REMEMBER ANYTHING with the Memory Palace Method

Silicon Valley, security of the internet, aerospace, holter, capital inflation, ambitious...

Oh, how am I going to remember all this vocabulary?

This is so much to...

I have an idea.

Hold on a second.

Excuse me, guys, I have to get a book.

Where did I put...?

Ah, there it is.

A long time ago-hey, E, we're going to get to you in a second-I had a trouble remembering

vocabulary for something I was studying, and it was so difficult, and I thought: "I know,

my favourite hero is, like, Sherlock Holmes, and he has what's called a memory palace,

and I think that's why E did this.

He said: "I'm a king.

Where is my palace?"

Today we're going to work on a memory palace.

For you it might be more, like, a memory house or a memory room, but as your memory gets

better and better, we can make it from a room to a house to a palace.

A palace is a house where a king lives or a queen lives, and is huge with many, many

rooms and you can do many, many things.

And after I show you this method, you will figure out that you might want to start with

just a room, but from there you can go from a room to a house to a workspace, like your

business place or workplace, to a palace because as long as you can remember the room, you

can remember vocabulary.

And today we're going to have some fun because I'm going to do...

Well, we're going to go step by step and do this together.

I'm going to ask you to do a couple of things, you'll do them and you're going to find that

your memory has increased incredibly.

And we can do it for many, many things.

So you guys ready?

I'll take a look here.

Let's get started.

What do you need?

Okay, you just need to right now sit down.

I'm going to ask you to focus in a second or two, and then you just need to laugh.

So if something's funny, laugh, have fun with it, and then we're going to see how much vocabulary

you have.

So the first thing I'm going to do is give you eight words.

Number one: "bacon".

Number two: "ball".

Number three: "banana".

Number four: "fish".

Number five: "monkey".

Number six: "Mr. E".

All right, Mr. E. Number seven: "rat".

And number eight: "dog".

Got it?

Cool.

Now, what I want you to do is tell me all eight of those words.

I'm waiting.

I'm listening.

Go.

Go for it.

In order.

In order.

Did you get all of the words?

If so, good for you, you have a remarkable memory.

You don't need me, turn off the video, go somewhere else.

No, you better stay, because still can help you with more words than this.

I'm just showing you eight because we have a limited time.

Now, some people if they've done that exercise before, they'll go: "Oh, I recognize this",

but don't worry about it.

So, if you didn't do well, maybe you got four words or five words, but they weren't in order,

you got them all over...

Let me give you the words again, but this time I'm going to ask you to join me and do

something, and I bet you can know all the words and you can even tell me the words out

of order.

Okay?

So, let's do this again.

But this time...

And here's the trick: You have to really put the idea in your head when I give it to you.

Okay?

You can't just go: "Okay, okay."

You have to actually see it.

Okay?

And when I say laugh, I mean if it's funny make it crazy as heck, make it crazy, crazy,

crazy, crazy in your head.

All right?

So let's do the first one.

I want you to imagine you're coming to a door.

Okay?

You come to a door, you open the door, and just before you open the door you see a piece

of bacon, and the bacon's running from the bottom of the door, going: "Oh my god!

Help me!

Help me!"

It's running out the door as fast as it can.

It goes in fast motion, it runs out the door, and you're like: "Whoa!

Look at that bacon run out the door.

Did you see the bacon run out the door?

Crazy, right?

Just running, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

Two little bacon legs running.

It's nuts.

Okay, whoa, whatever."

So then you go...

Shake your head, you open the door.

As soon as you open the door, in front of you, you see some stairs, and on the stairs

you see this ball and it bounces three times, boom, and it's getting bigger and bigger.

Boosch!

It explodes.

Ah, stuff comes all over you.

This ball just explodes.

This big, bouncy ball.

Ball explodes.

You turn around because you've got stuff all over you, so you look to your left and you

see a mirror.

You want to look at yourself in the mirror, but then what do you see?

You see a banana and the banana's singing.

"It's not unusual to be loved by everyone.

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

It's not unusual to be..."

It's a banana singing in the mirror, and you're like: "What the hell is that?

Why is a banana singing in the mirror?

Okay, I got to sit down."

So you think: "I have to sit down now."

You go to sit down and you see this big fish, and this fish has a remote control in its

hand.

And you look, and the fish is watching Fishing TV: How to Catch a Fish, Latest Fishing Methods.

You're like: "There's a fish watching TV, and it's watching a fishing program.

This is crazy."

He's like: "Hi.

How ya doin'?"

And he's watching the TV.

And you go: "What?"

You put your hand down on the table, unbelievable, and you look and there's a monkey, and it's

got a big gun and it picks the big gun and it points it at the fish's head and he starts

to giggle, and you're like: "Oh, crap.

There's a monkey with a gun, going to shoot the fish.

Oh.

Okay, whatever, whatever."

So, you look up, you see a bright light, and then you see Mr. E. You remember Mr. E?

But this time he's taking pee-pee.

He's going pee: "Doo-doo", and he's like: "Hey, how ya doin'?

How ya doin'?

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo."

Mr. E is peeing on top of the lamp.

Can you...?

What is he doing here?

And he's peeing.

He's a bad, bad, bad worm, I tell you.

Anyway, after that, you shake your head, you look out the window and there's a big rat

brushing his teeth.

"Hey.

How ya doin'?"

Big, furry rat going: "Hi.

How's it going?

Just cleaning up here.

Just doing a little bit of cleaning.

Doo-doo-doo-doo."

So there's a rat brushing its teeth outside the window.

Okay, that's it.

I'm done.

I want a beer.

I'm going into the kitchen, I open my refrigerator door and what do I see?

I see a dog taking a bath.

The dog's washing itself, going: "Hey.

You want a beer?

Here."

Just hands you the beer.

Woo, crazy.

Crazy, crazy, crazy.

All right, so let's go through that story again, shall we?

This time, let me ask you a question: When you come to the door, what do you see?

Ah, that's right.

You saw some bacon.

And then when you opened the door, you went to the stairs and what came at you?

One, two, three.

A ball bounced, uh-huh.

And you got stuff all over you, so what did you do?

You turned to your left and you saw what?

You saw a mirror, and what was in the mirror that was so strange?

It was a...

A singing banana, you're right.

And that just kind of knocked you out, so what did you do after that?

You were like: "I'm done.

I saw a singing banana", and then you went to sit down, where?

But you couldn't because of the...?

Yeah, you couldn't go to the chair because the fish was watching TV.

Right?

Okay, so the fish is watching TV.

And then when you looked at the...

Yeah, that gun.

That monkey with the gun was just crazy on the table.

Uh-huh.

And what was Mr. E doing during all of this?

See?

I gave you the name.

What was Mr. E doing?

He was peeing on top of the lamp.

Yeah, he was on a lamp peeing.

Right?

And then after you saw him doing that, you looked out the...

The window to see the rat brushing his teeth.

But that was just it, you had enough so you want...

What did you go do?

You went to...

That's right, you went to the refrigerator and got a beer.

Congratulations.

You've got "dog", you got "rat", you got "Mr. E", "monkey", "fish", "banana", "ball", and

"bacon".

You were really good.

Actually, no, you also got: "door", "stairs", "mirror", "TV", "lamp", "refrigerator", "mirror",

"window".

That's 16 words.

You memorized 16 words in less than five minutes.

Told you I'd teach eight, but I lied.

We learned how to put words together, so not only can you learn one set of words, you can

learn a bunch.

Right?

We put these things in your house.

Now, why did I do: "stairs", "mirror", "bath", or "fridge"?

Easy.

These are things in almost everyone's house, and the one place you know best in the entire

world is your house or your room.

Right?

Or your office, or wherever you are.

If you look around your room, you could close your eyes...

You know, close your eyes now and you can imagine everything in your room where it sits.

So, what we want to do, and this is how this technique works, is we take a new word we've

learned, we think about something we already know...

In this case: "door".

You know what a door is.

When you come home, you know what the door looks like.

So, we take the new vocabulary and we put it on the door.

But we didn't just put "door" and new vocabulary, we put action.

All right?

Something exciting.

And because of that you were able to remember it.

And I'm betting halfway through when I was saying these crazy things, you were smiling

or laughing, going: "That's just crazy.

That's absolutely crazy."

And you're right, but the key is you remembered it.

So, now I'm going to say let's take a quick little jaunt, and we're going to take a jump

as we usually do, and then I'm going to help you with a bit of bonus material, a quiz to

see how well you learned this...

Yeah, a quiz, believe it or not.

Okay?

And then some homework.

See ya soon.

[Snaps]

We're back.

And have you studied?

[Laughs] Well, there's nothing to study because everything is in your head.

Right?

I'm going to talk for a little bit because I kind of want you to forget the words we

were working on just to show you how good your memory is and how well this technique

works, so you can think about how you can use it to learn vocabulary.

Now, three of the things I did that you might not have noticed, but I will make sure...

This is the bonus part of the lesson and I want you to make sure you understand it so

when you do this on your own you know what you must have to make it work.

Number one: Make it full of emotion.

Remember?

I made it funny.

My...

I'm a joker, I like to laugh.

So, for instance, if a fish is watching the Fishing Channel, that's kind of funny.

Right?

Like a fish watching fishing, that doesn't make any sense, you kind of go: "[Laughs]."

Or a monkey with a really big gun pointing at you, that's funny, so it makes you laugh.

It could make you...

You could do something that's scary, you could do something that makes you happy, but it

has to be very happy or very sad.

I could have got... put the dog was shot.

You go: "James, that's awful, that's terrible."

I go: "But you won't forget seeing a dog get shot, would you?"

So I like happy.

You do what you do.

I do that, okay?

So, make it full of emotion.

Add movement.

Notice in every case something was happening; the rat was brushing its teeth, the ball was

falling down the stairs.

There was movement.

Your brain works very, very well when it has emotion, it remembers emotions because you

know when you're in love, or you like or don't like something; it remembers motion or moving.

All right?

So do that.

Those two together will help you remember because when you think of either the motion,

brushing teeth, you'll remember the object; and the humour, the emotion will help bring

it to life to help you keep it because your brain says: "If it has emotion, I want to

keep it."

Now, finally, this is the important thing.

You notice I picked tables, doors, chairs, refrigerators.

I did not say: Shoes, combs, hats, books.

Why?

A door is permanent.

People don't move doors around all the time.

A bathtub is permanent, your refrigerator is permanent, a window is permanent.

You need one object that is permanent because in your house it doesn't move, so in your

brain it won't change.

That's why you can do this now, and then come back and do the same list I give you now...

In fact, I challenge you: Watch this video, come back in a week, and before I give the

first list, see how many you can remember.

You'll go: "I haven't studied in a week."

Then come back in a month and watch the video again.

Yes, I'm saying come in a month.

Put it on your calendar, watch the video again because I give the list of the six things,

and watch, every time you will say: "I remember all six, and I haven't studied in a week,

I haven't studied in a month."

I promise you in three months if you do the same thing.

But it's because if we do this and this, and those objects...

Remember the permanent?

The permanent objects haven't changed.

You will have a place in your brain because it's already there.

When you go home, you don't go home to the door and go: "Where's the door?

Where's the door?

Where's the door?"

You know where the door is, you know where the stairs are, you know where the mirror

is, you know...

You catch, right?

And your brain has a map in its head, so when we put these objects with it, it's also mapped

in your brain.

And if you have a house, you have several rooms.

You can see where I'm going with this.

[Laughs] Sorry.

Mwahahaha.

Right?

You can remember many, many things.

And the more rooms you have that you know, the more things you can remember.

And if you want to learn something different, different subject, go to a new house.

When you were a child you lived in your parents' house, right?

Your grandparents had houses, your friends have houses.

There you go.

Change a house.

Or when you get good enough, make a palace.

Anyway.

These three things you need to do in order to remember the list.

And I think I've talked sufficiently or long enough that if you didn't do what I asked

before and really focused...

See?

That was a thing saying you didn't focus: "Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

Bad, little children."

Okay?

So, if you didn't focus, you're going to forget.

But I know you guys are engVid watchers and you focus, you make the picture and put the

images together, and it's going to be fabulous.

Ready?

So, let's do number one.

Who was watching the television?

Who do you think was watching the television?

That's right, the fish was watching Fishing TV, how to fish.

See?

You were laughing when I said it, right?

But now you go: "I remember."

And notice it's not in order.

I put all of these questions out of order, so not only can you remember the subject,

you can remember it any way you want to.

Ah.

Number two: Where was the bacon?

That's right, on the door.

Remember?

It was running out the door.

"Help me.

Help me."

Right?

I love bacon.

It wouldn't have been running for long.

I would have eaten that.

Number three: What exploded and where did it happen?

This is two, two things.

Hmm, how's your memory?

That's right, it was the ball on the stairs.

And how many bounces?

Wow, you're smiling now, right?

Because you're like: "Oh my god, I remember."

Yeah, there's more to go.

We're not finished yet.

What was on the table?

Did you say gun?

That's right, there was a monkey with a big gun pointed at the fish.

That would have been a picture to see.

And where was Mr. E?

Mr. E, our favourite guy.

Where was he in all of this?

Mr. E was taking a pee.

I even made it rhyme for you.

He was on the lamp, remember?

He was on the lamp and he went: "Hi.

How are you doing?"

He was going to the washroom, number one.

Dirty worm.

And finally: Where was the dog?

Yes, you had to go for that beer in the refrigerator and the dog was taking a bath, right?

In the refrigerator.

Well, congratulations.

That's six out of six, and there were eight.

So you probably went from maybe one, two, or three to six out of order and you remember

them.

Good for you.

Now I need you to think: What happens if I practice this with 10 or 12 objects?

Well, you could remember 10 or 12.

A lot of vocabulary lists are up to 20.

You could learn 20 of them.

And instead of studying for hours, you can take 10 minutes and learn for a very long

time, until you want to learn something new.

Cool.

Now, as we said before, learning is good.

I've given you a small quiz.

Of course you'll go to engVid, right?

But I'm going to give you some homework because with homework, that's regular practice.

A test is to see what you have, homework is the practice you need to do well on a test.

So here's what I want you to do: I want you to go home.

Well, you're home probably...

Well, maybe at a friend's, but pick seven words you want to learn, any seven words.

Okay?

And then use the method we studied, so you could do seven things in a kitchen, seven

irregular verbs.

All right?

From grammar, so now you can use grammar vocabulary.

What are seven irregular verbs?

And then learn those, and then learn another seven.

All right?

So you could learn the list of irregular verbs and you'd have a picture for where they are.

And if you could, then you get really smart and creative, you could do the picture maybe

acting like the verb.

Right?

See, you like that, right?

Told ya, we're here to help.

Now, when you do your homework, remember: Do your homework and then I'm going to tell

you to go further and go to engVid, because many times many students get together there

and they talk about this lesson or other lessons, and they can help you or you can help them.

It's a community.

We're here for you, and you can be there for them.

Anyway, listen, I hope you had fun.

Don't forget to subscribe.

The button is somewhere around here.

And I think I forgot to say it before, but I won't forget now, make sure you go to www.eng

as in English, vid as in video.com (www.engvid.com).

Okay?

And do the latest quiz and see the latest video.

I'm out for now.

Don't forget what I said, right?

You dirty dog.

In the refrigerator with a beer?

Hmm.