Memory Techniques and Language Learning: A Chat with USA Memory Champion Nelson Dellis
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- čas přidán 11. 03. 2020
- Is it worthwhile to invest time and effort into memory techniques in order to acquire vocabulary and learn languages? Does it deliver better results than simply massive listening and reading? This is a subject I discuss with Nelson Dellis, a memory champion in the US.
Nelson's website:
www.nelsondellis.com/
Memory Games on Netflix:
www.netflix.com/ca/title/8110...
Study this video as a lesson on LingQ:
www.lingq.com/en/learn/en/web...
Learn a new language on LingQ: www.lingq.com
Get my 10 Secrets of Language Learning: www.thelinguist.com
3 basic steps:
Step 1: Think of a picture (make it familiar => remember easier)
Step 2: Create a memory palace to put the words into that (place pictures along the route => remember places well)
Step 3: Repetition (Maybe use Spaced repetition and Retrieval Practice to make it become long-term memory and active vocabulary)
I found this fascinating!
From my 5 years of language studies as a hobby, those mnemonic type of memory tricks only have a very LIMITED place. Some "gurus" try to make it seem like you will breeze through language learning with Mnemonics, but it's BS.
You're going to need to learn many phrases in context, understand grammar, get used to different sentence structures... Memory tricks won't help much with all that. Constant repetition and periods of immersion are the main things needed.
He even admitted that after he absorbed those first 1000 words he then switched over to traditional type methods and only did 10% memory trick methods. This is coming from a World Renowned memory trick expert.
Mnemonic are super cool as a side SUPPLEMENT method, nothing more. Constant repetition/immersion is really where it's at. This is one of the main strategies of high level polyglots
The Memory Palace gives you that repetition/review. Honestly as an observer who has played with some of this, if you don't do it well- create memorable, crazy images...then it doesn't work. So many folks don't have clarity on how to do it, so it seems to "fail" but in either case we are using "memory" either tricks or old fashioned typical methods....Of course you need immersion, why is it either or?
TIMOTHY DONNER A renowned polyglot who was impressive as he was in his teens- talks in a TedX about using Memory Palace...He uses a park in NYC as one example. Google it.
I enjoyed so much with this conversation and the ideas shared here. I also struggle finding a way to take the leap from memorizing words that don't come up so often (and therefore forgetting them, because i focus the reviewing on more "important" things) and then being able to have a fluent conversation. Thanks!
Very helpful.. Thx so much as always for keeping us up to date on various language techniques.. 😃 Please stay well out there.. 👍
Good interview
I'd say in the end of the day it's still all about listening and reading (pure immersion) :D
Nailing those few words that you can't remember is something that you might need if you want to be perfect
Awe I love this guy you gave me motivation to continue to learn Steve!
Hey I seen this guy before on Netflix!
Interesting interview. Memory is paramount when it comes to learning a foreign language.
So helpful, thanks so much Steve for what you taught me
Regardless of what these comments may say, this is not a "memory trick". You can either recall something or you can't. Plain and simple.
Imagine you're learning Japanese so you build some Anki flashcards. "sunny = hare" and "winter = FuYu". You start doing the cards every day but you keep struggling to remember the words from repetition. So along comes this memory guy and says, "when you see the word sunny, imagine the flames that are coming off the sun as the suns hair, so to speak, "hairy", now say to yourself, Sunny-Hairy-Hare-はれ. Or for the word Winter, imagine throwing a snowball in someone's face and saying, "that's for you", "For You"-FuYu-ふゆ.
Now you go back to Anki and edit your text to include a picture of the hairy sun and the snow ball to the face and you re-do your Anki cards but this time you instantly remember sunny = hare and winter = fuyu. What initially was a struggle to remember has now been cemented in your memory.
Someone explain how exactly is that a trick? Both require repetition to secure the eventual memory. What was taking me every 1 day repetition in Anki, is now a repetition every 7- 10 days instead. It's not trickery, it's just some peoples memories work better with the added imagery to go along with the text.
I don't think any of these memory masters have claimed to be polyglots either, they are just using this memory technique to aid people that initially struggle with plain text repetition. Eventually the word will stick through visual repetition just like it sticks for you with repeating plain text on a page repetition, but using the imagery in my opinion is what helps it cement the memory for those that struggle with just auditory or reading method. None of the memory masters I've read have ever proclaimed that this method alone can bring you to fluency in a language, it's just another tool to help people that seem to use their memory more visually for helping secure a memory. Eventually you'll still have to implement those words into sentences / understand grammar etc. You still use repetition too to cement the memory. I just don't see why people have a problem with this. If you're a visual learner, trust me this works, regardless of the people that say visual learning doesn't exist. If you're not a visual learner, you won't understand. To a visual learner you can read text on a page 100 times and it won't stick, yet include an image with that text and it sticks permanently the first time.
love Nelson Dellis :) His book was pretty interesting. I used it as food for thought for creating mneumonics quickly to acquire Chinese characters.
yeah it seems like it'd be good for that, since you can group them in your mind around the radicals. I havent used his techniques, but I know when I used anki for kanji, I had quite a few leeches due to some kanji just not sticking (especially early on) and I suspect I could have progressed faster if I had a better approach to the early memorization.
@@tiocsti I found the easiest approach was to use famous things related to the meaning of the radical or group of recurring radicals. Then it is really easy to imagine some odd situation all those famous things are doing in relation to the meaning of the kanji. I found that using plain versions of the meanings made it slow and difficult to think of memorable mneumonics and it was much easier to confuse kanji of similar meanings.
@@tiocsti did you read "Remembering the Kanji"?
thank you, I am going to begin using vivid associations for words I keep missing in Russian over and over.
concentrated immersion is the key for learning languages
Nope. Immersion is meaningless.
Im thinking of using memory techniques to remember numbers and colours in my new language, I cant seem to make any solid connections to help with these so im hoping this will help
Question to Nelson if you have a bad memory is your system it still valuable? Maybe even to enhance your memory?
No sound in all CZcams, videos, I did check all my devices Ok, Any reason I should know. Thank you
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Bonjour Steve, j'aime beaucoup ce concept de discussions avec des polyglottes ou des experts. Avez-vous l'intention de discuter avec Christine, la jeune polyglotte française qui parle 13 langues ? Je pense que ça serait très intéressant. Elle vient de faire une vidéo avec Luca, d'ailleurs.
Je la connaisbien. C'est une polyglotte exceptionnelle et très gentille. J'espère pouvoir avoir une discussion avec elle dans un proche avenir.
12:20 Based on my experience, having 20,000 - 30,000 words' vocabulary means that you can pretty much read whatever you want without a dictionary. And by "words" I mean the dictionary forms, not any of that possible conjugation/declention/etc varieties. I've no idea how it corresponds with Common European Framework of Reference for Languages levels though, 'coz I only read in my languages and almost never speak them.
Steve usually talks about all forms when he gives word counts not the dictionary base form
@@ericboller1598 Yeah, I know that.
Close to 200k
Onde posso encontrar as mini histórias em Dutch para melhorar meu aprendizado desta lingua? você pode compartilhar Stephen? Obrigado
no LingQ
Steve Kaufman eu preciso da sua ajuda
This Nelson guy speaks with a perfect American accent anyone would think that he was born in the US. He said he spoke French mostly as a kid but heard Dutch growing up, then how does he speak with a perfect American accent.
If you start learning a new language before the critical period (11-13 yo), the chances are you could end up speaking accent-free. Afterward it's extremely challenging, if not impossible.
His parents may have been Dutch and French but he was born in the UK and went to school in the US.
@@JackConners123
I think that is a misconception that the critical period is between 11-13. The reason why I believe they can speak accent-free so to speak is that at that time they have no worries, no jobs, or stress, they learn by listening alone and not by reading, not worried about sounding stupid or making a mistake, and endless hours to talk and practice.
When we reach our preteens, mid-teens, or adult we become conscious of what others think and that they would laugh at us when we make mistakes so we don't speak, and if we don't speak how can we get better, we learn by reading alone instead of audio and reading, we substitute sounds from our mother language to any English sound we cannot pronounce, practice is only done 15 minutes a day compared to hours done by kids, language is only spoken at work but at home, you speak your native language, or you are in a country that doesn't speak English which means you using your native language 95% percent of the time and English only five percent and that is why it seems impossible.
For me I would say it is challenging but it can be done if you are dedicated; actors do it all the time and if they can do why not you. This guy was able to do it and he wasn't even born in America. For me it doesn't matter if you are in English speaking country or not because you can be in an English-speaking country and still have an accent, you have to be willing to train like an Olympic athlete only then can you speak without an accent, which most people are not willing to do.
czcams.com/video/kCuBgQgqeyA/video.html
just train the accent ant try to not use your mother tongue one
Hi
Sometimes Steve overthinks it😂😂😂 and doesn't let ghe interviewee speak more freely😢
for me it's much easier to remember colours than verbs, because I see the colour in a picture but not verb so I would think picturing is much eadier with concrete than with abstract verbs
I don't know is that simple. Memory masters talk about memorising 1000 words a day using imagination but almost no one of them is polyglot. I don't find these tricks useful at all in ordinary learning. For example programming. It's not like memory competition when you have to remember list of pure words or numbers. I know a person who is a memory master and Rubik's cube master and holds some world records even in blind solving, but he didn't graduate math studies and he knows only english as a 2nd language, and he ensures he could be fluent in any language in just a month. He lives from selling courses. He was few time in tv where he won some money(Got talent like) but he embarrased himself in Millionaires on a high school level question. xd
Then there is Nigel Richards from New Zealand, an Anglophone who memorized all the words that are allowed in Francophone Scrabble. He didn't know what they meant and he couldn't speak French. But in 2015 he won the French World Scrabble Classique (Matchplay) Championship.
And he still can't speak in french. Yes i know that story.
Look up Yanjaa. Polyglot extraordinaire and grandmaster of memory.
Memory tricks work for maximizing the short term memory abilities so yes in a day they probably could memorize and recall 1000 words but 3 days later?...7days later? probably not. I'm sure more words would make the transfer to longer term memory if they review 1000 every day compared to without them.
Consistently putting in time is still one of the best ways no matter what the approach is no trick is gonna make you fluent overnight.
Wow... you must be holding so many grudges with that memory 😂😂😂😂
That’s called internalizing. People who don’t practice forgiveness hold grudges
When you have a bullshitter, they don't answer the question. Either that, or they can't focus on the question.
Interesting video. Unfortunately it seems like the memory techniques are basically worthless
Jesus Christ saves
Prophet Mohammed too!
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