Learning Map

Purpose:
1. Save time
2. Get more things done
3. Save space
4. Find what we are looking for easily


Advantage (Comparing with traditional notes):
1. More structured and logically built up
2. More fun and well organized
3. Can make use of our creative thinking and imagination


Procedure:
1. Write or draw the central word/idea in the middle of a blank piece of paper
2. Start making free associations to that central point. Let branches and twigs grow out of the centre and write one word on each line
3. When getting too many words around the central word, or if associations suddenly come to an end, just open new ‘forks’ after one of the existing words.
**Remember to create as more abundant/diversified as possible.
4. After 5-10minutes, looking at all the words and pick out a few that would like to try on another map. Either put them in the middle of a new map or just go on writing new associations where the word is in the first map.
**Going more and more into detail in the associations.
**Write down every word that pops into mind.
5. Let the map rest for a while. The thinking process and the flow of associations will go on in our brains even if we stop writing and when we come back to the map we will have a lot of new words to add.
6. Let the map stay unstructured until you feel it is maturity.


Rules:
1. Start in the middle of the paper.
It is easier to spread out the lines that way and to read what you have written.
2. One word on each line.
If you need more words, draw new lines. Try to limit the number of words you write. You need only a few words if you choose the right words (keywords).
3. Use different colours.
Use colours to highlight, to decorate, to differentiate one group of words from another and in illustrations.
4. Draw pictures.
Pictures contain a lot more information than words. Try to find pictures that can gather information from a whole group of words.
5. Use symbols, signs and arrows.
Use symbols, signs and arrows to show connections in your learning map or if you want to refer to other reference material you don’t want to have in the learning map. E.g. **, --> , #, +
6. Use your imagination.
Nothing is really forbidden in your own learning map. A learning map is a personal note-taking technique and whatever increases your use of it is permitted.
7. Rewrite the learning map.
Every time you rewrite the learning map you revise the material and you get rid of words you already know, words that are superfluous in one way or another.

Exercise:
“Time Management”
Go back in your thoughts to this important event in your life.

Suggested solution:

諧音法Homonymic Method

諧音法Homonymic Method

Homonymic method is about the word, number and thing which use others similar words to replace or substitute. The following table is the example of number.

number 數字諧音例字
0 零、陵、林、靈、麟、令
1 衣、醫、邑、已、意、椅
2 兒、耳、而、爾、珥、異
3 山、杉、散、珊、扇、婆
4 似、司、私、師、絲、材
5 吳、午、市、烏、物、我
6 劉、留、流、瘤、柳、老
7 奇、齊、氣、乞、企、漆
8 巴、叭、琶、把、鈸、化
9 糾、酒、就、舅、鳩、腳

How to use this table??
03 --> 靈山
54064 --> 我是你老師


Example:
1. To remember Pi or π ( 3.141592653589793238462643383279)
3.14159 265 358979 3238462643 383279
山顛一寺 一壺酒， 爾留我, 三胡把酒吃酒; 三兒三爸死留兒, 留四傘, 三爸三兒吃酒


2. To remember telephone number
For example: 8204 0102 --> 百事寧死　靈幽靈異



Conclusion:
You can use homonymic method to apply with another method such as story method.The first step is creating the similar words to replace the specific things. Then, using the story method, you can use these words to create a story.

省略法 Acronyms

省略法 Acronyms

An Acronym is a word formed from the first or first few letters of several words. For example, HKSAR is an Acronym for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Sometimes, people will make all of the words to be a simple sentence or even a song.

Extended Acronyms is one of the popular forms of Acronym -when a sentence or verse is created from the first letter of each word to help us remember certain pieces of information in sequence.

By applying the acronyms, people can remember more products names or features. Let’s practice more! The following is the example.

Example 1: “Roy G. Biv”
It is the order of the spectrum, in order from left to right.
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet

Example 2: Remember the China provinces
These four sentences can include all China Provinces from Mr. Zhou, En Lai (周恩來).

兩湖兩廣兩河山
五江雲貴福吉安
四西兩寧青甘陝
還有內台北上天

1. 兩湖兩廣兩河山
兩湖﹕湖南、湖北
兩廣﹕廣東、廣西
兩河山﹕河南、河北、山東、山西

2. 五江雲貴福吉安
五江﹕江蘇、浙江、江西、黑龍江、新疆(「疆」的國語同「江」相同)
雲﹕雲南 貴﹕貴州 福﹕福建
吉﹕吉林 安﹕安徽

3. 四西兩寧青甘陝
四﹕四川 西﹕西藏
兩寧﹕寧夏、遼寧
青﹕青島 甘﹕甘肅 陝﹕陝西

4. 還有內台北上天
內﹕內蒙古 台﹕台灣
北﹕北京 上﹕上海 天﹕天津

The Story Method

The Story Method is one of the techniques for memorizing many things. Use a story as the link to remember a set of words or sequence of activities. When we were small, we heard a lot of bedtime stories, like Snow White, Three Little Pigs, etc. Up till now, we can still remember the details of the story. Hence, we find it is a good way to memorize things. “Make the story vivid and easy to remember, with silly things happening and with strong sensory content.” The story can be silly and unreasonable. Just like sometimes we can remember almost all of the “broken gags” we have heard but cannot remember the theories we have learnt from the academic subjects.
(Ref: http://changingminds.org/techniques/memory/story.htm, retrieved on 2/3/2009)

The following is the suggestion:
有一個人的肚子很餓，於是他去買甘蔗吃，忽然聞到一陣香水味，他就說︰「好香啊﹗」因為甘蔗是冰的，他吃了覺得很冷，所以穿上外套，吃完了甘蔗，覺得餐後潔牙很重要，所以趕快用牙刷刷牙，刷完牙後，踩到一顆雞蛋，蛋黃流出來，害他滑了一跤，撞到了一棵樹，他抬頭一看，樹上都是神奇寶貝的貼紙，他想起等一下將上演神奇寶貝，於是急急忙忙回家看電視，趕路趕得太累了，覺得很口渴，拿起杯子想裝水喝，一不小心把杯子摔到地上弄破了，只好趕緊拿掃把把碎片掃起來。

Is the story silly? Yes, it is. But it can help us to remember things more. In addition, if the story is full of exaggeration (誇張), it also helps us to memorize the items better!

Now try to remember the following things (in correct sequence) within 3 minutes:
毛巾 -> 火車 -> 士兵 -> 枕頭 -> 樹葉 ->
花貓 -> 太陽帽 -> 保齡球 -> 河流 -> 旋轉木馬 ->
電腦 -> 蘋果 -> 火柴 -> 森林 -> 草蜢 ->
公主 -> 鉛筆 -> 草裙 -> 雨傘 -> 小鳥

Remark: Don't use a pen/pencil to jot down the words or even draw the pictures.

By using the Story Method, you can memorize more items this time. Hope you enjoy this! Now, it’s time for you to create your own story!

First Exercise - Enjoy yourself!

The following is the video regarding the first practice, please enjoy yourself =]

After recognizing the magic of memory, let's do an exercise to test your brain capacity! Since it is much easier to understand and apply the memory technique in using our mother language, the following exercise will be demonstrated in Chinese. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.

The First Exercise:
甘蔗 -> 香水 -> 外套 -> 牙刷 -> 雞蛋 -> 樹 -> 貼紙 -> 電視 -> 杯子 -> 掃把
Within 1 minutes, try to remember these words as much as you can.

Remark: Don't use a pen/pencil to jot down the words or even draw the pictures.

Time yourself and start the exercise now!

Tips: Remember to activate your brain before doing this exercise!! ^^ It can help you to enhance the brain capacity =]