Memory Training Made Fun

     A famous Japanese scholar wrote an anecdote related to ‘memory training’ in his book. When he was in elementary school, he was a very absent­minded student. He forgot what he learned at school easily. And he was easily distracted during the class too. His teachers thought he was not a bright student. One day his father started a memory training lesson for him, saying "to keep something in good memory you have to keep it in your mind." What a brilliant word! The father taught the son the very basic principle of memorization: visualization and association.       

     Try to memorize some facts in history book just by using brain. Maybe you can memorize it easily, but how long the memory goes? The purpose of memory training is to memorize some facts fast and keep them long. One of the best methods is visualization and ­association. This seems to be a simple trick. I want to perform a test on you.

Here is a list of 10 items - pen, shoes, chair, car, dog, air plane, teacher, cup, rabbit, baseball bat.

Can you memorize those items in 20 seconds and write them down in order? Maybe it is not easy. Here is a tip. First picture yourself with 'pen' standing on your head. Next, paste 'shoes' on your forehead and hang 'chair' on your nose. Likewise picture yourself with all items on your body from head to toe. Then 10 minutes later try to write down those items, thinking what item you attached to which part of the body, recalling the picture in your mind.  You will be surprised. You memorized those random items. If you can do this, you can learn 'memory skill.'

 Many people think memory training is difficult or time consuming. In fact, there are lots of simple methods you can apply to daily life right away. It is very fun and memory goes really long. You can invent your own way too.  That’s another part of memory training: creativeness.