Why You And Your Students Need To Read This Book

People around the world dream of becoming fluent in English, yet so few
will ever develop the vocabulary needed to express themselves using the
nuances and layers of meaning unique to our language. Even with the best
intentions and the best ESL or EFL instructors, students of English struggle
to learn enough words to engage in the expressive conversations needed to
form important relationships, create profitable business contacts or study at
schools in English-speaking countries.
Why is vocabulary such a struggle? Many ESL and EFL students 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 know hundreds of times by hand, or by playing repetitive language-
learning videogames. The biggest excuse: most 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 had I spoken my frustration out loud.
My irritation with my memory grew until I devised the unique Memory
Palace system described in this book. It is an easily learned set of skills
based around the English alphabet that you can teach your students in under
an hour, one that will have them acquiring countless English words at an
accelerated pace. Instead of struggling to learn and retain one or two words
a day, your students will find themselves memorizing dozens of words
every time they practice using my strategies.
Within a month of creating my 26-letter Memory Palace system for foreign
language study, I knew the meaning and sound of 260 individual and related
words. Within three months, I found myself reading relatively complex
German fiction, poetry and newspapers, material that had previously sent
me riffling through the dictionary every few seconds.
I originally developed this system to help me learn German while living in
Berlin. Later, I applied the same techniques to Spanish because of the
Spanish-speaking friends I made while living in Germany. In both cases, I
quickly found myself conversing with people about film, music, philosophy
and many other subjects that are dear to me. I was able to visit doctors and
dentists without the help of a native speaker and could conduct my banking
and other chores with ease. It would take this entire book to express just
how many benefits I experienced, simply because my enhanced vocabulary
was always at my fingertips thanks to how I approach vocabulary
memorization.
Naturally, the people around me witnessed my progress with these
languages and literally interrogated me to get at my language-learning
knowledge. My “guerilla” memory tactics have helped many people on
their journey towards fluency, particularly because of the limited amount of
time it takes to “install” my system in their minds for easy storage and
retrieval of the vocabulary they have remembered.
It pleases me immensely to help people memorize foreign language
vocabulary, especially when people regularly describe to me how easily
they were able to memorize their first 100 words in under an hour using my
methods. These achievements are thrilling to me, thrilling for the people
who use the techniques and they will thrill your students.
How to Learn and Memorize English Vocabulary is for teachers who feel
sympathy and compassion for ESL and EFL students, adults, teenagers and
children who struggle with learning, retaining and producing English
vocabulary words. I have designed this book for teachers who want a fresh
new means of helping students reach their language-learning goals so that
their students can sit with a dictionary anywhere and at any time and
permanently install any word they wish. This book is for teachers with the
burning desire that their student can learn a word once and recall its sound
and meaning without frustration of any kind within minutes if not seconds
of having learned it. This book is for teachers who are passionate about
offering students any technique or system that will enable to do so. And this
book is for teachers who would like to be able to memorize other languages
for themselves, be it French, Swedish, Spanish or German.
Three obstacles stand between your students and memorizing the vast
quantities of English vocabulary they’ll need to achieve their dreams of
fluency.
The Belief That Your Students Don’t Need A Dedicated Memorization
Strategy For Learning and Memorizing English Vocabulary
Although repetition is always important when it comes to any form of
learning, it is a shame that so many students wind up relying on rote
learning. Audio recordings cue students to say the same phrases repeatedly
with the notion that the vocabulary will remain following the automated
lesson. Any of us who have tried to learn a second language has
experienced the fantasy that simply repeating a phrase over and over will
award us permanent ownership of those words.
I spent six months learning German in a school in Berlin. Although I cannot
say I learned nothing because I walked away with a strong sense of German
grammar and some confidence when it came to conversational speaking, I
left the class with an extremely limited vocabulary, one based almost
entirely on the cognates that German shares with English. Looking back,
I’m shocked that language schools don’t teach dedicated memorization
skills. Instead of sitting through long classes based upon the repetition of
one or two simple discussion phrases in written and oral form per class, I
could have been supplementing this approach with the approach I
eventually devised for myself and been learning dozens of words per day.
The Belief That Your Students Won’t Use Memorization Strategies
Teachers often tell me that they cannot get their students to use the memory
techniques I talk about. But I always confidently respond by saying that
students will not only use them once they’ve understood and implemented
the system: they will literally blow you away with the speed of their
development. This book provides a demonstration of how you can
effectively teach your students the power of having a memory system
within 15 minutes, one that will hook them on memorization skills for life.
And there is good evidence to support the use of memorization strategies in
language learning. The Stanford University study conducted by Richard C.
Atkinson is a representative example of many such studies that support the
memorization techniques. Atkinson humorously derides the rote learning
approaches taught in most ESL and EFL classes by calling paper a “cheap
memory device,” one that is rather worthless compared to the memorization
strategies you’re about to read about and add to your palette of teaching
techniques.
Atkinson concluded in his study that the language-learning curriculum of
all schools and classes should include memorization techniques because
students make such incredible leaps using these indisputable methods. Try
out the 15 minute memorization lesson included in this book and see for
yourself just how effective this memorization technique can be for your
students, as well as for yourself.
The Belief That Memorization Strategies Are Too Much Work
After the initial 15 minute lesson that will “sell” this system to your classes,
students will need between 1-2 hours to set up the full system taught in this
book. The steps are easy, fun and they can memorize new vocabulary as
they are implementing the system. As soon as they’ve understood the
principles of vocabulary memorization and started working with the system,
they will be memorizing new English vocabulary words by the dozens with
consistent speed and accuracy. The best part is that this system will serve
them for life and can be extended to memorizing just about anything they
could ever want.
I have a suggestion for you before we turn the page and start our journey
toward advanced memorization skills. Believe in your students. When I
was learning German, my teachers clearly did not believe in my fellow
course-participants, and only later did they come to believe in me. Whereas
they thought I was a more dedicated student, the truth is that I developed a
system geared to earning me the highest amounts of vocabulary with the
slightest efforts. When I told the teachers about my system, they laughed it
off, arguing that only special (and stubborn) students like me would ever
use such a thing.
Don’t be like this. The ability to memorize large quantities of vocabulary
and recall their sound and meaning with near-100% accuracy opened the
world’s doors for me, and it will do the same for your students. The ability
to authentically understand other cultures requires extensive vocabulary
acquisition.
Moreover, English remains a language spoken all around the world. It is
difficult to go anywhere and not find someone who has rudimentary English
skills. This means that those with advanced English vocabulary can
experience greater pleasure when traveling than they may have ever
dreamed possible. They’ll speak with people they otherwise would never
have approached. Service will be offered to them at levels normally
reserved for English speaking people only. They will engage in business
with the ease and efficiency that marks all great businesspersons. With the
system taught in this book, they will be able to enjoy English television,
radio, newspapers and magazines much more quickly than rote learning
could ever provide. They will enjoy English theatre and movies and even
understand paintings and other art produced by English culture at ever
deeper levels because they’ll enjoy the ability to read the language specific
to those forms.
Your students will love adapting this system to their individual learning
styles and enjoy massive success as a result. Give me 5 hours of your time
as you teach yourself how to use this system and I will give every student
you ever encounter throughout the rest of your career the techniques and
abilities they’ll need to memorize all the English vocabulary they have ever
dreamed possible without end.
WAIT!

I have created Worksheets that go along with this book. In order to receive them, go to:
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As a reader of this book, you’ll also receive a complimentary volume of the prestigious Magnetic
Memory Newsletterand the chance to subscribe to the newsletter – while it’s still free . Subscribe
now and get the only information that will keep your memory magnetic for years to come.
And for a limited time only, you’ll also receive a free, 45-minute interview with World Memory
expert Harry Lorayne! Subscribe now!
How to Learn and Memorize English
Vocabulary …
Using a Memory Palace Specifically
Designed for the English Language
(Special Edition for ESL and EFL
Teachers)
By
Anthony Metivier, PhD

Dedicated to Haydee Windey

An extraordinary teacher, mentor, memorizer and friend.
 Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter One: The Main Principles
Chapter Two: Applying the Main Principles to Learning and
Memorizing English Vocabulary
Chapter Three: Notes on the Creation and Management of English
Language Memory Palaces
Chapter Four: How to Extend Memory Retention Using Compounding
Exercises & Generate Excitement for Learning English Vocabulary
Chapter Five: Building Focus and Overcoming Procrastination For
The Achievement Of Fluency
Chapter Six: How to Use Relaxation for English Vocabulary
Memorization
Conclusion
About the Author
Introduction
I learned to memorize vocabulary out of desperation. Living in Berlin and
spending five four-hour days a week for six months in a German language
class was an amazing experience. Unfortunately, I did not learn nearly as
much vocabulary as I did grammar because I did not have a deliberate
strategy for memorizing the words I was learning. I wanted one badly, and
this chapter tells the story of how I came to develop the unique Memory
Palace strategy taught in this book.
Before departing for Germany, I spent several weeks meeting with a small
group of students in a small church in Manhattan. The teacher, while patient
and clearly devoted to teaching German, had us listen to tapes of a series
called Warum Nicht? (Why Not?) as we read along with a textbook
transcript. We then repeated the key phrases and essentially reenacted the
dialogue.
I learned very little German this way. Nor in Berlin, where nearly everyone
starts speaking English with you the instant they sense that your German is
weak.
Although the lessons at the Hartnackschule I attended were more structured,
speaking-intensive and often based on spontaneous generation of learned
material, I still did not retain much vocabulary. I found this very painful
because Berlin is an amazing city and the opportunity to learn German is
everywhere. Unfortunately, the instant someone hears you struggling to
remember particular words, they almost always begin speaking English.
English has a strong presence in the country and almost everyone spoke it
much better than I spoke German.
I had never been shy of rote learning, but for some reason, the hours I spent
repetitively copying out the same words over and over again did little more
than strain my poor wrist. Thinking I just wasn’t spending enough time with
the rote exercises, I actually trained myself to write with my non-dominant
hand. I think this was a useful thing to do purely as a brain exercise, but it
in no way helped me memorize German vocabulary.
The one word I do remember from my attempts with rote learning is
allmählich. This is the German word for “gradually.”
But I soon grew tired of learning and memorizing German vocabulary
gradually. I had some familiarity with using mnemonics for my doctoral
field exams and decided to look deeper into this subject. I spent countless
hours online and in libraries searching for a memory system devoted
specifically to language acquisition. I read countless books and listened to
hours of audio programs. All of them were devoted to rote learning and I
have still never found a book describing a vocabulary memorization system
that lets me visualize and organize vocabulary words.
I quickly realized that I would have to create my own memorization
methods. The system would have to enable me to establish new words in
my mind so that I could instantly recognize them when I heard them or read
them. I also wanted to be able to generate them for speaking whenever I
needed them and be able to pronounce them correctly. I felt it was important
for the system to reside almost entirely in my mind, though I quickly
discovered that for the purposes of testing, written records would be very
useful.
It never once occurred to me that designing such a technique would be easy
or fun. In fact, once I found the solution, my heart was filled with dread at
all the hard work it was going to be.
However, once I got started, I realized that it not only took only a short
while to create the system, but it was also incredibly fun. And it made me
feel good too. I believe that using the mind in this way is one of the most
positive experiences a person can have.
After designing and them working with the system, it did not take me long
to realize that it could be readily adapted to any language, including
languages with different alphabets and sound systems.
For example, I initially found adapting the system to Russian a hard stretch.
But once I worked out how to do it, I sped through Russian vocabulary
acquisition with similar ease. On the way, I discovered some interesting
ways to use the same Memory Palace system for remembering grammar
rules, approaches that I will share with you in this book. Note, however,
that this book does not purport to teach grammar in any way. Apart from
sharing these few discoveries about grammar memorization, the storage and
recall of vocabulary remains the main focus of this book.
Before continuing, I would like to address an issue that people constantly
raise: several readers of my books and clients have told me that people who
succeed with languages have a special gene that the rest of us do not. They
think that this gene allows such “geniuses” to develop personalized, but still
relatively formal strategies for memorizing languages.
This is nonsense. The techniques described in this book can be used by
anyone.
As I noted before, many people feel that memorization techniques don’t and
won’t work for them. This is not an attitude I accept, particularly because I
used to share it. I used to love telling people about my poor memory. When
we do this, we essentially train the people around us to treat us this way,
which reinforces our beliefs about our inefficient memories. It is a negative
cycle. I broke free by learning these skills, and the fact of the matter is that
when learned and used in the correct manner, these memory techniques will
change your life.
“Like a Ten-Speed bike, most of us have gears we do not use.”
Charles Schultz
What I tell people who claim they have a bad memory is that memory
techniques are like bicycles. Everyone can use them. Not everybody does,
but regardless of body shape, and in many cases even with certain
disabilities, there are very few of us who cannot get on a bike and ride.
But bikes have adjustable parts, and like bicycles, the memory techniques
taught in this book need to be adjusted by the person using them. Just as we
need to re-angle the handlebars, or lower the seat on a new bike, the
memory systems taught in this book will need tweaking. Once you’ve
understood them and started to use them, you’ll find ways to suit them to
your brain type (as opposed to body type).
Before we continue, I’d like you to realize that learning to memorize will
reward you as a teacher and reward your students for reasons that go
beyond the importance of having English fluency in the modern world.
Using your memory to learn a new language is fun to do and, as a form of
mental exercise, it sends oxygen rich blood to your brain, improving health
and helping to prevent diseases like Alzheimer’s and Dementia. But you
don’t have to drag yourself to the gym to achieve this. You can work out in
your favorite armchair, while driving or sitting at the beach. You can
develop your memory wherever you happen to be and practice the
vocabulary you and your students learn with ease because you’ll all have
every word you’ve learned perfectly organized within the work-out gyms of
your minds.
When it comes to learning and memorizing the vocabulary of the English
language, there is no other book like this out there. And there is no other
gym quite like your mind.
I have written this book to train you in the basics of vocabulary acquisition
so that you can pass these skills on to your students. I hope you find the
ideas for lesson plans useful as you yourself become advanced and create
your own valuable ideas for how to adjust the ancient techniques of
memory for your own purposes. I will show you things I had tried that
didn’t work for me, but may work for you. And I will show you how I have
adjusted the techniques in ways that made them more workable.
Much of this book is written in a conversational style, but each chapter ends
with a set of action steps that you can use to begin implementing the
techniques for yourself and think about incorporating into your classes
immediately. The final chapters give you plenty of examples of how I
myself work with the palaces to memorize words so you model how the
system works in detail. For my amusement and yours, I have chosen some
very obscure English words, though of course you will want to choose
words that reflect the needs of your students when teaching them these
memorization skills. Finally, throughout this book, I address both you as a
person learning these memory skills and your students. My hope is that you
will not only pass on these techniques, but also use them for yourself.
Although I have designed this system for the acquisition of a large foreign
language vocabulary, it has many other applications besides.
I normally don’t wish my readers good luck on their memorization journey
because my goal is to give them tools and skills that make luck irrelevant.
But from one teacher to another, you have my warmest wishes, and I look
forward to hearing the stories of success your students will experience using
these methods.
 Chapter One: The Main Principles
There are three main principles involved in what I call “memory
amplification” when teaching mnemonics to students and friends. I use this
term because memory techniques do seem to “turn up the volume” of the
mind. Many learners respond positively to this concept because it is easy to
imagine their minds as radios “tuning in” on a signal and having a volume
knob they can turn up in order to increase the receptivity of their minds.
The three principles you will learn in this chapter and pass on to your
students are: location, imagery, and activity. Along with these principles,
we have Preparation and Predetermination.
Let’s look at each of these in turn. Keep in mind that each of these
principles is individually important and each are interrelated. Use them
independently, and they will still help improve your memory. Use them
together and your memory skills will soar beyond belief.
If you or your students become interested in the history of memory
techniques, I highly recommend reading this webpage:
http://www.mundi.net/cartography/Palace.
Joshua Foer’s recent book Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science
of Memory is also fantastic, but please be advised that this book covers
more cultural history than specific guidance when it comes to building
memory palaces for language acquisition. But if you’re serious about
finding classroom methodologies that will directly impact how your
students absorb, retain and recall English vocabulary, then you have
everything to gain by reading all that you can on the topic, including Foer’s
book.
Location
Location is part of, but not the entire picture of the memory palace concept.
Locations are used to store imagery. The reason we use locations is because
we tend to remember places we’ve been without exerting any effort, and
this is one of the key principles of memory work: eliminate everything that
you don’t have to work at remembering and build natural associations in
those familiar places.
When thinking about locations for storing memories, try doing something
that I did for myself. I once determined that I have lived in eight cities,
twenty-five houses (or apartments) and sixteen neighborhoods within those
cities. I have yet to count all the familiar houses that belong to my friends
and extended family members, but surely the number is exponential. Plus, it
is expanding all the time as I continue to meet new people. There are even
hotel rooms that I remember very well during stays all over the world. Then
there is the path I took from a hotel in Paris to the Louvre. The short
journey made such an impact on me that it has served me very well over the
years.

The point is that we all have more territory in our minds than we could ever
possibly hope to use for storing memories. The best part is that we can then
sub-divide locations into individual stations. When you consider each
apartment, home or building a “location,” then each individual room will be
a station within that location.
Going through your mind and identifying the countless locations and all the
individual stations you are familiar with is not difficult work. It is
tremendously pleasurable and will amaze you – and your students – when
you consciously begin to realize just how much geography you hold in your
mind.
As I’m going to discuss further on, I like to combine indoor and outdoor
locations, all places that I know very well. There are some advanced ways
that I use imaginary locations as well, and I will teach you these in one of
the bonus chapters that accompanies this book.
I think that as a teacher, you’ll be impressed by the power of location in
storing memories and probably see how you can use imaginary locations as
well. However, for memorizing English vocabulary effectively, I suggest
that your students always use locations they are familiar with.
It cannot be said often enough: the more you use places you already know,
the less you have to remember. The less you have to remember, the more
you can associate the sounds of the words with their meanings in
memorable ways. And the more you can associate, the more you can
remember. It’s an awkward equation, I know, but it all boils down to the
fact that remembering less leads to remembering more.
Imagery
Imagery is … well, imagery: mental pictures that you build in your mind.
For the purposes of memorization, these pictures need to be big and
colorful. The larger and the more colorful, the better. You want to
exaggerate the size and colors because the larger and more colorful the
image, the more memorable it will be. This will in turn strengthen the
associations.
Some of the students I’ve taught tell me that they are not particularly visual
in their imaginations and I completely understand this. In fact, when I read
a novel, I rarely see images in my mind. It’s always a conceptual experience
for me. In fact, it’s possible that I have something called Imagination
Deficit Disorder or IDD.
Whether I suffer this condition or not, I do have a low visual threshold in
my mind, so am able to give my non-visual students a few suggestions
based on my own experiences.
First, if a student can’t think in color, tell them not to force it. Have them try
thinking in black and white, taking care to exaggerate both the black and
white. Exactly how black is the black and how white is the white? Is there
an opportunity to use gray in some memorable way?
Whatever happens, we should never allow a lack of imagination for intense
imagery to be a barrier.
In the event that neither color nor black and white patterns are useful to you
or your students, try associating certain prefixes with actors or fictional
characters. For instance, let’s say your students are trying to memorize
words that start with “inter” (interact, intercept, interstate). Every word that
begins with “inter” can be automatically associated with, say, Anne
Hathaway, who played an intern in The Devil Wears Prada. I realize that
not a great number of words that begin with “inter,” but isolating parts of
words is a key principle of effectively using memory palaces to store and
retrieve vocabulary until the “training wheels” on the bike of memory, i.e.
the mnemonics, can fall away.
Another option for non-visual learners is to use paintings. Choose and study
paintings that you and your students are familiar with for your memory
palace imagery. The more you are aware of the intricacies of famous
paintings, the better. The next time you are in an art gallery or looking
through an art book, pay closer attention to what you are looking at. Bring
picture books with paintings for students to scrounge through. Have
students imagine what zany actions these famous figures could be engaged
in. The ideas generated in such exercises could become fodder for better
associations while memorizing English vocabulary. We’ll talk more about
adding action to the images momentarily.
Another idea, perhaps one for advanced memorizers, is to select a number
of famous paintings and place these in a memorable order inside of an
imaginary art gallery. As your students walk from painting to painting in the
art gallery of their minds, they can place their associations in front of each
painting. For instance, the word “interim” could have Anne Hathaway
engaged in Internet marketing (generating the im in interim) in front of a
painting with an imp.
The drawback to this method is that it requires memorizing the order of
several paintings with which to make word associations. Nonetheless, I
provide it as an idea for conceptual learners and for those who might
respond to this approach. Students using memory palaces should be given
as many approaches as possible once they have mastered the basics, and
they should be encouraged to share any variations they have come up with
on their own. The more we talk about the power of memory, the more the
concept is refined and spreads. The more people who learn and practice
these techniques, the better our world will become.
I must mention a small problem with artwork, however. Paintings and
statues tend to be static. They don’t move. That said, if you can imagine the
Mona Lisa walking like an Egyptian outside of her frame, or
Michelangelo’s David doing the Moonwalk, then you should have no
problem.
Finally, your students could use toys that you remember. GI Joe, Barbie,
My Little Pony, Hello Kitty! … anything goes. As with paintings, however,
the most important factor here is that you can put these figures into action.
Without action, the memories might not stick.
So without further adieu, let’s turn our attention to the matter of ...
Action
By now, you will have thought for yourself about several different locations
you are familiar with, sub-locations or stations within those locations and
different ways that you can use exaggerated imagery to boost the stickiness
of the words lodged in your various stations.
The next step is to give your images a bit of movement.
More than a bit, actually. Just as you want to exaggerate the size and color
of your images, you also want to exaggerate their actions.
It’s not an entirely nice way to think of memorization, but something that
will work wonders for you is to make the action violent. Highway accidents
serve as an example of how memorable scenes of violence can be – even in
their aftermath. If after seeing an accident or accident site you could not
shake the memory of your mind, then you know how powerful violent
images can be.
This is not to suggest that lives need to be lost when working in your
memory palaces. Cartoon violence will work just as well. Wile E. Coyote,
for instance, provides a strong example of someone willing to savage
himself in some pretty hilarious ways when trying to make the Road
Runner his dinner.
Again, the object is to create something so potently memorable that
working hard to recall the image is unnecessary. It will instantly come to
mind when you look for it because you’ve given yourself no other choice.
You’ve made the image impossible to forget.
Now, you may be thinking that using this technique is going to lead to a
brain cluttered with bizarre images, especially for students who already
have enough new information to deal with. This may happen in the
beginning when they are first learning the techniques. With practice,
however, the images used in the association tend to eventually fall away,
leaving the actual memory intact. You’ll still wander your palaces and have
a hankering of what the images were that you used, but these fragments will
be secondary. The word and its meaning will be the central artifact on
display. If the entire memorization system is like a bicycle, then the images
themselves are the training wheels. They are not necessarily meant to stay
after you’ve grown with the system.
That said, the mind can suffer from the clutter of previous memory work or
the lack of organization with present work. This is why your students need
to understand and implement the following two principles.
Preparation and Predetermination
Like the full memory palace organization system I’ll be revealing in a
future chapter, Preparation and Predetermination are two memory skills that
I have not seen talked about in any other memory books, apart from those I
have written for memorizing other languages. Yet, both of these steps are
essential elements to memorization success when using memory palaces to
tackle vocabulary, or for that matter, anything you might like to remember.
Preparation, to begin, involves relaxing the mind. I will share several
thoughts about how best to relax in the concluding chapter, but for now,
please realize that when the mind is tense, busy or exhausted, it will resist
attempts at memorization. This does not mean that your students won’t be
able to remember anything. It only means that their minds will not be in the
most receptive state possible. But when your mind is open and relaxed,
you’ll be amazed by how these techniques will double, triple and even
quadruple their results. Even a three-minute meditation before memorizing
can work miracles, but see the conclusion for a larger list of possibilities.
Predetermination, on the other hand, involves charting out the memory
locations and stations before attempting to place the words to be memorized
in the memory palace system. I must stress that before your students
populate their memory palaces with English vocabulary, you should have
them build their entire system first – or at least a substantial portion of it.
I’ve tried making up my palaces as I went along, and I can tell you that this
leads to little more than frustration and impoverished results. So please
have your students spend the necessary time to predetermine the locations
and label the individual stations within them.
Before continuing, I want to stress that perfection is not the goal with either
of these two principles. Preparation and predetermination work best when
not forced, so it’s important not to harm our forward movement by being
too particular about every little detail. We just want to get the basic layout
in place so that we can work relatively quickly with the words we want to
memorize.
Preparing Your First Location
It helps a great deal to have students draw maps of the locations they will be
using and have some system for labeling the individual stations.
Alternatively, students can list them in a Word document or catalog them in
an Excel file. Some students I’ve had like to sketch the different rooms or
use computer architectural programs to create digital layouts. Although I
personally don’t go that far, I tend to do all three of the former in order to
maximize the strength of the associations I’ll be making. Let’s face it: If
I’m going to spend time learning a language, I want the vocabulary to stay
in my head. Learning grammar is pointless if you haven’t got plenty of
words to fit into the equations. It’s worth taking the time to fully realize my
palaces so that they will be accessible when I need them for near-
instantaneous recall when reading and conversing.
You and your student can also easily send a blank email to
[email protected] and I will send you free Magnetic Memory
Worksheets. These printable worksheets will give you a step-by-step chart
for figuring out the locations and then the stations within the locations.
The first Memory Palace I ever created was my apartment in Schöneberg-
Berlin. It had 8 stations, though I now recommend and always make sure
that any new memory palace I’ve started has at least 10.
This particular apartment was on the Feurigstraße, which means “fiery
street.” The name came from the fact that a fire station was located just a
few blocks north of me. This was rarely a bother because the firemen had
the lovely habit of only turning the sirens on after they had left the street.
I don’t mention this to be cute or self-indulgent. All of these details come in
very handy when it comes to building Memory Palaces.
First, because the apartment was on Feurigstraße, I used that apartment and
every station in that palace to remember words that begin with the letter ‘F.’
I could use this apartment for any other letter, but this is the association that
came to me naturally, and I think it is best to allow for such natural
associations.
Because I don’t have to spend any time remembering that all ‘F’ words are
connected with the Feurigstraße palace, I don’t have to make any odd leaps
in my mind searching for words that start with “F.” Had I placed ‘S’ words
there, then it would take my mind a step to search for which palace has ‘S’
in it.
Don’t worry. I’m going to go into greater detail about all of this later. But
for now, the basic principle is that every location is a Memory Palace and as
much as possible, that location should start with the same letter of the
words that your students will store there.
The Feurigstraße apartment had a nice layout:
1. My Office
2. Laundry Room
3. Bathroom
4. Bedroom
5. Wife’s office
6. Living Room
7. Hallway
8. Kitchen
Later, I extended this palace outside of the apartment:
9. Outside of the door
10. Stairwell
11. Front door
12. Parking garage
13. Sidewalk
14. Used book store
15. Playground
16. Fire station
17. Church
 18. Sushi restaurant
… and so forth
There are two important points that I need to mention here. In creating these
“journeys” through the stations of a Memory Palace, you and your students
need to structure your progress in such a way that you:
a) Never cross your own path
b) Never trap yourself
If, when you are rehearsing or searching for your words, you have to cross
your own path, you are liable to confuse yourself. You will find yourself
pausing to remember how exactly the journey went, and such interruptions
will impede your recall. Therefore, it is best to create a journey that follows
a straight line. Even with great experience in the art of memorization, this
principle will remain key.
Second, it is important that you don’t trap yourself. The reason I was able to
add more stations to my ‘F’ Memory Palace so easily after I finished with
my initial 8 is because I started at a terminal point in the apartment: my
office. Had I started in the kitchen and moved toward my office, I would
have trapped myself – unless I wanted to jump off the small balcony and
down onto the street. Doing so would be entirely possible, but it is
unnatural and causes the mind unnecessary work. Although you will be
exaggerating shapes, colors and actions in your memory work, I feel that it
is best to keep the path you take through the palaces as natural and free
from exaggeration as possible. Save anything that requires your memory for
the things you want to remember and eliminate all else.
Try this out for yourself. Describe the layout of the place you live in now
and make a list of at least 10 individual stations. You can make a handmade
list or use an Excel file. There is good reason to get started with Excel files
right away for the purposes of testing the strength of your memorizations in
the future. Your students will want to do this too, and for this purpose, you
can create a handout or distribute graph paper.
Here are some actions steps that will help you master the techniques taught
in this chapter and give you ideas for how to present this concept in your
classes. Obviously, you should not be teaching something that you yourself
haven’t had success with.
1. Select at least 10 different locations that you remember well. If you
are feeling motivated, you can list all 26 giving you locations enough
for the entire alphabet. These locations could be apartments or houses
you’ve lived in, schools, libraries, workplaces or art galleries. All that
matters is that you know them well and can walk around them in
your mind. I find that movie theatres with multiple screening rooms
work really well for me, and as a film professor, I have over a dozen
theatres that I am intimately familiar with.
2. Select and list at least 10 “stations” within each of the locations
you’ve listed. These different stations will become the places you
will leave each of the words you want to memorize within each
palace. These stations can be entire rooms, which I recommend when
you are just getting started, or they can be more specific. You could
use an armchair and then the lamp table beside it as two different
stations, for instance. Even though you will not need to remember
any of these individual stations (that’s the whole point), you should
still write them down for the purpose of testing the strength and rigor
of your memorizations.
3. Take a walk through each palace and the stations that you have
identified. While wandering, make each and every station vivid in
your mind. You can imagine cleaning everything out if you like,
removing all the dust and dirt that can get in the way of your
memorization process.
4. Draw maps. Creating visual representations of each location and the
stations within them can be very powerful and save you a lot of
testing time later. You definitely don’t want to be vague about what
comes next in your Memory Palaces. Again, using an Excel file is
also a great idea if you are not a visual person, though doing both is
highly recommended.
5. Practice remembering trivial things where there is no pressure if you
make mistakes. The top ten highest mountains or largest rivers make
for great practice. Shopping lists also make for good practice.
Remember to make everything large and colorful.
6. Include action. Let’s say you’re trying to remember that you need
carrots on your shopping list. Imagine that you are jumping on the
 carrot and hurting it badly. You can use whatever image comes to
your mind, so long as it is over-the-top, hilarious, zany and
memorable. If you relax, you’ll find that your mind will come up
with material very naturally.
7. On that point, always practice in a state of relaxation. I have included
specific notes on the best relaxation techniques for memorization in
the final chapter. These relaxation practices are also good for any
form of creativity.
8. Make sure that your students are having fun. When you start out
practicing with memory items that have no consequence, you enable
yourself to play freely with the concept. If, for example, your
students start with English vocabulary right away, you risk having
them associate frustration and the occasional failure with the
language you’ve always dreamed of learning. Make sure that you can
memorize at least ten items you know nothing about before
attempting any words. And of course, read the rest of this book too so
that you have plenty of examples to guide you.
9. Give yourself an exam. As I’ve stressed, you really need to write
everything down for the purposes of testing. This is not rote learning.
It’s a method of giving you the ability to double check. Also, when
testing, don’t look at the original list you created. Write out
everything fresh and then compare the list you wrote out from
memory with the original.
10. Teach. The best way to truly learn a technique is to teach it to
someone else – yes, even outside of your classroom. You should
discuss your newfound knowledge about memorization as often as
possible because this will deepen your familiarity with the techniques
and prove to yourself and others that these things really do work. It’s
not showing off to do so. You’ll also be making the world a better
place because you’ll be enabling others to use their minds more
effectively. Make working on your own memory and helping others
improve theirs a habit for life.
 Chapter Two: Applying the Main Principles to Learning and
Memorizing English Vocabulary
This chapter explains the complete system for creating and using a 26-letter
Memory Palace system. By this time, you’ve already created at least 10
locations for yourself based on places you remember and had your students
do the same. You’ve made sure that all of the material is charted them out
either on paper or using an Excel file for testing purposes and that these list
at least 10 stations within the 10 locations.
Here’s how I work whenever setting myself up to memorize the essential
vocabulary I will need to operate in a new language.
First, I create a folder and then create multiple Excel files. Excel works the
best because it eliminates the need to build a table. However, you can just
as easily build a table using Microsoft Word, Pages or whatever Word
Processing software you happen to be using.
In this case, the files or individual sheets of paper for each palace need to
create correspond to the 26 letters of the English alphabet. In the following
example, I will show you what my selected locations for English
vocabulary will be. Naturally, I used a completely different set of locations
when I was working on German.
A = Andrew’s House
B = Brock Secondary School
C = Carla’s House
D = Dieter’s House
E = Erin’s House
F = Fifth Street
G = Gary’s House
H = Jill’s Horse Stable
I = Ivan’s House
J = John’s House
K = K-Mart in Penn Station
L = Lilly’s House
M = Myron’s House
N = Nolan’s House
O = Opera House (Saarbrücken)
P = Perry’s House
Q = Quinn’s House
R = Reese’s House
S = Sean’s House
T = Trey’s House
U = University Library
V = Vicki’s
W = Whistler ski lodge
X = Xavier’s House (Yes, I actually know someone with this name!)
Y = Yasmine’s House
Z = Zoltan’s Movie Theatre

Again, it is important that you have at least 10 stations assigned to each of

the Memory Palaces based on locations that you are very familiar with.
Remember, design your passage from station to station in such a way that
you do not cross your own path and so that you do not trap yourself.
Always leave yourself with the ability to add another 10 stations in each
location. For some letters, your students may need up to 500 for some of the
letters in order to achieve boosts of fluency in English.
As you are trying to come up with each location to link with each letter, let
yourself relax. Your mind has the perfect associations for you, so long as
you don’t force it. If you can’t think of something that is totally fitting, such
as Zoltan for Z, just let your mind do its work and go with whatever feels
right. You do not want odd or awkward associations that cause you to
stumble in your thinking. You want the associations to be natural so that
you can move fluidly through your mind when searching for the words you
have remembered.
Obviously, the need for relaxation will be the same for your students too.
When it comes to speaking and understanding what they hear or read, they
will often need to do this in real time. It is therefore important not to hinder
themselves by using forced associations that they will forget and struggle to
work their way back to. That will take the fun out of everything. We relax
while memorizing to train ourselves to relax during recall. It’s pure Pavlov,
but it works.
Now, to demonstrate how you can build out each location, let me show you
how I will use two of these letters: A and E.
For A, which is my friend Andrew’s house, my first ten stations for English
vocabulary are:
1. Andrew’s room (terminal location)
2. Upstairs bathroom
3. Staircase
4. Living room
5. Dining Room
6. Kitchen
7. Front entrance closet
8. Front entrance guest bathroom
9. Front Entrance
10. Driveway
What I’ve done here is select a terminal location within the house and then
worked my way out to the driveway. This means that I do not have to cross
my path and will not get trapped. Once I’ve used these ten stations, I can
easily add another ten, assuming that my memory of the short walk to the
subway system is strong. I could also skip to the subway system if need be,
and from there I have a strong memory of all kinds of stops that can be used
for storing words.
Before continuing, let me note that because I already know English, I have
gone through the dictionary looking for words I do not know for the
purposes of demonstrating this memorization system.
For words starting with “ac,” I will associate with an ace from a deck of
cards. Words that start with “ad” will be associated with an advertisement
from a magazine. I group words together in this way because it helps
eliminate something I have to remember. Were I to clump random “A”
words together, I would need to remember which word came next blindly,
or at least with some from of arbitrary connective tissue. However, if I
know that there are a number of “ac” or “ad” words, this aids and
strengthens the associations and assists recall. I simply move from one “ac”
word to the next in alphabetical order.
The first “A” word I would like to learn is “acierate.”
To remember that “acierate” means “to make into steel,” I place the famous
magician Michael Ammar in Andrew’s bedroom. I picture him pouring
molten steel into the mould of an ace of spades. To get the “seer-ate” sound
in the word, Ammar is biting into a serrated blade. This works very nicely.
Because Ammar is a magician, “seer” is a logical association, and although
it is something of a stretch, the fact that he is biting the serrated blade will
lead me to the “ate” sound with a bit of thought. As always, I make
everything huge and colorful and generally larger than life.
This linking of the “seer” sound with Ammar as a magician or seer is the
kind of association that comes naturally when I am relaxed and not forcing
things. For your students, let them know about example where fortuitous
associations appear. They should be capitalized upon.
Also note for them that they do not have to use English as the basis for their
associations. Words from their own language may work best for them in the
beginning. They should get bonus points, however, for using English-
English associations whenever possible.
Moving on, I want to learn “acopic.” This word is used to describe anything
that relieves weariness, such as coffee, amphetamines or even uplifting
music. In this case, I will use the upstairs bathroom in Andrew’s house. I
don’t have to remember that this location is next because I visited his house
dozens of times during my youth and I just know that it is there.
In this image, the first thing that leaps to mind is the ace of spades snapping
a picture (i.e. a pic) of a cop. I also get the idea that the cop is strumming a
guitar with a very large guitar pick. This action of playing is so energizing
that it is reviving the cop, to the point of exciting the ace of spades who
starts taking pictures even more rapidly.
What I am doing in this example is “compounding” the image. Instead of
relying on just one association, I find my mind providing me with more
images and something like a vignette. Once these images and ideas start
coming both for yourself and your students, it is important not to resist.
Such material is better than breadcrumbs when it comes to finding our way
back to the words we seek.
“Actinology” is the scientific study of chemical effects of light. The
staircase at Andrew’s house comes next, so I’ll have to think about whether
I’ll use the top of the stairs, the middle of the stairs or the bottom of the
stairs. For more advanced learners, all three can be used without confusion,
and there may be some people for whom just the staircase overall will serve
without specifying anything further.
The first thing I notice is that “ology” appears often in English. If I were an
English learner, I might want to create a “universal” association with it to
be used wherever and whenever “ology” and “ologies” appear. The first
thing that comes to my mind is an ogre using Oil of Olay. It’s not perfect,
but I’ll stick with it for now. I can revisit the image and strengthen it later.
For now, the point is to keep moving forward.
To get the “actin” in “actinology,” I see the ace of spades holding Yorick’s
skull at the bottom of the stairs and saying “to be or not to be” to an ogre
using Oil of Olay in the middle of the staircase. Again, the Oil of Olay part
is crude and clunky and clunky to me, but it can be refined later if
necessary.
Let’s move on to an example from my palace for the letter “E.” This is
Erin’s house where I will pick a terminal point in the house and move
outward, taking care never to cross my path and never get trapped.
These are the locations:
 1. Upstairs master bedroom (terminal location)
2. Erin’s bedroom
3. Erin’s brother’s bedroom
4. Staircase
5. Bathroom
6. Kitchen
7. Dining Room
8. Living Room
9. Front Hallway
10. Front Living Room
Again, I want to group words together, so for this example, I am going to
focus on “ep” words. Obviously, your students will want to save the
complex words I am choosing for demonstration purposes, but the principle
will remain the same. Take every opportunity to limit or remove any and all
unnecessary acts of memory.
The first thing that comes to mind for “ep” is an extended play album, or
“EP.” Thus, all words beginning with “ep” will be associated with a record
album.
In rhetoric, epanadiplosis is the word used to describe sentences in which
the first word is also the last word. “Rejoice, I say again, rejoice,” would be
a typical example.
The first image I get is a record cover featuring an anaconda with his tail
wrapped around a diploma. To get “osis,” the diploma is for a medical
doctor and features the snake wrapped around the staff. I place this in the
master bedroom and move on.
Epanodos, also from the world of rhetoric, is a word used to describe the
repetition or recapitulation of the main ideas in a speech or public address.
Now in Erin’s bedroom, I see the same anaconda on the EP record album,
only this time the snake is injecting himself with a needle (i.e. giving
himself a dose of something). He does this again and again, to remind me
that the word indicates repetition. Because it is a word pertaining to
rhetoric, I will not likely forget that it pertains to matters of public oration.
Erin’s brother’s bedroom will serve as the station for epispastic. Epispastic
refers to any agent that causes blisters. Here, I notice that the record album
in Erin’s brother’s bedroom is leaping up and down on the record player,
i.e. having a spazz or spazzing out. At the same time, the record is popping
and boiling with horrible blisters.
What About Memorizing Grammar?
This book does not purport to teach the memorization of grammar,
particularly not about memorizing the grammar of English. However, I do
have a few tips for the conjugation of verbs to offer you from my book on
memorizing Spanish vocabulary. This process involves creating a special
palace just for grammar rules. I offer it to you in the hopes that you will use
it for your own foreign language acquisition projects and think of ways to
help your students with memorizing grammar rules.
When it comes to Spanish verbs, Spanish speakers add a different ending to
the verb depending on the gender and or number of people speaking.
Here is how I have gone about memorizing the different endings, beginning
with the place that I use for conjugating verbs: a school where I once
taught. I use the kitchen, my office, the third classroom, the computer lab,
the main hall, the second classroom, the reception desk, the first classroom,
the front door, the outside hall, and the staircase (it’s a small school). This
school was particularly appropriate for me to use because my colleague
who owns it is from Argentina and is a native Spanish-speaker. Perhaps
your students will want to use the school they are learning English in as part
of strengthening their associations.
The first thing to notice is that I have started in the kitchen because it is in
the very back of the school. This way, I can move in a more-or-less straight
line through the school without ever crossing my path or becoming trapped.
Should I want to add more information to this particular palace, I have
created it in such a way that I simply need to step out the door, walk past
the veterinarians, the sun-tanning salon, the barbers, the dry cleaners, etc.
Before I describe how I use this particular palace to help remember
grammar rules, let’s take a brief look at verb conjugation in Spanish.
“Hablar,” the word for “speak” usually appears first in most language
trainings.
If you want to say “I speak,” you need to conjugate the word to “hablo.”
If you want to say “You speak,” you need to conjugate the word to
“hablas.”
Likewise, “he speaks” and “she speaks” becomes “habla.”
“We speak” needs “hablamos.” “They speak” becomes “hablan.” If you are
referring to men or a group with men in it, you use “ellos hablan.” If the
group consists of women only, the term is “ellas hablan.”
Let’s apply this to “aprender.”
I learn = aprendo (yo aprendo)
You learn = aprendes (tú aprendes)
He learns = aprende (el aprende)
She learns = aprende (elle aprende)
We learn = aprendemos (nosotros aprendemos)
They learn = aprendéis (vosotros aprendéis)
They learn = aprenden (ellos aprenden)
To remember that “I” usually ends with “o,” I see myself in the kitchen
jumping up and down on a box of cheerios.
To remember that “you” words usually end with either “as” or “es,” I see
myself pinning the tail on a donkey in my office.
To remember that “he” and “she” normally end with an “eh” sound, I see a
Canadian saying, “What’s up, eh!” in classroom number 3. He has a huge
bottle of beer in his hand, and this itself says “eh” on it.
To remember that “we” usually ends with “os,” I see myself with a group of
students in the computer lab. “We” are marveling at the operating system on
a new computer the school has purchased. It has a huge OS on the screen
that is bursting with light to the point that it is burning our eyes.
To remember “they learn” is aprendéis/aprenden I have a dais in the
hallway. This makes the hallway look a bit like a lecture hall, but it works.
There is a lectern on the dais that says “the end” on it. This combined set of
images worked marvelously when I was first trying to master this material.
Gendered Nouns
I realize that English does not have gendered nouns, but offer you this
material nonetheless in order to see how I work when memorizing Spanish
vocabulary. You may find applications for yourself, or find ways to adapt
the principle for your ESL students.
Spanish uses feminine and masculine indicators. “El” is used in singular
form for masculine nouns and “los” for plural masculine nouns. “La” is
feminine singular and “las” is the plural version.
Whenever a student learns a new noun in a language that uses gender
assignments and places them in their memory palaces, it is important that
they immediately memorize its gender.
This is easily done.
I associate all masculine nouns with a boxer and all feminine nouns with a
skirt. In the case of German, which features neutral nouns, I have used fire.
For example, to remember that “fruta” (fruit) is feminine and therefore “la
fruta,” I see a pineapple wearing a skirt.
To give you an example of a masculine noun, take “el tranvía” (tram or
streetcar). It’s a simple matter to see a boxer fighting a streetcar. In reality, a
man would be no match for such a vehicle, but in my memory palace, he is
pounding the streetcar to a pulp.
In German, T-Shirt is neutral, so I would imagine a T-Shirt on fire to
remember that it would be called “das T-Shirt.”
The beautiful thing about taking care to associate every noun with its
masculine, feminine, or in the case of German a neutral signature is that
you’ve already given yourself the basis for a crazy image. What could be
crazier than a T-Shirt on fire?
Another Method for Storing Gender
To be as complete as possible, here’s an idea I have heard several people
talk about. This procedure has never worked for me, because I find it too
messy. However, that does not mean you won’t find a way to use it.
Instead of having gender nouns stored in palaces based around the alphabet,
some people pick a city and use it as one large Memory Palace. They then
divide the city into two parts: masculine and feminine (or in the case of a
language like German, into three parts to include neutral noun
assignments).
Conclusion
To conclude this chapter, here is a list of action steps for immediate
implementation on your journey toward memorizing vocabulary, regardless
of the language:
1. Don’t do anything until you’ve fully and clearly understood how to
use location, imagination and action in order to effectively memorize
at least ten items.
2. Take your time creating the individual locations and stations within
the locations. It will take between 1-5 hours to come up with 27
locations and at least 10 stations within each location, but you can
speed up the process by being relaxed while you create. Your mind
has everything that you need, so long as you can push your critical
mind aside and let your creative mind work. Please realize that it is
not absolutely necessary to devise all 27 palaces straight away. I
prefer that my memory students have the palaces set up in advance so
that they are ready to pop new words in without thinking about the
process when they want to memorize a word, but I know that some
people want to focus more selectively on just the letters A through H.
Such deliberate focus is perfectly fine too. Whether your choose to
complete all 26 letters or just a portion of the alphabet, email
[email protected] now for your free Magnetic Memory
Worksheets. They will literally do all the work for you.
3. Ensure that your journey in each and every Memory Palace can be
undertaken without crossing your own path or getting trapped. It is
tempting to think that one can get away with circling around the
forward trajectory of a path, but in the long run, this will only
confuse matters. Strive for clear, crisp and direct journeys so that you
don’t need to think about what belongs where. Remember, the fewer
things you have to remember, the easier it will be to recall the
vocabulary words you or your students have placed in palaces.
4. Use Word or Excel or a handwritten document for each Memory
Palace. Start with the first location and proceed linearly from there.
 Don’t forget that the purpose of this part of the process is twofold.
First, preparing a written record will help you build your memory
palaces with much greater detail than doing it in your imagination
alone. Second, your written record will allow you to test the words
you have placed in your mind.
5. Examine the grammatical variations of the words you’ve chosen to
place in your palace. Will you need to remember the gender? Is it a
verb that will need declension? Allow your imagination to take the
principles you have been learning from this book and show you the
best imagery for memorizing these different structural elements of
any given word. Use relaxation to facilitate the process.
6. At the risk of being repetitive, please make sure that you are using
the location, imagination and action principles. I mentor many people
and a significant number of them report or demonstrate that they’ve
fallen back on rote learning. They are repeating the words to
themselves again and again rather than engaging the system I’ve
taught them. Believe it or not, but both the mind and the body find
this very stressful, contributing to fight or flight responses, frustration
and ultimately failure. Future chapters describe a number of
supplementary exercises that you can use to train your memory in
greater depth if you feel that you need more training. I can tell you
that if I hadn’t gone through those exercises myself, I never would
have devised the 27-letter Memory Palace system in the first place,
let alone developed any skill with acquiring a second and third
language. They may not seem related, but think of it as the
relationship between push-ups and boxing. Pushing the floor away
from the body is one of the best ways to strengthen your punch, even
though it’s a completely different movement.
7. Learn the genders of every word right away. Decide upon what will
signify masculine and feminine and use them consistently. This will
become second nature. You don’t have to use a boxer and a skirt. Go
with whatever your imagination brings to you naturally.
8. Decide upon a focus. I recommend that you make adjectives a
priority. Nouns and verbs are great and you will need them, but
adjectives allow you to flavor your speaking and deepen your
 understanding of innuendo and metaphor. When you do work with
verbs, pick strong verbs and learn more than one version of each
(instead of just “run,” also learn “jog” and “sprint”). As for nouns,
use a Visual Dictionary to find your words. This will help you be
more selective in the words you choose and give your imagination
more fodder for making memorable associations.
9. Sit with a dictionary as often as possible. When you have worked out
your 27-letter Memory Palaces in advance, you are literally going to
siphon the dictionary into your mind. Although many words may fail
to capture your interest, there is no need to fight with them. Simply
find the words that interest you the most or that you think will be the
most useful and focus on them. Even if you skip a dozen words in a
row, you can always go back to them. Focus on steady progress
rather than being a completionist. Never allow frustration to enter the
picture.
10. Many words you will encounter can mean several things at once.
Focus on just one meaning at a time. You can always go back to
gather more meanings (see the chapter on compounding).
11. Go to the library, Netflix, YouTube or a store that sells DVDs and
stock up on programs in the target language. Mixing Memory Palaces
with as much immersion as possible will make for great strides in
your learning. Likewise, learners can listen to audiobooks, read
comics, seek out bilingual editions of novels and listen to music in
English. There are endless possibilities and students will be glad that
they have taken this extra step.
12. Be careful that the images you use actually help you remember the
meanings of the words. It’s a painful experience to have installed
familiarity with the sound and spelling of a word, only to forget what
it means. It’s one thing to remember that “epanadiplosis” has
something to with an anaconda in your Memory Palace, but if you
can’t remember that it refers to the repetition of the first word of a
sentence at the end of the sentence, then time, effort and energy has
been lost. Please see the following chapter on compounding for
additional ideas on how to make sure you and your students never
forget the meanings of the words you have learned.
 Chapter Three: Notes on the Creation and Management of English
Language Memory Palaces
English vocabulary is most rapidly acquired by learners who are prepared
with the necessary number of Memory Palaces. We’ve already talked about
some of the points covered in this chapter, but I want to devote a special
section to creating and maintaining the palaces in order to add depth and
detail to the process.
Every location you have identified and had your students identify should
have at least 10 stations ready to be populated with the association-rich
images that will bring the words you have learned easily to mind. Palaces
should be constructed in such a way that the memorizer will never cross her
or his own path or reach a dead end. The learner will always want to be able
to add more stations. It is unlikely that anyone will ever need more than 100
in any given palace, but if ever one does, they should be prepared to have
places to add them.
Some people tell me that it is impossible for any given palace to have so
many stations. However, if you think of all the places you’ve lived, it will
quickly become clear to you that the possibilities are endless. If you can
squeeze just 10 stations out of your current home by using individual rooms
and doorways, then with a little thought, you can extend that to twenty.
How do you walk to the bus stop? Surely there are numerous memorable
locations on the way: the bakery, the florist, the dental clinic above the
hearing loss centre. If you take the subway, each stop can become it’s own
station where you leave an image. For years I have used both the Toronto,
New York and Berlin subway systems as Memory Palaces and each provide
countless stations where I leave words that I want to remember for easy
recall.
Remember: preparing and predetermining your locations and stations in
advance is of the utmost importance when it comes to rapidly acquiring a
large vocabulary. Please have your students spend the time creating their
constellation of palaces before placing even a single word of English
vocabulary in their minds.
The next matter of importance is relaxation. Please see the final chapter for
detailed information about creating the perfect mental and physical state for
vocabulary acquisition.
Next is the matter of maintenance. At the risk of being repetitive, I have
included this information twice in this book. As we all know, the English
alphabet has 26 letters. Our months have either 29, 30 or 31 days in them.
This means that you will always have plenty of time for rehearsal.
Although the memorization of vocabulary using the system taught in this
book has lasting power, it is important to perform “quality control.” This
means revisiting the words you have memorized at least once a month. It’s
easy enough to do: you know where you keep all your words beginning
with the letter A, so it’s just a matter of wandering through the palace.
I schedule monthly maintenance sessions loosely based on the number of
palaces. Take November, which has 30 days. Day 1 is dedicated to the letter
A, Day 2 to the letter B and so forth. If there is a letter with a large number
of words I have memorized (some of my letter palaces have 100-200), I
assign more than I day to wandering through those particular palaces.
Doing this is well worth the effort and it also strengthens your familiarity
with the language because you can begin to see patterns and the
interconnectedness of the target language. As mentioned before, the more
students use English to memorize English, the better.
Chapter Four: How to Extend Memory Retention Using Compounding
Exercises & Generate Excitement for Learning English Vocabulary
This chapter will be useful for anyone memorizing English vocabulary, but
especially for those who need to learn the language for purposes other than
pleasure. Many professionals learn English for business purposes or for
work. Without true passion behind the enterprise, even the simple technique
of using memory palaces can seem drab and unexciting. There is hope and
this chapter will put you in control of how you approach your memorization
sessions.
Generating Excitement
In one of his information products devoted to helping people optimize their
mental processes, Mike Koenigs talks about speed-reading. For him, one of
the best methods for reading a book quickly is to pretend that you will be
interviewing the author on live television the next day. Millions of viewers
will be watching, which means that you’ll need to know the book very well,
with both depth of understanding about the message and accuracy about the
specific details of the content.
I think Koenigs’ idea is brilliant and very adaptable to memorizing
vocabulary. When I am heading to events, parties or professional
opportunities where I know I will need more vocabulary on hand in order to
maximize the potential benefits of the occasion, I create urgency and
excitement by pretending that I am going to be interviewed. When learning
and memorizing new Spanish vocabulary, for example, I pretend that I have
a book to sell that has been translated into Spanish and know that people are
only going to want to own it forever if I am able to win their hearts by
speaking to them intelligently. To amp things up, I sometimes pretend that a
movie deal is in the works, but only if I can convince the producer that I
know enough Spanish to consult on the screenplay and production.
There are many motivational tricks like this that anyone can use to get
themselves excited if they don’t naturally feel motivated to learn and
memorize the vocabulary of their target language.
Compounding
When revisiting words, you and your students will sometimes discover that
you cannot perfectly recall certain words and their meanings. You feel sure
that your images are vibrant, well-located and buzzing with action and
energy. Yet, when you look for the words, you still struggle to recall them.
This can lead to stress and anxiety because you know that without being
able to call them to mind easily and effortlessly, you are going to be self-
conscious about struggling when speaking or taking a test and the thought
of stress alone will make you even more self-conscious.
Relax. Refuse to be frustrated or concerned because this is simply an
opportunity to compound your memorizations.
Many of my students feel that they want to replace the original images
they’ve created, but I caution against this because that can leave “fossils”
that will only confuse matters later.
Instead, add to the image and enhance it. Take the following example: The
word for “to help” in Spanish is “ayudar.” If you were to use Yoda helping
the magician Michael Ammar across a street on the Death Star to memorize
this word, but still could not produce “ayudar,” then you would need to
compound the image by either making it more vivid in your mind or adding
something to increase its “stickiness.” Perhaps Ammar has “help” tattooed
on his forehead, or better yet, is screaming for help because someone is
branding the word “help” on his forehead. There is always a way to
compound images to make them more memorable.
Please realize that there is nothing wrong with the minds of your students if
they find weaknesses in their new 26-letter Memory Palace systems. It’s
just a matter of compounding the images. In most cases, a second pass will
do the trick. Any more than three passes suggests that the student needs to
go back and review the central tenants of the techniques taught in this book.
In addition, you and your students might like to compound and reinforce the
Memory Palaces themselves. If your memory of some locations is not as
strong as you originally thought, then you might want to work with another
one location altogether. This happened to me recently when I wanted to use
my old senior high school. I did my preparatory work and predetermined 20
separate stations. However, when placing new words, I found that I kept
forgetting the next station in line after the first eight stations were used up.
This lack of familiarity became such a barrier that I needed, not to scrap the
palace, but use it for another letter. I chose K because there are only a
handful of words that begin with that letter and I could place them in a part
of the palace that I definitely knew very well.
Ultimately, the amount of time spent on rehearsing, compounding and
“renovating” depends on the level of experience and general enthusiasm for
memorization. Again, do make sure that your students do the preparation
and predetermination exercises as fully as possible because giving them
their full attention will save them plenty of time and sweat later. But when
leaks in the system do occur, no stress. Simply have your students wander
through your palaces and make “repairs.”
 Chapter Five: Building Focus and Overcoming Procrastination For
The Achievement Of Fluency
I’ve had many students approach me and say, “This is fantastic. I’ve been
working at this and regularly memorize over a hundred words in a day. But
what I don’t really know is which words should I be focusing on in order to
see the greatest improvement when it comes to fluency?”
This question is very good and very important. One of the first things a
person can do is pop the phrase: “100 most important words in English”
into Google. Students can also search for “English word frequency.” Doing
this will give them plenty of lists from which to build a learning strategy.
But students also often complain that they cannot focus, or haven’t the will
power to spend the necessary time on vocabulary acquisition. To address
this problem, here are a few points about learning and concentration that I
have picked up over the years. A more sophisticated understanding of these
concepts will make for better Memory Palace experiences for yourself, for
your students and for anyone.
One way of thinking about learning and memorization is to see them as two
different skills. However, learning a language is essentially memorizing its
words so that you can use them with ease whenever you like.
Fundamentally, then, all learning is memorization and all memorization is
learning. The only question lurking in between, particularly with respect to
language learning, is: do you have to understand what you’ve remembered
in order to remember it.
The answer, of course, is no. Many times I have learned a word and
forgotten what it meant. As discussed in a previous chapter, this is why
compounding images and rehearsal or revisiting the palaces frequently is so
important.
However, there are some barriers that prevent us from taking these
important steps. One of the biggest impediments is procrastination. We all
procrastinate, and this is just something for the sake of sanity that we have
to admit to ourselves. Since we all do it, there is really nothing to be gained
from punishing ourselves or feeling bad about our procrastination. The fact
of the matters is, that sitting around feeling bad for doing nothing inevitably
leads to more sitting around doing nothing. It makes the problem worse.
The author Tim Ferris, who made his claim to fame with books such as The
4 Hour Workweek and The Four Hour Body discusses a very interesting
method for dealing with procrastination. He allows it to happen. He knows
it is inevitable, so he plans for it. One of the best quotes I’ve heard from
him is that we should “budget for human nature instead of trying to conquer
it.”
Why am I telling you this? The reason is because in order to develop a
substantial vocabulary in English, your students are going to need to spend
some time. Although it really will take them only between 1-5 hours to
build a full set of alphabetical palaces, filling them with English vocabulary
is another matter. When learning a second language, depending on their
goals, they can literally spend a lifetime still developing your Memory
Palaces.
Despite my own achievements, when I sit down to read a sophisticated
novel in German or Spanish, I need to put in some time extending my
Memory Palaces and inserting new words. I do this before reading, during
reading and after reading. Flipping through the book I always finds words I
don’t know, and so make a point of jotting these down, looking them up and
memorizing them. I am always pleased when I come across them and know
what they mean. Because I like to keep moving forward and enjoying the
benefits of the speed of implementation, I usually don’t pause very often to
memorize new words I encounter while reading, but keep lists for future
memorization sessions.
Returning to procrastination, the point is that we mustn’t punish ourselves
for skipping a few days here and there. As Ferris suggests, we will do much
better over the long haul if we routinely schedule the days we miss.
Intentional procrastination can even be inspirational because as you are
working, you know that some vegetation-time on the couch is just waiting
for you enjoy.
Four Ways to Choose the Words You Learn
The next issue is word selection. It is important to know what kinds of
words one wants to memorize, particularly in the beginning. There are four
guidelines that your students can use:
1. Students should examine the meaning of the words. This is a rather
obvious point, but it is important because there are some words that
they may not need to memorize right now. As well, it is important to
pay attention to the grammatical function of the word. Verbs and
adjectives may take more importance than nouns at particular times
in your progression towards fluency. They might want to spend a
month with each word type. By excluding word categories, they can
actually learn a lot more, and also a lot more about the language itself
and how it works.
2. Students should ask themselves: why is it that I want to know this
particular word? Do I need the word for a particular meeting I’m
going to or to understand a book I’m reading? Have I noticed it in the
English newspapers I’ve been glancing at? These are all important
questions. Students might also ask if the word is a synonym of other
words they know. They should always be interested in learning
synonyms. I recommend that all students invest in a thesaurus.
3. Consider how the word will be used in a sentence. If the student
cannot immediately think of how the word would be used, then they
can search for an example using either an online dictionary or a print
dictionary that comes with complete sentence examples. It’s always
worth learning words even if they haven’t got a feel for how to use
them. When working to overcome procrastination, they will feel that
much more progress has been gained by learning words that they
know they can put into practice with greater immediacy.
4. Students can inspire themselves by thinking about what they’ll be
able to achieve by having this new word firmly ensconced in their
minds. This is a wonderful way to find motivation for learning.
 Chapter Six: How to Use Relaxation for English Vocabulary
Memorization

A friend of mine suggested that I call this chapter “Relax to Rememberize,”

but I thought it rather too cute. “Remembercize” was another suggestions –
and I ultimately cannot disagree with the connotation that remembering is a
kind of exercise.
Harry Lorayne has pointed out that one of the reasons why we can’t
remember the names of people we meet is because we haven’t paid
attention to them in the first place. I believe that tension, stress and not
being present gets in the way of the attention needed for Memory Palace
work.
The number one reason you want to be relaxed when you learn vocabulary
is because it will train you to be relaxed when you are trying to recall the
words in normal conversation. Nothing is worse than knowing a word, but
being unable to recall it due to nervousness or feeling like you are on the
spot.
To that end, I want to share with you some principles of breathing that you
can use while memorizing vocabulary. Since so many of us experience
confidence issues around our memories, we need relaxation in order to
overcome such boundaries. Fortunately, this is easily done.
The two main strategies I use have wider applications than memory work
alone. I recommend using them every day for general health as well.
I know of nine breathing techniques overall, one of which I will discuss in
this chapter. It is called Pendulum breathing. The second involves
progressive muscle relaxation.
Pendulum Breathing
If you’ve ever seen a pendulum, then you know that there is an interesting
moment at the end of each cycle where the pendulum seems to hang for an
instant and then move a little bit more in the first direction before falling
back the other way. It does this back and forth. Pendulum Breathing works
much in this way.
To start with Pendulum breathing, fill your lungs normally, and then pause
slightly. Instead of exhaling, breathe in a little bit more. Let the breath out
naturally and pause. Instead of inhaling, exhale out a little bit more. By
circulating your breath in this way, you are “swinging” the air like a
pendulum. This practice will reduce stress in your overall life once you are
used to doing it, but if you do nothing else, implement pendulum breathing
in your memory work. This method of breathing makes Memory Palace
construction and the generation of images and associations so much easier
because you are putting yourself in a kind of oxygenated dream state.
At first, it may seem difficult to concentrate on both your breathing and
doing imaginative Memory Palace building. In some ways, it is like being a
drummer who is creating three or four different patterns, one for each limb.
With practice, the ability will come to you. The best part is that this form of
practice is incredibly relaxing.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Progressive Muscle Relaxation is relatively well-known, and yet so few
people practice it. The work is simple: sit on a chair or lie down on a bed or
the floor. Next:
1) Point your toes upward and hold.
2) Point your toes towards the wall and hold.
3) Flex your calves.
4) Flex your thighs.
5) Flex your buttocks.
6) Flex your stomach muscles, lower back muscles, chest and shoulders (all
core muscles).
7) Flex your hands, forearms and upper arms.
8) Flex your neck, your cheeks and the muscles surrounding your eyes.
Practice Pendulum Breathing as you do this, or at least work to conjoin the
flexing movements with your breathing.
Once you have achieved a profound state of relaxation and all of your 27
memory palaces have been built, sit with a dictionary or a list of the specific
words you wish to remember and their meanings. If isolating the terms
helps you, prepare an index card for each word.
As mentioned in a previous chapter, I recommend that you keep an Excel
file for the purposes of testing. To do this, without looking at your list, you
will write down all of the words you have memorized and only then
compare them against the original list.
Otherwise, avoid rote learning at all costs. Let your Memory Palace skills
do the work. Compound your images when testing routines reveal
weaknesses. Just as you would relax to remember, relax to test and relax to
compound as well.
Again, realize that you want to practice relaxation during memorization so
that you condition yourself to be relaxed when accessing the words later
during conversations with others.
 Conclusion
Next time you are out for a walk, shopping or just wandering around the
house, consider the hundreds of locations you can use to build and extend
your Memory Palaces. Have your students do this as well. The more we pay
attention to our surroundings, the more material we have to work with. As
well, take every opportunity to visit places you’ve previously lived or gone
to school. Revitalizing your familiarity with the locations you use to build
your Memory Palaces is not entirely necessary, but at the very least, you
should perform a mental walkthrough to ensure that you have enough
material for at least the first 10 stations and ideally many more.
In addition, have students utilize the power of their imaginations and the
images it brings them. Harness the power of coincidences such as those I
related in the examples given in this book. Make sure the students know
about the bicycle metaphor for memory and suit the principles to their own
needs. One should never be afraid to play around, amplify and use
absurdities. Students should test themselves and compound. And always,
always relax when doing memory work.
Students should also spend time thinking about the kinds of words they
would like to learn or need to know. They should analyze how they can
group different word forms together and develop their vocabulary based on
the form of the language. They will see many more connections by doing
this.
It goes without saying that your students should speak as often as they can.
They should practice memory palace recall while speaking. This means
searching for words using a specific strategy, rather than casting a hook and
hoping a vocabulary fish swims by and bites.
Rather, students should hold what an associate of mine named Joshua Smith
calls “natural conversations.” He talks about this in a book he wrote for
ESL students called “Breaking Through to Fluency.” “Natural conversation” means
taking the simple conversational vocabulary your students learn out into the
real world. Have them see how real people in real situations use the words.
And make sure that your students have this opportunity by arranging special
“memory palace field trips.” You can use these to help students find new
areas to store words while they practice having natural conversations.

Finally, have your students teach others what you have learned and taught
them about memorization skills. Have them talk about how they built their
own Memory Palaces, the techniques of imagery and activity and suggest
that they give their friends examples of how they’ve memorized specific
words. Teaching others is one of the best ways to compound information
that we’ve learned and it allows us to see other possibilities we may have
missed.
I wish you and your students a lot of fun with these techniques and wish
them great progress with their English language endeavors. I would be
pleased if you contacted me to let me know how they’ve done, and if this
book has helped you, please leave a review on Amazon so that others can
offer these skills to their students too. Remember: the more we learn, the
more we can learn. The same is true with memory. The more you
remember, the more you have learned. And learning a new language is a
special achievement indeed.
 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 in the Berlin-based band The
Outside.
 SECRET BONUS SECTION #1

To thank you for reading this book, I want to give you a few special
bonuses. Think of this section as one of those hidden tracks some artists put
at the end of their CDs.

When I teach memory skills in a live setting, I haven’t got a whole lot of
time to impress my students while I’m demonstrating the memory
techniques discussed in this book. Let’s face it: we used to live in an instant
on world. Now it’s a world of instant downloads. People want the skills I
have to offer and they want to download them into their brains immediately.

Here’s what I’ve come up with a routine suggested by Michael J. Lavery of

Wholebrainpowercoaching.com to help create that effect. Within fifteen
minutes, I teach students to recite the entire alphabet backwards. It’s strange
that we cannot do this naturally and equally strange that we need to go to
such elaborate lengths in order to train ourselves to do it, but it’s worth the
effort. Saying the alphabet backwards is the equivalent of skipping rope
with your brain. It sends oxygen rich blood to your brain and will wake you
up any time you need a kickstarter. And it’s healthier than coffee!

Having read this book, you already have the basis for how to accomplish
this feat. There’s actually two ways to do it.

Option One: Create a 26-station Memory Palace. Place 26 objects, one per
station. The only rule is that each object must start with a letter of the
alphabet in reverse order, i.e. zebra, yolk, xylophone, weathervain, etc. As
with all memory techniques, the process works best if you create your own
words.

Option Two: Create a highly memorable story. This method uses a linking
system taught in this book. I didn’t teach it because with the exception of
using it to memorize the alphabet backwards, I personally don’t use it. For
more on the linking technique, I recommend reading any of the books
mentioned in the resources section.
Here’s the story that I use to memorize the alphabet backwards:

Zebras with Yellow Xylophones ask What to a German man named VUT
who is a SR (Senior) with a Question for the Post Office in Northern
Minnesota, Lake Kilimanjaro where Jesus asks I (me) about the Human
Growth Formula created by the Education Department of the Central Brain
Administration.

I use Option One in class to teach my students how to say the alphabet
backwards, but I do it in a sneaky way. I never tell them that the goal is to
say the alphabet backwards. I simply have them first draw a memory palace
for themselves with 10 stations. I give them ten words. When they are
sufficiently impressed with their ability to recall the first ten words (zebra,
yolk, xylophone, etc), I have them repeat the process with a second memory
palace.

With another ten words down the hatch and everyone reciting all twenty
words with ease, I ask one of the students to recite the words again, but this
time saying only the first letter of each word. It rarely dawns on the person
speaking what they are achieving, but within seconds, the rest of the class is
stunned.

Five minutes later, the students have added six more words and everyone is
reciting the alphabet backwards with ease. Try this for yourself. You’ll love
it!
 SECRET BONUS SECTION #2

In this bonus I will describe to you how that I have modified the larger
principles described in the previous chapter to my own purposes as part of
reaching my goals of easily memorizing the vocabulary words of different
languages.
Although you may not use your memory to retain poetry, the order of a
deck of cards or the number of your car and seat on a train in Spain, my
hope is that you’ll follow my descriptions of how I put these larger
principles into action and see how to apply them in your own way.
Please don’t skip this bonus section. There are many important clues and
ideas that your students can use on their journey towards memorizing
English vocabulary. These exercises were essential to me and they will be
essential to your students.
Poetry and Novels
I know that we’re not here to learn memory tricks, but there is little that
impresses people more than the ability to whip out a heap of Shakespeare
off the top of your head. I’m not talking about “To be or not to be.” I’m
talking about the entire soliloquy.
Poetry can be difficult to remember, especially if it is unrhymed or has an
unusual rhyme structure. Take John Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale, for
example. I love the second stanza:
O for a draught of vintage! That hath been
Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth
Tasting of Flora and the country green.
Dance, Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South!
Full of the true, the blushing Hippocrene
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim
And purple-stained mouth
That I might drink and leave the world unseen
And with thee fade away into the forest dim
Good stuff, no?
Now, how did I memorize it? Well, as discussed in the previous chapter I
started by picking a location. As it happens, I had first encountered this
poem in a classroom in Winters College at York University in Toronto
where I took some of my four degrees.
I remember the room where I studied the poem and the entire building very
well. So that’s where I started. Remember: we use places that we know
precisely because we don’t have to remember them. If I know where the
door is in relation to the desk where I sat, then there is no need to remember
that the desk is station one and the door is station too. It just happens
naturally.
So let’s begin. Here is how I memorized this delightful, if sad stanza from
one of Keats’ most heartfelt poems.
O for a draught of vintage!
I imagined myself as large and as vibrantly as possible squeezed into the
tiny desk I sat in when class was in session. I saw myself drawing the word
“vintage” using dark black pencil. The pencil is enormous and digs deeply
into the surface of the desk like a knife. To get more action into the scene, I
imagined myself working feverishly, like a mad draftsman trying to express
some unspeakable secret.
That hath been
Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth

By the door leading out of the classroom, I pictured a fridge, and there I
saw myself digging earth out of it with a shovel. I stabbed the earth deeply
with the shovel and tossed the dirt into the hall.
Tasting of Flora and the country green.

Outside in the hall, I saw myself painting the concrete wall with flowers
and a green countryside. This time I was a mad painter and this time, to
remember the line, I visualized myself tasting the paint.
Dance, Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth!
By the door of the next classroom down the hall, I saw myself dancing, and
then kicking Ezra Pound through the bars of a prison. For reasons I won’t
get into, Pound is readily associated with Provencal songs by people who
majored in English. Pound also went through a period in his life where he
was caged beneath the sun, and according to legend he laughed at the
guards a lot. So I saw him laughing at me as I kicked him, his face badly
burnt by the sun.
O for a beaker full of the warm South!
For this one I had to bent the rules of reality. There is a third classroom in
Winters College on that floor, and I simply imagined that it was a scientific
laboratory. Inside, I imagined a mad scientist violently cracking an egg-
shaped compass pointing south into a bubbling beaker. The smoke and
boiling bubbles helped me remember that the South Keats speaks of is
warm.
Full of the true, the blushing Hippocrene
For this image, I moved into the staircase at the end of the corridor. I
imagined a blushing Hippopotamus with his mouth full of college degrees,
his belly stuffed to the brim with them.
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim
This one was easy. In the basement of Winters College is a pub run for and
by students. I just saw myself trying to bead the brim of a wine glass with a
needle and some thread. And of course, everything was huge, vibrant and
visualized with over-the-top action. For example, I wasn’t just “trying” to
push a needle into the glass, but stabbing at it frantically. The imagery is
kind of disturbing, but that’s exactly the point. That’s what makes it
memorable.
That I might drink and leave the world unseen
Brace yourself for more grotesque violence. To remember this, I saw myself
drinking from the glass and then stabbing myself in the eyes with the
needle.
And with thee fade away into the forest dim
The patio outside the pub isn’t exactly like a forest, but I still used it. I
populated it with trees, made it dark, and envisioned myself being guided
into the forest as the entire picture dimmed out, like the ending of a film.
In truth, memorizing the passage was not a great deal of work, partly
because I love the poetry. Being able to pay attention to the subtleties of the
language and Keats’ particular spin on the world not only helps, but creates
a sense of urgency for me. I not only want to know Keats better, but I need
to know his poetry better. This is what I tell myself. I manufacture
excitement when I don’t feel it naturally. Paradoxically, I combine this
sense of excitement with deep relaxation when working. This combination
of excitement and relaxation helps came easily to me because I just relaxed
and let them come to me. In about half an hour, I was able to recite the
passage with ease.
When it comes to novels, the procedure is more or less the same. But
instead of memorizing individual lines, I remember important plot points
and the names of characters. Character names don’t necessarily have to be
remembered because the novelist will use them over and over again and in
many cases we’ll come to identify with the characters and remember their
names naturally and without any external effort.
It helps too if you understand the shapes novels tend to take. Usually there
is some kind of problem or dilemma experienced by a character who is
faced by something that has happened in his or her past. The dilemma then
turns into a crisis that must be dealt with, followed by a strong decision and
a series of actions leading to a battle or confrontation with the antagonist.
There may be a moment of self-revelation during the battle that helps the
character defeat the antagonist, followed by the resolution. Obviously, not
every story has this exact shape, but thinking in terms of story shape can
certainly help as you work on memorizing the elements of the plot.
The important thing to keep in mind is the kind of space you use. If you are
memorizing 8-10 lines of poetry, then it’s possible that a single room or a
small apartment with several rooms will do. I usually prefer to use one
room or location for this kind of work, but if you are able to compress
things in your memory palace, you could imagine a bookshelf in a room
you are familiar with and use each individual book as either a portal to
another memory palace or as an individual signifier of what you want to
remember. It’s all up to you.
But when it comes to remembering the key events of a novel, make sure
that you have a big enough place so that you don’t run out of stations. I
wouldn’t want to use Winters College to remember Tolstoy’s War and
Peace, for instance, but for something like that, Broadway in Manhattan
would probably do. It’s a long walk from 187 where I used to live down to
the southern most tip of Broadway, but I’ve done it, the streets are
numbered and you can easily follow it in a sequence that’s hard to miss.
If you are a film reviewer, or just want to memorize the plot points of the
films you see, it may take some practice to get fast enough to create vibrant,
memorable and active images and store them in unique locations in real-
time, but it can be done. You can also take notes and then memorize these
later when you can relax.
On that note, I must say it again: one of the key points in all of memory
practice that no other memory book I’ve read mentions is that you need to
make sure that you are relaxed. If you are feeling tense or running away
from a mugger (which you might be on the stretch of Broadway that runs
through Manhattan), these techniques probably won’t have the desired
effect.
I mention this mugging example for a reason. I was once the victim of an
attempting mugging on Broadway in Harlem. I know the area quite well,
but I cannot use it as part of any Memory Palace because of that experience.
My heart always quickens when I think of that gun pointed at me. This
touch of anxiety interferes with the memorization process immensely. Keep
this point in mind when building your memory palaces.
Here are some action steps that you can take immediately to start practicing
the memorization of poetry:
1) Pick a poem you actually enjoy. Although it is certainly possible
to memorize material you could care less about, obviously for the
purposes of practice, you want to enjoy “owning” the material in
your head.
2) As always, make sure that you plan out in advance where you are
going to store the material. Make sure that you are familiar with the
locations and that you’ve “cleaned” them out. If you’ve used the
location before, you might run into some trouble if memories from
the past are still lurking there.
3) Work on your memory only when you are relaxed.
4) Avoid falling back on rote memory attempts. They can sneak up
so easily, but are not the point of the exercise. Use the techniques of
location, imagery and action.
5) Test yourself, but in a way that doesn’t involve rote learning. If
you make a mistake, go back and examine the imagery you’ve
chosen. Is it strong enough? What might you need to add in order to
make it stronger?
6) Talk to someone about the efforts you are making. This is one of
the best ways to solidify your results. If you can, teach them how to
do what you are doing. Teaching is not only personally edifying, but
it helps to make the world a better place. And remember, the more
you can remember, the more you can remember.
7) Avoid using places where stressful memories might interfere with
the memorization process.
 SECRET BONUS SECTION #3

Imagine the following scenario.

You’re seated with some friends in a restaurant. You have 52 individual
objects on the table. They’re quite small and easily stored in your pocket.
These objects can be assembled and reassembled at will. Each object has a
unique set of images on the front and look virtually identical on the back. In
fact, you have to turn each one over to spot the difference between one
object and another.
You have the objects out on the table because your friends have been asking
you exactly how you’ve come to have such a powerful memory. Because
you know that one of the best ways to master something is to teach it to
someone else, you’ve decided to teach them the skills you learned in this
book.
But first you want to give them a demonstration.
Imagine that you ask one of your friends to reorder the objects. They can
spend as much time as they like.
Once they’re done, they hand the objects to you. You turn them over one at
a time, look at the fronts and then turn them back over, hiding their unique
features from your line of sight for the rest of the demonstration.
When you’ve gotten through all 52 objects, you have the objects back to
your friend. To create a bit of time delay, you recite the alphabet backwards
or a new poem you’ve recently created.
Then, you ask your friend to look at the front of the first object.
You tell him what it is.
Your proceed to the next object and then the next and the next until you’ve
correctly named all 52.
Your friends are amazing. You feel wonderful. You are now in a position to
teach.
What are these 52 unique objects you’ve remembered with such
tremendous ease?
Yes, you’ve guessed it: a deck of cards.
Would you like to be able to do what I’ve just described? Then read on,
because the techniques in this chapter involve memorizing a deck of cards.
More importantly, this skill is an important step towards finessing the minds
of your students for the memorization of English vocabulary.
Admittedly, effectively memorizing a deck of cards is quite complex, at
least to get started. However, do the groundwork and you’ll find many more
applications for the raw tools you’ll need to cultivate that are applicable in
numerous ways, learning German being just one of them. If nothing else,
setting yourself up to be able to memorize a deck of cards quickly and
efficiently will give you great exercise in the discipline needed in the
Preparation and Determination department.
Think about this chapter in terms of the Karate Kid. Remember the way
Mister Miyagi made young Daniel-san wash cars and mop the floor. There
seemed to be no purpose in it, certainly not in terms of reaching his goals
with karate. Yet, when the time came to actually implement karate skills,
blammo, Daniel-san had them all at hand. So please don’t underestimate the
power of squats and pushups, which is essentially what this chapter is all
about.
All that said, let me note that I also wanted to learn how to memorize the
order of a randomly shuffled deck for the purposes of doing amazing magic
tricks. I wound up gaining a lot more in the process, about memory, about
language and about myself. Ultimately, there’s no direct way to describe
how and why this process helped me with the acquisition of different
vocabulary terms other than to say that I couldn’t have figured out the path
without taking each and every step of my particular journey. I also learned a
lot about what doesn’t work for me when it comes to memorizing things
during this stage of my memory journey. That is why I am sharing these
details with you.
And so: following the technical description of how I learned to memorize a
deck of cards, I’ll follow up with the example of how I use this system to
memorize the seat number on my train, or anything else I might want to
remember that this system can help with.
There are a number of stages in being able to memorize a deck of
randomized cards quickly and effectively.
First, we need to learn a method of organizing the cards. We do this by
giving each card a number. Since there are 52 cards in the deck, we need to
divide them up according to suite and then give each suite a number. I’ll
explain the rationale behind these numbers in a moment, but for now, let’s
say that:

Spade = 10
Diamonds = 30
Clubs = 50
Hearts = 80

Now let me explain why we have designated these suites with these
numbers. It has to do with a numerical sound system that works like this
(believe it or not, remembering this simple list of sounds is really the
hardest part of the job – the rest is just a technical application of the list):
1 = ta/da
2 = na
3 = ma
4 = ra
5 = la
6 = cha/ja
7 = ka
8 = fa/va
9 = ba/pa
0 = sa

I know what you must be thinking: these memory people are nuts! Well,
there is some truth to that, but let’s carry on with developing the technique.
Remember that we said the Spades are assigned the number 10. The reason
for this will start to become clear when you look at the following:
Ace of Spades = 11 (Toad)
2 of Spades = 12 (Tin)
3 of Spades = 13 (Dam)
4 of Spades = 14 (Tire)
5 of Spades = 15 (Tail)
6 of Spades = 16 (Dish)
7 of Spades = 17 (Tack)
8 of Spades = 18 (TV)
9 of Spades = 19 (Tape)
10 of Spades = 20 (Nose)
Jack of Spades = 21 (Nut)
Queen of Spades = 22 (Nun)
King of Spades = 23 (Enemy)

Now, we start with the Ace of Spades as the number 11 simply to give the
order a nicer sequence. Since the sound for 1 is “ta” or “da,” I have made
the word Toad as my association for the Ace of Spades. You could come up
with whatever word you like based on “ta” or “da” sounds, but I would
recommend that you pick something that can be easily imagined and placed
into action in some way.
Just to be clear how the sequence works, I’ll point out that the 2 of Spades
is “Tin” in my system because the sound for 1 is “ta” (or “da”) and the
sound for 2 is “na.” Therefore, 12, which is the 2 of Spades could be “tan,”
or “dan.” Surely there are other options, but “tin” has always worked well
for me.
Another tip that you might find useful is to pick words that have some
personal meaning if you can. 3 of Spades is “dam” for me, not only because
as a card associated with 13 is “dam” a logical word, but it also reminds me
of when my father worked on a huge dam-building project. He brought me
out there a few times, and to my childlike imagination, it was amazing to
see the scope of that project. In fact, I think it would probably seem pretty
amazing to anyone of any age. The point here is that the more personal the
image is, the more staying power it has.
Now, assuming you have this system in place, let me briefly explain why
after the 9 of Spades, we switch from words that start with “t” or “d” to
words that start with “n.” The reason is that the 9 is represented as the 19th
card in the sequence, and since 1 is “ta” and 9 is “pa,” I have chosen the
word “tape.” The Jack of Spades, however, is the 20th card. Since 2 is a “na”
sound and 0 is a “sa” sound, I have selected the word “nose.”
Before I give you my personal keywords for the rest of the deck, let me
give you a quick example of how I would use this system just using a single
suite. Let’s say that I want to remember that the 9 of Spades comes on top
of the 3 of Spades in a stack I am trying to memorize. I would imagine a
giant role of tape manically wrapping up a huge concrete dam. Later, when
I wanted to remember which order the two cards came in, it would simply
be a matter of remembering the absurd image of a roll of tape crazily
unraveling over the surface of a dam, as if to secure it from cracking apart
in an earthquake. In fact, in order to really make it memorable, I might want
to add a detail like that. This is called “giving the association a reason.” If
there is a reason, no matter how absurd, that a role of tape is wrapping up a
large concrete structure, then it can help with remembering it.
Let’s carry on to see how I’ve portioned out the Diamonds using this
system. Since the Diamonds fall under the number 30, most of this suite
will start with “m” words. But as in every suite, we eventually come to the
next group of 10, which means that the 10 of diamonds will start with an ‘r’
word.
Ace of Diamonds = 31 (Maid)
2 of Diamonds = 32 (Man)
3 of Diamonds = 33 (Mime)
4 of Diamonds = 34 (Mare)
5 of Diamonds = 35 (Mail)
 6 of Diamonds = 36 (Match)
7 of Diamonds = 37 (Muck)
8 of Diamonds = 38 (Movie)
9 of Diamonds = 39 (Map)
10 of Diamonds = 40 (Rice)
Jack of Diamonds = 41 (Rat)
Queen of Diamonds = 42 (Ran)
King of Diamonds = 43 (Ram)

Clubs:
Ace of Clubs = 51 (Lad)
2 of Clubs = 52 (Lion)
3 of Clubs = 53 (Lamb)
4 of Clubs = 54 (Lyre)
5 of Clubs = 55 (Lily)
6 of Clubs = 56 (Leash)
7 of Clubs = 57 (Lock)
8 of Clubs = 58 (Leaf)
9 of Clubs = 59 (Leap)
10 of Clubs = 60 (Cheese)
Jack of Clubs = 61 (Cheetah)
Queen of Clubs = 62 (Chain)
King of Clubs = 63 (Gym)

And finally:
Ace of Hearts = 81 (Fat)
 2 of Hearts = 82 (Fan)
3 of Hearts = 83 (Foam)
4 of Hearts = 84 (Fire)
5 of Hearts = 85 (Foil)
6 of Hearts = 86 (Fish)
7 of Hearts = 87 (Fake)
8 of Hearts = 88 (Fife)
9 of Hearts = 89 (Viper)
10 of Hearts = 90 (Bus)
Jack of Hearts = 91 (Boat)
Queen of Hearts = 92 (Bone)
King of Hearts = 93 (Bomb)

These are the words I’ve come up with for each card using the numerical-
sound system, but it’s up to you to pick the words and images that work
best for you.
Now, let me tell you how I put all of this together. Do you remember how I
said that I sometimes have portals inside of my memory palaces that lead to
unusual places? My memorized deck of cards is an example of this.
I have lived in two apartments in the capital of Germany, Berlin. I really
liked my office in the first apartment and have used it a lot to memorize
many things. In the mental version of that office as I have remembered it,
there is a pack of red Bicycle playing cards (I just realized now that it may
be from the cards that I got the idea of explaining to people that memory
systems are just like bikes!)
But instead of playing cards inside that box, there is a garage. If you’ve
seen Christopher Nolan’s second Batman film, The Dark Knight, you’ll
know the kind of space I’m talking about. In that film, Batman’s “Batcave”
is actually a sophisticated room, open and bright with plenty of room for
automobiles.
But I don’t have any fancy sports cars or Batmobiles in my garage (inside a
card box in an office in an apartment in Berlin). Instead, I have the first four
cars I owned as a teenager. I have the cars lined up in order from the first
car to the fourth car (which also happened to be the last car I ever owned
before turning to transit and rental cars only).
The first car is my blue Volkswagen Beetle. It was lowered to the ground
and very special to me. Too bad I wrecked it.
My second car was an orange Volkswagen Beetle. There was nothing
particularly special about it, but I miss it even to this day.
My third car was a silver Ford Fiesta. A bizarre choice, but I loved it.
My fourth car was a blue Chevy Malibu.
For the purposes of this Memory Palace, each car has 13 locations, which
works nicely because each suite in a deck also has 13 cards.
The locations I use are:
The front driver’s side headlight
The front passenger’s side headlight
The engine hood
The windshield
The steering wheel
The driver seat
The passenger seat
The seat behind the driver’s seat
The seat behind the passenger’s seat
The inside of rear window
The outside of the rear window
The trunk
The exhaust pipe
For some people, these stations might be too closely compressed together,
but this arrangement works very well for me. In general, I like my stations
to be as close together as possible.
The nice thing about each car having 13 locations is that I don’t feel like I
have to memorize an entire deck. Instead, I only need to remember 13 cards
per car. It’s ultimately rather arbitrary, but it still has a psychological effect
that helps the task seem less daunting.
So, taking thirteen cards, let’s see what the first car might look like:
Front driver’s side headlight = 3 of Clubs (Lamb)
Front passenger’s side headlight = 8 of Hearts (Fife)
Engine Hood = 7 of Spades (Tack)
Windshield = 6 of Spades (Dish)
The steering wheel = 10 of Spades (Nose)
The driver seat = Ace of Clubs (Lad)
The passenger seat = Ace of Diamonds (Maid)
The seat behind the driver’s seat = Jack of Spade (Nut)
The seat behind the passenger’s seat = 3 of Diamonds
(Mime)
The inside of rear window = 9 of Clubs (Leap)
The outside of the rear window = 10 of Diamonds
(Cheese)
The trunk = 5 of Spades (Tail)
The exhaust pipe – 5 of Clubs (Lily)

Now it’s just a matter of using location, imagery and activity to weave these
images together. It’s actually very easy and fun.
Just imagine a lamb standing in front of the car with a fife in his mouth. In
addition to the horrible music the lamb is blaring from where he is not
standing in front of the passenger side headlight, tacks are firing rapidly
over the hood from the fife and smashing into the dish hovering over the
windshield. Pieces of shrapnel from the dish have smashed into the nose on
the steering wheel, which belongs to the lad sitting in the driver’s seat. He
winds up sneezing all over the maid sitting in the passenger’s seat and so
she steals a handkerchief from Nutty Jack of Spades in the back seat who is
hitting on the mime beside him. She tries to leap through the window, but
crashes her head against a huge chunk of cheese and just as she is
recovering, she finds herself being smashed in the face by the tail of the dog
I hate, Lily.
It seems like a lot of work, and it is. But with practice, it gets faster and
easier. You’ll even begin to find that you don’t really need all the “training
wheels” I’ve described as much as you did in the beginning, though they
will still always be there to help you and will always remain the basic
foundation of how you remember the cards. The best part is that you’ll find
your concentration sharpening and your attention for detail widening. It’s a
great mental exercise that you won’t regret taking up as a habit.
Plus, it will serve as an excellent part of anyone’s goal of being able to
effortlessly remember vocabulary.
A few notes on this chapter:
I do not use “ran” as a verb for the Queen of Diamonds. Here I am thinking
of the Kurosawa movie Ran, which is a samurai adaptation of
Shakespeare’s King Lear. I actually don’t picture a woman here, but the old
man as he is seen sitting in ceremonial dress at the beginning of the movie.
Lily, the 5 of Clubs is not a flower, but a dog a friend of mine used to have
as a pet. I never liked that dog very much, which makes it all the more
effective as a memory prompt, ironically.

Leap for the 9 of Clubs is the one spot where I use a verb. I would rather
not have, but I couldn’t find any other image that worked for me. “Lap”
would be a natural choice, but since laps don’t actually exist, at least not
once a person is standing, it just doesn’t work for me.
As a final note to this chapter, I want to tell you a little about what didn’t
work for me when it came to memorizing a deck of cards. The great
magician Juan Tamirez gives a number of strategies. One is to sing the
order of the deck as you want to learn it. Record yourself singing the order
and listen to the recording again and again. This approach is perfectly fine,
so long as you want to remember a pre-arranged deck that is always pre-
arranged in the memorized order. Sometimes, this is my preference, since I
am adept at appearing to shuffle a deck without disturbing the order of the
cards.
Nonetheless, singing the order never worked for me. It amounts to learning
by rote.
Another idea Tamirez gives is to arbitrarily assign both a number and an
animal to each and every card. This is getting closer to the system I
ultimately landed upon, but it still leads one to use rote memorization in
place of a system that lets you remember the order of the cards almost
instantly.
Now that I’ve shared with you both what has worked for me and what
hasn’t, let me suggest a few …
Action steps:
1) Make the commitment to memorize the sound system for the ten
digits, 0 – 9. It’s very easy.
2) Apply the number sounds to the different suits in the manner
described.
3) Make a word for each card using the number system. Using a
written list, Word file or Excel sheet, store the words you create so
that you can test your memory of them later.
4) Decide in advance where you are going to store the order of the
cards you will be memorizing. Use actual locations or invent them.
Since you need 52 for this exercise, it is best to think of how you can
compress them into a smaller space.
5) Make sure that you are relaxed throughout this process. Training
yourself to be relaxed while working on memory techniques helps
with recall. You want to “anchor” the sensation of relaxation so that
you know it very well. You’ll instantly fall into that state of
relaxation at any time you want to with dedicated practice.
6) Get out a deck of cards, shuffle it, and begin memorizing it.
7) Test everything, but always make sure that you are not falling
back on rote memory. That is not the purpose of these exercises.
8) Describe to someone else the procedures that you are using. You
do not need to show off. Simply explain what you are doing and your
progress with it. Give a demonstration if you like, but focus on
teaching the method whenever possible. Doing so will enhance your
skills. Always make sure to demystify these memory techniques as
difficult or something to be reserved for nerds or geniuses or people
who are otherwise weird. Memory skills are for everyone.
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

Finally, check out my friend Dr. Chris Wolf’s Brain Health: Simple Steps to
a Better Memory. He tackles the subject from a scientific angle, offering
plenty of scientific information and data that confirms the power of our
minds. Harry Lorayne once said in an interview
Spread the word!
Do you like this book? Has it helped your students to memorize English
vocabulary 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 (though this is currently
changing). 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.
Here’s how you can help.
If you have an email list of friends and contacts, why not send them a
message about this book and its contents?
Discuss the book 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
book. They will definitely get a good story, article or feature out of it. I can
easily be contacted by emailing: [email protected].
Write a review of the book 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 book has
helped you.
Include this book 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
[email protected]
© 2013 Metivier Magnetic Memory Series.

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Disclaimer and Terms of Use: The Author and Publisher have strived to be
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