Well, practice the peg word system and try memorizing some things.
You'll be amazed! For a more advanced example, here's a slightly
longer explanation of the list of countries and capitals that I
mentioned in the last section that I had memorized.
My list looks like this:
1. Canada, Ottawa
2. USA, Washington
3. Mexico, Mexico City
4. Belize, Belmopan
5. Guatemala, Guatemala
6. El Salvador, San Salvador
7. Honduras, Tegucigalpa
: : :
222. Cook Islands, Avarua
223. French Polynesia, Papeete
224. Pitcairn Island, Adamstown
So I've memorized 224 countries and capitals, and by number, too!
Of course, the numbers I assigned myself, but they are still useful
because 1) when going through the list to practice recalling countries
and capitals, I'm sure not to skip any, and 2) I assigned numbers so
that two countries that are next to each other in the list are also
usually touching each other on a map (this gives me an approximate
geography).
For 100-109, I used 00 to 09. For 110-125, I invented my own peg words
with bizarre associations. For example, 110 reminds me of Michigan's
110th state representative district and a prominent politician which
sounds similar to the word "trash", so 110 is trash. It was an experiment
and it took a long time to memorize those peg words, but I have them now.
For 126-199, I appended my entries for 26-99 with additional information,
like this:
26. Grenada, St. George's + Nigeria, Lagos
27. Barbados, Bridgetown + Cameroon, Yaounde
28. St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Kingstown + Equatorial Guinea, Malabo
29. St. Lucia, Castries + Sao Tome & Principe, Sao Tome
: : : : :
For 200-209, I appended to 00-09, and for 210-224, I appended to 110-124.
Of course, there are probably many other ways to do this... if you're
interested in memorizing countries and capitals, try to think of the way
that works best for you! Have fun!
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Document last modified
27 May 00. (C) 1996-2000
Kevin Jay North; see also full
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