A year has passed since I completed Jakub Pok's courses: Accelerated Foreign Language Learning, Basic Memory Course, and Advanced Memory Course.
I must say that I took all three courses in a "package" relatively soon after one another. I attended the Advanced Memory Course with "basic mistakes" – I didn't arrive rested at all, rather the opposite – regardless of the fact that it happened by coincidence.
Thus, I experienced the diametrical difference in how my brain functions when it is rested versus when it is sleep-deprived. For that reason, the following month I spent my free time "catching up" on what I had missed during the course. For example, I created my own long memory journey and practiced memorizing the order of a deck of cards.
Already in the basic course, which worked with the major system, it became clear to me that my brain does not process abstract things well that are hard to visualize. Therefore, my major system for storing numbers contains many of my own terms – and this also became an obstacle in the advanced course, where most people used the original major system – which also held me back (memorizing cards).
It probably would have been better to take the courses without modifying the major system, but what can you do – my brain needs a lot of stimulation.
As the year progressed, I worked on my materials – my own memory journeys, but they seem dead to me. Over time, I learned to create memory journeys out loud, just as Jakub Pok says everything out loud during the course. As soon as I go into silent mode, the information gets blurry and is harder to store. So when I study, I have to at least whisper to myself. One memory journey formed in my head while walking my dog, without me trying particularly hard.
Generally, memory journeys through "childhood houses" work better for me, like the house of my grandmothers and grandfathers, the house of my... well, I suppose it's because I used to be a homebody and liked staying everywhere. Or who knows – but I simply have them firmly established in my mind, and actually, only the points I can recall remained in my memories, with nothing non-essential there: There I see the shoe rack, there the armchair, here the banister, here the plywood door with a hole, here the telephone – and I don't have to struggle with creating a memory journey in my own apartment and the immediate surroundings – I really made shorter and longer journeys, yet I cannot rely on them. So I use memory journeys from the basic introductory course – and the journeys "home from childhood".
I say I use them, but the truth is that after a year, I haven't gotten around to using them in any meaningful way. It is probably worth noting that I spent a year battling depression, a leftover from deep grief – and that severely interfered with the learning process; depression brought frequent illnesses and recoveries, which disrupted my processes of repetition and storage. Actually, it was a constant resetting of my new baseline.
During that year with depression, I tried, for example, to learn French, Endralon and English. I also used Jakub's app, even though it sat on the shelf for a long time – it helped me a bit later when my mom also enrolled in Jakub's course. Jakub encouraged me a bit to keep going. So I polished the English vocabulary in the app – by polishing I mean the process of discovering how many words I have in my long-term memory – so I actually go through all the words and polish them one by one. I also tried to enter French and Endralon vocabulary into the app, and over time I added a few words from Dothraki as well.
The fact that I entered the words via the web interface and that it requires a lot of time aided my learning, but on the other hand, it drained me quite a bit. Personally, I no longer like sitting by the PC for so long. At one point, I felt like I was sleeping, having breakfast, working, having fun, and dating with my "phone" – and I stopped liking that. That's why I also struggled a lot with the app. Now, a year later, I am considering getting it again so I can better practice vocabulary on my way to work on the subway.
Now I am discovering Korean. Just as I jumped into French, I jumped right back out of it thanks to lingering depression – and after I dealt with the depression, I never returned to it. I started elsewhere – hence Korean.
You might be wondering why I jump from one thing to another and never stick with anything. The downside of this process is that I always feel like I don't know anything, but that's not entirely true. To this day I still recall the word vesurozviol – bleeding in Endralon, khasar, khalasar, khalakka from Dothraki… and back when I was driving for Bolt, foreigners often mentioned that I have a broad vocabulary. They were probably impressed that I didn't think too much about the words and just spoke…
I recently had to dust off the Master System because I had a result of 80 out of 100 in active memory. So I tweaked it again.
The technique for storing first and last names came in handy just now at my new job as a security guard, where IT doesn't allow guards to view user data – and so my training consists of seeing a person enter the work premises for two seconds, pass through the turnstile, and a second later their first and last name appears to me. At tremendous speed, within a second or two, I try to find a characteristic feature in their face and then quickly connect it with an association. During the first month, I learned 30 people from management and 30 employees, whom I review again during my rounds as I happen to meet them by greeting them. Another 270 employees await me. I don't have it as an obligation. I do it rather spontaneously, but it works nicely.
Basically, I can say that it works better for me not to think too much about storing information and just try storing it. As soon as I overthink it, I lose interest and walk away. After a year, I found out that I actually have no desire to learn anything in the style of: „I'll give it a year, half a year, two years“, in the style of „I'll focus on something“, but rather „prancing around like a little horse“ and tasting a bit of this and a bit of that. It might be because I don't have a goal – nothing clear that I'm chasing – and so I try to train on things that cross my path.
I tried memorizing phone numbers, names to the faces of people I met once – and paradoxically, I was just giving first aid to someone whose name and facial features I had tried practicing – and I couldn't tell the paramedics anything more than that I don't know. So without repetition, it simply doesn't work. Now and then something gets stored as if it were meant to be there, but that's more of a coincidence.
My stumbling block remains repetition, which requires a system – and even after a year, I just can't seem to establish that system. It might be because my life has no system and rushes like a mountain torrent down into the valley.
One thing I must admit, though. My confidence regarding the functioning of my brain has grown. I know what it is capable of remembering. Before, I just had a feeling of mush. Now I have a working brain – with its fluctuations, sure – but capable of learning anything.
Only my way is to hop around like a little horse and enjoy myself. Well, I can't just pour in any "law" or "Chinese medicine" or "language" there, can I? But after all – is that what it's about?
I pay more attention to my surroundings, people, and information – and I grasp them more. It is important for me to give things attention, regardless of the fact that I don't always manage to store everything – and often forget something due to my carelessness.
