Step 5.1 - Event + Emotion = mEmory

Transform Your English Step V - Mega Memory
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Hello, and welcome to step number five of your English transformation. Today, we will try to fix a big and horrible problem that happens to most of us English learners. And that is that maybe you have taken hundreds of hours of English classes in your life. Maybe you've been in hundreds of sessions where teachers help you learn vocabulary and structure and correct your mistakes, which is great and necessary to learn English. But what happens the day after, or the next class when you make the same mistake, or when you try to think of the vocabulary that you saw last class and you remember nothing has any happened to you? For me, there's nothing more frustrating than taking a class using my energy, my attention, my time and my money for learn something, only to find that the next day, I only remember less than 10% possibly.

I feel like I have wasted my time. So, to fix this, we need to fix our memory. And I have good news for you. creating memories might be more simple than what you think. If we understand what a memory is and how to create a permanent memory, you'll be able to control which words which information which corrections which things in general, you want to remember and store in your permanent memory to use later. So Are you ready?

Let's make a little experiment. All right. Try to think of one of your first childhood memories. Right? Don't take too long to think about it. Just think of the first memory that comes to your mind when you're a child.

By now, I'm sure you have a memory. And my question to you is, why are you remembering this? While if I asked you to remember what you ate yesterday, or what clothes you were wearing two days ago, maybe that's a little bit more difficult to remember than this experience. You're thinking about? What happened maybe more than 20 years ago, more more than 30 or a long time ago. So why?

Why can we remember some things permanently without trying why Other things we forget? Well, this was one of the biggest lessons I learned about memory. What do we forget? Well, maybe you don't remember what you wore two days ago, because, first of all, you didn't pay attention. But second, it wasn't unusual. It was different.

It wasn't special. It wasn't out of the ordinary. It wasn't loaded with emotion. So now maybe you're getting an idea of what truly creates a memory. So can you tell me why do you clearly remember the experience you have when you were a child? Most certainly, I can guarantee that you're thinking of an emotionally charged experience.

Our new Maybe it was something very positive, exciting, but maybe it was something very sad, something terrible. Nonetheless, the experience was loaded with emotion. Okay, so how can we use this concept to our favor? Well, thinking about this issue, I came up with this little formula, an event plus emotion equals a memory. And event is anything that happens, anything that you remember. And if you're feeling while that event is happening, it most certainly will create a memory in you.

So we are kind of training ourselves to be more in touch with what we feel Which is something that usually English classes language courses, communication systems and trainings never cover. We usually focus on the speaking part on the external part which is very necessary on the vocabulary part on the grammar part which is absolutely useful, and we must learn it. But if we're not feeling this, if we're not feeling ourselves, our words, our experiences, we will tend to forget these experiences these words new information. So let's learn how to take control of what we feel to connect it with our memories. And that way, avoid forgetting anything that we think it's important for us and our English. Now, let me make clear that how we feel our communication in English is the main topic of our third pillar will focus completely in feeling confident and feeling connected to the people in our next pillar.

But right now, we're starting to get in touch with this idea of mixing everything together. Right? Nothing is independent, to speak English powerfully to communicate deeply. We have to speak it, think it and feel it. So consider this as a little training on feeling or language. Let's try something out.

Let me give you another new word. Let's try to create a permanent memory. associating this word with the emotions you're feeling in a specific place. So take a look at this word. How do you read it? fathomable silicon on facto unfathomable.

Fathomable Can you say it now? Something unfathomable is something that you can't understand. Impossible to grasp the meaning and comprehend. Good. Let's take these word practice hate again, it's a complex word to pronounce. It's a long one on Fatima ball and say it a few times until it's easier for you to pass.

Now, what I would like you to do is to pause this video for a second and start experimenting with the process of creating a permanent memory consciously, which is something that maybe you haven't done before. So find that place in your house or in your office or in your garden or wherever you are in a special place where you can Stand on when you're standing, try to do something with your hands. I like to pinch myself a little bit. Don't hurt yourself, but I'm feeling something I'm feeling a little pain. One looking and paying attention at my surroundings and try to say the word unfathomable and give an example as well connected to real life. Remember that's also very important.

So it is unfathomable that my boss wants to send me to China to give the sales training next week. That's completely unfathomable. While you're doing this, think about it. I know that you're creating a memory that you will never forget. You'll find later that when you think back about this experience, you'll remember the word the place the feeling The meaning of the word perfectly appear. You are now starting to take consciousness and control of how you create your own memories.

Okay, so now let me show you my favorite use of this technique. And teachers like to call the mistakes that will repeat over and over and over again, fossilized mistakes. These are the mistakes that no matter how many times people correct us, and no matter how many times we know that we're saying it wrong. When we're speaking and not thinking about our structure, our pronunciation, we still make these mistakes. Here you have a couple of them that you can think of this horrible word or pronunciation Bard that you just can't get, no matter how many times you are corrected or you practice right Now let's try something different. Maybe it is not a matter of correcting it by repetition, or by sitting down and studying and saying, I need to remember that you have to pronounce on fathomable, I need to remember that.

What have you tried to feel, instead of thinking, analyzing and repeating. So this is how it works. Next time you're using English in a real situation, specially you're speaking English in an important moment, and an important event. Maybe you're speaking with your boss that's visiting from Canada. Or maybe you're making a negotiation with Chinese people to input on their products. Why whatever it is.

If you are talking and you discover that you made a mistake in front of them feel that mistake. To that maybe embarrassment or uncomfortableness that you're feeling, which I'm sure you have felt before. The difference is that now you will use this feeling to your advantage. So, when you make a mistake, and then you feel this sense of uncomfortableness because you made a mistake. Now, make yourself a mental note and say, This is a word or this is an expression or a pronunciation that I'm most correct. And then forget it.

Let it go. Right? When you're talking to people in real situations, it's not the time to perfect them, practice your English, you're using English in a real situation. So you have permission to make all mistakes necessary without feeling guilty, but take responsibility of your mistakes. So again, this is how it works when you're using English in a real situation. You must feel completely free to express yourself.

Don't worry about your mistakes in those times. Now, if you make a mistake, or if you see that the other person is getting confused because of something you said, of course, you should find out what the mistake was. And you should pay attention to those feelings of embarrassment. Take a mental note about which is the specific thing you need to correct and move on. completely forget about it. That's time to communicate, not time to correct.

I remember for example, that I used to have a fossilized mistake. But now I'm kind of embarrassed to admit. I used to say all the time and unconsciously, something like I can't to speak English. I can to go to the movies. This is something that people, when you're using it in real situations, sometimes they don't correct. Or sometimes people are nice.

And they say, Oh, yeah, you mean you can speak English, right? That time, I was talking with my first boss, my first American boss. And when he told me, oh, yeah, you mean that you can speak English, right? I felt so embarrassed that I froze, I paralyzed I got read because I'm bragging and showing off how well I can speak English. And I'm saying yes, I can to speak English. Terribly embarrassing for me.

But that embarrassment stayed with me after my day of work in my house, and it was so intensely emotional. I felt that never again, did I say can too, until today. But now I'm using it consciously just to give you an example, which is different, right. So I have Learn to use my negative emotions, my English insecurities to take control of my corrections. So here's the deal. I think that one of the most productive and valuable things you can do to really improve your English and take it to the next level is not only to keep learning new things, but to pay a particular focus in on learning the things that you're doing incorrectly.

Now, I know this can be much more difficult than learning things. The unlearning process takes more effort, attention and awareness. And if you're not using your emotions in this process, it will be almost impossible to do so. So I want you to start noticing and paying attention to the mistakes Shumate frequently any kind of pronunciation, fluency in vocabulary and grammar, etc. I started writing them down, keep a list of the things you must change and improve on correctly your English on one tip, never write the mistake you're making always write the correct form of the thing you want to correct. Never again think of the mistakes but their corrections Okay, so now that you're starting to build at least of the things you need to correct in English, remember the times that you have used these words these expressions these pronunciations incorrectly, I remember the feelings.

Remember the embarrassment or the confusion you felt when you miss pronounced or used as structuring correctly. Focus only in the feeling. And I promise you that the corrections will happen almost automatically. If you learn to connect these feelings to the correct sounds, it will make sure that next time you're going to save that word, you automatically remember the correct word and the correct version of the word. So now you're learning how to take control of the memories that you want to retain. And we're learning to use this concept to help you retain the corrected versions of the fossilized mistakes.

If you consistently detect and correct the mistakes you have, your English will start getting flawless defects you will start eliminating one by one until everything you say sounds perfectly smooth. Correct. So remember, an event plus an emotion equals a memory. Stay with this formula, write it down if you need to write it on a post it and paste it in front of your laptop so you can see it every day and start noticing the evidence how this is true. start noticing in your day to day how when you're feeling is what you'll remember the next day. We'll continue with this on the third pillar, but for now, I want you to start getting used to uncomfortable to involve thoughts, feelings, and sounds into one complete and whole communication style, your own English communication style.

I'll see you soon. And I hope that you stay well.

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