記憶力是可以訓練的/You can train your memory

TED.com是我相當喜愛的一個網站。TED是一個非營利組織，致力於概念/構想的散佈。在TED每年主要的兩場研討會中，來自各領域的講者熱情地分享他們的創作理念、生活心得、或研究成果。這些演講內容，在TED.com上都可以看到。

除了上網觀看，也可以用Podcast方式聆聽。馬克和我每當要長途開車時，就會下載幾個演講到他的iPhone裡。音樂聽膩了，換成演講也很不錯。有些很幽默風趣會讓你哈哈大笑，有些則是輕鬆詼諧中讓你增廣見聞。

TED.com也是一個非常適合用來練英文的網站。如果擔心英文聽力不好，沒關係。大部分的演講，尤其是近年的演講，都有提供逐字稿，而且還是互動式的呢！藉由點選逐字稿的任一個段落，演講就從你選擇的地方開始。我之前練英文，會把稿子印出來，講著每講一段，我就跟著念，學習他們的句子結構與重音腔調。

上面這個影片，就是馬克和我最近一次開車聽到的一個很好的演講。講者是一個科學記者，在準備美國記憶大賽的報導過程中，因緣際會學到了增強記憶的方法。他持續訓練了一年，最後居然贏得記憶大賽的冠軍！這增強記憶的秘訣－他稱之為記憶宮殿－其實相當簡當、人人都可以學會。相信你聽完後也會躍躍欲試的。

PS.如果你不想看英文稿子，剛好這演講有提供繁體中文的逐字稿。所以...沒有理由學不會增強記憶的方法啦～

TED.com is a website that I like a lot.  TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to spreading ideas.  In the two major annual TED conference, people from all sorts of field will share their ideas either from their work, projects, research, or lives.  You can see all the talks on TED.com.

In addition to watching those videos online, you can also listen to the talk via podcast.  Mark and I always download several talks to his iPhone when we have to drive long distance.  It's good to have some varieties during driving.  Some talks are funny and make you laugh out loud.  Some are humorous and simple, but increase your knowledge.

TED.com is also a good website to practice English.  If you worried that your listening ability is not good and you can't understand what the talker says, don't worry, most talks - especially recent ones - have transcripts.  Better yet, they are interactive!  You can click on any sentence, and the talk will start from where you choose.  Last semester I printed out the transcript, followed the talkers sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, to learn their intonation, message units and sentence stress.

The video above is a great talk that Mark and I heard recently during our drive.  The speaker is a science reporter.  In the process of gathering information for reporting USA Memory Championship, he learned a technique to improve memorizing process.  He trained himself for one year.  At the end he even won the championship!  The technique, which he called memory palace, is very simple and easy for everyone to learn.  After listening to the talk, I bet you can't wait to try it out!