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Time English Language 2 Action
00:00
Translator: Queenie Lee Reviewer: Tanya Cushman
00:14
So, I have a little test for you.
00:17
Don't panic.
00:19
I'm not here to judge you.
00:21
It's just a little test, OK?
00:23
First, you get 30 seconds to memorize 10 words in the right order.
00:29
After that, you get 30 seconds to write down what you remembered.
00:34
And then finally, you get 30 seconds to check your answers.
00:38
So, are you guys ready?
00:40
Well, we're going to start anyway.
00:43
So,
00:45
memorize 10 words in the right order in 30 seconds
00:49
in three, two, one, go!
01:22
OK. Stop.
01:24
Now write down what you remember.
01:58
OK, and stop.
02:00
Now quickly check your answers.
02:24
OK, and stop.
02:32
Very exciting; I heard a lot of grunting and moaning.
02:35
So I hope I didn't stress you out too much.
02:39
Now a moment of reflection.
02:42
I'd like you to ask yourself,
02:46
"How did I memorize this, and was it the best way to do it?"
02:56
Now, for the generation of my parents and grandparents,
03:00
being able to memorize something like this was an absolutely essential skill.
03:04
But nowadays, why would anyone want to remember a list of anything?
03:08
You just take a picture of the screen, and you're done, right?
03:16
it seemed as if memorizing has somehow become less important.
03:19
So why should we then, in today's day and age,
03:22
still want to get better at memorizing?
03:25
Well, to answer that question, I'd like to tell you a little story.
03:29
In high school, I flunked a grade, twice.
03:34
After seven years of torture, I finally got my diploma.
03:39
Sweet, sweet freedom!
03:42
What would I do with it?
03:43
I didn't know.
03:45
One thing I did know, however,
03:46
was that I didn't want to go back to school
03:49
because that old learning business,
03:52
it wasn't cut out for me.
03:54
So instead, I went to sunny California for nine months,
03:59
and there I worked as a bagger, not beggar - bagger.
04:03
So in a supermarket,
04:04
I had to put people's groceries in bags, and then I'd get a little tip.
04:10
Surprisingly, that year I learned so much.
04:14
I learned how to bag a bunch of groceries really, really quickly.
04:18
I learned how to drive a car.
04:20
And in California,
04:21
people are a little bit more open than they are in Amsterdam.
04:24
So I also learned how to have a little chat with a stranger,
04:28
just for the hell of it.
04:30
That year I discovered that I don't hate learning,
04:33
just the specific way of doing it.
04:36
So I decided to go and study psychology.
04:39
Now for the first time ever,
04:41
I was getting information that I absolutely wanted to know.
04:44
Now I was spending more time in the library
04:47
than I spent skipping school as a teenager, voluntarily.
04:52
The only problem was that I was spending all of my time in the library
04:57
because I'd never learned how to learn.
04:59
So I started experimenting with different methods of reading texts,
05:04
of memorizing texts,
05:05
and I got my reading time of three hours per chapter down to one.
05:10
This way of studying enabled me to do an honors program,
05:15
to get my degree,
05:17
and to fall in love with learning.
05:19
And now I happily work for a company called Remind,
05:24
in which we teach people the science and art of learning.
05:28
We're trying to bring back into education what we ourselves missed.
05:32
Now for the past three years,
05:34
we've also organized the Dutch National Memory Championships
05:37
for high schoolers.
05:39
We do this to show that everybody is capable of amazing feats of memory,
05:44
but also to show that memorization
05:47
is about a lot more than just learning your French or your Spanish words.
05:52
And today I'd also like to share this with you.
05:55
So, in the beginning,
05:57
I made you do this little test,
06:00
just to make you aware of how you're memorizing things right now.
06:04
Next, I'd like to give you a new type of memory experience.
06:08
This time you can even sit back and relax.
06:11
So I'm going to ask you to find a comfortable position to sit,
06:16
to close your eyes, and to take a deep breath.
06:24
Now, I want you to think of someone you know called John,
06:31
and I want you to see him.
06:34
Now, John just grabbed the sun out of the sky,
06:39
and he just threw it on your feet.
06:41
And now your feet are getting really big and red and swollen
06:45
because John just threw the sun on your feet.
06:50
Now you look to your knees,
06:54
and on your knees, you see 10 little guys playing basketball -
06:58
very strange sight.
07:00
And on their shirts,
07:02
you can see in brightly colored letters the "New York Knicks,"
07:07
so you have some Knicks on your knees.
07:11
Next, you look to where your thighs are,
07:17
but they're gone.
07:19
Your thighs have been replaced with Fords, the cars.
07:23
They could be Ford Focuses or Ford Mustangs.
07:26
Your thighs have been replaced with Fords.
07:30
Now, with your bottom,
07:32
you feel a hard plastic seat of a go-kart vibrating.
07:38
With your bottom, you feel the hard plastic seat of a go-kart.
07:43
Your belly starts rumbling very loudly.
07:47
So you follow your belly, and it leads you to McDonald's,
07:52
and there Ronald McDonald starts shooting rays of light at you
07:57
with a ray gun.
08:00
Ronald McDonald is shooting rays of light at you with a ray gun.
08:05
He hits you on your chest,
08:08
and now from your chest, a big bush of gray hairs is growing.
08:14
A huge bush of gray hair is growing from your chest.
08:18
So obviously, you hurry home to shave it off,
08:21
and on your doormat, you see a letter.
08:25
So you open it and it has good news.
08:30
As you read it, you feel a huge weight falling off your shoulders.
08:34
A huge weight falling off your shoulders.
08:36
Your shoulders get all light and tingly because you just paid all of your bills.
08:41
Big bills, little bills,
08:42
each and every bill has been paid for, and you have plenty of money to spare.
08:50
Now you proceed to the bathroom,