The nineteenth week/ the memory specification – twenty-seventh post

weeks results?

Another ten in ye olde cranium. Method works well. Haven't had to really change up the methodology in quite a while so I really think this is it. Saying that, there are always smaller adjusts needed.

Another thing was that I sat in on a gathering on Friday night at my apartment. 8 Argentines chatting around a table. I was quite happy that I was sitting with a PHD candidate who has been learning just about as long as I have and he was clearly lost. I managed to keep pace with the convo, seeing when they changed topics and when they made jokes. I would say that I understood 80 percent of what was said to about a 60 percent accuracy. Of course context helped a lot too, but I kept noticing expressions which I had already memorised and verb forms that are in the expressions.

The memory specification

The mind cant take new things in endlessly. Its like running a marathon without training. You have to build up to it. Of the 10 expressions which you put in your memory in the beginning, you should make 8 of them phrases of no more than 3 words.

0 – 3 words is a general benchmark of language. Easy for the mind to process

4 - 6 words starts to use the previously learnt sections (and your proficiency of them) and combines them into a much more native like fluent construction

7+ words are either easy to handle, due to prior training, or just combinations of the previous two sections. This takes a while to build up to.

8 out of the 10 should be the expressions you can manage. The final 2 should be a step up. Always pushing just enough.

The rotation basis.

Another thing worth mentioning is that its a little strange to just find 10 expressions, and all at once put them in your head. It takes time and it should be more natural.

For this reason, its a good idea to run a rotation system.

Each week keep your eyes open and everyday put either one or two expressions in.

the week following, you revise the previous weeks expressions whilst still putting in another ten.

It works like this

Week 1: 1^st ten are input over the course of the week. One or two per day

Week 2: 2^nd ten are input at one or two per day. The 1^st ten are revised and used according to the schedule laid out in previous posts (see post number 23).

Week 3: 3^rd ten are input throughout the week. 2^nd ten are revised and 1^st only get revised on the Sunday (memory day to revise each 100 phrases already input into the memory)

Next week?

Another ten put in during the week to test out the rotation system. I'll let you know how it goes.