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Part 1: So, what the heck is a Holo-MeMe?

                According to many philosophers, wise men and religious leaders over the world and throughout the ages, mental images are the core to not only memorization but the thinking process itself. They are also the core to memory and creativity according to contemporary studies and research into memory and neurolinguistic processes.     

                A Holo-MeME, a supercharged version of a mental image, is one of the most powerful and important tools in your Memorization Arsenal; it’s a larger-than-life, full-colour and uniquely personalized hologram.

Creatively visualized and incorporating 3 more sense, modalities or dimensions, with the addition of one more, it’s  an image, picture, symbol or any other mental representation of what you wish to memorize; it’s an immediate, wordless connection or association between Vietnamese and English, a rich and multifaceted symbol representing the common and most fundamental root of all languages, in particular that of your own native language and that of which you wish to learn; it’s also, like the origins of cuneiform script, hieroglyphics, Arabic and Chinese calligraphy, a conveyer of the essence of what is the universal language, the fusion of the subjective and the objective, the perceiver and the perceived, the fusion of senses with the thing itself.

                Here are some of the basic qualities of a Holo-MeME.

1.1: Visual qualities of your Holo-MeME

On the most elementary level, besides being absolutely and unequivocally associated with the meaning, your Holo-Meme should be infused with as many of the following qualities as possible.

It should be: 

1.      SILLY, stupid or strange.

2.      LARGER THAN LIFE

3.      ACTION packed (More on this in 1.2)

4.      PUNNABLE as required (When memorizing an abstract concept that is difficult to visualize, a visual pun prompts the meaning.)

5.      in FULL-COLOUR

6.      EMOTIONALLY-charged

7.      EASY to see; as clear and vivid as a HDTV set

8.      THREE-DIMENSIONAL; as much as your imagination allows

9.      possessed of AUDITORY QUALITIES (More on this in 1.3 )

10.  TEMPORALLY charged ie give it a dimension of time. (see 1.4 for a more detailed explanation of this and why it is so important)

Let’s look at each one of these qualities in greater detail.

1.1.1 Make it silly, stupid or strange

                The sight of anything silly, stupid or weird, something that you would not usually encounter it in your daily life, is surely going to make you remember it more easily. I would go so far as to say it would most likely be impossible to forget. How unforgettable is the following mental image that you might use to remember the word “different”

different

                Another way of making something slightly ridiculous is endowing it with unusual or unexpected attributes. Advertizing people know the secret to creating memorable advertisements and often affix human features to otherwise drab, featureless products they wish the public to buy. Look at kids’ reading books. Just about everything is anthropomorphized. I am sure you’ll agree that affixing over-sized eyes and a smiling face on the following mental image creates a much better first and longer-lasting impression than any ordinary blender. It increases memorability tenfold.

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