Speech Success Story Using A Magnetic Memory Palace

Anthony Metivier's Magnetic Memory Method Podcast

Would you like to be able to give a speech directly from memory?

It’s an amazing skill, after all, and something many people in business need to be able to do in more than one language.

Since ancient times people have been using Memory Palaces to give their speeches. In fact, as Jim Samuels has talked about, we get the convention of saying “in the first place” in a speech from the Roman orators who were using Memory Palaces.

Well, let me ask you this:

What If You Don’t Have To Give A Speech From A Memory Palace On Its Own For Your Speech To Benefit From Using Memory Techniques?

Sunil Khatri raised this question in my mind when he wrote to me after giving this speech:

I was so impressed by Sunil’s explanation of how he used the Magnetic Memory Method and Memory Palaces to help him with the speech, that I asked if he would record an episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.

He agreed! As you’ll learn, you can get great benefits from memorizing a speech in advance, even if you still recite it from the page.

The same thing is true of reading from a teleprompter, which the best directors and producers always advise people giving speeches to do: Know where you’re going, but don’t appear like you’re recalling during delivery. It looks weird.

I’m super-excited by Sunil’s results and look forward to hearing your stories of triumph when you use the Magnetic Memory Method to help prepare for your next big speech.

Episode Transcript

Anthony, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to talk about some of the things I’ve been doing with the Magnetic Memory Method. I just also wanted to also say thank you very much for the support that you’ve given me directly through email interaction has been really, really useful and amazing.

I started learning Korean maybe a little over a year ago I would say and mostly for work purposes. I’ve been traveling back and forth to Korea, and it is a really tough language in my opinion. When I started studying, I would read things like verb conjugations. There could be up to 500 verb conjugations based on the level you are at in society, in your office, your age group, all of these different things come into play in the written language and speech. It was pretty tough.

I started learning and for the 6 months it was through rote memorization, flashcards, and things like that. Then I was trying to figure out is there a better way. Because I had spent the better part of 6 to 7 years learning Japanese and it was all through rote memorialization and talking to people and so forth.

I came across your website and from one link to another to another and it ended up being at your site. I took your intro classes and so forth and it was actually pretty good. Then I started reading up on Memory Palaces more and things like that.

“Korean Words Just Sort Of Magically Appeared In My Brain As I Was Talking … I No Longer Use Flashcards”

What happened was about 6 to 7 months ago, I think that was the first time we communicated, I basically started building a small Memory Palace and expanding that. Korean words just sort of magically appeared in my brain as I was talking, as I was remembering to the point where I gave up using flash cards. I no longer use flash cards.

I put everything into an Excel spreadsheet and categorize them based on my Memory Palace. I come up with a mnemonic picture, crazy picture, whatever it is and associate the word to that crazy picture and there it is. I go through my Excel spreadsheet once a day to put it into long-term memory and it’s been amazing.

“Even My Teachers Are Freaking Out.”

Even my teachers are freaking out. How am I learning all this stuff so fast? But that was vocabulary. Then I started looking at grammar and things like that. Really in about 6 months I achieved over 500 words through the Memory Palace techniques. It was amazing.

Then I was handed a request to do a speech for my office to a bunch of our clients. Essentially what happened was I said, okay and this was about a week and a half prior to me giving the speech. They said, okay you can do it in English. We’ll have a translator and everything for you. I said well, that’s great thank you. Then I thought about it. I said, wait a minute let me try this in Korean and see what I can do.

“Actually A Lot Of This Was Beyond My Vocabulary”

The speech was about 3.5 to 4 minutes, 5 minutes long. Rather than say, “Oh my god, I don’t know any of these words,” because actually a lot of this was beyond my vocabulary. It really focused on a lot of different types of grammars that you would use in a very formal setting. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know any of these structures or things. Some of the words were quite new.

What I basically said was, I said all right I am going to think about doing this in Korean. Let me try and see if I can break this down. I guess when I said I think I’m going to do it, it really meant I’m going to do it and there was no looking back for me.

I took the words, basically got the meanings of what the speech was in English and then took the Korean statements and broke it down into an Excel spreadsheet. So rather than reading everything as you would normally do, I took small phrases and put them in a cell in the Excel spreadsheet and then I created the mnemonics associated with that. Those wordings and so forth.

“It Was Pretty Daunting”

It turned out to be several hundred cells in the Excel spreadsheet with phrases and so forth. Then I started memorizing, and I did this in about a week. I got about 70 percent of the way through it, and then started working with a person on my team to kind of walk me through how to say the phrases. Where are the emotions, where are the intonations and so forth.

Then from there I kind of build up what I say, how I say it, where I would put the stresses and so forth in a natural language type of view. It really was quite amazing. Then I just went through the Excel spreadsheet and started practicing over and over and over again to get that into memory. The remaining 30 percent was sort of rote because I just didn’t have time to do the mnemonics. Because it was only in about 5 days I put all this stuff together.

The day of the speech came, and I got in front of couple hundred people, all Korean. I started talking and I used the notes. Because it was pretty daunting. Standing in front of a crowd and just trying to remember all these things and the stresses of speaking. Speaking in front of a crowd is difficult anyways.

I had my notes but what my notes were the Excel spreadsheets. It was basically two pages just printed out, and I started just working through it. It was incredible. The crowd reaction was great. Everything was good. I just had a great time because all of this stuff was right there. The way that you pronounce things, even though I was referring to my notes. It was really amazing.

How To Experience Boosts In Confidence From Your Memory

It just gave me a huge new level and boost in confidence. I’m nowhere near fluent but I can guarantee you that this is all I’m doing now. I don’t use flashcards. I don’t do anything. All my learnings, not just in Korean but even beyond Korean, are based now on how I use Memory Palaces and your teachings and so forth. Really, really amazing.

I’m continuing to focus on Korean but I’m also looking at other languages later. I really want to look at Mandarin Chinese as you’re doing. This is, again, I feel only after about 6 months of working with the Memory Palace techniques.

It took me years to get to be able to speak in Japanese in front of people and even now I’m hesitant. But I’m going to back and apply these techniques to that too. Really amazing stuff. Thank you for the opportunity and I will continue to converse with you and get your advice on all the problems that I know I’m going to continue to have. Thank you so much.

============

Anthony, just one more thing I wanted to add if it is possible to edit it in or do something.

I had mentioned about 70 percent of the speech I had done using a Memory Palace and 30 percent because I just did not have the time. I just sort of started reading the end of it.

There was actually a noticeable difference in that 70 percent versus the 30 percent that people were telling me. They said, “Oh, the 70 percent that you did, the first part of the speech sounded so good, rhythmic, everything was there. The 30 percent sort of trailed off a little bit.”

I owe that to the fact that I didn’t go through the mnemonics for that last bit. Even though I was able to continue doing it, reading it and kind of working through and people were still excited that I was being able to do this whole thing in Korean.

So the application to Memory Palaces and so forth is really critical, I think, from a grammar perspective as well as from a comfort level. Because once you ingrain those things in your head, whether it’s subconsciously or whatever, when you’re reading it, those emotions and that structure come out.

I just wanted to add that statement. But once again, thank you so much. Take care.

Sunil’s Speech In Korean

?????. AKL HQ? IT? ???? ?? ?? ???.

????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ???? 25??? ?? ?????.
?? ???? ?? ??? 25??? ?????, ???? ABO ????? ???
??? ????? ‘A Happy Birthday Festival’ ??? ???? ?????.

?? ABO ?????? ??? ??????.
“ ??? ??? ???? ?? ????. ??? ? ?? ? ??? ???? ?? ????? “
??? ?? ???? 25? ? ?? ??? ???, ?? ?? 5? ?? 500 ???,
???? 50?? ??? 1?? ?? ??? ???? ???? ?? ????? ???? ????.

??? ??? ?? ????? ?? ? ? ?? ????
?? ???? ABO ????? ??? ?? ??? ????, AKL? ?? ???? ??? ???
???? ????? ?????.
?? 25?? ?? ??? ? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?????.

??? ????? ???? ???? ???? ??? ???? ?? ?????,
?? ? ?? ??? ????.

?? ?? ?? ?? !!! ??? ???!!! ?????.

What About You?

Do you have a story of using a Memory Palace to give a speech?

Or how about your struggles with speeches in public? How would better memory skills help you in this area? Take a moment to leave a comment below and get the discussion started.

As Sunil’s experience demonstrates, memorizing even a speech you intend to read from the page improves your delivery beyond belief. Keep that in mind the next time you need to give a speech either in public or on the screen.

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