Postby Yunus39 » Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:08 am
Okay, update. I have the first part of my exam on the 14th. I have to tell the stories on the 21st. This exam was made by Bangladeshis and their education system values memorization and rote learning. 80% of the exam is about specific prepared content rather than what you can spontaneously produce. These stories are only 1/10th of the exam.
I have the first and second stories memorized and can riff off of and add details from that base. The third story is the longest, two full pages. I have a comic strip and can wing a passable version off the comic strip.
I have an alarm set to go off every hour from 9-5 until the 21st, and barring some meetings, I will tell one of the stories every time the alarm goes off.
What I specifically did is below:
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METHOD 1: Chunking and Memory Palace
Read the story and massage it with a language partner.
Create a simplified oral, spoken-language version in writing.
Create an audio of your language partner reading the story aloud.
Break that simplified version down into sentences and phrases and number them in a different document. The breaks should parallel the cadence of the audio. Each sentence or phrase should be 5-15 seconds in audio length.
Read the story along with the audio 25 times.
Take a 20-50 station memory palace document and added the phrases to each station of the memory palace. See Ron White and Anthony Metivier youtube channels for more on this. Metivier has a free course you can take.
I added an image tag that matched the phrase to each memory palace station. Usually this included a mnemonic for the first word of the sentence and a mnemonic for the content. As an example, the first station of my memory palace is the elevator outside of my door. The first word of the phrase is Ekdin, so I imagine my friend's son Dean in the elevator. The content of the first few sentences is about giving a test, so I imagine Dean holding a test.
I then edited the audio into tiny sound clips for each phrase or sentence (I use Audacity for file editing). These sound clips were numbered according to the document / memory palace.
I then recited the sentence along with the audio 25 times while imagining the content of that memory palace station. Sometimes I had to slow the audio clip down in order to do that. I used VLC player, clicked the "playback" menu and then clicked "Slower - Fine" until it was the appropriate speed.
I used a simple counter app on my phone to count the reps.
After that, I repeated the sentence/phrase without the audio 25 times while picturing the memory palace station. These 50 reps took about 10-15 minutes per clip.
If you are working on a longer or particularly hard phrase, add more pictures to your memory palace station. My early attempts at doing this featured far less rote memorization and far more mnemonics. This may have actually been faster, but it was not as good for my language learning.
After doing that for every sentence or phrase, I did 25 reps of reciting along with the audio of the entire story while running through the whole memory palace in my head.
Then I did 25 reps without the audio, checking the document if I got stuck.
This was grueling, and I was quite exhausted afterwards. So much so, that I think it made my efforts at learning the next two stories much more difficult even though the methods were less rigorous.
METHOD 2: First Letter and Memory Palace
(Same as above)
Read the story and massage it with a language partner.
Create a simplified oral, spoken-language version in writing.
Create an audio of your language partner reading the story aloud.
Break that simplified version down into sentences and phrases and number them in a different document. The breaks should parallel the cadence of the audio. Each sentence or phrase should be 5-15 seconds in audio length.
Read the story along with the audio 25 times.
Take a 20-50 station memory palace document and added the phrases to each station of the memory palace. (See above)
I then edited the audio into tiny sound clips for each phrase or sentence (I use Audacity for file editing). These sound clips were numbered according to the document / memory palace.
I repeated each clip 1-5 times with the audio then 10 times from short term memory.
Then I took the numbered document and deleted the word until only the letter of each word was present. I did not memorize the letters. I used this as a crutch to retell the story from memory. If I got stuck, I could look at the letter document. If I was still stuck, I could look at the memory palace document. If I was still stuck, I could look at the full document.
After it was easy to tell with the First Letter document, I started to tell it with the memory palace alone.
Here is what the first letter document looks like:
1. ঈ স অ প গ অ ল ত চ এ ভ ক।
2. ত য ন এ ই ন আ এ ঈ দ ত প উ উ হ প
3. ত ঈ ম ক “আ ম ম য। আ এ ত স ক
4. ত ঈ ত স চ
5. অ ল ঈ স স য এ ত চ ঠ ক।
6. স ভ ম এ স্ত্র ছ য ব ব ধ র র ভ।
7. স অ ড দ অ ট ক ক,
8. ক ভ ন হ ত অ আ খ হ।
9. ঈ খ শু স ভ ম ত চ স্প ক,
10. ক স ভ য ক ত ক স স্প ক প ত স ভ হ য।
11. ঈ চ স্প ক স স স বু য ত অ ভ হ গ
12. ঈ ত বু ত ম থ শ ব হ।
13. স ত ভ চ ত জ ক, “ক আ ক স্প ক?”
14. ত স ব, “আ ত দ ল আ চ ঠ ক,
15. আ আ ব, ক আ স্প ক?”
16. স স্ত্র ঈ প প এ স ব জ।
17. ঈ ত ব, “ম, তু ব ক ব সু হ।
18. শ চ য, ত আ এ ক ন হ।”
19. এ স ক ল এ য ব, “আ ম ম গ;
20. হু আ ক দ ন।”
21. এ ক শু ঈ য ব, “ভ ক ন, ক ব ক।”
22. ঈ ক প, ই ও ই ন য ব গ
23. আ দ অ গ হ া স অ ক ক।
24. ঈ ল ব, “আ ক গ ও ক ক? ম ম য ন, ঘু।” এ ক শু ল হ ক ল।
25. ত ঈ ত স ঘ থ ব য ব।
26. ত ম ম-ব এ ত স ন ঘ ঢু।
27. ঈ ম হ ধ ব, “খু, ও।”
28. আ ত ম উ গ এ ত খু আ হ গ।
29. এ ঘ ক ক ন ব জ ঈ ক হু দ
30. এ ম ক খ দ ব।
METHOD 3
(Same as above)
Read the story and massage it with a language partner.
Create a simplified oral, spoken-language version in writing.
Create an audio of your language partner reading the story aloud.
Break that simplified version down into sentences and phrases and number them in a different document. The breaks should parallel the cadence of the audio. Each sentence or phrase should be 5-15 seconds in audio length.
Read the story along with the audio 25 times.
Take a 20-50 station memory palace document and added the phrases to each station of the memory palace. (See above)
I then edited the audio into tiny sound clips for each phrase or sentence (I use Audacity for file editing). These sound clips were numbered according to the document / memory palace.
I then drew a 50 panel comic strip numbered according to the audio files and retold the story from the comic strip. I consulted the document and the audio recordings when I got stuck.
I will store the comic strip in a memory palace, if I find that I do not naturally remember it later. (It's already images, so I may not need a memory palace at all).
This was the longest story, and this is by far the least beautiful retelling, but the most honest as far as my language level.
I probably learned to use structures that came less naturally to me using the other methods as it forced me to repeat things in ways that I otherwise wouldn't choose to. This method (if 1. it ends up working and I can tell the story without the strip in front of me and 2. I pass that portion of the exam) was probably the best use of my time all things considered. Though I suspect I will be graded better on the other stories.
3 x
Bangla Pages: 8453
Ancient Greek Pages: 2194
Scots Pages: 449