Memory tricks dazzle students

It takes Huang Jingu, a Grade 4 primary [?praim?ri](小學(xué)) student, 30 minutes to memorize [?mem?raiz](記憶) 80 English words and 44 seconds to read and comprehend [?k?mpri?hend](理解) a 16-page newspaper. The 9-year-old student of Baiyunlu primary school is notexceptional [ik?sep??nl](唯一的); she is attending a short private training class(培訓(xùn)課程) that promises outstanding [?aut?st?ndi?](杰出的) memory and speed-reading(快速閱讀) skills.

The eight-day course costs almost 4,000 yuan and has Huang sitting classes on memory, English, study interests and speed-reading.The school is also not exceptional.

Pan Jianchao, president of Tangtech, a school that focuses on improving the skill set, said Beijing had five training schools like his last year. That number has climbed to 15 this year.

And there is demand [di?mɑ:nd](需求) to go with supply, with Tangtech receiving more than 300 students this year for summer vacation(暑假) classes in Beijing and 4,000 nationwide [?ne???n?wa?d](全國) - a 50 and 80 percent increase respectively [ris?pektivli](相應(yīng)地), compared with last year.

Huang's father Huang Jin'e is pleased with his daughter's performance [p??f?:m?ns](表現(xiàn)).

"She remembers things much faster than before. It used to take her forever to memorize a few English words," he said.

"China's education system places a lot of emphasis [?emf?sis](重點(diǎn)) on recitation [resi?tei?(?)n](背誦), so this method will help a lot."

Rapid memory recall has gained popularity [?p?pj??l?r?ti:](流行) among parents after a primary school girl recited The Book of Family Names at the 2010 Spring Festival Gala(春節(jié)晚會).

He said the World Memory Championships(世界記憶冠軍賽), which will be held in Guangzhou this year, also contributes to popularizing(使流行) the skill.

"Rapid memory recall and speed-reading are ways to save and access details. They are powerful abilities, especially in the era of information explosion,"(信息爆炸的時代) he said.

"Once students grasp [ɡrɑ:sp](掌握) these methods, they will benefit for their whole life."

But this type of study is not a new phenomenon [fi?n?min?n，f??n?m?n?n] (現(xiàn)象)- in the late 1990s, kids were into mental arithmetic [??riθm?tik](珠心算).

Again, the interest was sparked by an outstanding performance

at the Spring Festival Gala, this time in 1999, when a girl displayed a dramatic grasp of number puzzles.

Three years later, the market surrounding mental arithmetic was valued at 200 million yuan in Hebei province alone. However, the fad [f?d](狂熱) soon faded(褪色) because students sought out quick results without understanding the process.

Pan believes rapid memory recall will be different, because it helps logic [?l?d?ik](邏輯的) and image development.

"Attaining a quick memory is not magic, it's a science," he said.

Pan said the idea behind rapid memory recall is to utilize [?ju:tilaiz](使用后) logical thinking on the left side of the brain, and image processing(映像過程) on the right. Techniques are used to match, associate and oppose.

Take English vocabulary [v??k?bjul?ri](詞匯量) as an example, the image reverse [ri?v?:s](逆向) of the letter b (in the word "best") is p, so "pest" is also opposite to "best".

For the word "scarf" (s-car-f), an s symbolizes(象征) a snake while an f looks something like an umbrella. Students can create a story for the words, such as a snake gripping [?gripi?](引起注意的) a scarf in a car, which can only be removed with an umbrella.

"With the correct method and constant [?k?nst?nt](持續(xù)地)practice, a student can recall a set of cards, or several English words, in a blink of an eye," Pan said.

A broad look at the courses on offer shows they typically recruit [ri?kru:t](招生) students aged 7 to 15, with tuition fees ranging from 4,000 to 10,000 yuan for eight to 10 days' study.

However, parents and education experts are questioning whether the high fees are justified(合理的).