Page 114 - How to Develop A SUPER-POWER MEMORY

118 Foreign Language Vocabulary & Abstract Information
The word meaning "father" in French, is pere. Associate
father to pear and you'll always remember it.
The sample associations given above are those that I
might use, it is always best to make up your own pictures.
Try this method with any foreign language vocabulary,
and you'll be able to memorize the words better and faster,
and with more retentiveness, than you ever could before.
Aside from languages, this system can be used for anything
you may be studying which entails remembering words
that have no meaning to you, at first. A medical student
who has to memorize the names of the bones in the human
body, may have some trouble with femur, coccyx, patella,
fibula, sacrum, etc. But if these were made into substitute
words or thoughts like this:—fee more—femur; rooster
(cock) kicks or cock sics—coccyx; pay teller or pat Ella—
patella; fib you lie—fibula; and, sack of rum—sacrum—
then the student could link them to each other, or associate
them to whatever it is they must be associated to.
A pharmaceutical student could picture someone push-
ing a large bell down over him while he throws pine trees
from under it, to help him remember that atropine (I
throw pine) comes from the belladonna (bell down) root
or leaf.
I am actually making up these substitute words as I write;
with a little thought you could find much better substitute
words for them. You might want to picture a giver (donor)
of a bell to remember belladonna, etc.
The point is that the substitute word or thought has
meaning while the original word does not. Therefore you
make it easier to remember by using the substitute word.
You will get some more pointers and practice on this in the
chapter on how to remember names.
So—I started this chapter with a quote by Benedict
Spinoza, may I be presumptuous enough to end it with a