Train of Thoughts

Writing the previous article brought me to think about my fondness for languages.

I like languages. In each language lies the tradition and culture of that country, stripped of all the superficial covers.

What I like the most about languages, however, is the randomness of how a sound represents a meaning. For instance, the sound "Si" in English can mean one of the following: 1. to see 2. the sea 3. alphabet C. The same sound means, in Chinese, death, stone, lion, time, ten, and so on. In Korean it means a poem. In Spanish, it means 'yes'. What was that factor that led those pronunciation to stick to those meanings? What was the randomness? Why couldn't it have meant something entirely different?

Another thing I like is that there are similarities in some words throughout the world regardless of the special conditions each society is put under. I don't mean only basic words like mama or papa. I mean the fact that even when certain languages do not share the same root, they often have the same/similar pronunciation for a meaning. It happens just too often to be considered a coincidence.

Train of thoughts have led me here. I really didn't have any certain purpose, but I guess this really shows what I am interested in.

Status Quo

I've taken a likening into the expression 'status quo'.

It fits quite nicely into most sentences,and has something about it that makes it more grandiose than saying "currently". For instance, saying 'status quo education system' sounds more professional than saying 'current education system'.

It may be just me, but whatever. I like to consider the way that each word or expression is pronounced. There is something beneath the simple jumble of alphabets. There is an art in every word, as each word has its uniqueness, a trait that others don't have. Thinking about the way that each word is pronounced gives me a exotic tingle. That diversity in the way expressions are pronounced, it is what makes me like English.

Steven Sharp Nelson and John Schmidt

I have to say, they are the best musicians I know of. First of all, they really know how to enjoy their music. Just look at the expressions on their face as they are playing. Second, they are creative. They do not limit themselves to the traditional way of playing their instrument. For instance, in "The Cello Song", Nelson(the cellist) uses one of his cellos to be a drum. Another he uses as a guitar. John Schmidt(the pianist) uses the sound of closing the piano cover to create a rhythm.

I am fascinated by their music and performance.

Refresh (Assignment#2-Argumentative Essay)

 



                  "At first, you can't stand those four walls, then you get so you can abide them, then you get so you accept them... and then, as your body and your spirits adjust to live on an HO scale, you get to love them." This line from the book “Shawshank Redemption”, depicting the process of ‘institutionalization’, couldn’t have been more accurate a depiction of status quo education system. First, one can’t stand being taught the right way to think. Then, as time passes by, one can’t stand not knowing the right way to think. The current education system is institutionalizing creative human resources into standard-ruled workers, the ‘another brick in the wall’.

             The biggest cause of the problems in the current education system, the source of this ‘institutionalization’, is the fact that the current public education system was designed in the 19^th century. This was right after the industrialization- which means that the education system we have now is more than 200 years old. For heaven’s sake, we don’t use a house for 200 years. Think about all the changes that mankind went through during all that time. It can be said with absolute certainty that the current education system is outdated. However, as Sir Ken Robinson says in his TED lecture, the education “is meant to prepare the students for 5years in the future”. Obviously, an outdated module of education cannot prepare students for 5 years in the future. An outdated module of education based on outdated concepts manufactures outdated people. This essay, therefore, would mainly point out and specify the outdated and often entirely wrong concepts that the current education system holds.

             First, and perhaps the most obvious outdated concept is the hierarchy of subjects: Math, Science and English above Arts. “No school on earth” says Robinson, “spares more time in teaching their students singing and dancing rather than math and science”. This hierarchy, the misconception that one subject is more important than another, is no longer valid. It was based on two ideas. One: that most students would become factory workers-a job that a person has no need to be creative in. Two: subjects they needed for work was the most important subject. However, as we all know, most of the students nowadays won’t work in factories. They will work in fields of innovation where they are needed to, to think creatively and well, innovate. The second idea is also wrong as well. Nowadays, math and science aren’t dominantly important in jobs anymore because jobs outside the scope of those subjects are increasing rapidly. In fact, there are more diversity in jobs than ever, especially into the field of arts as the need for recreation increases.

The second misconception- and this one isn’t outdated, it was just wrong from the beginning- is the one that being incorrect is being wrong. It’s the belief that there is only one answer to a question, and every other answer is wrong. Now, we all know that past elementary school arithmetic, there is no question that has a single answer. Dilemmas we face in life have numerous answers to it, or often none at all. There is no answer choice in solving the global warming. There is no single ‘correct’ answer to what t-shirt I should wear today. Still worse is the fact that this concept of right or wrong makes the student afraid of taking chances. Think about it: living a life in which being incorrect is deemed as the worst thing you can do. Some might say “well, good! The student would be more careful in making his choices.” While this may be true, it does not get us anywhere, because to be creative, you have to be willing to take the chance to be wrong. It is just not possible to take such a chance living in such an environment.

The third misconception is that students are products. Whereas some might be horrified and even outraged by this statement, schools have exceptional similarities to factories. First of all, it is divided into sessions of work time and break time. Products (or students, in the case of school) are trimmed to be identical. Students are forced to wear uniforms (the word ‘uniform’ pretty much does all the explaining) and have the same hair cut. The students moving from one classroom to others are like the products moving from a production line to another to be modified. The misconception is apparent in the education system. Students, however, aren’t products to be manufactured. They are not just another brick in the wall. They are the raw materials of the jewelries they will become once they are polished the right way. However, the current education system is manufacturing stone blocks out of gemstones.

             Seeing that Obama got into Whitehouse, it would be safe to guess that the people are now aware of the fact that we need to change. Change lies within education. Education is the very basis of what the future generation will think, eat, and behave like. However, the education we now have is outdated. Whereas we now need innovative workers, the current education system is printing stone blocks out of gemstones. This education system is outdated, and it is unfit for the world that is facing problems that are tougher than ever before. We need to refresh, to press the F5 key of the education system. It is only after that that “we can change”.

“Waiting” by Oi Va Voi

“It's hard to win, easy to lose
We play a game we cannot choose
As steady as a rocking horse, as subtle as a bruise.”




What is the game that I play?




 <A Game that I am Winning>

It is the whisper at night, the quiet whistling that seems to be echoing inside my ears. It is the single stream of moonlight that flows through the slits in my curtain. So far and distant, yet so close and unforgettable: the dream. It is this dream that I “cannot choose”, it is this dream that is “as steady as a rocking horse, as subtle as a bruise.” It is this dream, the game that I am playing.

No sir, I cannot choose my dream. As funny and ridiculous as it sounds, I cannot choose my dream. How I wish I could. Just the idea of it makes me delighted- being able to choose what I like and what I want to be. Sadly, that is not the case. My heart takes control of me, and leaves me without a choice. Most Korean, nowadays, says that the good time for lawyers is over now. They say that lawyer would no longer be a respected, highly-paid, and prestigious occupation. I know it with my heart that this is the truth. Thousands of lawyers are streaming out to the streets from their law school each year, and the invisible hand makes sure that lawyers are paid less than half of what they used to earn 10 years ago. However, as foolish and impractical as my brain tells me it is to become a lawyer, my heart wants me to be a lawyer. Imagining the moment in the court, the thought of arguing against the government for the man’s guiltlessness brings sheer joy to my heart.

Of course, my dream wasn’t exactly carved in stone. Just as a rocking horse goes back and forth, my dream had its perils, swaying from side to side. However, as swaying as it was, my dream always came back to the ‘life in law’, just as a rocking horse always comes back to its original position. Steady, my dream was steady in a way that I steadily wished for the same thing despite the fact that I had swayed from side to side once in a while. My dream was also as subtle as a bruise. I tried to hide the existence of such a mark, but I was frequently hurt by people who were dismayed by the fact that I wanted to become a lawyer. They made a bruise out of my dream, a bruise that was quickly hidden. For instance, I was subtle about my dream to my parents as they didn’t want me to become a lawyer. Once again, my dream was as subtle as a bruise to me.

I am playing my dream. As Oi Va Voi’s song titled “Waiting” goes, my dream would be hard to win, yet easy to lose. It would be a difficult goal to win. I have at least 5 more years of education before I can finally be the me in court that I imagine myself to be. Apart from the sheer amount of time, the biggest obstacle is the people around me. Many of them, either intentionally or unintentionally, poke my subtle bruises in a way that hurts so much. However, I believe that these people would be of my greatest help when I get to know them and tell them how uncontrollable my dream is. I believe that no one would dare poke my bruises if I showed them the passion I have for it. I believe that I am winning this game.

The Writer I Am (Assignment#1)

   Every year, every semester, I find myself facing the same task: 'describe who I am'. Never in my life, however, have I been asked the question "what kind of writer are you?" This question totally blew me off, since I've never really considered that. All those years of TOEFL essays and other writings, and I still had absolutely no idea what kind of writer I was. That shock got me digging into my old essays, those buried under loads of paper, into the cyber folders that I totally forgot about. Despite some change over the years, I found three most common features in most of the essays: one, they are very aggressive. Two, they strive to be humorous. Three, they are colloquial.

     Often, people who read my essays say that I write quite aggressively. Just today, as I was writing the final defending speech with some of my co-defendants, they argued that my final defending speech wouldn’t work if I kept on expressing my anger and frustration toward the situation. They explained the need for me to 'calm down' in my essay. I could not have agreed more. In an objective view, I myself can clearly see how upset I sound in my writings. It feels like a rhyme-less Eminem rap. The reason my essays have an 'angry' tone is probably because I feel an obsession to prove myself inside an essay. I am frustrated because I am worried that the others won't understand what I am saying. One good example would be my closing statement at mock trials. I, as a defense attorney, insult every move that the police had made, and explain why prosecution has failed terribly.

           Another style of writing I employ is humor. While being aggressive, I try to balance it off with humor so that my readers won’t just deem my writings as a lengthy complaint. I am, don’t be surprised, a fun-loving person. I love putting jokes and a few subtle sarcasms in my writings. I can’t be sure whether my sense of humor is a universal one, but my writings are certainly coated with jokes and sarcasms. A fit example would be my Johnson term-papers where I had to restrain myself from putting more jokes into the thing and turning it into a joke book rather than a term-paper.

           Finally, I write colloquially. I write like I am taking note of a conversation. I write like I am literally talking to the readers, face to face. This writing style was formed because I tend to double check my writings by reading it and checking to make sure that it sounds natural. As a person that is not native to this language, I have a hard time making sure that no grammatical error is made. Reading it makes it much easier for me to find the errors, and soon, the technique landed itself firmly repeatedly. As a result, this double checking method influenced my writing style as a whole. For example, in my essay "Change? Not only for the better.” I write like I am talking to to the person on the other side.
         I love the way I write. It exactly demonstrates the kind of person I am: fun-loving, enthusiastic, and talkative. There are, yes, certain problems with my style of writing. Aggressive, humorous, and colloquial writings tend to sound informal. They show too much emotions-they are often said to be a style unfit for the academics. Therefore, it is my goal to improve and prove that I can, with my style of writing, achieve certain highness in the academics as well.  

Quote: Lily Tomlin

I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.
Lily Tomlin

When I read this quote, this makes me laugh then suddenly feel cold.

It’s really funny, but makes me think “What do i want to be?”

I mean, I always do have a dream of making a world better place to live, but really, nothing specific.

It makes me wonder what difference I have to the person

that wrote this quote. What kind of person will i be?

I get scared that one day i would come to realize that “i should have been more specific”.

Family

This is a picture of my family that i took three days before I came to KMLA-That would make it the 3rd of Feburary.
We decided to make this picture more memorable wearing a t-shirt of our own design. The color of the shirt defines the position of the person in the family.
Those with blue shirts are my grandfather and my grandmother. Grandfather often is grumpy, but he is so happy in this picture. Grandmother is such a generous person. She makes wonderful foods for us, as she has an experiences of several decades.
Those with green shirts are my mother’s older brother’s family. They immigrated to Brazil about 7years ago, and visited Korea this year for about a month. Personally, I wish that they would come back to Korea. It would be much more fun to have them around us all the time. Oh, the kid on the right bottom is also wearing a green shirt. Her name is Chae-Whan, and she is perfect. You should really meet her once.
Those with pink shirts are my mother’s younger brother’s family. They live right next to our family- I mean it. I could walk to their apartment in less than 5minutes. My uncle is a photographer, and this picture was took in his workshop. He is such a funny person-he can find something amusing anywhere.  The little kid wearing pink is the youngest child in our entire family. She is a nuisance, but her cuteness absolves all.
Then we come to my family, those wearing purple t-shirts. There’s my father, mother and my younger sister. I have stayed in KMLA ever since I first came here and seldom meet them. That doesn’t bother me much usually, but nobody can avoid homesickness. Whenever I call them, they answer with enthusiasm.
My father likes to pretend as if a serious person- in fact he couldn’t be further from it. He knows so much and yearns for knowledge, but always finds a way to be funny. Maybe it is because he knows so much that he can be that funny. He is a warm and gentle kind of father, one that nods in understanding face when I show pain.
My mother is a excellent cook. She is very imaginative and can cook up a whole new recipe-she does that quite frequently. Its taste, however , isn’t really guaranteed. She is a loving person, and she loves pun. That’s why she married my dad, i think.
My sister…..well she is a pain in the neck for me sometimes, but usually such a cute little thing. I hope that she will be more responsible for her actions next time i see her- well time does wonderful things…
This is my family. This is the base of my life. This is who i am.

Mock Trial Competition-Closing Argument for the defense

This is a Witch Hunt. A witch hunt.

     From the start, as soon as the police learned that Mr. Caldwell was in debt, they started hounding after him, and him only. Case closed. Why bother looking for other suspects when you already have one? Right? You heard Det. Quinn Waller today. You heard him openly admit today that the police had no other suspect other than Robin Caldwell thorough out the entire investigation. Gee. How can that be?

     Certainly not because there wasn’t any other possible suspect. There are numerous people other than Robin who could have committed this crime- the staff, the secretary, and other relatives. They had motive as well-they all would inherit money from her death. It could even have been someone from the outside. Elisabeth Congdon was a rich person-what’s not to say that this crime was originally a burglary? Did the police investigate any of these possibilities? No, they did not. Why didn’t they?

     Certainly not because of eyewitness, since they don’t really have any. Can you really believe beyond all reasonable doubt, with a certainty enough to condemn a person’s entire life, that an old lady with bad eyesight could identify a person in the dark after having woken up just a moment ago? So why didn’t the police investigate any other suspect?

Certainly not because of foolproof evidence, since their own forensic scientist, their own guy, admitted the possibility that someone else might have been in that house. Chris Sorum admitted that nothing of Robin Caldwell, no footprint, no hair, not even a single fingerprint, was found at the scene. Instead, he found someone else’s hair at the crime scene. He found someone else’s fingerprint on the weapon that was used to bludgeon Shelby Martinez. He admitted that someone else than Robin Caldwell might have been in that house on the night of the murder. The prosecution has no evidence whatsoever that puts Mr. Caldwell at Glensheen on the night of the murder.

The police screwed up the entire investigation. They showed absolutely no regard for the protection of crime scene. Remember- no log, no gloves, and no protective clothes. Their lead detective Quinn Waller, who prides in calling himself “Justice”, left a palm print on important evidence-as far as I know, that’s obstruction of justice. Other police were actually using the evidence at the crime scene as their ashtray- simply outrageous! They were terrible investigators, making terrible conclusion, with terrible reasons.

We all know, even they know, that the prosecution didn’t really have a case against Robin Caldwell. So why are they doing this? I’ll tell you why. The entire town’s attention is on this case. It received the most exclusive media spotlight. The police didn’t want to be seen as useless, powerless. They needed to find somebody to take that blame. The police was running out of time and resources to catch the real murderer, until they got so desperate, catching the real murderer didn’t matter to them anymore. They just framed Robin Caldwell-the poor, broke, out of town guy that nobody really cares about. How convenient! How ingenious!  What a Witch hunt.

Well, guess what. Robin Caldwell isn’t a witch.

Jail is not a place for the innocent. To ensure this, the prosecution has the burden to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that they got the right person. They failed terribly in doing so. This case is screaming with reasonable doubt. Remember what prosecution was like today. The only thing that the prosecution had really proved today was that Robin Caldwell was a poor man, and in debt. Okay, so what?

Are we really going to let the prosecution convict this man of murder because he was in debt?  

Are you really going to make yourself part of this ludicrous witch hunt?

In the name of justice, let us not sacrifice one’s lifelong liberty in purpose of a witch hunt. 

Change? Not always for the best

     It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the famous slogan, "We can change", got Barack Obama into the White House. Mankind can never be satisfied. We always yearn for something better, something greater than what we have now. We crave for change. However, the truth we need to face is that change isn't always for the better. In fact, the world we live in now is changing for the worse.
     Environmentally speaking, world we live in now is at the tipping point of disaster. Just to name a few, global warming, the extinction of numerous species, air pollution, water pollution....... Mankind's use of fossil fuel has dramatically increased the CO2 level of the atmosphere, resulting an environmental havoc. Not only that, but the products we make are often apocalyptic to the ecosystem. DDT, for example, almost wiped out the eagles. The world, environmentally, definitely isn't changing to be better.
     We aren't much better off with the economy. The crash of the bubble economy finally displayed how dangerous capitalism is. More than 5% of the working class in USA is unemployed, whereas the unemployment rate was considerately lower in the past. Companies are declaring bankruptcy. The government is in trillions of debt. The world is, economically, changing for the worse.
     All this, yet we still have one remaining disaster. Humanity is in danger. Unlike the past, more and more wars are breaking out, and not only in the Middle East, like it used to be. Now, there are guerilla wars in South America. People, even those far from the war are becoming fearful of the changes they are going through, economically and environmentally. Frightened people tend to be have less capacity to care for others, and therefore, we face the loss of humanity.
     Change is happening. In fact, there are so many changes happening at the same time. However, by the look of it, none of them are even remotely helpful, and most are disastrous. It is more likely than not, unless there is a huge turn of events,that the changes will continue to be that way. Therefore, I believe that the world is changing for the worse and that we need to be prepared.

My life here in KMLA

In movies or television, people sometimes say “I’m living my dream.” I often wondered what living one’s dream feels like. Is it wonderful? Couldn’t it be, by any chance, dreadful? I mean, since you have already reached your dream, you no longer have a goal in life. That is the most dreadful form of life that I can imagine of. Well, now that my dream has come true, I now know what living my dream feels like-crazy!

My life here in KMLA is crazy in every way. First craziness is that it is extremely demanding. The studying itself is not that demanding. The classes are difficult to follow, but it is manageable if we just look over it once or twice. Except for few teachers like Mz. Choi and Johnson, homework isn’t too bad. As one famous teacher says, it’s always doable. The demanding part in KMLA life is life itself. First of all, we have to be responsible for ourselves. There is no one, not a single person, who will tell me what to do. We have to wake up at 6 by ourselves, but no teacher cares if we don’t. They just give penalty points. We have to restrain ourselves from ditching studies and playing games. We have to slap our own faces to stay awake during classes. No one cares if we give in. They just give penalty points or bad scores, and that’s the end of it. Second, you have to think of so many things at the same time. For instance, I have to think at this moment that I have to do the rest of Mz.Choi’s homework, and a paper on DongUeBoGam volunteer work that I did today. As a department of physical education, I have to be early to morning assembly to carry the chairs, yet as a member of the Minjok Orchestra, I have to play cello at the morning assembly. Then I have a group meeting with a bunch of other kids that I have to prepare a class for politics. Oh, and I almost forgot. I have to return the books to the library. You see, it is crazy not only because the work itself is difficult, but also because there are so much things to do. So much things to do, and if I slip one slight step, the whole thing falls down. It is, take my word, downright stressful.

 Another crazy thing in KMLA is that it is extremely fun. Considering the amount of stress I am under, it is crazy that I have a lot of fun here, but it is. It really is such a joyful life. I love every class I take. I love the friends around me. I love the wonderful beauties the school building shows after snow. I love the fun of watching movies at Sundays, all of us cuddled around and screaming when a ghost appears. I love my life. Life palpitate me. 

Memorize how to Memorize

Memorize How to Memorize.

                                                                              시 성운

1.     Introduction

You are in Ms. Choi’s class, taking a Word Smart quiz. Very confident you are, since you have literally spent the whole night memorizing vocabulary. Ms. Choi starts to read the definition, “to pacify, to calm down by giving into……”. Blood drains from your face. You remember memorizing that word. You can even remember the lousy joke that your roommate made when you were memorizing this word. However, no matter what you do, you cannot remember this word. Other students start to write furiously but you can’t. You pull your hair out in frustration, but no breakthrough. Almost tangible, yet just out of your grasp, the situation seems to be taunting you. Before you write a single letter, Ms. Choi starts to read the next definition. Your brain perceives one word: doomed. Your head feels light and you hate yourself.

We can all easily think of one situation that we forgot to do something, or were unable to remember something. In our daily lives, we face situations in which we cannot clearly remember something. Such as: Where did I leave my cell phone? What was the homework? (or even was there any homework?) What is my password? When was her birthday? And so on. These situations are annoying, and in some cases, detrimental to relationships and businesses. We often waste our precious time and money due to the inability to remember things. Memorizing things is really important, and we need to find ways to memorize things more efficiently.

2.     Memory and Our Brain

Before anything else, let’s start by defining what memory is. Memory is a set of cognitive reactions that allows an organism to remember past experiences, information, etc (Stanford). There are many disputes as to what the exact process that allows us to store information in our brain is. However, there is a general idea about this process. We also know what role each part of the brain takes during the process. There are three major parts of the brain that participates in the process of memorizing: frontal lobes, temporal lobes, and hippocampus. Frontal lobes are in charge of the long-term memory, storing certain memories for a long time (Levenson 56-59). Temporal lobes is the part of the brain that gathers the stimulation from different body parts. This stimulation is, depending on their importance, sent to the frontal lobes or just forgotten. Hippocampus is the part of the brain that determines what information should be stored long-term. Another role that hippocampus performs is that it stores short-term memories (Learning). Therefore, the first door to enhancing our memories would be to better understand the hippocampus and what kind of information that it considers worthy to be put into the long-term memory.

3.     Easily memorized Information

           Take a few seconds and memorize these sequences of numbers: 485-6359-6976. Sure you are ready? Read on.

An interesting point is that due to some differences, some things are more easily memorized. While we tend to easily forget most things, we can remember some other things quite easily. In fact, the information that we do remember is easily accessible, and comes forth without even the slightest hesitation. For instance, the chances are, you would have already forgotten the 11digit numbers above. However, everyone would be able to remember their phone number, which is also 11digits. This difference in our ability to memorize some things sheds a light to the problem of forgetting things. If we find more and more examples of easily memorized things, and find commonness in those examples, then we could memorize other, hard-to-memorize things with the same technique.

           There is no doubt to the fact that brain favors certain information over others. One kind of information that brain favors is the repeated information. That is, when our brain selects the few memories that it considers useful, it has a tendency to look at information that are repeated. There are immeasurable amount of information that goes through our brain each day. I am talking about 24hours worth of high-quality video, sound, smell, touch, taste and emotions. This is not a small amount of data by all means. Repetition of certain information can stimulate the brain in a way so that the brain will feel more natural to the information, thus fitting in quite easily (Rosen 16-17). Therefore, it would be an effective way to memorize something by repeating it. This isn’t exactly a secret. It is well known through our society that repetition helps memory. People who have done a simple job like flipping donuts for a long time become extremely skilled at it. Their body memorizes the action through repeating it over millions of times. School teachers advise students to review the things learned in class. Repetition is road to memorization. There can be no doubt on that.

           We often see people saying things aloud when memorizing something. Many believe that this method helps memorizing because one ‘speaks it aloud’. However, the increased efficiency isn’t because of ‘saying’ it. It is rather due to ‘hearing’ it. Hearing the information helps to memorize the information (Rosen16-17). Hippocampus is right next to the temporal lobes in our brain. Temporal lobes is closely related to auditory signals. This is because of the fact that while other stimulations are passed all the way through the body to reach temporal lobes, eardrum is right next to the temporal lobes, and thus gives stronger stimulation. Since temporal lobes has such an affinity for sound stimuli, hippocampus also tend to take sound information best.

           Auditory information is easily remembered, but the combination of multiple senses is remembered even more efficiently (Sin 78-82). This means that if you were to memorize the instructions to make a chair, it would help if you read it with your eye, while speaking it aloud and actually building one with your own hands. When single information is expressed through multiple parts of our brain, much percentage of the brain will be activated. Thus, the brain conceives the information as ‘emphasized’ and puts it to the long-term memory.

           Can anyone ever forget the moment of first kiss? Memories with deep, profound emotions will be engraved into one’s brain easily. This is because hippocampus is right next to amygdala, which is the part of the brain that expresses emotions. Much of the information that comes to hippocampus comes through amygdala (Kim 52). Naturally, emotion-soaked information and memories are the best remembered.

           More than once, after finishing a book on philosophy, I was unsure what to make of it. I had no idea what I had just read, and couldn’t remember any of it, even though I took notes during my reading. The opposite happened when I was reading a novel. Regardless of the half-dreaming state I was in while reading, I was able to remember the whole plot with clarity. Our brain prefers story over scrambled facts (Jung 32-34). Story is like a long chain. Story makes things much easier to memorize and remember because all you have to do is to memorize or remember what comes next. Uncovering little things one by one will ultimately lead you to seeing the whole picture. In fact, it is quite like holding onto a rope and following it on and on, one information helping to reach another.

4.     Conditions that Change our Efficiency in Memorizing.

Another interesting fact about our memory is that we have different efficiency in memorizing things under different circumstances. This is another shed of light on the subject of memorizing. What are the conditions that enable us to memorize things more efficiently? What is the commonness between these conditions? If we could find answers to these two questions, the efficiency of memorizing would increase dramatically. I chose two main conditions that would affect the efficiency in memorizing. One is the diet, and the second is the nap that the person takes.

A study was done in a small, poor city in Indonesia called Jatinegara, where most students were not properly fed. The researcher would go to a school and give a certain class a glass of milk per day for 6 months. The effect was unbelievable. Students who were given milk almost doubled their ability to memorize things (Kim 72-73). Similar research done to the elderly showed the exact same result (Jung 38-39). It was later found out that vitamin B12 in milk had prevented the loss of memory cells. Therefore, milk, and other foods that contain vitamin B12 enhances your memorizing ability (Jung 38-39). What other nutrition help increase the efficiency in memorizing? Glucose is the sole fuel for the brain. Without glucose, brain would simply stop functioning. It is necessary that we give enough fuel for the brain if we want it to work well. One food that can be easily converted to glucose would be chocolate. Therefore, it wouldn’t hurt to eat some chocolate bars before you memorize something. Fat makes up the cell membrane of every cell, including the cells inside the brain. Fat is the highest in calories and adequate intake of fat will increase the efficiency of brain function (Kim 75-77).

The second condition that affects our memory is the sleeping patterns. More specifically speaking, napping. Napping gets rid of the tiredness our body suffers from, and helps empty the brain for new things to memorize. A study has shown that brains feel the need to rest every eight hours, and failing to do so will decrease our efficiency (Neuroscience). Few high schools in Japan that had officially put napping into their daily schedule had dramatic increase in the test scores (Neuroscience). There is no question as to whether napping is good. However, the amount of time you spend napping should be determined as to what kind of work you are going to do next.

Sleep is divided into 5cycles. If one wants to be simply focused and efficient, one should sleep until the second cycle, which takes about 20 minutes of sleep. The second cycle is the stage that brain rests, cutoff from the rest of the world. This stage is the reason that after sleeping we feel as the head is cleared. If one wants to reach the state of being able to memorize things easily, one should sleep about 60 minutes so that he or she will be able to reach the 3^rd and the 4^th cycle. These cycles are the deepest in sleep, and will assemble the events that happened before sleeping, and put them into organized forms. If one wants to be fully rest, one should sleep about 90minutes, reaching the last cycle, REM. This cycle is the time when the most brain activity during sleep happens (Sin 23). This is the period that decides what information should be stored long-term and what should be forgotten. Therefore, it would be efficient to sleep 20minutes before manual work, repetitive work, 60 minutes before memorizing things, and 90minutes after the studying is done.

5.     Conclusion       

There are many different ideas on what learning is. Whatever the theory is, there is no difference that at the end students have to memorize stuff. To me, this research had been of great help. Knowing way to be more efficient in memorizing things had led to overall increase of productivity. By doing this research, I could save a lot of time that I usually would have had to spend memorizing information. During the time that I saved, I was able to learn stuff and do things that I want to do. Most people around the world would agree that knowing better ways to memorize something is helpful for themselves as well. However, this research holds a even more value when it comes to the world. It is not just about the individuals. This research would show people the need to live more healthily, having enough sleep and nutrition to be effective at their work. Also, people who worry about the educations of people in the 3^rd world would see that the best way to enhance the people’s learning skills is to give them right food and teach them the right sleeping habit. Indeed, my research will, in end, benefit the whole world.

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Jung, SeongGil. World-dazzling Jungmoniques Memorization Techniques.

Seoul: Dukyou, 1995.

Kim, Sun. Understanding and Training the Memory.

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Learning and Memory Home Page

July 7, 2004 Extinction Memory Improvement by the Metabolic Enhancer Methylene Blue

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Levenson, Robert W “Milk and Memory” Neuton 23.5-6(2006): 56-59

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May 10^th 2011 <http://nba.uth.tmc.edu/neuroscience/s4/iv7.html>

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February 3^rd 2010, Metaphysic Research Lab, CSLI Stanford University. John Sutton.

May 10^th 2011<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/memory/>

Sin, Minsub. Secrets Of Memory.

Seoul: Book Polio, 2011