HOW TO MEMORIZE ANY WORD IN FIVE MINUTES (FOR REAL)
In this post, I will describe how to use a memory palace to rapidly memorize new vocabulary. A memory palace uses colorful imagery and places you are familiar with, such as your home, to help you remember new words. I will now demonstrate a memory palace I recently "built" in my head.
I wanted to memorize 5 words, 邀请(yāoqǐng), 计划(jìhuà), 到时候(dàoshíhòu), 竞争(jìngzhēng), and 自觉 (zìjué). For the sake of our non-Chinese friends, I will only refer to these words in their Romanization from now on.
First, I chose the location of my memory palace to be my apartment in Manhattan Beach. Now I will walk you step by step what I imagined in my head to memorize each word:
1. yāoqǐng - to invite: I imagined a giant Yao Ming(the basketball player) opening my front door and waving to me to enter while saying qǐng(please)
2. jìhuà - To plan: We walked over to my dining room table, where he showed me a blueprint next to my flower pot. I vividly pictured him smiling next to the flowers because "gee" in English is an exclamation for glad and hua is the word for flower in Chinese, thus jìhuà. I also imagined him making a downward karate chop motion towards the blueprint to remember it was in the falling tone.
3. (dàoshíhòu) ~ at that moment: I imagined he stubbed bis two and yelled "dao!" like Homer Simpson and immediately wanted to challenge me in basketball, which leads to number 4....
4.jìngzhēng- to compete: I imagined him instantly breaking out a basketball and wanting to compete with me while saying jingzheng to the rhythm of the bouncing ball.
5. zìjué - conscious: I imagined a friend who I meditate with open the side door and yell "zi jue!" to wake me up out of my dream. (I chose that friend bc of meditation/conscious)
Now all I have to do is imagine my house and relive this story in my head, and all the words come to me immediately.
For more, check out: "How to remember anything" on the Tim Ferriss Podcast
