  produce  words.      It  could  be  as  simple  as:      A  =  apple  B  =  boat  C  =  cat    ...  and  so  on.    It  might  seem  like  a  lot  of  work,  but  when  you  compare  the  relatively  short  bit  of  time  it  takes  to  fashion  a  system  like  this  with  the  mounds  of  time  lost  over  trying  

to  remember  the  spelling  of  words  and  correcting  writing,  you  will  save  a  lot  of  seconds  over  the  long  haul.    Next  topic.    To  follow  up  on  what  I  was  saying  yesterday  about  steamrolling  your  way  into  fluency,  I've  got  to  tell  a  little  story  from  last  night.  It  has  to  do  with  developing  verbal  and  auditory  muscle  memory.    Last  night  my  band  played  a  show  in  Berlin.  The  club  was  only  about  10  minutes  away  from  our  rehearsal  space,  so  it  was  kind  of  weird  to  haul  everything  such  a  short  distance,  but  there  was  no  way  we  were  going  to  fit  such  a  large  audience  in  our  little  cave,  so  we  conducted  the  labor  or  lifting  heavy  equipment  with  luck  and  love  for  our  art.    Then  we  played  an  intense  show,  probably  the  best  performance  of  the  current  tour  so  far.    There  was  a  guy  in  the  audience  who  I  vaguely  recognized,  but  couldn't  place.  I  remember  thinking  that  he  was  probably  an  actor  or  something  and  that's  why  he  seemed  so  familiar.    Turns  out  he  was  one  of  the  guys  who  briefly  played  bass  during  the  time  I  was  unable  to  play.  I  had  seen  him  on  the  stage  and  thought  we  was  really  good.    It  turns  out  he  didn't  think  he  was  so  good.  Just  like  the  friends  I  was  telling  you  about  yesterday  who  hold  themselves  back  from  speaking  top-­‐notch  English  by  holding  negative  beliefs  about  their  fluency  (or  at  least,  that's  how  it  seems  to  me).      So  this  bass  player  started  telling  me  about  how  he  admired  my  playing  and  how  easy  I  make  it  look.  And  how  much  training  I  must  have  undertaken,  to  play  with  the  great  Sergio  Klein  (he  forgot  to  mention  the  equally  great  Alberto  Atalah  on  drums  and  Roland  B.  Marx  on  vocals,  buy  I  guess  that's  just  because  he  was  focusing  on  strings).    Well,  I'm  proud  that  it  looks  easy,  and  glad  to  hear  it,  and  he's  definitely  right  that  it  requires  training.    But  it  also  requires  the  same  kind  of  reckless  intensity  I  was  talking  about  yesterday.  That,  and  confidence.      That,  and  the  absence  of  negative,  regressive,  self-­‐deprecating  inner  and  outer  dialogue.    I  really  couldn't  understand  why  this  guy  wanted  to  tell  me  again  and  again  how  

much  he  sucked  at  bass.      But  on  the  bright  side,  at  least  he  wasn't  telling  me  how  much  he  sucks  at  English.      In  that,  he  had  total  confidence.      Anyhow,  I  guess  I'm  pretty  good  on  the  bass,  but  the  truth  is  that  I  make  tonnes  of  mistakes  during  every  rehearsal,  as  well  as  on  the  stage.      But  the  secret  is,  and  the  thing  that  people  admire,  is  that  I  roll  on  through  the  mistakes.  As  Alberto  always  tells  me,  when  it  comes  to  playing  live,  it's  only  a  mistake  if  it  looks  like  a  mistake.    Now,  that's  not  exactly  the  same  when  it  comes  to  speaking  with  people  in  a  foreign  language,  but  unlike  playing  live  on  stage,  you  have  the  opportunity  to  harness  the  power  of  your  mistakes  by  asking  questions  like,  "Please  correct  me"  and  making  requests  like,  "Please  repeat  yourself  slowly  and  with  clear  pronunciation  so  that  I  can  understand  you  better."      Make  mistakes.  Make  as  many  as  you  can.    But  avoid  the  mistake  of  giving  negative  messages  about  your  fluency  (or  any  skill  you  have).  Always  focus  on  what  you  have  achieved  and  how  you've  achieved.  Describe  what's  working,  and  if  you  must  point  out  that  something  is  less  than  desirable,  then  talk  about  how  you  plan  to  improve.      Okay,  dear  Memorizers,  I've  gotta  get  in  my  sailboat  and  chase  some  swans.    Until  next  time,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  It's  one  of  the  best  ways  to  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Rote Memorization Done Right?

13  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  14˚  and  unsummerly  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    I've  been  thinking  for  awhile  about  the  difference  between  memorizing  individual  vocabulary  words  and  musical  phrases.  Just  like  the  notes  in  music,  individual  words  are  never  isolated,  which  is  why  it's  usually  a  good  idea  to  include  at  least  one  phrase  with  each  word  in  your  Memory  Palace  station  so  that  you  have  that  word  in  context.      In  case  you  haven't  seen  it,  I  made  a  video  for  you  that  gives  an  example  of  exactly  how  you  can  do  this  as  part  of  your  testing  process  using  Excel  files  here:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMPMuOyfke4    (Have  a  look  and  please  leave  a  comment  if  you  find  the  video  useful  or  have  any  ideas  you  would  like  to  add).    What  makes  vocabulary  different  than  music,  however,  is  that  words  maintain  a  meaning  that  more  or  less  remains  intact  outside  of  the  context  of  a  phrase.  In  music,  on  the  other  hand,  a  note  has  value  (i.e.  it  resonates  at  a  particular  pitch),  but  it  doesn't  mean  anything  in  particular.    Or  perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  say  that  a  word  has  the  meaning  we  attribute  to  it,  whereas  the  only  meaning  we  attribute  to  an  individual  note  is  that  it  is  this  or  that  note.      Am  I  getting  too  philosophical?      What  I  really  want  to  get  at  is  that  music  learning  does  require  a  certain  amount  of  rote  learning  because  even  if  you  can  instantly  remember  a  musical  phrase  from,  say  a  Bach  cello  piece,  you  still  need  to  run  your  finger  up  and  down  the  strings  multiple  times  in  order  to  develop  muscle  memory.  It's  more  than  just  something  that  happens  in  the  head.  It  happens  in  the  body  as  well,  particularly  in  collaboration  with  the  instrument.      One  of  the  ways  musicians  are  taught,  especially  drummers  and  those  who  play  stringed  instruments  that  don't  require  the  use  of  their  mouths,  is  to  sing  while  they  play.  This  not  only  increased  focus  during  rehearsal  and  performance,  but  it  trains  the  ear  to  develop  perfect  pitch.      The  interesting  thing  about  this  is  that  the  muscles  of  the  mouth  are  also  being  

trained  ...  and  this  led  me  to  think  about  how  we  learn  the  vocabulary  of  foreign  languages  and/or  difficult  to  pronounce  terminology.      I've  been  experimenting  with  this  technique  and  I  think  it's  something  you  might  like  to  try.  Think  of  it  as  a  muscle  memory  exercise  for  your  brain  and  for  your  mouth.      But  first,  the  idea  requires  a  bit  of  explanation.      When  I  am  learning  a  difficult  phrase  in  a  piece  of  music,  I  often  repeat  that  phrase  again  and  again  outside  of  the  context  of  the  song.  This  is  to  train  my  muscles  to  remember  the  passage  only  and  has  very  little  to  do  with  mental  memory  as  such.      One  of  the  mistakes  that  many  music  learners  make,  however,  is  that  instead  of  isolating  individual  phrases,  they  go  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  piece  and  play  towards  the  problem.  This  means  that  they  are  playing  with  the  anticipation  of  the  problem  in  mind.      Yet,  by  isolating  the  problematic  phrase  and  repeating  just  that  portion,  your  mind  and  your  fingers  remove  the  problem  so  that  you  can  play  the  piece  from  the  beginning  without  anticipating  a  difficult  stretch.  In  essence,  we  master  the  whole  by  mastering  a  series  of  individual  sequences.      One  way  to  proceed  that  I  really  like  is  to  focus  first  on  the  difficult  passage,  then  add  the  first  bar  following  the  difficult  passage  for  a  number  of  repetitions  and  then  add  the  first  bar  preceding  the  difficult  passage.      If  we  were  to  call  the  difficult  passage  1,  the  one  after  A  and  the  one  before  B,  the  routine  would  look  something  like  this:    1  (repeated  as  long  as  it  takes  to  improve)  1a  (repeated  as  long  as  desired)  b1a  (repeated  as  long  as  desired.      I  think  about  10  times  of  each  stage  over  a  fifteen  minute  period  would  really  advance  anyone's  playing  skills  tremendously.  People  in  the  mastery  business  call  this  "dedicated  practice"  because  it  dedicates  itself  to  specific  elements  of  a  target  skill  rather  than  proceeding  willy-­‐nilly.      So  let's  apply  this  technique  to  learning  a  language.      Take  a  German  phrase  like  "Man  muss  das  Eisen  schmieden,  solange  es  heißt  ist."  (For  those  of  you  not  studying  German,  it  basically  means  the  same  as  "strike  while  the  iron's  still  hot").    

Let's  say  that  you  struggle  with  pronouncing  "Eisen  schmieden"  (pronounced  something  like  eye-­zen  shmeee-­den).      Since  we're  not  using  rote  repetition  to  learn  this,  we'll  have  already  used  associations  in  a  carefully  prepared  Memory  Palace  to  hold  the  phrase  (let's  say  that  you've  stored  it  in  an  E  Palace  for  Eisen).    This  exercise  would  then  involve  something  like  this  in  order  to  train  the  mouth:    Eisen  schmieden  x10  Eisen  schmieden,  solange  x10  das  Eisen  schmieden,  solange  x10    ...  and  so  forth  depending  on  how  much  you  need.      If  you  want  more  ideas  like  this  and  for  some  reason  haven't  received  the  previous  two  volumes  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  newsletter,  just  shoot  me  a  line  and  I'll  get  them  to  you.  Or  you  can  grab  Volume  1  and  Volume  2  for  your  Kindle  if  you'd  rather  not  have  them  in  PDF  format.  I  really  appreciate  those  of  you  who  have  already  done  so.    Until  next  time,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Helping  people  improve  their  memory  skills  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Your Memorization Questions for Harry Lorayne

14  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  14˚  and  dark  as  a  raven  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    Tomorrow  I'll  be  interviewing  Harry  Lorayne,  so  today  is  really  the  last  opportunity  to  send  in  any  and  all  questions  you  may  have  for  him.  So  far,  the  questions  some  of  you  have  sent  in  are  outstanding,  so  I  really  look  forward  to  receiving  a  few  more.    And  now  for  some  reader  mail  from  Matthew  that  I  found  quite  interesting:      "I  started  using  your  system  last  January  and  love  it.  My  fluency  has  gone  way  up.  But  most  importantly,  my  confidence  has  risen  because  of  what  you  talk  about  in  your  newsletters.  I  have  your  daily  emails  to  thank."      I'm  always  pleased  when  I  receive  positive  As  readers  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  series  and  newsletter  who  actually  use  these  ideas  know,  the  results  are  dramatic.      But  I  don't  always  receive  positive  messages  like  these.  Sometimes  I  get  emails  or  reviews  filled  with  complaints  that  the  system  doesn't  work.      You  know  what?      They're  right.      The  system  doesn't  work.      It's  we  who  work  the  system.      There's  nothing  that  can  be  done  for  people  who  don't  try  things  out  and  experiment  with  the  methods  in  a  consistent  manner.  Only  in  this  way  can  a  person  get  results.      This  is  one  reason  why  I  talk  about  memorizing  at  least  one  new  vocabulary  word  per  day.  It's  even  better  if  you  also  memorize  a  phrase  to  go  along  with  that  word,  but  at  the  very  minimum,  one  word  per  day.      If  you  do  nothing  more  than  that,  you'll  have  365  new  words  every  year.  That  ain't  no  slim  pickens,  and  neither  is  29-­‐31  new  words  a  month.  You  can  configure  a  lot  of  sentences  with  31  words.  You  can  understand  a  lot  more  with  31  new  words.  You  can  enjoy  your  target  language  a  lot  more  with  just  31  new  words.    

 If  you're  really  going  for  gold,  then  you'll  also  rehearse  at  least  one  of  your  alphabetized  Memory  Palaces  every  day  as  well.  This  can  take  a  bit  more  time,  but  the  value  of  the  process  is  manifold  and  compounding.      Let's  say  you  learn  one  new  word  and  rehearse  ten.  This  means  that  you  have  the  opportunity  to  see  that  one  new  word  in  the  context  of  10  others.  No,  the  new  word  won't  always  go  together,  but  chances  are  that  you  will  normally  be  able  to  make  some  kind  of  sentence  using  the  new  word  with  each  and  every  other,  which  in  many  cases  would  total  10  new  sentences.  Even  if  the  sentences  are  partially  nonsense,  you're  playing  with  the  language,  seeing  how  it  works,  how  it  can  work.  And  if  you're  working  with  a  tandem  partner  as  I  suggested  in  Volume  2  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  newsletter,  then  you  have  the  perfect  playground  in  which  to  experiment  and  ask  for  corrections.      Trust  me,  the  benefits  are  huge  and  the  rewards  are  quick  to  arrive,  especially  when  you  practice  daily.      So  remember:  just  like  a  barbell,  doesn't  lift  your  arm,  the  system  doesn't  do  the  work  for  you.  Rather,  we  work  the  system.  And  I'm  here  to  offer  any  additional  help  that  you  need.    And  Harry  Lorayne  will  have  his  ears  open  for  your  questions  tomorrow,  so  be  sure  to  send  them  in  while  the  opportunity  is  still  available.      Until  next  time,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Helping  people  improve  their  memory  skills  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

How Things Went With Harry Lorayne

15  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  25˚  and  warmer  than  spaghetti  noodles  under  meat  sauce  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    As  planned,  I  spoke  today  for  an  hour  with  the  great  Harry  Lorayne  -­‐  and  it  was  a  blast.  He  really  knows  his  stuff  and  is  very  inspirational.      It  was  also  great  for  me  on  a  personal  level  to  talk  with  someone  who  influenced  me  so  deeply  as  a  young  scholar  suffering  a  depression  that  fogged  up  my  mind  so  badly  I  nearly  left  graduate  school.    And  if  I  had  done  that,  I  probably  never  would  have  gone  back.      The  irony  is  that  using  memorization  techniques  daily  not  only  cleared  up  the  depression,  but  made  acing  my  graduate  exams  a  breeze.      That's  why  it  was  so  interesting  to  hear  from  him  first  hand  some  of  the  amazing  stories  of  how  people's  lives  have  been  improved  by  using  memorization  techniques,  particularly  his.  I  had  no  idea,  for  instance,  that  prisoners  of  war  taught  each  other  the  Harry  Lorayne  method  of  memorization  using  Morse  Code  in  order  to  maintain  their  sanity  during  captivity.      And  that's  just  one  of  the  intense  stories  you're  going  to  hear  when  I've  finished  editing  the  interview.      As  I  said  last  week,  I'm  going  to  work  on  making  it  a  PDF  transcription,  a  video  and  an  MP3.  The  MP3  is  easy.  It's  the  video  and  transcription  that  will  take  some  time  and  effort.  If  anyone  out  there  has  experience  making  transcriptions  or  likes  to  type  and  wants  to  help  out,  let  me  know  and  I  can  send  you  the  MP3.  That  will  make  the  release  of  this  inspirational  material  go  a  lot  quicker.      In  the  meantime,  I  want  you  to  know  that  Harry  Lorayne  said  something  very  interesting.  He  said  that  his  memory  is  both  100x  better  than  what  most  people  have  and  100x  worse.      It's  a  paradox,  but  one  that  makes  perfect  sense.      There's  nothing  particularly  special  about  his  brain  or  the  capacities  of  his  mind.      It's  that  he  works  the  techniques.    And  when  he  works  the  techniques,  there's  no  better  memory  around.    

 If  he  doesn't  work  the  techniques  ...  then  according  to  him,  he's  worse  than  average.      I'm  afraid  that  I  didn't  get  to  ask  him  every  single  question  that  you  sent  in,  and  in  some  cases  only  fragments  of  the  questions  -­‐  but  that's  just  because  he  was  answering  them  as  we  went  along.        While  you're  waiting  for  my  interview  with  Harry  Lorayne,  be  sure  to  check  out  his  author  page  at  Amazon.      Until  next  time,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Helping  people  improve  their  memory  skills  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

The Young And The Memorize-less

16  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  26˚  on  a  hastily  departing  day  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    First  off,  I've  edited  the  first  6  minutes  of  the  Harry  Lorayne  interview,  and  it's  coming  along  very  well.  That  took  only  about  an  hour,  so  I  should  have  the  rest  done  by  the  beginning  of  next  week  (yes,  editing  audio  is  a  bit  of  a  fine  art,  especially  when  it's  your  first  time).  Thanks  too  for  the  offers  to  help  that  have  come  in.  I'll  be  in  contact  soon.      Another  thing  that  would  be  useful  is  if  anyone  knows  of  software  that  allows  for  the  regularization  of  audio  (in  other  words,  so  that  both  voices  are  the  same  volume),  I  would  greatly  appreciate  the  tip.  That  will  make  the  interview  more  enjoyable  to  hear.    Given  that  I  was  in  Berlin  and  he  was  in  New  York,  we  had  a  lot  of  miles  between  us,  and  you  can  definitely  hear  that  I  was  closer  to  the  microphone,  if  you  know  what  I  mean.      That  said,  one  of  the  great  questions  that  came  from  one  of  you  involved  the  teaching  of  mnemonics  in  schools.      One  of  the  things  that  Mr.  Lorayne  tells  in  the  interview  is  that  mnemonics  are  sometimes  taught  in  schools,  but  that  an  overwhelming  majority  of  education  specialists  deny  that  they  work.    Why  this  would  be  the  case,  I  simply  do  not  know  -­‐  though  I  am  aware  of  certain  theories  which  posit  that  the  success  of  certain  long  term  economic  strategies  rely  upon  an  undereducated  populace.  But  on  such  matters,  I  cannot  speak.      However,  what  I  can  say  is  that  the  benefits  of  mnemonics  go  far  beyond  traditional  education,  as  such.  Their  use  extends  far  beyond  the  memorization  of  historical  facts  and  mathematical  theorems.  For  one  thing,  using  mnemonics  massively  increases  ones  imaginative  abilities.    Moreover,  using  mnemonics  is  a  non-­‐monotonous  activity  that  sends  oxygen  rich  cells  to  the  brain  and  is  known  to  improve  the  verbal  skills  of  those  who  use  them  to  memorize  vocabulary.      But  of  course.    

 That's  what  the  Magnetic  Memory  system  is  all  about.      But  wait  ...  there's  more  ...    Mnemonics  also  involve  the  organization  of  information.  This  includes  spatialization,  and  re-­‐spatialization  (if  I  may  coin  a  frivolous  new  term).  This  makes  a  person  a  far  more  active  learner,  someone  who  pays  attention  in  a  completely  new  and  different  way.  They  pay  attention  to  time,  space  and  that  "shape"  of  information  itself.    Mnemonics  make  the  subject  of  study  far  more  interesting,  largely  because  you're  engaged  in  two  activities  at  one.  Sure,  it's  a  bit  like  juggling,  but  it's  what  keeps  us  on  our  toes  that  makes  life  rich.      Mnemonics  reduce  the  amount  of  time  one  has  to  spend  mentally  searching  for  information  that  has  been  learned.  This  is  especially  critical  when  taking  timed  tests,  but  even  more  so  when  engaging  in  foreign  language  conversation.      I  asked  Harry  Lorayne  if  there  are  any  drawbacks  to  using  mnemonics  and  he  couldn't  think  of  any  -­‐  apart  from  not  using  the  approach  he  teaches  in  his  books.      But  ...  maybe  there  are  some  disadvantages.      Mnemonics  take  time.  You  have  to  explore  the  concept.  You  have  to  understand  the  different  approaches.  You  have  to  internalize  them.  You  have  to  make  them  your  own.      It's  kind  of  like  swallowing  a  bicycle  and  then  reshaping  it  through  a  mental  digestive  process  to  suit  your  riding  (learning)  style.      You've  also  got  to  have  passion  -­‐  the  passion  it  takes  to  achieve  your  goals,  which  are  sometimes  tough  enough  in  the  first  place  without  taking  an  extra  step  backwards  in  order  to  rocket  forward  ...  but  then  again,  if  the  neighborhood  kids  knew  that  you  could  build  a  rocket  pack  in  just  a  few  hours  and  then  never  have  to  walk  to  school  again,  there  wouldn't  be  a  lawnmower  left  with  an  engine  in  it  for  miles  around.      The  other  disadvantage  is  that  you  have  to  be  willing  to  take  risks.      You  know,  I  think  that  the  criticism  that  mnemonics  are  like  crutches  is  partially  correct.  There's  no  denying  that  by  using  mnemonics  you  are  introducing  something  artificial  into  your  mind  in  order  to  remind  yourself  of  something  else.      The  problem  with  that  criticism  is  that  the  thing  you  want  to  remind  yourself  of  is  also  artificial.  It's  a  non-­‐you  "object."    

 But  once  you've  learned  it,  that  target  bit  of  knowledge  becomes  part  of  you.      And  so  does  the  mnemonic.  Just  like  the  bike  that  is  the  mnemonic  system,  you've  digested  the  target,  reshaped  it,  made  it  your  own.    The  risk  comes  when  you  walk  out  into  the  world  with  nothing  more  than  a  pile  of  formerly  foreign  mental  objects  inserted  directly  into  your  mind.      No  index  cards.    No  pages  filled  with  notes.      No  words  scribbled  in  ink  on  the  palms  of  your  hands.    Just  you,  your  mind,  your  mnemonics  and  the  target  information.      If  I  were  young  and  memorize-­‐less,  I'd  be  the  first  in  line  to  build  me  a  rocket  and  fly.      Until  next  time,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  young  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Helping  our  young  people  improve  their  memory  skills  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  young  people  remember,  the  more  young  people  can  remember.  And  the  more  young  people  learn,  the  more  young  people  can  learn.      And  that's  a  beautiful  thing.  

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Memorization As An Act Of “Unhiding”

17  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  27˚  on  a  delightful  evening  interrupted  only  by  someone  testing  their  new  door  buzzer  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    Two  interesting  questions  pulsed  into  my  inbox  today:  

 

I'm  reading  your  book  for  the  3rd  time  -­‐  much  faster  this  time,  of  course.    If  I  understand  correctly,  we  should  use  images  and  actions  to  remind  us  of  the  pronunciation  and  meaning.  

Question:  Is  it  images  for  the  pronunciation,  and  then  take  those  images  and  make  them  do  an  action  that  reminds  us  of  the  meaning?    What  other  books  do  you  recommend  about  mnemonics,  especially  memory  palaces?  

 Question  One    At  the  highest  level,  a  mnemonic  for  vocabulary  should  magnetically  give  you  both  the  sound  and  the  meaning  of  the  word  you  want  to  recall.      This  is  not  always  easy  to  do,  but  it's  worth  the  imaginative  effort.  As  the  author  of  today's  questions  also  pointed  out  in  another  part  of  his  letter  not  included  here,  Joshua  Foer  (and  many  others)  have  acknowledged  the  fact  that  working  with  mnemonics  increases  our  ability  to  have  ideas.      It's  true.  The  more  you  practice  mnemonics  for  the  learning  and  recalling  of  vocabulary,  the  easier  the  process  becomes.  You'll  have  images  spilling  out  of  your  ears  and  need  an  imaginary  janitor  to  sweep  them  all  up.    Let's  fiddle  about  with  a  couple  of  examples  and  see  what  comes  our  way.  We'll  start  simple  (and  maybe  cheat  a  little  ...)    I've  been  thinking  about  naming  a  chapter  in  an  upcoming  book  "Lethologica."  The  term  refers  to  the  inability  to  recall  a  word,  or  the  sensation  of  having  a  word  on  the  tip  of  your  tongue.    To  memorize  the  sound  and  the  meaning  of  this  word,  I  first  perform  a  bit  of  etymology  (recommended  when  memorizing  words  in  your  mother  tongue).  

Since  the  river  Lethe  in  Greek  mythology  made  everyone  who  drank  from  it  forgetful,  merely  imagining  a  raging  river  with  mindless  people  drinking  its  froth  wins  half  the  battle.  "Lethe"  brings  both  the  sound  and  the  mythological  meaning  of  this  river  to  my  mind  .    (As  a  bit  of  trivia,  "leth"  also  appears  in  one  of  my  favorite  Greek  words,  "aletheia."  The  German  philosopher  Heidegger  used  it  a  lot,  not  because  it  means  "truth"  in  translation,  but  because  it  means  "unhiding."  Thus  the  act  of  philosophy,  in  a  Platonic  sense,  is  the  "unhiding"  of  truth  that  was  always,  already  there).      For  the  second  half  of  this  word,  I  immediately  see  Thomas  Aquianas  bopping  these  mindless  people  drinking  from  the  river  Lethe  with  a  copy  of  his  Summa  Theologica.  This  image  triggers  the  "logica"  in  the  second  part  of  the  word.      Why  is  this  cheating?      Well,  it  really  isn't.  I'm  doing  good  mnemonic  work  by  associating  the  word  I  want  to  memorize  with  things  I  already  know.  I  make  them  large,  strange,  filled  with  action  and  tremendously  colorful.  If  I  were  working  on  a  large  memorization  project,  I  would  also  locate  this  image  in  a  carefully  structured,  alphabetized  Memory  Palace  using  all  of  the  principles  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  system.      I  am  associating  with  items  that  already  have  the  basic  sound  of  the  word  I'm  trying  to  remember  and  I'm  choosing  items  that  sound  like  what  I  want  to  remember.      That's  a  key  part  of  the  process:  mentally  animating  objects  or  persons  that  sound  like  the  word,  or  word  component  you  want  to  recall.    Sticking  with  English,  let's  make  things  a  little  harder.    "Lalochezia"  is  swearing  out  loud  in  the  vain  hope  that  it  will  ease  the  pain  of  an  injury  like  a  banged  knee.  (Does  anyone  actually  think  that  swearing  is  going  to  have  an  aspirin  effect  when  they  do  this?)    Now,  there  ain't  a  whole  lot  of  things  that  come  to  mind  for  "lalo,"  in  terms  of  objects,  but  I  do  immediately  get  a  picture  of  Eric  Clapton  singing  Layla.  In  cases  like  these,  the  fact  that  my  association  ends  with  an  "ah"  sound  instead  of  an  "oh"  sound  doesn't  particularly  concern  me  or  trip  me  up,  but  if  it  did,  I  would  somehow  squeeze  J.Lo  (i.e.  Jennifer  Lopez)  into  the  image  to  trigger  that  sound.      As  it  happens,  an  acquaintance  of  mine  in  the  scholarly  world  has  the  last  name  of  "Keazor."  Thus,  it's  convenient  for  me  to  use  him  and  give  him  amnesia  to  bring  the  "zia"  sound.      

Of  course,  you  could  call  me  lucky  that  I  know  someone  named  Keazor  to  use  in  this  way.  I  say  it's  convenient,  but  trust  me,  if  you  start  working  with  mnemonics  in  earnest,  you'll  find  all  kinds  of  opportunities  arising  like  this,  almost  as  though  your  mind  were  rearranging  the  universe  just  to  assist  you  in  memorizing  it.  Or  better  said,  your  mind  will  bring  you  such  useful  associations  Magnetically.    But  let's  pretend  I  didn't  know  someone  named  Keazor.    I  could  see  giant  keys  attacking  Eric  Clapton  and  J.Lo  defending  him  while  he  sings  Layla.  Maybe  she's  beating  off  the  keys  with  a  copy  of  Euripides  Medea  to  get  the  "ia"  sound.  (If  you  don't  know  this  incredible  play,  I  suggest  you  abandon  ship  and  start  reading  it  right  now.  There's  a  cool  film  version  as  well).    But  then  J.Lo  gets  cut,  or  bruised  (let's  make  this  PG13).  And  she  starts  swearing  at  the  keys.  Therein  lies  the  meaning  of  the  word.    As  an  equation,  then,  we  could  have:    Clapton  performing  Layla  +  J.Lo  smacking  a  pair  of  raging  keys  with  a  copy  of  Medea,  which  with  practice  using  the  Magnetic  Memory  system,  the  mind  will  understand  as  something  like:    Lay  ...  lo  ...  keys  ...  ia.      Even  if  you  stutter  over  these  things  in  the  beginning  or  make  mistakes,  it's  no  big  deal.      As  an  aside,  you'll  hear  in  my  interview  with  Harry  Lorayne,  once  in  a  blue  moon  he  forgot  a  name  during  a  demonstration  and  would  simply  ask  for  a  letter  to  jump-­‐start  things  back  up  for  him.    That's  one  of  the  problems  many  people  experience.  They  get  nervous  when  trying  to  recall  a  word  and  then  they  choke  up.  This  is  why  I  teach  people  to  relax  during  the  memorization  process,  to  literally  train  themselves  in  the  Pavlovian  sense  to  fall  back  into  that  state  of  relaxation  during  recall,  no  matter  what  is  going  on  around  them.    We  can't  all  be  pro  performers  like  Harry  Lorayne,  after  all.  I'm  certainly  not.      Now,  I  know  that  a  lot  of  people  feel  that  having  this  elaborate  vignette  of  crazy  images  (J.Lo  cussing  as  a  pair  of  scissors  cuts  her  during  a  valiant  act  of  defending  the  creator  of  Layla?)  a  potential  distraction  so  large  that  it  almost  makes  more  sense  to  just  chuck  the  system  and  go  for  rote.      But  that  would  be  a  mistake.      

At  first,  all  of  this  might  seem  elaborate,  and  again,  you  might  stutter  a  bit  during  recall.      But  it  took  me  all  of  20  seconds  to  come  up  with  this  image  (and  then  2  minutes  to  type  it  all  out),  and  with  practice,  anyone  can  get  that  quick.  Merely  by  working  with  mnemonics  you  are  enhancing  your  imagination.      You're  also  experiencing  the  target  word  differently.      It's  hard  to  explain  the  sensation  to  someone  who  hasn't  done  it,  but  already  I  don't  need  the  images.  I  feel  "lalochezia"  in  my  mind  like  a  tickle.  Just  a  flash  of  Clapton  triggers  off  the  entire  word  and  I  find  myself  thinking  through  the  entire  vignette  of  imagery  after  the  word  has  magnetically  rushed  into  my  mind.    Question  Two    When  it  comes  to  recommending  books  about  memorization  techniques,  the  first  part  of  my  answer  is  simple:    Read  all  of  them.      Read  every  book  on  memorization  that  you  possible  can.      Over  at  mnemotechnics  there's  a  discussion  going  on  in  which  some  people  have  suggested  "the  best"  or  "the  only"  memorization  books  a  new  person  needs,  but  as  you'll  read  if  you  visit  the  discussion,  I  don't  think  it  wise  to  council  people  in  this  way.  Even  the  worst  book  on  memorization  techniques  will  keep  you  thinking  about  Memory  Palaces  and  that  will  help  stimulate  new  ideas  or  reaffirm  for  you  what's  already  working  and  deepen  your  relationship  with  those  approaches.    On  top  of  that,  hunt  down  online  articles  and  YouTube  videos.  Inspiration  and  ideas  are  lurking  everywhere.  The  world  of  mnemonics  is  huger  than  many  people  suppose.      The  second  part  of  my  answer  is  even  simpler.    Read  material  that  engages  you.      It  doesn't  matter  if  it's  fiction  or  non-­‐fiction.      Obviously  a  knowledge  of  mythology  and  large  fictional  worlds  like  the  one  The  Hobbit  lives  in  is  going  to  give  you  a  vast  pool  of  imagery  and  ideas  that  you  can  associate  with.      But  if  you're  not  into  that  stuff,  philosophy  is  rich  with  visual  material  too.  

Foucault  is  a  very  memorable  looking  dude  and  he  also  wrote  about  prisons  and  hospitals  and  stuff,  so  his  books  give  you  tonnes  of  ideas  even  if  they're  highly  conceptual.  You  can  make  visual  images  out  of  concepts  the  same  way  you  can  conceptualize  imagery.      In  other  words,  the  concept  of  using  Memory  Palaces  can  and  should  be  read  about  dozens  of  times  because  many  different  mnemonic  thinkers  have  amazing  little  shades  of  innovation  to  add,  but  what's  really  going  to  make  the  difference  is  what  you  can  stick  into  the  palaces  in  order  to  sunder  the  target  material  you  want  to  memorize.      And  it's  not  just  about  reading  books.      Watch  movies.      Listen  to  music.      Look  at  art.    Pay  attention  to  the  places  you  visit.      Get  to  know  new  people.      So  above,  when  I  was  making  that  aside  about  "lethe"  and  "aletheia"  and  the  German  philosopher  Heidegger  ...  I  know  that  some  people  will  think  that's  showing  off,  but  it  really  isn't.  It's  a  demonstration  of  how  interconnected  things  become  when  you  exercise  your  mind  and  how  willing  the  mind  is  to  draw  connections  for  you  and  "unhide"  what  you're  looking  for.      And  it's  the  old  rule  I  always  like  to  end  with:  the  more  you  know,  the  more  you  can  know.  The  reason  is  simple:  when  you  have  more  material  to  associate  with,  to  draw  connections  between  and  to  build  upon,  the  more  you  can  use  that  stuff  to  obtain  more.    As  they  say  in  business,  where  preparation  meets  opportunity,  there  is  no  ceiling.      No,  there's  no  ceiling.  Just  an  unhiding  of  the  potential  you've  worked  so  hard  to  get  there.    So  on  that  note,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Helping  people  improve  their  memory  skills  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely,

Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

The Most Amazing Magnetic Memorization Equation

18 May 2013 Berlin, Germany 12˚ on a soggy afternoon ... Dear Memorizers, Here we have a follow up from yesterday's question regarding the recall of sound and meaning using the Magnetic Memory method. If you missed yesterday's message, just shoot me a message and I'll resend it to you. Otherwise, you can grab it next month, either by free PDF, or for your Kindle, just like Volume  1  and  Volume  2.      But without further adieu, here's the follow up response I received with respect to my answer to yesterday's question:

Anthony,

Thanks for answering my questions in your own way.

This is what I understand:

"Lay ... lo ... keys ... ia" = images = pronunciation

"But then J.Lo gets cut, or bruised (let's make this PG13). And she starts swearing at the keys." = action = "Therein lies the meaning of the word."

I understand the point you want to make, "At the highest level, a mnemonic for vocabulary should magnetically give you both the sound and the meaning of the word you want to recall." And certainly with a little practice, everyone can do it. The challenge lies in making it simple enough for everyone to get a little practice.

As we all know, there are all kinds of different students. I have one 14 year old that remembers everything and is one of the best English speakers I have; I could easily tell him, "At the highest level...", and he wouldn't have any problem with that.

I have other students that I have to explain things 10 times/different ways, or more, for them to get it or start to get a hunch. For this kind of student, it's best to simplify the simple.

If you remember my 1st question for HL, I didn't really know how to respond to that. I just said, "ok, if that's what you want, these are your classes."

Looking forward to hearing your interview with Harry Lorayne.

Thanks for this great equation! I'm not a particularly mathematical thinker, so I'm really grateful that you're able to simplify things in this way, and ... Images = Pronunciation / Action = Meaning ... is a very fine way of putting it. Unless, of course, the opposite is true. It could be the case that some people would successfully associate the sound of a word used to describe an action as a prompt, but that is perhaps rare. Nonetheless, if you notice students who could benefit from this reversal (i.e. Action = Pronunciation / Image = Meaning), then by all means encourage that student to use it. One thing I would suggest is that you interview this 14 year old who can remember everything and see if you can't find out how he makes this accomplishment. There is sometimes a rule amongst those who speak about the gifted that what the holders of talent achieve is beyond explanation. There is no process, no method, no technique. It's just something they can do, ex nihilo. I think this is nonsense. There is always a process. The issue arises from the fact that the person either doesn't recognize it as a process, cannot enunciate the process or simple doesn't care to. No skill exists or operates outside of a procedure. There's interesting controversy about this, actually. Have you seen The Boy with the Incredible Brain? It's best followed up by Joshua Foer's writing about Daniel Tammet in Moonwalking with Einstein. I'll leave it up to individual

readers to make up their minds about this issue, but my view is that even the scientists who support the idea that Tammet is memorizing without a process actually have to describe the process by which he is memorizing/recalling material in order to claim that he does it without a process ... In any case, I'd be curious if this student of yours could describe how exactly he comes to remember things so well. Chances are, he'll be able to describe a process, even if only in the vaguest of terms. And while we're on the matter, let's spin things around. If it's not too sensitive, why not ask the student who is having trouble if he is able to enunciate the barriers. When I was teaching students, I would do this all the time. Student: Professor Metivier, I can't think of anything to write. Me: Great. Write about why you can't think of anything to write. It sounds cruel, I know, but there's madness to the method (deliberate spoonerism, that). Usually students - and people in general - simply accept their barriers. They don't interrogate them, they don't feel the shape and the boundaries of what is preventing them from moving forward. And that in itself is the ultimate boundary. How do you know you need a flashlight if you don't know that it's dark? The best way to overcome writer's block works exactly the same way. Write about why you can't write. Chances are the description of the problem will be just as interesting as what you're trying to write anyway. Same goes for memorization. If you explain to yourself or to someone else why you're having difficulty and describe the process of that difficulty in clear terms, you'll find the problem much easier to solve. In fact, the description of the problem itself is often really a description of the solution. Take an overhead photo of the breadcrumbs left by Hansel and Gretal and all you will see is a detailed map describing exactly how to get yourself home. As for your question to Harry Loryane about what to say to a student who gives up, or threatens giving up on a method that so clearly holds the key to mental

mastery? Well, I didn't ask it in so many words due to the flow of the conversation, but I did slip in the general impulse of the question with mixed results. As you'll hear in the interview, Mr. Lorayne has a very take-it-or-leave-it approach. He seemed quite incredulous that anyone alive wouldn't snap up his memorization techniques with the wrath of Cujo, but he also acknowledged that it's no big deal if they don't work. Mr. Loryane claims that you cannot even try his techniques without improving your mental abilities, and that's because merely by trying, you've already started to think about how your mind works (its processes) in a different way. As he says: "even if my systems don't work, they still work!" I think it's true. Not only do they always work, but mnemonics are infectious. In some sense, mnemonics are like a stain on your favorite t-shirt. Once you've heard about mnemonics, the concept never goes away. The idea that you can more-or-less instantly memorize anything you want at any time is in itself instantly memorizable. That leaves a person with really two options: wear that shirt with the mnemonic stain on it for the rest of your life, or ... Dye the rest of the shirt the color of mnemonics. Look, this stuff ain't rocket science, even if absent-minded professors like myself describe the concepts in the most vertiginous ways possible due to having read the sentences of Thomas Mann and Thomas Pynchon at far too tender an age, leading to rampant obfuscation ... But that's where the great readers of the Magnetic Memory Mondays newsletter come in. Images = Pronunciation / Action = Meaning Simple, elegant and crystal-clear fun. Thank you very much for this wonderful equation!

Until next time, make sure to teach someone else what you've learned about memorization. Helping people improve their memory skills is one of the best ways we can make the world a better place. And the more we remember, the more we can remember. And the more we learn, the more we can learn.

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Memorization Architectonics

19  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  21˚  on  a  busy  evening  free  from  Facebook  notifications  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    This  week  has  seen  many  great  questions,  and  now  I've  got  another  one  to  address:    

So  I  started  your  method  to  help  learn  some  Spanish  words  that  I  did  not  know,and  on  large  dictionaries  I  can  find  some  of  those,  so  I  live  in  small  town  Midwest  USA.  My  wife  and  I  go  to  Applebee's  nearly  once  a  week,so  I  have  loci  there.  I  have  10  stations  there  but  because  of  the  redundancy  in  the  outside  parking  lot  do  not  have  many  distinct  stations  outside.  So  I  put  ten  an  Spanish  words  there  that  I  did  not  know,or  did  not  know  very  well.  I  did  from  this  small  exercise  get  to  see  that  the  location  association  helped  a  lot.  But  it  occurred  to  me  that  this  was  not  many  words  even  if  I  had  27  places,I  would  only  have  270  words.  Might  be  good  for  a  beginner  to  a  language  and  insight  use  this  for  italian  which  I  have  started  learning,buying  really  don't  see  myself  making  more  stations  at  Applebee's  if  I  wanted  to  expand  my  A  words.  Should  I  find  a  second  A  location  or  just  really  try  hard  to  expand  my  stations  at  Applebee's?    Sent  from  my  iPhone  

 First  of  all,  congratulations  on  having  so  much  success  already  using  Applebee's!    It's  true  that  the  Magnetic  Memory  books  discuss  having  10  stations  per  Memory  Palace,  but  that's  just  at  the  beginning.      The  need  to  eventually  have  more  than  10  stations  per  Memory  Palace,  indeed  far  more  than  10,  led  to  my  discovery  of  the  following  two  principles:      1.  Start  at  a  terminal  location  in  the  Memory  Palace  so  that  you  can  expand  outwards  and  add  new  stations  as  necessary.      2.  Avoid  crossing  your  own  path  in  order  to  avoid  confusion.      These  are  key  principles  because  we  want  to  limit  the  amount  of  mental  energy  needed  to  travel  from  station  to  station  within  each  Memory  Palace.  We  want  the  journey  to  be  smooth,  natural  and  magnetic.      I  can  understand  that  parking  lots  are  tremendously  obscure  places  to  identify  stations,  but  all  is  not  lost.  Depending  on  the  layout  of  the  parking  lot,  you  could  subdivide  it  into  different  areas.    

 For  example,  if  the  parking  lot  is  more  or  less  square,  you  could  have  four  smaller  squares  within  it,  each  quadrant  serving  as  a  station.  This  may  be  too  abstract  for  some,  but  might  work  perfectly  well  for  others.      Another  option:  you  could  incorporate  an  imaginary  element,  such  as  a  bookcase  in  the  parking  lot.  I've  written  a  lot  about  virtual  elements  in  both  Volume  1  and  Volume  2  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  Mondays  newsletters,  so  if  you'd  like  those  for  your  Kindle,  they're  available.  Otherwise,  I'm  perfectly  happy  to  send  PDF  versions  to  anyone  who  hasn't  already  received  them  (just  email  me  with  "Send  me  the  PDFs"  and  I'll  get  them  out  to  you  as  soon  as  I  can).    Another  option  you  could  pursue  is  to  use  your  car  as  a  set  of  mini  or  microscopic  stations:      Driver  side  headlamp  Passenger  side  headlamp  Hood  Front  windshield  Steering  wheel  Driver's  seat  Passenger's  seat  Left  back  seat  Right  back  seat  Back  windshield  Trunk  License  plate  Exhaust  pipe    That's  13  new  stations.    Let's  go  even  further:      Can  you  remember  every  car  you've  ever  owned?  If  so,  then  each  of  those  cars  could  be  in  the  Applebee's  parking  lot.  I've  only  owned  4  cars  in  my  life,  but  that's  52  stations  all  combined.  It  would  be  easy  for  me  to  place  these  cars  in  a  deliberately  manner  as  well  because  I  remember  the  chronological  order  in  which  I  owned  them.      But  here  is  perhaps  the  most  powerful  method  you  can  use.Mentally  place  a  building  in  the  parking  lot  that  normally  isn't  there,  but  that  you  are  familiar  with.      For  instance,  you  could  use  your  high  school,  the  house  of  a  friend  or  a  shopping  mall.    It's  as  simple  as  closing  your  eyes  and  imagining  a  giant  magnetic  pulling  that  

other  building  into  the  Applebee's  parking  lot  and  using  it  to  continue  your  letter  A  journey.    And  since  it's  such  a  strange  thing  to  see  a  familiar  building  out  of  place  like  that  you,  you're  not  likely  to  forget  what  comes  next.      I  think  I  will  christen  this  new  technique  "Magnetic  Memorization  Architectonics."      Until  next  time,  dear  Memorizers,  make  sure  to  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Helping  people  improve  their  memory  skills  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

The Mnemonic Wizard

20  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  16˚  and  enthusiastic  about  releasing  water  from  the  sky  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    I  discovered  this  interesting  dictionary:    http://www.mnemonicdictionary.com/    I  don't  know  when  you'll  have  a  chance  to  look  at  it,  but  as  of  today,  it  is  featuring  the  word  "partisan"  on  the  main  page.      Following  a  number  of  definitions  and  synonyms,  the  website  suggests  mnemonics,  or  "memory  aids."      Notice  that  for  this  word,  the  memory  aids  involve  dividing  the  word  into  parts  (not  a  bad  idea),  and  creating  conceptualizations.      For  other  words,  such  as:    http://www.mnemonicdictionary.com/word/embellish    ...  we  get  the  suggestion  that  we  can  imagine  someone's  belly  in  order  to  trigger  the  "bell"  sound.      This  site  is  pretty  cool  and  someone  has  clearly  put  a  lot  of  work  into  creating  it.  The  GRE  word  list  function  is  clearly  helping  a  lot  of  people.      However,  what  concerns  me  is  that  the  website  doesn't  seem  to  include  any  teaching  about  mnemonics,  nor  any  explanatory  material  detailing  the  best  ways  to  use  the  suggested  mnemonics.      As  readers  of  this  newsletter  know,  I  also  am  a  strong  advocate  of  coupling  all  other  mnemonic  strategies  with  the  use  of  locations  based  on  my  theory  that  we  have  a  deep  unconscious  fear  of  losing  things.  Merely  by  placing  them  somewhere,  imagined  or  real,  we  remove  this  fear.      Above  all,  my  criticism  of  the  site  is  that  when  a  site  like  this  gives  examples  without  teaching  a  method,  it  is  essentially  fishing  for  the  person,  rather  than  teaching  the  person  to  fish.      It's  true  that  Volume  1  and  Volume  2  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  newsletter  are  filled  with  examples.  Even  just  this  weekend  I  was  giving  representative  

examples  of  how  I  used  image  and  action  based  associations  to  memorize  cool  words  like  lalochezia  and  lethologica.      Exemplifying  the  technique  is  a  key  part  of  teaching  it.      However,  the  technique  must  be  taught.  A  string  of  examples  just  won't  do  it.  That  seems  to  me  the  equivalent  of  teaching  someone  to  change  the  oil  merely  by  showing  them  the  engine.    Moreover,  I'm  convinced  that  one  cannot  but  under  rare  circumstances  use  the  mnemonics  that  others  have  created.      Sure,  we  do  it  all  the  time,  but  it  is  not  the  true  path  to  memory  power.      The  alchemy  arrives  when  we  use  our  own  minds  to  fashion  our  own  mnemonic  devices.      It's  self-­‐invention  that  makes  the  process  organic.  It's  self-­‐invention  that  makes  recall  magnetic.      I  know  that  a  lot  of  people  claim  that  they  aren't  particularly  visual  and  therefore  mnemonics  won't  work  for  them.  A  recent  one-­‐star  review  of  one  of  my  books  made  the  claim  that  these  techniques  might  work  for  "arty"  people,  but  not  engineers.      I'm  not  sure  if  the  engineer  in  question  is  reading  this  or  not,  but  if  so,  I'd  like  to  make  an  appeal,  an  appeal  I  would  extend  to  anyone  who  struggles  with  using  visual  imagination  techniques:      First,  trust  in  the  power  of  your  mind.      Go  outside.  Sit  on  a  chair.  Look  at  a  tree.  Close  your  eyes  and  then  try  to  mentally  recreate  that  tree.      You  can  imagine  it  visualizing  in  the  thin  air  of  your  mind  or  you  can  imagine  a  paintbrush  doing  the  work.      You  could  also  light  a  candle  and  look  at  the  flame.      This  is  a  great  technique  because  when  you  close  your  eyes,  the  light  of  the  flame  will  remain  for  quite  awhile  due  to  persistence  of  vision.  You  can  then  mentally  trace  over  the  flame  with  an  imaginary  pencil  or  paintbrush.      The  important  thing  for  people  struggling  with  mental  visualization  is  to  just  get  started.  Try  one  or  two  methods  of  becoming  more  visually  creative  and  then  start  again  with  the  visual  component  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  method.    

 It's  a  fact  that  visual  people  can  become  more  auditory  and  kinesthetic  people  more  visual  over  time  simply  by  engaging  in  exercises  like  those  taught  above.      And  of  course  you  can  get  started  by  looking  at  the  mnemonic  examples  of  others.  You  can  "trace"  over  them  just  like  you  might  a  candle  flame  or  a  tree.      But  make  creating  your  own  mnemonic  imagery  a  central  goal.      The  benefits  go  far  beyond  just  memorizing  stuff.      Businesses  and  industries  thrive  on  imagination.  Software  development  and  architecture  -­‐  yes,  even  the  room  you  are  sitting  in  -­‐  relies  on  imagination.  "Arty"  people  rely  on  imagination  in  order  to  make  the  music,  the  literature,  the  films  and  all  manner  of  creations  that  inspire  us.  Even  engineers  use  imagination  in  their  work.      Above  all,  having  a  great  imagination  enables  people  to  overcome  negative  thinking  and  see  the  world  as  a  better  place.      So  on  that  note,  imagine  teaching  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Helping  people  improve  their  memory  skills  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Kirk, Spock & The “Master Narrative” Of Memorization

21  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  17˚  and  fresh  in  from  the  not-­‐too-­‐shabby  new  Star  Trek  film  ...      Dear  Memorizers,    Star  Trek  II  was  the  first  movie  I  ever  saw  at  home.  I  must  have  been  about  five  years  old  on  Halloween  and  it  was  too  cold  that  year  to  go  out  collecting  candy  that  year,  so  my  dad  rented  a  VCR  the  size  of  a  small  car  and  Star  Trek  II  was  the  movie  he  chose.      I  remember  the  movie  in  exquisite  detail,  and  the  death  of  Spock  gave  me  nightmares  for  a  long  time.  I  really  liked  that  guy.      Today  I  saw  the  new  Star  Trek:  Into  Darkness,  and  of  course  it  brought  back  all  kinds  of  memories  and  anticipations,  especially  since  the  screenwriters  went  out  of  their  way  to  include  echoes  from  the  narrative  world  of  Captain  Kirk  and  co.  that  even  the  most  casual  fans  would  pick  up  on.      And,  of  course,  I  was  thinking  about  how  the  film  connects  to  memorization,  particularly  Magnetic  Memorization.    Without  giving  any  of  the  plot  points  away,  here  are  some  of  the  lessons  the  film  offers.    1)  Always  maintain  an  awareness  of  where  you  are  in  the  proceedings.    Basically,  we've  all  seen  this  before.  Either  Kirk  or  Spock  (or  both)  are  one  step  ahead  of  the  game  and  use  their  foresight  to  outwit  the  enemy.        How  to  apply  this  to  memorization?  Well,  they  say  that  the  things  we  measure  grow,  so  it's  important  to  take  stock  of  where  we  are  in  our  memorization  journey.  Obviously,  using  the  Excel  files  and  the  training  I  made  for  you  on  YouTube  will  help  you  do  that  (here's  the  link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMPMuOyfke4)  ...    ...  but  have  you  ever  thought  about  listing  all  the  words  you  already  know  in  your  target  language  or  area  of  expertise?      I  haven't  done  it  myself,  but  it  occurred  to  me  that  an  interesting  experiment  would  be  to  read  the  dictionary  of  a  target-­‐language  from  cover  to  cover  and  list  all  the  words  I  know  in  order  to  see  just  how  many  words  I've  accumulated.  This  list  could  be  partitioned  into  words  I  recognize  upon  sight,  but  don't  understand  and  words  that  I  understand  very  well.    

 It  would  also  be  an  interesting  way  to  familiarize  myself  with  all  the  words  to  come  and  get  a  sense  of  proportion.      Now,  I  would  never  say  that  the  dictionary  is  an  enemy,  but  that  doesn't  mean  one  couldn't  play  Kirk  and  outwit  the  darn  thing  by  consuming  it  whole.      Which  leads  to  ...    2)  Know  where  you  want  to  go.    The  success  of  every  Star  Trek  mission  relies  upon  a  clearly  defined  goal.  When  these  characters  surrender  themselves  to  the  transporter  beam,  they're  not  tossing  themselves  into  the  void.      They  have  a  plan.      I  have  developed  a  set  of  principles  specifically  geared  towards  helping  you  plan  for  memorization  success  in  Volume  1  and  Volume  2  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  newsletter,  but  even  without  glancing  through  those  issues,  I  can  tell  you  that  all  you  need  to  do  is  come  up  with  a  goal  and  write  it  down  on  a  piece  of  paper.  Write  it  down  every  day  if  you're  serious  about  conditioning  your  mind  to  helping  you  achieve  it.  Repetition  is  a  form  of  direction,  so  long  as  it  isn't  employed  in  the  service  of  rote  learning.      Anyhow,  I  know  it's  a  bit  of  an  overused  cliche,  but  failing  to  plan  really  is  planning  to  fail,  and  that's  why  Kirk  and  Spock  (usually)  never  leap  without  a  jet  pack.  Their  success  depends  upon  a  seriously  considered  outcome.      3)  Create  the  plan  in  real-­‐time.    Now  of  course  having  a  plan  doesn't  mean  you  carve  it  into  stone  and  carry  the  slab  on  your  back.  Kirk  and  Spock  are  responsive,  always  changing  things  around  as  new  elements  come  into  play.      That's  one  good  reason  to  write  down  your  memorization  goals  (and  goals  in  general)  every  day.      When  it  comes  to  fluency,  new  subjects  and  areas  of  vocabulary  come  up  all  the  time,  so  you  can  easily  incorporate  these  as  you  go  along,  taking  care  to  also  have  a  larger  goal,  or  what  I  like  to  call  a  "master  narrative."  In  this  case,  fluency  is  the  guiding,  master  narrative,  and  the  steps  you  take  using  the  Magnetic  Memory  system  is  the  plot.      Not  doing  what  it  takes  is  the  only  enemy.  And  failing  to  plan  is  his  only  weapon.    

Until  next  time,  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Helping  people  improve  their  memory  skills  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

The Great Memorization Software Hoax

22  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  8˚  and  not  exactly  California  outside  ...    Dear  Memorizers,      I  got  a  great  question  earlier  today  about  spaced-­‐repetition-­‐memorization:  

Hey  man,  I  know  you're  into  using  your  mind  and  all  of  that,  but  if  you  had  to  recommend  some  kind  of  software,  do  you  like  Anki  or  Mnemosyne  better?      

First  off:  you're  right.  I  am  into  using  my  mind.  I'm  into  you  using  your  mind  too.      I  really  wouldn't  want  to  spend  any  time  ranting  and  raving  against  the  use  of  spaced-­‐repetition  software.    As  those  of  you  who  have  been  reading  Volume  1  and  Volume  2  of  this  newsletter  know,  I'm  pretty  well  cool  with  whatever  people  want  to  do,  so  long  as  it  gets  them  results.  There's  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  pure  mnemonics  is  superior  to  any  and  all  forms  of  rote  learning,  technology-­‐assisted  or  otherwise,  but  I  also  know  that  getting  started  with  memorization  techniques  requires  time  and  effort  and  even  passion.      Not  everyone  has  these  elements.      That  said,  I've  tried  both  of  these  software  programs  and  they  most  certainly  do  what  they  are  designed  to  do.      Or  do  they?    Each  software  has  its  own  style,  but  they  share  the  basics  in  common:  You  enter  the  target  material  you  want  to  memorize  on  a  digital  index  card  with  the  "solution"  on  the  other  side  of  the  card  and  then  the  software  shows  you  that  information  while  testing  your  accuracy.  If  you  get  it  right,  you  are  tested  on  the  target  information  progressively  less  and  if  you  get  it  wrong,  you  are  tested  on  the  target  information  progressively  more.      The  idea  here  is  that  more  exposure  leads  to  greater  retention  -­‐  if  you  need  it.    I'll  admit  to  you  that  when  I  first  started  with  German,  I  used  the  "Before  You  Know  It"  software,  which  works  in  precisely  the  same  way.  I  can't  say  that  it  was  entirely  useless,  but  ...      In  addition  to  being  the  equivalent  of  banging  words  into  your  skull  with  a  digital  

hammer,  there  are  some  problems  with  software  like  this.      First  of  all,  this  kind  of  program  only  works  if  you  are  learning  multiple  words  at  a  time.  You  could  set  it  to  test  you  on  just  one  word  over  and  over  again,  but  then  you're  not  really  getting  spaced  repetition.      In  essence,  such  software  trains  you  to  look  at  a  word  and  then  maybe  you  remember  it  or  you  don't  before  it  gives  you  about  3  or  4  other  words  that  you  may  or  may  not  become  familiar  with  before  returning  you  to  the  initial  word  and  testing  you  on  it.      At  no  point  are  you  encouraged  to  actually  learn  the  word,  let  along  memorize  it.    Worse,  if  you're  at  all  new  to  the  language,  you  may  as  well  be  trying  to  distinguish  snow  flakes.      When  using  software  like  this,  you're  encouraged  by  a  machine  to  not  really  pay  attention  to  the  word.  Rather,  you're  encouraged  to  first  recognize  it  and  then  essentially  stutter  your  way  into  familiarity  with  it  based  on  the  whims  of  an  algorithmic  machine  gun.    But  let's  not  throw  the  Tin  Man  out  along  with  his  oil  ...      How  might  spaced-­‐repetition  be  used  more  effectively?      Here's  something  you  can  try:      Instead  of  putting  your  target  word  on  one  side  of  the  card  and  the  meaning  of  the  word  (in  your  mother  tongue)  on  the  other  side  of  the  card,  take  a  moment  to  fashion  a  mnemonic  and  place  it  in  your  Memory  Palace.  Do  this  for  ten  words.      Then,  when  entering  the  word  into  Anki  or  Mnemosyne  (I'm  not  really  convinced  that  one  is  better  than  the  other),  put  the  target  word  on  one  side  of  the  card  and  a  description  of  the  mnemonic  you  used  on  the  other  without  including  the  meaning.      If  you've  created  your  mnemonic  well  using  the  Magnetic  Memory  principles,  then  it  will  tell  you  not  only  the  meaning  of  the  word,  but  also  how  it  sounds.      This  way,  if  you're  going  to  pummel  yourself  with  a  digital,  spaced  repetition  hammer,  then  at  least  you're  exercising  two  channels  of  talent  at  once:  repeated  exposure  to  the  target  word  and  extra  practice  at  decoding  your  mnemonic  in  real  time.      That'll  build  you  some  mind  muscles,  I'm  sure.      

An  alternative,  more  challenging  and  altogether  more  interesting  strategy  here  would  be  to  not  include  the  target  word  at  all.      Instead,  have  the  meaning  of  the  word  on  one  side  of  the  card,  and  the  mnemonic  you  used  to  memorize  the  sound  of  the  word  on  the  other.      In  this  case,  you're  actually  forcing  yourself  to  repetitively  produce  the  word  from  your  memory  without  actually  seeing  it.    Why  is  this  such  a  cool  exercise?      Because  it  resembles  what  you're  going  to  do  when  you're  in  a  conversation  or  when  you're  taking  a  test  and  need  to  write  in  your  target  language  without  a  dictionary  or  any  other  aid.      You're  going  to  need  to  sunder  the  target  word  in  real  time  in  the  absence  of  the  word.  You'll  have  nothing  but  context  and  your  Magnetic  Memory  mnemonics  to  help  you.    All  of  a  sudden,  these  repetition  software  programs  seem  to  have  struck  gold.    It's  the  old  Super  Hero  thing,  I  guess.  With  great  power,  comes  great  responsibility.      Use  the  power  of  software  like  this  in  a  mature  manner  that  respects  the  abilities  of  your  mind,  and  you  certainly  can  soar.      But  just  be  cautious  that  the  cure  never  becomes  a  poison,  certainly  not  when  its  fangs  strike  on  algorithmic  autopilot.      Speaking  of  pilots,  I'm  thinking  about  starting  up  a  monthly  Magnetic  Memory  Postcard  Program,  which  is  to  say  that  you've  got  the  chance  to  receive  a  very  interesting  memorization  tip  once  a  month  (twelve  times  a  year)  on  a  postcard.  These  will  feature  memorization  ideas  shared  exclusively  on  these  postcards  with  those  who  sign  up  to  get  them.  More  news  soon.    Until  next  time,  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Helping  people  improve  their  memory  skills  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Memorizing Using Multi-Colored Channels And Little Glass Cake Bowls

23  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  10˚  and  looking  at  the  dark  side  of  the  moon  instead  of  listening  to  it  (for  once)  ...    Dear  Memorizers,      I  always  feel  blessed  when  I  get  great  questions  that  push  the  boundaries  and  reveal  new  possibilities.    Check  this  one  out:    

Thank  you  for  your  newsletter.  I  am  currently  reading  your  book.  and  I  am  interested  in  learning  French  /  German  &  Dutch  all  at  the  same  time.  I  want  to  focus  all  my  attention  equally  to  memorizing  vocabulary.  Do  you  have  any  pointers  ?    Any  idea  how  to  keep  the  words  in  each  language  separated?      Maybe  a  German  object  in  the  mnemonics  that  I  create  if  it  is  a  German  word,  etc.  

 I've  definitely  thought  about  how  to  do  this  and  have  written  about  it  on  page  20  of  the  April  Magnetic  Memory  Newsletter.  If  for  somehow  you  haven't  gotten  it,  just  reply  to  this  email  with  "Send  me  the  April"  PDF  and  I'll  get  it  to  you  on  Saturday  or  Sunday  (I'm  off  to  play  a  concert  tomorrow).  Or  you  can  grab  it  for  your  Kindle  here:      http://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-­‐Memory-­‐Mondays-­‐Newsletter-­‐ebook/dp/B00CMCSF38    Your  idea  to  include  a  German  object  with  German  words,  a  Dutch  with  the  Dutch  and  French  with  the  French  is  quite  brilliant.  If  you  were  to  use  just  one  object  in  coordination  with  each  word,  you  would  be  giving  yourself  dozens  of  possibilities  for  creating  the  kinds  of  zany  images  that  make  these  words  so  memorable.      For  German,  you  could  always  use  a  Bierstein,  for  French  a  wedge  of  brie  and  for  the  Dutch,  a  ship.  These  are  just  a  few  of  the  "bridging  images"  that  come  to  mind.      However,  having  these  bridging  images  does  not  solve  the  potential  problem  of  having  chaotic  arrangements  of  multiple  languages  all  over  your  Memory  Palaces.      Basically  what  I  suggested  starting  on  page  20  of  the  April  edition  is  to  separate  one's  journey  through  each  path  into  "channels,"  which  in  your  case  would  be  the  French,  German  and  Dutch  channels.  These  separate  channels  would  essentially  run  side-­‐by-­‐side  like  lanes  on  a  highway.    

 For  someone  like  myself,  I  could  manage  this  three-­‐channel  or  three-­‐lane  division  conceptually.  For  others,  it  might  help  to  imagine  dividers  between  the  channels.  For  yet  others,  they  might  imagine  different  colors  running  in  stripes  along  the  floor  of  the  Memory  Palace  journey.  French  could  be  blue,  German  gold,  Dutch  white.    Follow  the  multi-­‐colored  brick  road  to  the  Fluency  of  Oz.    A  lot  depends  on  how  your  journey  is  structured.  I  know  that  many  people  like  to  use  hallways  as  stations,  sometimes  even  doorways.  I  could  see  how  in  such  cases,  this  would  make  it  difficult  to  squeeze  in  three  separate  mnemonic  images,  especially  if  you're  making  them  large  and  vibrant  and  colorful.  One  could  wind  up  creating  a  great  deal  of  distortion.      At  the  same  time,  we  are  talking  about  pure  mental  magic  where  you  are  the  only  one  who  sets  the  rules.  If  you  were  to  consciously  decide  that  there  is  no  interference  between  the  images,  then  your  mind  will  bring  you  the  perfect  methodology  for  making  that  happen.    For  example,  when  I  set  my  mind  to  it,  I  imagine  little  glass  domes  covering  each  image.  It's  kind  of  like  trapping  the  sun  beneath  a  glass  cake  bowl  or  something  like  that.  The  rays  press  against  the  glass,  but  they  can't  escape  or  cast  influence  on  the  other  glass  bowls  covering  channels  two  and  three.      There  is  one  major  issue,  however.      Take  the  letter  A,  for  example.  To  split  the  Memory  Palace  journey  into  channels  or  lanes  for  a  letter  A  Palace  designed  to  accommodate  three  languages,  one  would  then  need  to  make  the  palace  itself  governed  by  English  words  (or  words  from  your  mother  tongue)  rather  than  the  words  of  the  target  language.  In  other  words,  you  would  have  a  station  devoted  to  the  word  "assassin"  and  then  split  into  the  three  words  for  "assassin"  in  Dutch,  German  and  French,  words  which  may  or  may  not  start  with  the  letter  A.    Normally,  I  always  recommend  structuring  the  path  using  the  target  language,  because  that's  the  language  we  want  to  focus  on,  but  in  a  special  case  like  yours,  it  makes  more  sense  to  structure  the  path  along  one's  mother  tongue.      Anybody  else  have  any  thoughts  about  this?      Until  I  get  back  from  the  road,  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Helping  people  improve  their  memory  skills  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

How To Memorize Like Sherlock Holmes

25  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  9˚  and  wetter  than  the  (which?)  end  of  a  snorkel  ...    Dear  Memorizers,      Sorry  I  missed  yesterday,  due  only  to  a  gig  with  my  band  in  Bad  Kreuznach.      For  those  about  to  rock  (and  all  that  jazz)  ...    Anyhow,  just  a  brief  note  for  you  today  before  I  wash  wash  wash  the  road  from  my  hair.    I  came  across  this  great  explication  of  the  Memory  Palace  methodology,  one  that  gives  cool  links  to  other  studd  and  references  Derren  Brown's  outstanding  Tricks  of  the  Mind.  One  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  readers  has  already  checked  it  out  and  put  some  of  its  teachings  to  work,  so  congrats  on  that.  It's  truly  phenomenal  what  you  can  learn  in  that  tome.      Anyhow,  here's  the  link  to  this  article:    http://daviniahamilton.com/2013/05/20/pimp-­‐your-­‐memory-­‐how-­‐to-­‐build-­‐a-­‐mind-­‐palace-­‐like-­‐sherlock-­‐holmes/    Oh,  and  since  I'm  not  so  talkative  today,  there's  another  bit  of  magical  material  you  might  want  to  check  out:      David  Blaine  explains  how  he  held  his  breath  for  17+  minutes    As  a  magician,  I've  always  admired  how  little  Blaine  uses  "sleight  of  mouth"  to  assist  his  tricks  (i.e.  getting  you  to  look  him  in  the  eyes  as  he  says  something  while  executing  a  secret  move).  He  just  does  stuff.      But  as  it  turns  out,  he  can  speak.  He's  a  great  speaker.      Now,  why  would  I  want  you  to  watch  a  video  about  a  guy  who  can  hold  his  breath  for  17  minutes  ...  ?    Well,  here's  the  thing:    

A  lot  of  people  think  they  have  a  bad  memory  and  that  the  bit  of  effort  needed  to  develop  something  like  the  Magnetic  Memory  system  for  themselves  is  too  much  work.      Learning  how  to  hold  his  breath  for  17  minutes  is  well  within  human  potential,  but  not  something  many  of  us  are  likely  to  do  (unless  diving  for  pearls  without  an  oxygen  tank  suddenly  comes  into  fashion).      But  the  2-­‐3  hours  it  takes  to  get  really  rolling  with  the  Magnetic  Memory  system  is  nothing  -­‐  it's  not  even  sand  through  the  fingers  compared  to  what  Blaine  went  through  in  order  to  conduct  his  experiment  in  testing  the  limits  of  survival.      And  he  didn't  even  get  to  speak  salmon  while  he  was  swimming  with  the  fishes!    Just  imagine  all  the  speaking  you  could  do  with  just  a  tiny  bit  of  practice.  You  all  already  know  that  I  give  the  Magnetic  Memory  Mondays  newsletter  for  free,  but  that  both  Volume  1  and  Volume  2  are  available  to  you  freely  if  you  prefer  to  get  them  that  way.  This  material  is  like  supplementary  training,  so  if  for  some  reason  you  haven't  received  the  PDFs,  or  want  these  valuable  ideas  on  your  Kindle,  by  all  means  take  advantage  of  these  offers.      Until  next  time,  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization  (and  holding  your  breath).  Helping  people  improve  their  memory  skills  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  And  the  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

The Great Memorization Software Hoax Continued

26  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  12˚  and  fresh  from  an  (over)abundance  of  spring  rain  ...    Dear  Memorizers,      A  regular  contributor  to  our  thinking  about  vocabulary  memorization  wrote  the  following  in  response  my  message  from  a  few  days  back  titled  "The  Great  Memorization  Software  Hoax."  

I  used  super  memo  to  greatly  expand  my  Spanish  vocabulary,  but  I  used  mnemonics  linking  the  sound  of  the  foreign  word  to  the  meaning,  in  the  void  of  course  but  at  least  I  used  mnemonics.  I  created  my  own  Spanish  vocabulary  on  super  memo  of  15k  words.  Worked  rather  well.  Of  course  this  does  not  mean  that  the  loci  system  would  not  have  worked  better.  Indeed  I  think  it  would  have  been  better  for  reasons  we  have  previously  discussed.    But  whether  one  uses  mnemonics  or  not,  one  cannot  escape  Ebbinghaus  ,  so  for  this  reason  spaced  repetition  makes  sense  as  an  aid  to  long  term  memory.  The  supermemo  program  is  not  as  user  friendly  as  some  of  these  spaced  repetition  programs,  and  the  files  have  to  be  repaired  often  or  else  they  will  corrupt,  but  I  like  the  super  memo  algorithm  better  than  Anki.  Anki  is  more  user  friendly  but  seems  to  remind  one  too  early  early  on,  and  too  sparsely  later  on.  So  I  thought  the  word  "hoax"  in  your  title  was  a  tad  extreme,since  any  program  that  follows  the  natural  forgetting  curve  cannot  be  all  bad.  Your  idea  for  incorporating  the  mnemonic  in  say  side  2  is  a  good  one,  but  one  might  as  well  have  the  meaning  there  too.  I  say  use  what  we  know  about  the  forgetting  curve  and  use  mnemonics  too.  I  even  have  typed  in  my  loci  association  with  the  item  I  am  trying  to  learn  within  the  spaced  repetition  software.  In  this  way  I  have  the  English  word  and  meaning  on  one  side,  and  the  locus  and  association  on  the  other.  So  I  think  it  all  depends  on  how  one  uses  the  software.  There  is  an  app  called  Flashcard  Elite  that  uses  the  super  memo  algorithm  that  I  find  very  useful.  Of  course  if  one  is  in  country  then  conversing  with  the  natives  is  probably  what  one  needs  to  do,  and  one  thus  gets  an  automatic  spaced  repetition,  though  not  quite  as  systematic  as  the  algorithm  would  be,but  probably  more  effective  in  the  long  run.      

In  all  fairness,  my  use  of  the  word  "hoax"  was  indeed  a  bit  extreme.  My  overall  position  on  these  matters  is  that  people  should  use  what  works  for  them,  and  no  one  else  can  really  decide  on  behalf  of  anyone  else  what  does  or  does  not  work.      Nonetheless,  my  suspicion  is  that  we  undertrain  the  mind  with  such  technologies  -­‐  or  better  said,  we  train  the  mind  to  expect  that  we  have  not  memorized  will  eventually  show  up  again.      While  on  the  surface  it  might  seem  like  the  repetition  is  "teaching"  you  the  

material,  it  is  also  training  one  to  rely  on  the  appearance  of  the  answer  on  a  card  or  on  a  screen.  This  is  the  Dark  Side  of  Pavlovian  Conditioning.    To  be  completely  fair,  however,  I  have  taken  a  few  days  to  try  Super  Memo  out  for  myself.  I  have  an  iPhone,  and  this  is  the  version  I  downloaded:    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/supermemo/id326593743?mt=8    For  the  purposes  of  testing,  I  went  with  German  and  bought  up  a  whole  bunch  of  the  programs  to  see  how  Super  Memo  arranges  various  levels  of  vocabulary.      It  took  me  a  while  to  get  used  to  having  so  much  information  on  the  screen,  and  unlike  some  of  the  other  programs,  it  is  not  set  up  as  an  index  card  that  spins  around.  There  is  no  distinguishing  one  side  from  the  other.  Rather,  the  "hidden"  information,  which  in  this  case  is  the  target  word,  appears  below  the  definition  at  the  request  of  the  program  user  after  taking  as  long  as  needed  to  sunder  the  word  from  "the  void"  (assuming  one  is  not  using  a  mnemonic  technique  such  as  the  Magnetic  Memory  system).      The  screen  also  shows  the  beginning  of  a  sentence  along  with  some  synonyms.  Both  of  these  serve  as  either  clues  or  red  herrings,  depending  on  the  context  and  on  the  user.  I  eventually  got  used  to  it,  but  at  first,  this  feature  was  a  rather  intense  barrier  to  entry.    Although  the  photographs  also  give  some  clues  to  the  word  associated  with  the  definition,  they  too  can  create  false  trails  that  lead  the  mind  away  from  the  target  word  rather  than  towards  it.  It  is  good  that  we  see  a  category  indicator,  and  it  too  is  presented  in  the  target  language.    Here  are  some  other  elements  I  like  about  the  program  and  how  it  works:      1.  The  German  voices  are  decent.    2.  The  vocabulary  ranges  from  simple  to  complex.      3.  They  seem  to  be  avoiding  the  overabundance  of  cognates  that  some  language  programs  love  to  dwell  upon  (yes,  one  must  know  the  cognates  of  the  target  language,  but  it  seems  that  many  of  these  programs  overdo  it  in  this  area).      4.  It  is  possible  to  use  the  program  without  repetition.  This  allows  one  to  use  mnemonics  and  then  test  according  to  one's  own  whims,  rather  than  those  of  an  algorithm.          5.  The  example  sentences  do  not  include  English  translations.  You  need  to  read  the  example  in  the  context  of  the  target  language  (i.e.  see  it  in  use).      

Here  are  my  criticisms:      1.  The  screen  is  very  busy  with  too  many  elements.    2.  You  can  only  hear  normalized,  textbook  versions  of  the  language.  People  might  understand  the  second  language  speaker  who  uses  these  words  well  enough,  but  will  the  second  language  speaker  understand  the  language  of  the  street  and  every  day  conversation  using  these  programs?    2.  It  does  not  encourage  memorization  using  association  (although  one  could  make  the  argument  that  at  some  level,  seeing  the  word  in  the  contexts  of  word  category,  example  sentences  and  synonyms  is  associating  the  language  with  the  language,  but  that's  not  the  kind  of  association  I  mean).      3.  When  one  does  use  the  repetition  feature,  it  repeats  and  repeats  and  repeats  until  you  agree  that  you  "know"  the  material  before  continuing  on.  This  leads  to  the  "hammering"  effect  that  I  spoke  about  in  the  first  "Great  Memorization  Software  Hoax"  message  from  a  few  days  ago.  When  I  am  forced  to  repeat  something  until  I  "get  it,"  I'm  very  tempted  to  lie  just  to  get  on  to  the  next  thing,  which  is  a  key  problem  with  these  software  programs.      Allow  me  to  expand  on  this  point.    One  cannot  remove  these  programs  from  the  world  of  video  games,  in  which  unending  reams  of  novelty  are  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  user  experience.  I  suspect  that  even  with  old  fashioned  index  cards,  the  craving  for  novelty  would  be  in  evidence,  but  very  much  so  when  it  comes  to  holding  a  piece  of  technology  in  one's  hands.      Also,  when  learning  a  foreign  language  and  all  of  the  example  sentences  are  in  the  target  language,  what  one  hears  is  a  lot  of  babble,  especially  if  you're  new  to  the  language.      I  don't  know  if  any  of  you  have  ever  trained  dogs,  dear  Memorizers,  but  the  quickest  way  to  make  puppy  insane  is  to  talk  to  him  or  her  in  complete  sentences.      Here's  what  we  say:      Sit  Rover,  sit.  No,  Rover,  sit,  there  you  go,  that's  a  good  Rover,  sit  Rover,  oh,  you're  so  cute  ...    Here's  what  the  dog  hears  (maybe):    Sit,  Rover,  sit.  Blah,  Rover,  sit,  blah  blah  blah  blah  blah  Rover,  sit  Rover,  blah  blah  blah  blah  ...    We've  embedded  the  new  word  we  want  the  dog  to  learn  in  a  field  of  nonsense  

words.      In  some  ways,  that's  what  this  computer  program  does.      Okay,  sink  or  swim  isn't  that  bad.      A)  We're  humans,  not  dogs.    B)  If  we're  going  to  visit  a  country  where  our  target  language  is  spoken,  it's  going  to  be  even  more  intense  than  a  bunch  of  words  we  don't  know  squeezed  into  the  space  of  a  small  screen.      All  the  same,  I  wonder  if  the  immersion  isn't  too  extreme  given  the  hammering  effect  of  the  spaced  repetition,  which  on  my  version  of  Super  Memo  actually  isn't  spaced  at  all,  since  it  won't  allow  me  to  proceed  until  I've  agreed  that  I  "know"  the  word.      5)  With  such  an  advanced  bit  of  software,  it's  something  of  a  shame  that  each  and  every  word  isn't  "tappable"  so  that  you  can  see  the  English  definition.  Again,  we  want  to  be  immersed  in  the  context,  but  it  also  seems  cruel  not  to  have  a  lifejacket  anywhere  in  sight.    How  can  I  redeem  this  bit  of  software?      By  using  the  Magnetic  Memory  system,  of  course.      Essentially,  I've  been  treating  it  like  a  randomized  dictionary  and  taking  a  second  to  pop  the  words  I  don't  already  know  into  one  of  my  alphabetized  Memory  Palaces.  It's  great  to  see  the  words  used  in  multiple  contexts,  but  that's  nothing  a  decent  dictionary  won't  already  do  for  a  person.  Hearing  the  target  word  used  in  an  entire  sentence  is  great,  but  it  also  presents  a  danger,  namely  that  it  could  very  well  distract  the  person  from  using  a  memorization  method  with  greater  finesse  than  the  brute  hammering  of  repetition.      On  that  note,  auditory  repetition  may  have  its  uses  when  it  comes  to  learning  the  musicality  of  the  language,  though  again,  if  you  haven't  memorized  the  meanings  of  the  words,  the  notes  are  but  an  empty  shell.  (Speaking  of  music,  we've  received  a  great  question  about  memorizing  music  that  I'll  be  answering  most  likely  tomorrow  -­‐  stay  tuned).    As  for  Ebbinghaus,  brilliant  stuff,  and  certainly  one  of  his  most  interesting  findings  has  been  that  humans  find  it  just  as  easy  to  memorize  nonsense  syllables  as  they  do  words  with  which  they  associate  meanings.  That's  very  good  news  for  people  studying  foreign  languages.      But  the  beauty  is  that  we  can  attribute  meanings  to  those  languages  through  the  

power  of  association  and  doing  so  makes  them  even  more  memorable.    So  whether  you  use  spaced  repetition  software  or  not,  the  goal  should  always  be  to  actually  memorize  the  material.  The  more  you  do  that  by  using  association,  the  tighter  knit  your  pool  of  memorized  words  will  be.          Until  next  time,  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Teaching  a  skill  is  one  of  the  best  ways  to  learn  it  and  helping  people  improve  their  memory  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  The  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Breaking News: Music Can Be Memorized!

27  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  18˚  and  finally  sunny  again,  albeit  in  a  surreptitious  way  ...    Dear  Memorizers,    

Here's  a  nice  question  about  memorizing  music  that  I've  tried  to  do  justice  in  my  response:  

 

 Dear  Anthony,  

I  am  a  recent  convert  to  the  idea  of  memory  palaces,  having  used  them  to  successfully  learn  various  facts,  and,  most  recently,  shuffled  decks  of  cards.  I'm  looking  forward  to  putting  them  into  practice  with  languages  after  reading  your  book!      As  a  professional  cellist,  I'm  extremely  interested  in  the  application  of  memorization  techniques  for  music,  and  wondered  if  this  is  how  you  are  approaching  the  Bach  suites?  Colleagues  are  always  asking  me  if  I  am  going  to  use  my  new  found  memory  skills  for  musical  means,  and  I'd  love  to  be  able  to  say  yes!  I'd  be  fascinated  to  hear  your  thoughts  on  how  to  go  about  it,  if  you  have  the  time.  

 Thanks  for  your  great  question!    A  lot  depends  on  what  one  wants  to  memorize.  If  you  want  to  remember  the  sheet  music  so  that  you  can  "see"  it  in  your  mind  as  you  perform,  then  that  is  a  relatively  simple  matter  of  figuring  out  how  many  bars  you  have  and  then  creating  a  Memory  Palace  for  the  composition  and  then  storing  as  many  bars  as  you  can  reasonably  fit  per  station.  That  will  require  some  personal  experimentation  and  will  vary  from  piece  to  piece.  Bach's  Sonata  #1  in  G  Minor  would  require  a  lot  more  space  than  Suite  #2  in  D  Minor,  for  example.      To  get  the  images  into  the  Memory  Palace,  you  could  imagine  yourself  painting  the  sheet  music  on  the  wall  of  each  room  in  very  large  and  vibrant  colors  or  have  certain  notes  dancing.  If  there  is  one  in  particular  note  you  always  get  stuck  on,  you  could  see  that  note  juggling  fire  or  slapping  a  clown  -­‐  so  long  as  the  image  is  exaggerated  and  absurd,  it  will  work.  I  would  think  that  visualizations  of  this  sort  would  provide  a  great  method  most  especially  for  those  little  mistakes  one  makes  with  particular  notes.    I've  experimented  with  giving  each  note  a  name  or  a  shape,  but  in  truth,  I've  not  

found  it  necessary  because  I've  come  to  know  how  each  mark  sounds  rather  than  what  it  is  called.  I  think  that  is  one  of  the  first  leaps  a  student  makes,  lest  the  student  continue  to  mentally  recite  D,  F,  A  while  playing.  That  would  probably  not  be  a  good  thing.      But  if  one  were  to  do  that,  however,  a  mnemonic  for  the  Circle  of  Fifths  could  be  useful.  Five  Cats  Give  Dogs  An  Endless  Battle  is  one  that  I've  read  about  on  the  net  for  soloing  up  the  neck  and  By  Eight  All  Dates  Get  Fold  Feet  for  soloing  down.  But  again,  this  is  adding  a  mental  step  that  one  should  probably  go  beyond  rather  quickly.      As  for  the  fretboard,  one  could  assign  an  image  to  each  integer,  but  we  have  the  number  system  for  that  ...  you  could  learn  to  sing  the  sound  associated  with  each  fret  by  singing  its  number,  but  singing  its  note  name  would  probably  be  better  for  understanding  the  cyclical  nature  of  the  layout.      As  for  meter,  we  are  lucky  that  the  shapes  indicating  these  are  already  pretty  zany,  but  it  would  not  be  a  stretch  to  associate  each  with  an  image.  A  man  wearing  a  hat,  a  man  holding  a  hat,  a  man  leaping  to  escape  a  fire,  a  tennis  ball  flying  at  the  head  of  a  note  etc.      Ultimately,  these  mnemonics  should  be  useful  for  beginners,  but  I'm  not  sure  about  advanced  players.  In  such  cases,  I  should  think  that  memorizing  sheet  music  is  an  option,  or  alternatively,  placing  an  image  of  one's  hands  on  the  fretboard  in  a  station  by  station  manner  could  be  quite  useful,  or  at  least  ease  the  anxiety  of  forgetting  simply  by  going  through  the  routine  of  placing  the  material  somewhere.  Relating  the  sight  of  one's  hands  in  positions  with  the  sound  of  the  notes  could  also  be  quite  useful,  and  visually  linking  positions  with  an  image  could  be  explored.    As  ever,  the  individual  memorizer  needs  to  experiment  with  the  different  approaches  and  see  what  works.  But  where  there  is  a  mind,  there  is  a  vast  and  superior  memorization  machine,  so  long  as  it  is  trained.      Until  next  time,  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization  (you  could  even  sing  the  lesson).  Teaching  a  skill  is  one  of  the  best  ways  to  learn  it  and  helping  people  improve  their  memory  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  The  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

The Memory Software Hoax That Would Not Relax

28  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  17˚  and  on  my  way  to  see  the  new  Star  Trek  ...  yes,  again  ...    Dear  Memorizers,      Those  of  you  who  have  been  following  along  the  past  know  that  I  had  perhaps  overexerted  my  claim  that  spaced  repetition  software  is  a  "hoax"  when  it  comes  to  helping  people  memorize  languages,  facts,  figures,  what-­‐have-­‐you.      Despite  some  really  great  feedback  from  a  valued  reader  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  Newsletter,  and  having  tested  some  of  the  software  I  was  not  previously  familiar  with  myself,  I  still  cannot  fathom  the  value  of  spaced  repetition,  and  still  think  that  in  terms  of  grace  and  elegance,  spaced  repetition  is  a  hammer  compared  to  the  feather  of  memorization  techniques  such  as  the  Magnetic  use  of  Memory  Palaces.      Continuing  the  conversation,  our  contributor  writes:  

One  thing  I  should  tell  you  is  that  you  cannot  fully  appreciate  these  types  of  programs  till  about  year  of  use.    

This  is  exactly  my  concern.  A  year  of  computer-­‐assisted  (or  index  card-­‐assisted)  repetition  compared  to  the  small  investment  of  time  needed  to  develop  a  system  like  the  one  I  teach  in  my  books  will  have  you  appreciating  the  power  of  your  mind  in  no  time  flat.      That  said,  I  do  not  deny  that  the  power  of  repetition  after  all  of  that  time  won't  have  its  positive  effects.      But  I've  never  bought  into  this  "10,000  hour"  rule  either.  With  all  due  respect  to  Malcolm  Gladwell,  the  mastery  of  skills  can,  has  been  and  will  in  the  future  be  achieved  much  sooner  and  with  far  fewer  maintenance  sessions  by  normal  people  and  so-­‐called  geniuses  alike.      And  when  it  comes  to  memorizing  stuff,  one  hour  really  can  be  10,000  hours  relative  to  computer-­‐assisted  spaced  repetition.      Lest  it  seem  like  I  am  being  antagonistic,  let's  carry  on  with  the  email.  After  recommending  Flashcard  Elite  for  iPhone  (which  I  have  yet  to  try),  our  contributor  writes:  

Although  I  am  basically  sold  on  these  types  of  programs  there  is  another  potential  disadvantage  that  u  have  not  foresee;    some  of  these  canned  flashcard  data  sets  

have  errors  in  them.    If  one  has  some  knowledge  of  the  language  it  is  better  to  do  as  i  do  and  create  your  own  data  set  say  for  oddball  German  words  you  have  just  encountered  or  ones  u  have  rarely  encountered.    I  know  how  to  pronounce  Spanish  words  so  I  do  not  even  bother  with  the  sound.      

Fortunately  in  the  canned  Spanish  data  sets  I  know  enough  Spanish  to  detect  most  of  the  errors.  I  am  at  an  advanced  level  and  in  many  cases  of  the  canned  programs  I  sense  the  author  was  at  a  beginning  to  intermediate  level.    

Another  disadvantage  of  the  programs  is  that  if  one  switches  the  settings  so  that  the  stimulus  word  is  in  English  and  the  response  is  in  the  foreign  tongue,one  can  often  get  these  wrong  because  one  becomes  advanced  and  knows  about  15  ways  to  say  the  same  thing  in  the  foreign  tongue,but  that  is  not  a  software  problem,but  it  is  just  the  nature  of  learning  a  foreign  language.  In  such  cases  if  I  can  think  of  any  correct  way  to  answer  I  give  myself  a  good  or  a  pass  on  whatever  spaced  repetition  software  I  am  using.    I  have  used  them  all  except  Mnemosyne:    Anki,v-­‐trainer,  Supermemo,and  several  phone  apps.    The  Supermemo  algorithm  is  the  one  that  best  fits  the  Ebbinghaus  forgetting  curve  which  seems  to  apply  whether  or  not  one  is  using  mnemonics  versus  rote,or  something  in  between.      

One  other  problem  with  the  spaced  repetition  software  is  that  when  one  reviews  a  thing  say  a  week  later  that  u  have  not  rated  yourself  well  on  the  program  

 

it  is  gambling  that  on  the  rating  and  based  on  the  time  that  has  passed  that  what  it  presents  u  in  any  given  review  session  will  be  things  u  have  forgotten.    Then  can  make  one  have  a  very  non  reinforcing  review  session  in  that  it  is  rewarding  to  get  things  right  and  punishing  to  err.  However  I  enjoyed  using  mnemonics  as  i  tended  to  get  even  90  percent  of  these  right.    So  i  enjoyed  trying  to  beat  the  software  in  this  manner.  If  I  missed  an  item,i  just  shored  up  the  mnemonic  and  always  got  it  right  the  second  time.    If  I  used  a  mnemonic  I  found  I  could  recall  an  obscure  Spanish  word  a  year  later.    The  kind  of  word  one  does  not  hear  or  see  a  lot-­‐  I  only  used  it  for  lower  frequency  words  because  I  was  already  speaking  the  common  words.    I  only  know  a  little  Italian  and  have  not  used  much  spaced  repetition  for  that  yet.  I  will  soon  be  shifting  over  to  your  method  for  Italian  but  I  may  use  spaced  repetition  software  to  recall  my  stations  and  the  words  associated  with  them.    That  does  Not  mean  I    would  not  review  the  stations  and  words  in  my  head  outside  of  using  the  software.      

 

In  essence  your  method  turns  the  paired  associate  learning  (in  the  void)  to  a  list  of  such  paired  associates  attached  to  the  loci.  So  your  method  involves  remembering  more  method  (a  recall  structure  as  well  as  the  paired  associate  items),  but  i  think  there  is  enhanced  fluency  of  recall  with  your  method.  

As  I  wrote  in  the  last  two  "memory  hoax"  editions  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  newsletter,  I'm  not  at  all  inclined  to  toss  these  software  programs  into  the  dustbin.  I  only  think  that  their  use  is  severely  limited  without  some  form  of  "soft"  memorization  strategy.      I  call  it  "soft"  because  I  am  borrowing  a  term  from  Systema,  which  is  the  martial  art  I  study.  In  this  art,  we  absorb  the  energy  of  the  attacker  and  redirect  it  into  the  attacker's  body  with  the  minimal  amount  of  movement,  effort  and  technique.      As  with  the  Magnetic  Memory  system,  there  is  a  lot  of  preparation  involved.      But  as  with  the  Magnetic  Memory  system,  once  set-­‐up,  the  ability  to  smoothly  transition  those  words  into  your  mind  using  your  imaginative  abilities  uses  far  less  effort,  energy,  and  ultimately,  you  wind  up  using  less  of  the  technique  overall.      This  is  because  overtime,  you  don't  need  to  think  about  the  technique.  You  simply  do  it,  and  the  more  you  practice  the  memorization  technique  in  a  relaxed  manner,  the  more  relaxed  you  will  be  during  recall.  It's  pure  Pavlov,  dear  Memorizers,  but  the  right  kind  of  Pavlov.      Relaxation  is  definitely  where  it's  at.      So  my  recommendation  to  anyone  using  spaced  repetition  software  to  help  them  memorize  languages,  facts,  figures,  terminology  or  anything  whatsoever  is  simply  this:      Use  the  program  in  combination  with  a  memorization  system  like  Magnetic  Memory  and  use  it  when  in  a  state  of  deep  relaxation.      If  you  haven't  tried  working  on  your  vocabulary  memorization  in  a  state  of  relaxation,  give  it  a  (gentle)  whirl  today.  And  enjoy  the  "softness"  of  the  work.  The  softer  the  work,  the  less  effort  you  need.  The  less  effort  you  need,  the  more  effective  the  memorization.      Until  next  time,  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Teaching  a  skill  is  one  of  the  best  ways  to  learn  it  and  helping  people  improve  their  memory  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  The  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

The Shocking Truth About Using Maps to Memorize

29  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  15˚  and  filled  with  cartography  ...    Dear  Memorizers,      People  often  tell  me  that  they've  run  out  of  locations  to  build  new  Memory  Palaces.  I've  come  to  think  of  this  condition  as  "location  starvation."      My  hope  in  writing  Volume  1  and  Volume  2  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  newsletter  has  been  to  school  my  subscribers  in  as  many  Memory  Palace  options  I  can  think  of  while  also  teaching  the  fine  art  of  Memory  Palace  fishing  on  one's  own.  The  Magnetic  Memory  worksheets  are  also  designed  to  serve  as  an  aid  in  the  process,  so  if  for  any  reason  you've  lost  yours  or  don't  want  to  hunt  through  your  inboxes  for  them,  just  send  me  a  response  to  this  message  with  "send  me  the  worksheets"  and  I'll  email  back  with  a  fresh  set.      Don't  underestimate  the  value  of  going  through  the  worksheet  exercise.  It's  a  means  of  helping  you  externalize  information  that  you  already  know  and  then  see  it  visually  outside  of  your  head.      When  we  produce  things  from  our  imagination  written  out  or  painted  out  or  sculpted  out,  we  are  in  a  far  better  position  to  manipulate  them.  That's  one  of  the  reasons  I  made  you  this  video  of  my  Excel  file  system:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMPMuOyfke4    Externalizing  the  journey  by  using  this  simple  software  (to  be  distinguished  from  the  spaced  repetition  software  we've  been  talking  about  this  past  week)  solidifies  the  journey  in  my  mind  much  more  than  if  I  were  to  do  it  based  on  pure  mental  power  alone.      That  said,  there's  nothing  wrong  with  pure  visualization.  And  there  are  loads  of  benefits  to  be  won  by  working  in  that  manner.  And  at  the  highest  level,  that's  what  one  will  be  doing  with  the  Magnetic  Memory  Method  once  all  of  the  Memory  Palaces  are  established.    But  when  getting  started  and  looking  for  Memory  Palaces  and  the  stations  you  want  to  place  within  them,  it's  really  important  to  externalize  the  material.    If  you  don't  like  top-­‐down  lists  and  Excel  files,  you  can  always  draw  a  map.  It's  a  pretty  simple  affair.      Here's  one  I  drew  back  in  the  day:  it's  the  Berlin  first  apartment  I  ever  lived  in  and  one  of  the  first  times  I  tried  drawing  out  a  journey.  I  personally  prefer  lists,  

but  I  often  combine  multiple  visualization  strategies  to  strengthen  the  visual  aspects  of  my  imagination  and  steer  myself  away  from  relying  on  conceptualizations  alone.      However,  all  of  this  just  sets  up  what  I  really  wanted  to  suggest  today.    If  you're  stuck  in  a  rut,  why  not  use  existing  cartography  to  create  Memory  Palaces?      For  example,  I  come  from  Canada.  It's  a  simple  affair  to  imagine  the  different  provinces  as  they  fall  from  left  to  right.  Each  can  be  used  as  an  individual  station  in  a  Memory  Palace  called  "Canada."      Chances  are  that  where  ever  on  earth  you  come  from,  you're  also  deeply  familiar  with  the  regions  and  territories  of  where  you  were  born.  If  you  can  visualize  a  macroscopic  map  of  the  territory  with  ease  and  consistency,  then  you  can  "place"  image  associations  on  the  surface  of  the  map.      But  the  same  old  rules  apply:    1)  Start  in  a  terminal  location  (i.e.  on  the  left  edge  of  the  map,  right  edge,  top  edge,  bottom  edge,  etc)  and  try  to  make  sure  that  you  can  always  add  one  more  location  after  the  others  are  used  up.    2)  Avoid  crossing  your  own  path.  That  leads  to  the  unnecessary  expenditure  of  mental  energy  and  confusion.      The  interesting  thing  about  this  exercise  is  that  you  don't  need  to  draw  a  map  if  you  don't  want  to  spend  the  time.  You  can  simply  pull  one  off  the  bookshelf  and  visually  chart  out  a  Memory  Palace  journey  on  a  professional  prepared  map.      Now,  if  after  reading  Volume  1  and  Volume  2  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  newsletter  you're  still  having  a  bit  of  trouble  coming  up  with  enough  Memory  Palaces  and  stations,  I  sometimes  coach  people.  It's  a  lot  of  fun  and  my  clients  who  struggle  with  some  of  the  concepts  in  the  book  always  walk  away  with  an  improved  memory.      And  it's  not  just  about  memorizing  vocabulary.  Here's  what  one  client  has  said  after  just  four  hours  of  coaching:  

I    joined  a  Toastmasters  Club  a  while  ago,  and  memorization  of  speeches  has  been  an  on-­‐going  challenge  for  me,  until  Anthony  taught  me  how  to  use  his  proposed  techniques.  I  am  able  to  enjoy  the  delivery  of  my  speeches  much  more  now  since  I  know  that  the  message  I  want  to  convey  will  be  sent  out  with  the  specific  words  I  had  originally  planned  to.        

I  find  myself  being  able  to  focus  more  and  also  to  retain  some  other  information  better  if  I  use  the  technique  with  frequency....As  the  famous  saying  goes:  "If  you  do  not  use  it,  you  lose  it"  and  I  find  memorization  a  great  technique  to  keep  the  brain  alert  and  young!      

 But  I  have  to  tell  you:  it  isn't  all  fun  and  games.  You've  got  to  do  some  homework  even  just  to  sign  up.      Don't  worry.  It's  actually  simple.  You  just  need  to  at  least  attempt  to  fill  out  the  Magnetic  Memory  worksheets  to  qualify.    If  you're  interested,  and  think  coaching  would  help,  just  reply  to  this  email  and  I'll  send  you  the  specifics.      And  if  you've  been  thinking  about  coaching,  but  are  sitting  on  the  fence  for  any  unusual  reason,  let  me  tell  you  two  things  that  are  very  important.      First  of  all,  I  make  my  coaching  very  inexpensive.  It's  only  $125  for  four  hours  if  you  book  them  in  advance,  $80  for  2  (also  in  advance)  and  $50  per  hour  if  you  want  to  go  one  session  at  a  time.      Second,  if  you're  worried  that  you  won't  like  it,  that's  totally  cool.  Some  people  won't  -­‐  and  usually  not  at  least  trying  to  fill  out  the  worksheets  is  a  good  indicator  that  the  client  isn't  going  to  put  in  the  work  needed  to  get  the  maximum  benefit  out  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  Method.  Perhaps  they  prefer  the  harder  path  ...  I'm  not  sure.  But  if  for  any  reason  someone  doesn't  feel  like  they've  benefited  from  the  coaching,  they  have  what  I  call  my  "Right  Decision  Guarantee."  Just  simply  request  a  refund  and  you'll  receive  your  money  back  without  hassle  (though  I  might  ask  you  why  you're  unhappy  with  the  service  so  that  I  can  improve  my  coaching).      So  there  really  isn't  anything  to  lose,  and  given  the  season  we're  currently  in,  there's  really  no  better  time  to  get  started  with  achieving  your  memorization  goals.    If  you're  a  traveler,  you're  going  to  really  lose  out  on  the  flavor  of  the  country  you're  visiting  without  the  maximum  amount  of  vocabulary  lodged  in  your  mind.      And  if  you're  a  student  or  a  business  person,  well,  I  think  you  probably  already  know  what  an  (ethically)  unfair  advantage  having  a  Magnetic  Memory  is  going  to  be.      If  you're  struggling  with  the  Magnetic  Memory  system,  I  can  help  you  take  this  information  and  put  it  into  practice  to  the  point  that  it  will  be  like  effortlessly  

injecting  new  words  directly  into  your  brain.  People  will  be  amazed  by  the  progress  you  make  -­‐  especially  you.      Until  next  time,  fold  up  your  maps  and  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Teaching  a  skill  is  one  of  the  best  ways  to  learn  it  and  helping  people  improve  their  memory  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  The  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Memorization Starvation

30  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  20˚  and  definitely  Englishable  ...    Dear  Memorizers,      First  up,  you  gotta  check  out  this  cool  page  our  Magnetic  Memory  friend  Joshua  Smith  posted  on  Facebook:    http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/195348/18-­‐obsolete-­‐words-­‐which-­‐should-­‐have-­‐never-­‐gone-­‐out-­‐of-­‐style/    "Englishable"  is  certainly  my  favorite  word  of  the  lot,  but  "snoutfair"  comes  in  as  a  close  second.      It's  really  interesting  to  think  about  lost  words  like  this  because  it  points  out  the  very  simple  fact  that  so  many  of  the  words  we  say  our  artificial  constructions.  Well,  all  words  are  built,  but  some  words  show  mores  signs  of  deliberate  invention  than  others.  Take  "Bromance,"  for  example,  a  word  invented  to  express  the  feelings  generated  by  a  flock  of  new  films  about  friendships  between  men,  while  "frenemy"  evolved  to  express  the  dissolution  of  friendships  between  women.      "Crowdfunding"  is  another  interesting  portmanteau  word,  as  is  "chillax"  and  "Weblish"  (closely  related  to  "Netspeak"  and  "Internetese.")    Oh  yes,  dear  Memorizers,  English  is  alive  and  well  and  living  online.      But  we're  in  the  business  of  memorizing  foreign  language  words  and  obscure  terminology,  so  let's  have  a  look  at  a  follow-­‐up  letter  I  received  from  the  "location  starvation"  theme  we  visited  a  few  days  back:    

 Could  I  ask  you  opinion  on  this?  Lets  say  I  have  a  goal  to  memorize  1000  words  in  french,german  and  dutch.    If  I  used  the  loci  system,  i  don't  see  how  i  could  have  enough  locations  and  stations  to  be  able  to  use  the  system  in  memorizing  the  vocabulary.        Right  now  i  am  using  a  poor  system  of  looking  at  the  foreign  word  i  want  to  memorize.    Listening  to  the  pronunciation.    Then  using  the  pronunciation  to  find  a  word  in  English  that  sounds  like  that  piece  of  the  word  or  the  entire  word.    Then  I  imagine  that  pronunciation  of  the  foreign  word  with  the  association  of  the  English  word  that  I  know  that  sounds  similar.  

 I  am  having  trouble  because  i  am  not  linking  one  vocabulary  word  to  another.  Nor  am  i  currently  using  the  loci  system.  

I  don't  think  the  LOCI  system  will  work  for  me  because  ,  I  don't  think  I  can  come  up  with  enough  places  for  me  to  use  with  my  vocabulary  word  association.  

Let  me  use  an  example  of  my  house.    i  have  4  bedrooms,  a  stairway.  one  kitchen,  a  front  yard  a  backyard,  a  garage,  a  front  and  back  door.        Even  if  I  used  all  the  houses  of  the  friends  combined  with  mine,  it  would  not  get  me  to  1000  stations.    And,  I  need  3000  stations.    Any  suggestions?      

Here's  my  answer:    

Not  having  enough  locations  and  stations  is  indeed  a  barrier.      Nonetheless,  I'm  confident  that  with  some  preparatory  work  you  can  come  up  with  3000  stations.      For  starters,  you  can  expand  upon  what  you've  already  got.  With  practice,  instead  of  using  one  of  your  rooms  for  just  one  word,  you  can  use  it  for  5-­‐6  words  by  placing  them  on  the  window  sill,  the  bedside  table,  the  bed,  the  dresser,  the  bookshelf,  etc.      You  can  subdivide  the  other  rooms  in  the  same  way,  and  you  can  use  every  step  on  the  stair  case,  divide  the  front  and  the  back  lawn  into  quadrants,  divvy  up  the  garage,  etc.      How  many  houses  have  you  lived  in  throughout  your  life?  How  many  offices  have  you  worked  in?  How  many  neighborhoods  and  stores  do  you  know  well?      Have  you  tried  filling  out  the  Magnetic  Memory  worksheets?  (I've  attached  them  for  you  in  case  they  are  lost  in  an  email  that  will  take  too  long  to  find).      First  off,  in  the  Magnetic  Memory  system,  you  don't  have  to  link  the  words  to  one  another.  If  you  follow  the  journey  principles  laid  out  in  the  system,  then  the  journey  itself  will  be  your  link.      And  when  everything  is  working  really  well  for  you,  the  journey  will  be  used  for  

rehearsal  alone.  When  you  are  called  upon  to  access  or  use  a  word,  your  mind  will  magnetically  fly  to  that  location  without  needing  to  start  at  the  beginning  of  that  particular  Memory  Palace  and  walk  through  from  station  to  station.      You'll  be  pulled  there.    That  said,  let  me  suggest  that  you  temporarily  modify  your  goal.    Use  the  Magnetic  Memory  worksheets  to  identify  10  stations  per  letter  for  just  ten  letters  of  the  alphabet.  Here's  the  letters  I  recommend  starting  with  for  these  languages:    A  B  D  E  F  G  K  L  M  N    You  can  use  shopping  malls,  libraries,  movie  theatres,  parks  -­‐  any  place  that  you  know  reasonably  well  and  can  chart  a  journey  through.    Remember,  you  want  to  use  locations  that  you  are  familiar  with  because  this  reduces  the  amount  of  thought  you  need  to  exert  as  you  add  new  words  at  the  stations  you've  identified  along  your  journey.    I'm  confident  that  once  you  get  started,  you're  going  to  not  only  feel  the  power  of  how  all  of  this  works,  but  you'll  also  find  it  much  easier  to  discover  the  perfect  Memory  Palace  locations  and  stations  too.    And  if  you  still  feel  like  you  have  a  case  of  "location  starvation,"  that  is  simple  to  solve:      *  Take  a  walk  down  the  street    *  Visit  a  movie  theatre    *  Go  to  the  grocery  store    *  Drop  in  on  a  friend    *  Take  a  trip  and  stay  in  a  hotel  

 There  are  countless  ways  to  gather  new  locations  for  Memory  Palaces.  It's  just  a  matter  of  paying  attention  to  the  surroundings.      Your  brain  is  naturally  wired  to  remember  the  layouts  of  locations,  especially  interior  locations.  I  don't  know  exactly  why  this  should  be  the  case,  but  it  is  for  nearly  everyone,  and  we  should  capitalize  on  it.  Simply  by  practicing  awareness  as  you  move  about  your  every  day  life,  you  can  create  literally  dozens  of  new  Memory  Palaces  each  and  every  week.      And  if  you  start  up  your  very  own  "Mission  Memory  Palace,"  you'll  find  yourself  visiting  new  places  too.      That's  pretty  cool.  It  keeps  you  active  and  healthy  and  exercises  dormant  parts  of  the  brain  -­‐  parts  that  will  help  you  reach  your  memorization  goals.        Above  all,  relax  while  you  are  working  on  every  stage.  The  more  relaxed  you  are,  the  more  receptive  your  mind  will  be.  There  are  some  tips  on  relaxation  in  the  book  that  you  can  use  and  I  highly  recommend  that  you  do.      I  really  enjoy  helping  you  with  understanding  the  Magnetic  Memory  system  and  applying  it  to  your  situation,  so  let  me  know  if  ever  you  have  any  further  questions.  

 And  that  goes  for  everyone.  Feel  free  to  ask  me  your  questions  any  time.      So  until  next  time,  go  out  on  a  Memory  Palace  Mission  and  then  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Teaching  a  skill  is  one  of  the  best  ways  to  learn  it  and  helping  people  improve  their  memory  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  The  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

How to Find Memorization Rich Environments

31  May  2013  Berlin,  Germany  19˚  and  off  to  Leipzig  ...    Dear  Memorizers,      Just  a  quick  note  today  about  finding  what  I  call  "Memorization  Rich  Environments."      You  see,  it's  not  always  about  technique.      Sometimes  it's  about  mindset.    And  one  of  the  best  ways  to  go  about  developing  the  right  mindset  is  to  steep  yourself  in  the  culture  of  what  you're  trying  to  learn.      No,  that  doesn't  necessarily  mean  plane  tickets,  hotels  and  being  wary  of  pickpockets.    It  can  be  as  simple  as  a  trip  to  the  foreign  language  section  of  your  library.  Or  it  could  be  the  medical  or  legal  library,  or  whatever  specialty  you  are  working  on.    Seek  an  internship  with  a  company  that  speaks  your  target  language  or  lingo.    If  you're  in  a  bigger  city,  you  can  visit  the  embassy  of  a  country  that  speaks  your  target  language.      Use  meetup.com  or  Craigslist  or  the  free  tandem  partner  service  I  mentioned  in  Volume  2  of  the  Magnetic  Memory  Newsletter.      Volunteer  for  an  organization  that  will  bring  you  into  contact  with  the  material  you  want  to  memorize.    There  are  all  kinds  of  things  you  can  do  to  amplify  the  techniques  you've  been  using  to  reach  your  memorization  goals.  If  there  are  any  that  I've  missed  out,  shoot  me  a  response  to  this  message.  I've  got  something  cool  to  send  you  in  return  for  the  favor.    Until  next  time,  find  yourself  a  Memorization  Rich  Environment  and  then  teach  someone  else  what  you've  learned  about  memorization.  Teaching  a  skill  is  one  of  the  best  ways  to  learn  it  and  helping  people  improve  their  memory  is  one  of  the  best  ways  we  can  make  the  world  a  better  place.  The  more  we  remember,  the  more  we  can  remember.  And  the  more  we  learn,  the  more  we  can  learn.    

Sincerely, Anthony Metivier learnandmemorize@zoho.com

Further Resources For Memory & Memorization Techniques

I’ve mentioned Harry Lorayne several times in this book, so let’s start with him. The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School and at Play is a wonderful resource. Get it here:

http://memorizegermanvocabulary.com/harrylorayne

Lorayne’s website is also well worth visiting:

http://www.harrylorayne.com/

If you’d like to hear a nearly 2 hour long interview with the man himself, check out You’re Only an “Aha!” Moment from Greatness on this website:

http://www.hardtofindseminars.com/Harry_Lorayne_Interview.htm

You’ll also want to read Tony Buzan. I recommend Use Your Perfect Memory.

http://memorizegermanvocabulary.com/tonybuzan

A recent memory book that has gotten everyone talking is Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything has an appearance by Tony Buzan that is a delight to read. His success with memorization skills is absolutely stunning. Here’s the link:

http://memorizegermanvocabulary.com/moonwalking

Perhaps my favorite audio program is Dominic O’Brien’s Quantum Memory Power: Learn to Improve Your Memory. He reads the book himself, making it a wonderful experience. His passion for memorization techniques really shines through.

http://memorizegermanvocabulary.com/quantummemorypower

You’ve probably seen Kevin Trudeau hawking his products on late night television infomercials. Don’t groan, however. His Mega Memory is one of the best memory products I’ve ever encountered. He talks a lot, but in Mega Memory, everything he promises is right there, ready to be learned.

http://memorizegermanvocabulary.com/megamemory

From the world of magicians and mentalists, I recommend Richard Osterlind’s Easy to Master Mental Miracles.

http://www.mymagic.com/dvd/dvd-osterlind.htm

This book includes tons of other ideas as well that will have you amazing your friends.

Tricks of the Mind is Derren Brown’s third book. It includes a very powerful chapter on memorization that will take you further on your journey as a memory artist:

http://memorizegermanvocabulary.com/DerrenBrown

Here is Anne Merritt’s article on vocabulary memorization:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationadvice/9816185/Foreign-languages-how-to-memorise-vocabulary.html

Here is the link to the French conjugation website:

http://www.conjugation-fr.com/

If ever you are uncertain of how to pronounce French words, check out this amazing resource:

www.forvo.com

It gives you not only one pronunciation, but also pronunciations by different speakers who have uploaded their voices. This means that you get a range of pronunciations and therefore a larger understanding of how the word sounds in different contexts.

Finally, if you find any resources that you think should be included in future editions of this book, please do not hesitate to send them to me at rhizomatic@zoho.com.

Spread the word!

Do you like this newsletter? Has it helped you improve your Memory Palace work with tangible results? If so, I want to ask you to help me tell other people about it.

Since 2007 I’ve made my living entirely by writing and teaching. Yet, I have done very little promotion for my books. Nearly every sale has come from people passing on the good news through word of mouth. So now I’m asking YOU to please help me spread the word. My belief is that the more people on earth that are able to cultivate bilingual skills (if not trilingual and more), the better our world will be. The vocabulary memorization skills described in my books genuinely help people who use them and the results are real.

Here’s how you can help.

If you have an email list of friends and contacts, why not send them a message about this newsletter and its contents?

Discuss the newsletter on web forums and message boards.

Print out a few relevant pages and leave them in any common area where you work or meet with people. You can print your name on the copies so that people know they belong to you and use the material to start great conversations about language memorization.

If you have friends or contacts in the press or media, tell them about this newsletter. They will definitely get a good story, article or feature out of it. I can easily be contacted by emailing: learnandmemorize@zoho.com.

Write a review of the newsletter and tell people where they can find it. Post your review on Amazon.

If you write guest blogs or speak on podcasts, mention how this newsletter has helped you.

If you are a teacher, include this newsletter as part of your course or your next product launch. You could also invite me to be a speaker and have me offer your students individualized coaching while I’m there. Contact me for details.

Thank you.

Anthony Metivier

learnandmemorize@zoho.com

About the Author

Anthony Metivier completed his BA and MA in English Literature at York University in Toronto, Canada. He earned a second MA in Media and Communications from The European Graduate School in Switzerland while completing a PhD in Humanities, also from York. As the author of scholarly articles, fiction and poetry, he has taught Film Studies in Canada, the United States and Germany. He plays the electric bass.

© 2013 Metivier Magnetic Memory Series.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

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This Edition, Copyright 2013