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- ^Tutorial 7 - Memorising Foreign Phrases\
-
- You've now had some practice at memorising foreign words using the
- Substitute Word system. The system is equally applicable to foreign phrases
- - after all, phrases are simply groups of words.
-
- The French phrase '^quelle heure est-il\' means 'what time is it'. Picture
- Associate '^kill hare at heel\' to 'what time is it' and you will have
- memorised the phrase. You might picture yourself asking a French man the
- time - as you ask him the question, he is trying to kill a hare at his heel,
- which is biting him.
-
- Not a pleasant picture - but, as mentioned as before, the more vivid the
- picture, the more likely it is to stick in your mind.
-
- The French phrase for 'how much' is ^'combien'\. A possible
- Substitute Phrase to use here might be ^comb bean\. Picture yourself
- asking a shopkeeper how much a particular item is - as you ask them the
- question, you are ^comb\ing a ^bean\. Make the image as exaggerated and
- silly as you can. If you picture that ridiculous image clearly in your
- mind's eye for literally just an instant then you will have remembered that
- phrase.#
- Many people, when visiting a foreign country, go armed with a phrase book
- which gives dozens of useful phrases in that country's language. This is
- fine, but when you arrive in the country you often find yourself frantically
- searching through the book for the right phrase whenever you need to make
- yourself understood. Unfortunately, the phrase books never give you any
- hints on how to ^remember\ all those really useful phrases in the book.
-
- However, a few hours spent applying the Substitute Word system to memorising
- the most useful phrases in the book could help you enormously in making
- yourself understood. Those few hours could even be spent on your journey -
- on an aeroplane, or boat, or bus, or whatever.
-
- Of course, it will take a little more time to apply the Substitute Word
- system to a phrase than to a single word. But, once you can picture that
- ridiculous picture clearly in your mind, you will have memorised the phrase.
- And, bear in mind how difficult it is for most people to memorise phrase
- from a book ^without\ a system - repeating the phrase over and over, hoping
- that they will 'stick' in the memory.#
- Try the Substitute Word system on the following French phrases :
-
- >French\ Pronounciation >English\
- >------\ -------------- >-------\
-
- >quelle heure est-il\ kehl uhr eh-teel >what time is it\
- >combien\ kohng-byang >how much\
- >le voici\ luh vwah-see' >here it is\
- >faites-le plein\ feht luh plang >fill the tank\
- >qui-est-il\ kee-eh-teel >who is he\
- >je desire\ zhuh day-zeer >I want\
- >comment allez-vous\ koh-mahn'tah-lay-voo >how do you do\
- >quelle ville est-ce\ kehl veel ehs >what town is this\
- >ou est le quai\ oo ay'luh kay >where is the platform\
- >il faut que je parte\ eel foh'kuh zhuh pahrt' >I have to leave\
-
- You have already been given Substitute Phrases for the first two examples.
- Try and form your own Substitute Words or Phrases for the remaining
- phrases - remember that giving you suggestions for the phrases removes
- much of your Initial Awareness and concentration. You are much better off
- inventing your own Substitute Phrases and crazy mental images. Press Page
- Down when you are ready to test yourself on the above phrases.~
-