Episode 41: Memory Tips & Tricks

What do onions on your head and spaghetti behind your ear have to do with memory? In this fun episode, Donielle and Khrystyna put their brains to the test with a wacky grocery list challenge and share creative tricks for remembering things—from visualization to music and more. 

Show Notes

Transcript

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D             Welcome to Coffee and Conversation for ESL Listening. I'm Donielle.

K             And I'm Khrystyna, so grab a cup and join the conversation.

D             Hello and happy Monday.

K             Yeah, happy Monday, gosh. For some reason today doesn't feel like Monday. I don't know why. I must have had a good night's sleep.

D             No. that's good. Good night's sleep is key. Yes. Well, what are you up to? Anything these days? Anything new?

K             Yes. Well, mostly work, home, you know, all that stuff. But a couple weekends ago, I went all the way to the border of Wisconsin and Iowa, and I went camping. 

D             No. No way.

K             Oh yeah, tent camping. I thought we were going to stay in the cabin, but I was fooled.

D             Wait a minute, so your husband tricked you into staying in a tent?

K             Well, not necessarily. We went there with friends who have a couple of kids my son's age. And at first when we were planning this, I thought we were going to stay in a cabin. And then like last minute they're like, oh no, we're just going to go stay in the tent and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, great. 

D             I am not a tent girl, let me tell you.

K             You know, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

D             That’s good.

K             It wasn't too bad, and you know when I camp, I camp with the mattress and a fan...

D             Yeah, I need all the…there's an expression, roughing it, like when you have none of the modern conveniences or anything, you're just like in a tent and you’ve got to cook outside and all that stuff. I am not a roughing it kind of gal. I don't mind glamping.

K             Glamping is the right way to go about it. But it was fun. We went to a lot of orchards because we were right on the Mississippi River in this beautiful park. It was like a state park and right across the river on the Wisconsin side, they have this country road that is full of orchards one after another. So there was a lot of apple eating and apple cider donut eating and sampling all of the apple ciders and cheese and yeah, it was great actually. It was wonderful. We didn't do the cooking that we just did one night with hot dogs and s'mores and stuff over the fire. But we didn't do the whole camping cooking; kind of took it easy.

D             Yeah, it’s a lot of work to do all that.

K             You have to plan everything. But this was easy. We just got up and went to all those orchards. But the best part, the weather was absolutely perfect.

D             That's great. You know, I heard it's unusually for your area warm these days, which is really weird.

K             Well, and perfect was because it was like higher 70s during the day and about 50s at night. So it was nice and chilly at night, but not cold to sleep and just comfortable during the day. Because last time we went camping in June, closer here, it was probably like 200 degrees outside. It was horrible. It was miserable.

D             Okay, she is exaggerating, but I know these numbers may sound weird because we're the only people who use Fahrenheit. But anyway, just know that cool, no, 50 is cool-ish, no, quite cool. 70s is, I guess, acceptable. Yeah.

K             So…no, it was beautiful. The weather was beautiful. The views were gorgeous and apples were delicious. 

D             Ah, well, you know, what else can you ask for?

K             So what about you? I haven't talked to you in a while. So what has been going on with you? 

D             No, nothing very exciting. It's, you know… nothing.

K             No way.

D             Well, the only thing is I started this goofy little like eight week, supposedly eight-week challenge of doing exercise and eating healthy and stuff like that. And man, I get really hungry and I get really crabby. But today I did a three mile walk and I came home and I showered, hence the wet hair, and I actually ate dinner before we talked. Amazing. And so now my body is thinking it's time to go to bed. 

K             well, we're going to keep you awake for the next half an hour.

D             Yeah, body's a little confused.

K             I was wondering, this is really strange that you ate before our recording.

D             I know I wasn't going to make it. mean, seriously, I was already like, grrr get out of my way. 

K             You were hangry.

D             I was hangry. You know it. All right. Well, we've done enough chatting here about all that. So we have a fun topic today. I think it's fun. I don't know. We'll see where it goes. But, I suggested this topic because I am super interested in things like psychology. Like why we do things, how things, how our brain does things, you know. And as a teacher, and I also, I try to learn things too along the way. I noticed that memory and how we learn - it's very interesting. Like your brain has a lot of different tricks and there's different ways to do it. And I'm very fascinated with it. So I thought that'd be a fun topic to talk about. All right, so you don't even have any idea where I'm going with this. So you just sit back and...

K             Now this is interesting, this episode is going to be interesting because I have no idea what you have on your mind today.

D             I know. Well, neither do I half the time, but anyway. Okay, so I wanted to start off by talking about one really good tip or trick, I guess I could say about trying to remember things. Because I don't know about you. I feel like sometimes it's hard to remember stuff - like I'm trying to learn…, and I'll learn something or I'll learn the meaning of a word and then the next day I'll be like, what the heck was that? Sometimes not even the next day, sometimes like five minutes later, wait, what?

K             You know, the thing is, I feel like the times have changed. So I used to be able to remember so many more things. And now because there's all these tools and technology that we're relying on, you don't have to.  You don't engage your memory, you don't engage your brain as much. So you're relying on all this other stuff to give you reminders, your calendars, you know, even like doctor's offices, they call you or text you before your appointment. I mean, there were so many times that I would get a text message from one of the doctors like, your appointment is in three days. And I'm like, shoot, I had an appointment? 

D             Oh, that’s me – all the time.

K             So yeah, so I feel like our memories just because of the evolution and development of all these tools and technology, our memory is kind of suffering.

D             You're so right. If you think about how many telephone numbers do you know by heart? I know exactly two. That's sad. I'm sorry, three including my own. Woo!

K             And yeah, that's about right. In the past I had to know phone numbers for parents and friends and uncles and aunts and cousins. And now I don't have to. I just press on their name on my phone and that's it.

D             Yeah. On the other hand, I guess, you know, that leaves more room in our wrinkles for other information, the wrinkles of our brain. But I do find that it's difficult to remember things. And sometimes you just need a little trick and there are a lot of them. And it's just so interesting how the brain works is all I can say. But one of my favorite tips is about visualizing something. And I'm going to get more into that in a couple of minutes, but first we're going to do something fun and you're going to be my guinea pig. 

K             Oh boy!

D             And for those out there, what's a guinea pig? It's a little animal that they would do tests on. And so sometimes we joke and we're like, we're going to do something for the first time. We're trying something new. The person, AKA the victim, is the guinea pig. So you're my guinea pig. 

K             Alright.

D             You're like, all right. 

K             Do what you must.

D             Okay. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to have you imagine something, but you got to really visualize it and you've got to imagine very clearly in your mind – you’ve got to get this image in your mind. Okay. As I'm talking about it, you can't write anything down, but you're going shopping and you've got a grocery list of 10 things you need to buy, but you cannot write it down. So I'm going to give you some information, visualization technique. I want you to think about it. And then at the end of the time, we'll see if you remember it. Okay? And for those of you listening, you can play along too. Don't write anything down, don't cheat and see how well you do. Okay, you ready? 

K             Alright.

D             You're like, I don't know. It'll be fun, come on. The other thing is when you're doing a visualization technique like this, the crazier the image is the better because that's going to help you remember. So, you know, these are weird images. Don't think I'm losing my mind. It's actually for a reason. Okay. All right. So you go into the grocery store. Here's what you're going to do. You walk in. Now, the first thing you need to do is you need to get a can of tomato soup, but it's way on the top shelf.So you're going to tip, tip, tip, tip toes, stand on your toes and stretch and reach and get that can of tomato soup. Okay? 

K             Ok, got it.

D             Now, wandering through the grocery store, you're going to go to the produce section and you want some strawberries. So you pick up these strawberries and they fall to the ground and - I know it's terrible, poor little strawberries -and so you get on your knees and you kneel down and you pick those strawberries up, put them in your basket. Next, you need some paper towels. So you're going to walk over to that section and you kind of got a lot of stuff in your hands. So you got the paper towels in one hand and you're going to like kind of hold it up against your thigh, the upper part of your leg, okay? Next, you’re getting a little bit hungry. So as you're walking around, you're thinking, man, I'm really hungry. So as you grab for a loaf of bread, you're kind of rubbing your stomach like, I'm hungry.

K             I am running out of hands here with all these things I'm picking up at the grocery store.

D             Don't worry about that. This is imaginary. You have lots of hands. Okay. Now, talking about s'mores before, you're going to get some marshmallows. So you're going to go over to that section and there's a bunch of bags and you just kind of like push them around with your elbow and you know, because your hands are full, you're push it around and grab that with your elbow. Next, well, we made a mistake. We forgot something in the produce section. So we're going to go back to the produce section. You need a watermelon. So you're going to take your knuckles, right? The knuckles on your fingers and rap, rap, rap, rap, rap and see how that watermelon sounds. Okay?

K             I am totally out of hands. Where am I going to carry this watermelon?

D             Don't worry about it. This is fantasy. Everything's fine. Okay, now you need some flour because you're to do some baking later on. And there's some spilled flour on the shelf and you take your finger and you just kind of like run through the flour on the shelf and you put your initials with your finger in the spilled flour. All right, now you need some eggs because you're baking, right? So you're going to take one of those eggs and you're going to hold it underneath your chin. I told you it's crazy. Okay.

K             Okay.

D             Now let's not forget about dinner, okay? So you're going to go to the pasta aisle and you're going to grab some spaghetti and pull out a couple of those long strands of spaghetti and just stick it behind your ear.

K             Oh my gosh.

D             Okay, last thing. Okay, here you go. Now you need to -- foolish us. We forgot another thing at the produce section. 

K             Oh, for Pete’s sakes!

D             I know. So you're going to grab an onion and you're going to balance that on top of your head. Do one of those like model walks where you have the onion on top of your head and try to walk carefully.

K             While I'm holding the egg between my chin and my neck and a watermelon 

D             Mm-hmm. It's all fantasy.

K             Okay, so you got that? Okay, cool. All right. So, we're going to come back to that later. I know it's crazy, but the idea is you do something visually and you're moving around from place to place and you're making some kind of an association with each one of these things. Hopefully it helps you remember, but let's see. Okay, so another thing about visualization. Have you ever, I don't know, when you were learning English or even like even in your native language, have you ever heard a word and thought, I can't ever seem to remember what this word is. And so you make some kind of an image in your mind to kind of help you remember it.

K             Right, yes, yeah, absolutely. A lot of the times, it's almost kind of like when you are going somewhere and you need to remember your way and you look for these landmarks, right? These images or something to memorize the way to get there. I feel like that's the same way of when you learn a language. You have some sort of association, some sort of visual thing to help you remember that. 

D             I have an example for myself that, and this isn't even learning another language. Many years ago, I still remember this, because I think it was funny, that I came across this word, and I didn't know what it meant. And so I looked it up, and the word was sycophant. And it's kind of a weird word. Well, it means to, it's a very academic word, so it's not that important, but it means someone who is overly like praising someone to gain their favors and … you're the best. You're the most wonderful. Oh, thank you. Thank you. You know? And so I looked at the word and like, okay, that's nice. And then like the next day, I swear I came across the same word. I'm like, how is this possible? And I couldn't remember what the word meant. I'm like, this is annoying. So I looked it up second time and I saw the definition again.

The next time I came across that word, I still didn't remember. I said, this is getting annoying. Like, what is wrong with you, brain? So I'm like, okay, I need a visualization. So I imagine a boardroom meeting and they're all, all the people in the meeting were elephants because this word sycophant kind of looks like elephant and they're all elephants, but they're sick. They're sick elephants. And they're blowing their noses, their long noses, and they're coughing, and they're praising their boss, and they're just like, you're so wonderful. And so I put that image in my mind and I never forgot it. So, yeah.

K             You know, sometimes I feel like when I was learning English. when you make a mistake, right? When you either mispronounce a word or you say it incorrectly or you say it with the wrong meaning, like, you know, in the wrong context, I feel like that helps you remember that word. You're like, oh now I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life. when I was, my gosh, maybe second grader. So I was just starting to learn English and all that. And I had to tell my teacher about my grandparents. And my teacher asked me, well, what do your grandparents do? And I told her that my grandparents are retarded. They don't work anymore.

D             Oh no!

K             Well, I didn't know what that meant, but it sounded close

D             Very similar.

K             So then my teacher, you know, of course, giggled and she said, no, if they don't work, you mean retired. And I remember that word retired for the rest of my life and not to mix it [up] with the other one.

D             Exactly. Oh yeah, and there are so many words like certain languages have false friends where they sound like a word you know in your language and is absolutely not. And you can really embarrass yourself by making the mistake, but you probably only will do it once. 

K             Right, right, because then you'll remember.

D             Yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah, absolutely. So that's another reason not to be afraid of mistakes because that's just going to help you.

K             Right, right. You’re going to learn.

D             Awesome. All right, so visualizing, that's one thing that I do. I also think that connecting with songs is so good. Wow. I mean, did you ever learn anything from a song? 

K             From the lyrics? Yes.

D             And then years later you still remember it? 

K             The problem is that when I listen to songs, usually I can't hear half of the lyrics. So I hear one thing and then when I actually see the lyrics and I'm like, oh man, this is not what I thought the song was about.

D             There's actually a word for that because it happens so often that people mishear words. I forgot what it's called though. [The word I was trying to think of was “mondegreen”] I guess I need to visualize it.

K             Visualize that. But, but no, that's true. There's a lot of a lot of words you could learn through songs, a lot of phrases. For example, like I don't remember the name of the song, but the one of the phrases was, I'm losing my religion. But my husband said, actually, it means you lose your patience, right? You’re kind of out of patience.

D             I didn't even know what that meant. I took that literally. I thought they were losing their religion.

K             Yeah, that's what I thought it was, but apparently the meaning is losing your patience. So sometimes you just even learn different expressions and you know, so, but that kind of stuck with me. I was like, sometimes I'll be like, come on, I'm losing my religion here.

D             That's so funny. Wow, I learned something new. Yeah, and sometimes too, like if you want to remember something, if you even just like sing a goofy little tune to whatever it is you're trying to remember, it's amazing. Like the connection between music and memory is huge. I remember when I was probably in fourth grade, we did some kind of little school event or like little concert or something like that. And there was a song called 50 Nifty United States. And within the song, you sing all 50 states in alphabetical order. And that was like a million years ago, because I was in fourth grade. And to this day, I can still do that. I can recite all 50 states in alphabetical order. I wouldn't have ever been able to do that if someone gave me a list of the states and they're like, have at it, girl. And I'd be like, no.

K             No, that's true because…well, think of it now too. The kids, Like at preschool or even when they're even younger. Parents sing to them. At school they say, right, they learn about those nursery rhymes and little just like a chant song, and all that. That's how they learn things. That's how they learn different words and well, 50 states. Like my kid, a couple of years ago, they were learning about continents. He came home and he kept singing the song about continents, but he surely knows his continents.

D             Exactly. He'll probably always remember it. It's weird. They also have some of these grammar kind of songs and things like that. They used to do the what was that called? The Schoolhouse Rock. And, you know, people would remember that for years. And it's just amazing. Like if you just tried to remember something that someone told you or that you read, you'd never remember it like that. So anyway. That's a good tip, I think, that if you can find some way to associate it with music, it's awesome. Now I'm just going to throw out some things that I think are helpful about helping study in general. And there's some science to this. I agreed with this and then I'm like, oh yeah, there's actually some science behind this. Writing notes by hand, you know. Everything is digital now and we want to just put it on our phone or type it or something, but by hand.

K             I was just going to say that. Like that's one of the things that helped me a lot to learn words. I know that when my son was learning spelling, I would make him actually write the words by hand several times. And I know that helped me a lot too. Like when I was learning language, just writing the words, writing the phrases. There's that muscle memory, right?

D             Yep, exactly. Yeah. And related to that, this is something that I kind of discovered on my own and I'm like, huh, I wonder if there's any studies about this. So I Googled it and yeah, it's true. I noticed sometimes I'll go for a walk and I'm listening to a podcast. Because I’m trying to get better at my Spanish. But I noticed that I am remembering more from my walks than just sitting like in my house listening to the same podcast. But I'm able to remember the words and the phrases better. There's something about that movement - while you're moving your body and learning at the same time. And there were some studies on it. Really fascinating. I'll have to link that in the show notes.

K             That’s very interesting.

D             Yeah. So, if that's something that y'all can do out there, you know, take a podcast, this one or anything else, something interesting that you like, and just get out there and take a little walk and see if it makes a difference. I definitely think it does. So let us know. What else? Oh, I love this tip, talking to yourself. It's… again, it's the same thing. It's like, you know, involving more senses than just, you know, hearing or seeing something, you know, you're talking it out, you're using your body, your muscles and your mouth and all of that. There's just something about that, that really seems to help.

K             Especially with pronouncing words, the more you get your mouth used to it, to those sounds, the different articulation, the better it is.

D             Exactly. You know, I tell my students this all the time, like especially if they only see me once or twice a week or something like that and they'll say, oh, I don't have anyone to practice with. And I say, this sounds dumb probably, but you're at home by yourself all day. Just talk to yourself, to your pet. Who cares? You know, they're not going to judge you.

K             Well, and you talk to yourself in a different language, that will help you eventually start thinking in that language. And that first summer when I was in the United States, I was talking to somebody, a stranger actually on the bus, and he was asking me about learning language and all that. And he said, you know, they say that you finally step over that language barrier when you start thinking in that language. 

D             It's hard to get there, but yeah.

K             It is hard to get there, but you become more cognizant of that. You become more intentional when you start thinking in the language too that you're learning. And eventually then it becomes natural.

D             And the idea I think really is that you want to activate all parts of your brain when you're learning, especially a language, you know? So whatever you’ve got to do, talk, read, think, sing, walk around and listen. It's all going to be helpful.

K             Yep, absolutely.

D             And something to get it to stick in there. All right, so that's all about learning. One other thing I want to say real quick, we may go a little bit over today, because we got a little bit chatty, but anyway. The other thing that I love to do is you've heard of mnemonic devices, right? Where if you have to remember a list of things, like they do this in school all the time with kids, like the order of the planets. They'll take the first letter of each planet in order and they'll assign a word to it. I had to write it down because I this was a new one to me. They used to have a different one when I was growing up. But the one I saw today was: “My very educated mother just served us nachos.” So, again, something silly, right? You know, but each one of those words represents the letter, you know, so you’ve got My, which is Mercury, Very, which is Venus, and so on and so forth. So things like that are really helpful. I remember when I was…I don't know if I was in high school or what it was, but I had to take a geography test. And you may have heard, but Americans are real bad at geography. And I am no exception. So I'm looking…

K             Oh, I've experienced that firsthand. 

D             From me?

K             No, not from you, but in general.

D             I was like, what did I do? No. But yeah, so I'm looking at this map of Europe and I'm like, oh man. And I did pretty, pretty well. But then there were those three countries, Sweden and Finland and Norway. And I knew they were up there somewhere, but I couldn't remember what order they were in. So I'm like, all right, that's it. I have to get a mnemonic device. So I'm like, okay. [from left to right] It's Norway and then it's Sweden and then it's Finland. That's NSF. I'd heard before, non-sufficient funds having to do with like when you don't have enough money in your bank account. And I'd heard that phrase before. So I'm like, all right, non-sufficient funds, cool. And again, years later, I remember where those countries are.

K             Yes, yeah. Isn't there one of those when you learn conjunctions?

D             Conjunctions. Oh yeah. FANBOYS. Yep. For and nor, but, or, yet, so - yeah. Yeah. And it helps exactly. Yeah. All right. So, the last thing that I wanted to talk about is, don't know about you, but I struggle with this. Like if I have to do something, say the next day, and I'm like, okay, I’ve got to do it. If I just tell myself I have to do it, I'll forget, you know, or if I have to bring something somewhere, you know, I'll be out of the house, gone. So I have to do little tricks to help me remember. Do you have a problem with that or is it just me?

K             Well, tell me about your tricks and then I'll tell you what I have to do in my old age.

D             Okay, okay. All right. So, well, first of all, a lot of times people make themselves a note, right? They'll write a note, bring XYZ, to work tomorrow and you stick it on the door. So when you walk out, you'll see it, okay, I got to go grab that. But the interesting thing about that is that I find that just going through the motion, and this goes back to what we talked about before, writing things down. Just going through the motion of writing the note is almost all I need because the next morning I'll get up, I’m getting ready and I’ll remember, there's that note on the door. It's really interesting how your brain works.

K             So I've heard that sometimes people, to remember they have to do something, they would tie a little piece of yarn on their wrist and every time they look at it, they'll remember I have to do this.

D             I feel like I would just forget that it was there. 

K             I feel like I would have so many pieces of yarn that it would cover my whole arm there.

D             I know, right? Well, one thing that is interesting and I… this happens to me sometimes, you know, I'm cooking and then I'm putting the food away and it's kind of hot. And so I want it to sit on the counter. So I clean up, I leave it on the counter and then I go about my evening and then I go to bed and I forget that food was on the counter, right? So I'm like, argh. So what I started doing was as soon as I put on the counter, I go to my bed, I take the pillow and I put it to the foot of the bed. So just having something out of place, you walk in there and you're like, what the heck is that doing there? Oh yeah!

K             Oh, that's a good idea to remember. Because I've noticed that sometimes I'll be doing something, I was like, you know what? I’ve got to check on this. Or like even if I'm on my phone and I'm reading something and I'll be like, I need to check about this, this and that. And then literally I turn around and I'm like, what was I supposed to check? It's like a second. 

D             I know!

K             Or you know, they make memes and jokes about this, but how many times did I walk into the kitchen? I was like, why am I here?

D             Open the fridge, what am I here for?

K             Like, why am I here? Or I go around the counter top and I was like, what was I supposed to do? Why am I in this part of the kitchen?

D             I know sometimes I have to go back to where I started from and stand there and look around and be like, okay, so what was I doing that made me think?

K             Retrace - I do that quite a bit in my head lately Like I will retrace my thoughts to try to remember where I was going with it. Which is ridiculous. But you're saying that you have to write it down. I do the same thing especially at work when I have a lot of things going on - I have like a little Post-it Note like a digital Post-it Note. And I have to write things down and then kind of cross it off. Otherwise, well, not otherwise, but also my office is filled with Post-it Notes everywhere.

D             I know. Sometimes I would have like Post-it Notes sticking all over each side of my computer. It gets ridiculous. And again, it's like the string thing, you know, after a while you get so used to seeing the Post-it Notes there that it doesn't do any good. And you're like, oh, it's just part of my decor.

K             I need to be better at remembering until if I did it, I need to pull the Post-it note and throw it away rather than just keeping it up there.

D             That's true, I do that too. All right, well, we've gone a little bit over, but now I need to see what's on your grocery list, girl, do you remember?

K             What's on my grocery list? You mean my visual? What I visualized?

D             Yes, yes. And for those who are listening, if you played along, can pause here and write it down real quick and see if you remembered them.

K             So the image I had in my head was...

D             Yeah, you don't have to saw the images. Just tell me what's on the grocery list. That's it. 

K             What I bought? 

D             Yeah.

K             Oh, a can of tomato soup. Marshmallows, strawberries, some spaghetti behind my ear, one egg.

D             Hey, how can you forget that crazy one, right?

K             Flour

D             Yes.

K             Onion and watermelon.

D             Mm-hmm. One more.

K             Shoot, what was one more? 

D             Oh no, two more, two more, sorry.

K             marshmallows… 

D             You did pretty good though.

K             I don't remember. What else?

D             Paper towels and bread.

K             Yes! Paper towels and bread. I was so concerned about the egg not falling out from under my chin that I forgot about paper towels and bread.

D             I think I made it so weird for you. You're like, this is too weird. I don't even know what I'm listening to. But anyway, you did a pretty good job. 

K             That's right, I put that paper towel on my hip.

D             Yeah, exactly. And then your bread was because you were hungry and you're rubbing your stomach. Yeah.

K             That's right. Some sort of an extra hand. Here and out of nowhere it was rubbing my stomach.

D             You're too focused on that. I told you this is unrealistic. It's fantasy. You don't have to make sense out of it.

K             Crazy, that's what it... No, it's a cool, it's a really cool trick. I like that. That's good. That was good.

D             Yeah, I thought that was fun. Okay, well, so I want to remind everybody, show notes, grab the show notes. We'll have some vocabulary, maybe the links about some things that we talked about, some articles and whatnot. What else, what else? Yeah, just check those show notes out. Oh, and also we have the transcript. So, you want to get that from the website, not directly from your podcast platform because it's not as good. And what else? So, if you have any good tricks out there for remembering things, or if you liked any of these ideas and you want to let us know, give us a shout out. There is a link called Join the Conversation or something like that. So you can click on that and just let us know what you're thinking. But until next time, here's to good coffee, good vibes, and great conversations. Cheers.