If you can’t make a meeting or event, you often may be able to get help by having a stand-in attend for you. Sometimes the substitute can even do it better than you.
Well, the same principle works in memory. If you have trouble learning or remembering a difficult word or name, especially a foreign one, you can better remember if you use a sub. This technique is ideal for remembering either unfamiliar words in English or foreign words.
Again, you use the principle of imagery and associations to create a connection between the word you want to remember and visualizations that make the word more memorable. As Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas describe in The Memory Book, “When you hear or see a word or phrase that seems abstract or intangible to you, think of something—anything—that sounds like, or reminds you of, the abstract material and can be pictured in your mind.”[1]
For example, the state name of Minnesota would become “mini soda,” a small bottle of soda, while Mississippi might become “Mrs. Sip.” Then, if you want to remember these in order, use the continuous or chain link system to create an association, such as a mini soda in a very small bottle and a married woman sipping from the small bottle.[2]
Or say you want to learn a new word like “endocarp”—which means a fruit pit. You might imagine yourself “ending” the carp by imagining yourself hitting the fish, with a very large fruit pit—an association suggested by Harry Lorayne in his Page-A-Minute Memory Book.[3]
Likewise, if you are struggling to learn foreign words, you can apply the same principle. For instance, as suggested by Lorayne,[4] to remember the French word for father, père, you might think of a large pear holding a baby in its arms, so you associate the substitute word with the meaning of the French word for father.
To remember the Japanese word sayonara, which means goodbye, you might see yourself sighing on air as you bid your goodbyes.
This same principle applies to remembering the long and often convoluted names of drugs or unusual food dishes. For example, take the hard-to-remember word hydrochlorothiazine, which is a medicine to take for high blood pressure. (Hopefully you won’t be needing it as you try to learn the principles in the book.) You might think of these associations:
Hydro—a plane with skis for landing on the water or a water plant
Chloro—a rainbow of colors with a big “HL” sign in the middle of it
Thi—a shapely woman’s thigh
Zine—a magazine on a Website, which is in fact called a “zine”
Or say you are trying to remember the name of the French vegetable stew ratatouille. You might think of a “rat” on a hotel roof climbing on a big letter “A,” falling down on a large number “2” on a hotel sign, and being chased by a “wee” little man.
The same principle can apply to remembering unusual names of people—or any names for that matter. For example, you are introduced to a man named Anthony Coddington. For the first name “Anthony,” you might think of an “aunt” and “honey,” visualizing your favorite aunt collecting honey from a hive. For the last name “Coddington,” you might visualize a “cod,” a ringing phone for “ding,” and a heavy weight with the writing “1 ton” on it. In short, you use compelling images to substitute for the syllables in the name, and then when you see that person again, the pictures you have created lead you to quickly recall the person’s name.
Besides using the substitution system to remember single words, you can use additional associations, such as between the word and its meaning, a state name and its capital, a name and a face, a person to an address, company, or phone number, and so on.
For example, to use another example adapted from Lorayne’s Memory Book, to remember that the capital city of Maryland is Annapolis, think of a beautiful girl named Mary landing on an apple.
Or supposed you want to remember that your new acquaintance Anthony Coddington is the CEO of the Redstone Mills Company. Use the imagery associated with his name above (your aunt collecting honey from a hive, a codfish lying beside a phone with a ding sound, and a 1 ton weight), and then see your aunt picking up a large red stone and taking it to a mill.
Now that you’ve gotten the basic idea, start practicing to put the sub system into operation.
Come up with your own list, such as by looking in a dictionary, foreign language book, phone book, or ad for drugs. Pick words you are interested in learning and are having trouble with. Say you are taking a class in a foreign language, are learning the names of families and species in a birding or biology class, or are trying to learn specialized words in a professional discipline. Each of these situations would involve unfamiliar words that you might need to learn.
First, break each word down into a series of substitute image words. Then, take some time to visualize the image associations to form the memory link.
To enhance your ability to use this technique, as well as have fun with it, play the Sub Words game with a group of people.
You can play it in two ways:
Sub Words Charades. Play individually—or if you have enough people, divide into pairs. In turn, each person or team will come up with a long word, foreign word, or personal name; secretly divide it into a series of images suggesting the whole word or a syllable of it, and indicate what category the substitute word is in. Then, as you take turns acting out those images, others will call out what the image is. The first person to get the image right gets a point. Keep going until all the images are identified or someone gets the whole correct word or name and scores an additional 3 points for that.
The winner is the player or team with the highest score after a complete round or series of rounds in which all players come up with and act out a word for the round.
Sub Words Picture Race. As in Sub Words Charades, you can play individually or form into pairs. Similarly, come up with a word or name and a series of images for each word or syllable, and say how many syllables it is. The difference here is that instead of acting out the images for the word, draw a picture of it, and show it to the group. The person who calls out the full word or name correctly scores 5 points. But otherwise, no one scores.
Then, show a second image picture besides the first. Again, anyone can call out the full word or name correctly and scores 5 points if they do.
But be careful in calling out your guesses that you don’t make a near miss and give away the correct answer to someone else.
The person with the highest score wins.