The confused and nervous speaker was introduced after
dinner. He approached the microphone and
murmured haltingly:
“My f-f-friends, wh-when I arrived here this evening only
Good and I know what I was going to say
to you. And now, only God knows!”
I GUESS that one of the most embarrassing thing that can
happen to a person is to forget a speech while in front of his audience. Next
to forgetting the speech is the embarrassment of faltering long as if you’re
not sure of what you have to say. Actually, it seems to me that anyone who is
asked to give a talk on any particular subject must know that subject pretty
well; otherwise why would he be asked to talk about it? No; speakers who falter or hesitate forgotten the next word-or
because they are fearful that they will forget the next word.
There, in my opinion, lies the problem. If a speech is
memorized word for word, and then a word, here and there, is forgotten; it
surely will not be delivered as it should be. Why should you have to grope for one particular word? If
you can’t think of it; why, use any other word that serves the same purpose.
Isn’t that much better than hemming and hawing until you remember the exact
phrasing just the way you memorized it?
The people who realized this felt that the next best thing
would be to simply read the speech. This solves the problem of forgetting
words, until you lose your place on the paper, and forget what you’re talking about altogether. Besides, it seems
to me that there is a subtle annoyance evident in an audience that is listening
to someone reading a speech word for word. I know I feel that way; he might
just as well have given me a printed copy of the speech to read at my own
leisure.
So, the next step seems to be not to prepare at all. (Well,
not quite.) Even if you are well versed
in your subject, you may forget some of the fact you want to speak about. As in
the case of the case of the itinerant preacher who always complained that
he made his best speeches on the way
home. All the he had forgotten to tell his listeners came to mind then, and his
horse usually got the best part of the speech.
I believe that the best way to prepare a speech is to lay it
out thought for thought. Many of our better speakers do just that. They simply
make a list if each idea or though that they want to talk about, and use this
list in lieu of notes. In this way, you
can’t forget words, since you haven’t memorized any. You can hardly lose your
place; one glance at your list will show you the next thought to put into
words.
But for those of you who would rather not rely on pieces of
paper—the Link method can help you easily. If you wish to memorize your speech
thought for thought, from the beginning to the end, you would be forming a
sequence. That’s why you would use the
Link method of memory to memorize it.
I would suggest that you go about it something like this:- First, write out or read the entire
speech. When you’re satisfied with it, read it over once or twice more to get
the “gist” of it. Now, get yourself a
piece of paper and start to list your KEY WORDS.
Read the first thought of the speech. This might be
contained in one, two or more sentences; it doesn’t matter, Now select one word
or phrase from these sentences which you think will bring the entire thought to mind! that is not at all difficult. In every sentence or paragraph there must be
one word or phrase which will remind you of the entire thought. That one word
or phrase is your Key Word.
After you have found the Key Word for the first thought,
find one for the next thought, and so on. When you’re through with whole
speech, you’ll have a list of Keys to remind you of each thing you want to say.
Actually, if you were to keep this list in front of you as you made the speech,
it would serve the purpose. But, if you’ve mastered the Link system, you know
that it is just as easy to make a link of these Key Words, and then throw away
the paper.
You might, for example, be giving a talk on your local
school problems at a parent-teacher Association meeting . Your list of Key
Words might look something like this:- crowds, teachers, fire, furniture,
subjects, playground, etc. In other words, you wish to start your speech with a
reference to the crowded conditions in the class rooms. Then you want to talk about the teachers; perhaps
about methods and salaries, etc. Now, you express your thoughts on discussion
on the state of the school’s furniture; the desks, chairs, blackboards,
equipment, and so on. Now, you would talk about your ideas on the subjects
taught, and finally, the recreation (playground) facilities of the speech!
At first, you may have to list, perhaps, two or three Key
Words for some thoughts. List as many of
them as you need, to remember the entire speech. As you use this idea, the
amount of Keys necessary will be less and less. And, most important, the confidence you gain by
knowing that you remember your talk will show when you deliver it. Just keep in
mind that you must take care of the thoughts; the words will take care of
themselves!
If, for some reason or other, you wish to memorize a speech
word for word, use the same method. You’ll just have to go over it more often.
Remember that all these systems are aids to your true memory. “if you remember
the main, the incidentals will fall into place.” You actually never forget
anything you’ve remembered, you just have to be reminded of it; the system in
this book will do that for you. So, if you remember the main thoughts of your
speech, the incidentals, the ifs, and and buts, will fall into place.
The same ideas are used to memorize any article you read, if
you desire. First read the article, of course, to get the gist of it. Then pick
out the Key Words for each thought; then make a link to remember them, and
you’ve got it. With a bit of practice, you’ll actually be able to do this as
you read.
Many times while reading for enjoyment, I’ll come across
some piece of information that I’d like to remember. I simply make a conscious
association of it, while I’m reading. This idea can, if used enough, speed up
your reading considerably. I think that most people are slow readers because by
the time they’ve reached the third paragraph, they’ve forgotten what was in the
first; so they have to jump back.
There is no need to associate everything; just the points
that you feel are necessary to remember. Perhaps, if you use my systems, you
will fall into the first class of readers in American educator, William Lyon
Phelps’ two classes. He once said, “I divide all readers into two classes;
those who read to remember and those who read to forget.”
The same system of linking Key Words can be used for
remembering lyrics and scripts. Of course, in this case it is usually necessary
to memorize them word for word. You will have to go over them more often, but
the Key Word idea will make the job that much easier for you. If you have
trouble memorizing your cues in a play, why not associate the last word of the
other actor’s line to the first word of your line. Even if your cue tells
you that you must perform an action,
instead of speaking a line, you can
still associate it. If the last word of the line prior to your action happens
to be, say, “walk”; and the script calls for you to stoop down to pick up a
cigarette butt-make a picture in your mind of yourself walking along and
continually stooping to pick up cigarette butts. (in this way you will never
walk on another actor’s lines.)
I’ll mention one other use of the Key Word idea, before
leaving it entirely. How many times have you wanted to tell your friends some
jokes or anecdotes that you recently heard, only to find that you’ve forgotten
them completely? You can hear a whole batch of really funny stories one day,
and have them all, or most of them, slip
your mind the next. Well, according to Irvin s. Cobb, “A good storyteller is a
person who has a good memory and hopes other people haven’t”.
Your memory for stories and anecdotes will improve
immediately if you use the Key Word system. Just take one word from the story,
a word from the punch line is usually best, that will bring the entire joke to
mind. When you get your key words, you can either link them to each other to remember all the
stories in sequence, or use the peg system to remember them by number.
Perhaps you’ve heard the gag that has been making the rounds
recently about the Flying saucer that landed in America. Out stepped a creature
from outer space-brushed himself off with one of his six arms, looked around
with the one large eye in the center of his forehead, and kept his antennae
alert for any sounds.
After exploring a bit, he finally approached a gas station,
walked over to the gasoline pump, saluted, and demanded, “take me to your
president”!
Well, if you hadn’t heard this before, and wanted to
remember it with perhaps ten or twelve other stories-you could use either flying
saucer, creature from outer space, or gasoline pump as your key word for this
story. Any one of these would surely bring the entire story to mind, if you
liked it in first place.
Although I’m sure that many of you will find some practical
use for it, one of the memory stunts I sometimes use in my shows is the
“magazine test.” This usually causes a
bit of comment because it seems to be the most amazing of memory feats.
Actually it is basic and simple.
What happens is this:-
The audience is given some copies of a current magazine. (I usually use
Tempo Magazine, which is published by the Enterprise Magazine management, inc.)
They are then asked to call
any page number, and I immediately tell them the highlights of that
particular page.
This is merely another use of the peg system of memory. In
some instances the link method is used in conjunction with the peg, as will be
explained directly. To memorize the pages of any picture magazine, all you have
to do is to associate the peg word that represents the page number to the
highlight of that page.
For example:- if page #1 has a picture of an airplane on it,
you would make a ridiculous association between “tie”(1) and airplane.
Page #2 might be an advertisement for shoe polish. Associate
“Noah” to shoe polish.
Page #3 has a picture of a horse on it. Associate “ma” to
horse.
Page #4 might have a picture of a circus scene; just
associate ”rye” to circus.
Page #5 is an advertisement for a television set. Associate
“law” to television set.
Page #6 is a book review. Associate “shoe” to book.
That’s all there is to it. If you go over the magazine and
highlights of every page. If a page has more than one picture on it, sue the
Link method to remember them. Assume that page #14 is a fashion page, and it
has a picture of a hat, one of gloves and a third of a dress.
First associate “tire” (14) to the first picture, which is
of a hat. Now, link hat to gloves, and then gloves to dress. When page #14 is
called, the peg word will remind you of hat; hat will tell you that the next
picture is of gloves, and gloves will remind you of dress.
If you have seen my performance, you know that I also tell
the audience on what part of the page the picture is located; whether it is on
the lower or upper left part of the page, upper or lower right, or center, etc.
well, you can do this too, and without any extra effort.
As I’ve already mentioned, your normal or true memory does
most of the work for you; these systems are just aids that make it easier. As
you use my systems you’ll find your true memory getting stronger. The best
example of this in memorizing a magazine. In order to make the associations in
the first place, you must really see and observe the picture on the page.
Because of this. When any page in your mind’s eye. You will know on what part
of yourself by trying it.
The only thing you will not be able to do as yet is to
remember the names of any people pictured on the pages. This problem will be
solved for you after you’ve read the chapters on remembering names and faces,
and how to utilize substitute words or thoughts.
Before reading any further, learn the last of the one
hundred peg words.
76. cage 82.
Phone 88.
Fife 94. Bear
77. coke 83.
Foam 89.fob 95. Bell
78. cave 84. fur 90.
bus 96. Beach
79. cob 85. file 91.
Bat 97. Book
80. fez 86. Fish 92. Bone 98. Puff
81.fit 87. Fog 93. Bum 99. pipe
100.
thesis or disease
For “cob,” picture corn on the cob. For “fit,”
you can picture an epileptic fit, or a girdle (tight fit). For “file,” you can
use either a filing cabinet or a nail file. “fob” is a watch fob. For “bat,’
picture a baseball bat. For “puff,” picture a ladies’ powder puff, and for
“pipe” see a man’s smoking pipe.
After learning these, you should b
e able to count from one to one hundred quickly, with your peg words only the beauty of it is that you don’t have to
take time out to practice them. If you’re traveling to work, or doing anything
that doesn’t require thought-you can go
over all the pegs in your mind. If you go
over them just every once in a while, they’ll soon be as familiar to you
as the numbers from one to one hundred.
No comments:
Post a Comment