Lecture 4 口译记忆强化技巧三：视觉化在线视频

Hello everyone

Welcome to the online course

Interpreting: Theory and Practice

I’m your lecturer Catherine

Today

we come to the last memory enhancement skill

visualization

By definition

visualization refers to the act or process

of putting information into visible form

The cognitive mechanism of information visualization

is based on people’s experience

including the experience and knowledge

gained from humans’ interaction with people

and things around them

like themes

languages

cultures and so on

When you hear source language information

relevant themes

languages and other background knowledge

that are already existing in your memory

will be activated

Then

the source information will appear in your mind

in forms of images

As humans’ brains are quite sensitive to images

the technique of visualization

is often applied in interpreting training

to facilitate memory

With the help of visualization

interpreters can transform

abstract information into images

and store those images in their working memories

for later extraction

If interpreters can store source language information

in the form of images

they don’t have to memorize chunks of information

and therefore can ease the burden of their brains

According to some scholars

if information like trees

roofs

houses

mountains

lakes etc

in source language

can actually be seen by interpreters rathers

than understood as vocabulary

it will be better retained in their memory

and thus generate more effective results

We’ve talked so much about visualization

I believe you’re anxious to know how it really works

Generally

the practice of visualization takes four steps

If you’ve never done such practices before

then I suggest that you start

from Chinese ancient poems or fables

Poems and fables are usually short and full of imagery

It’ll easily arouse your imagination

Step 1

choose a poem or a fable

read it and imagine in your mind the visual images

If you can do it with perfect ease

then find the audio of the same poem or fable

listen to it and do the imagining in the same way

Step 2

describe the imagery to yourself or your peers

For instance

you can begin like this

I can see a clear river

on both sides of which are tall trees

Step 3

find a short narrative text either in Chinese or in English

listen to it and do the imagining

Then

describe the imagery as you did in step 2

Make sure your description is coherent in meaning

Step 4

find a material that’s a bit more difficult

than a narrative

like a text describing a geographical location

Listen to it and do the imagining

Then

follow the same steps as mentioned previously

Make sure your description is coherent in meaning

Now

let’s invite Jeff to give us a demo of visualization

Welcome Jeff

Hi

nice to meet you

Have you ever tried visualization to improve your memory?

Well

yes I have

I came to know visualization from a book

and since then I started to practice it

How do you think of it?

Have you found any changes in your memory

since you used visualization?

Well my memory has indeed been sharpened

The biggest difference is that I find myself

unconsciously picturing words into images

whether it’s reading or listening

This really helps retain information

and reduce the burden of my brain

That sounds cool

It seems you¡¯ve built a habit

of connecting texts with images

Yes

I believe so

If you’re a beginner in interpreting

and happen to be troubled by weak memory

it’s time to learn to make use of visualization

Next

Jeff will give us two examples to show

how visualization works

Please watch carefully

Can you visualize what you heard?

Yes

I’ll give it a try

When I was listening

I could see in my mind a family with five members

parents

a brother

a little girl and a dog named A Fu

One day

the parents were working on the farm

while the little girl carelessly walked

towards a river nearby

Seeing this

A Fu followed her closely

Suddenly

the little girl fell into the river

and at that critical moment

A Fu bravely jumped into the river and saved her

Very vivid description

Thank you

Can you tell us how you pictured

the audio step by step?

The speaker started by saying that his parents

lived in the country and they kept a dog named A Fu

On hearing this sentence

I quickly pictured the images

of a middle-aged couple

walking a handsome dog on country streets

so It’s quite a familiar scene

in our daily life now

as many people love dogs

Then

the speaker continued to describe

what happened on that day

Yes

the scene of his parents working on a farm

can’t be more familiar

I grew up in countryside and used to help my parents

on our farm

So it’s really a piece of cake

to turn those sentences into images

How about the dog saving the little girl?

I’ve read several news stories about loyal dogs

saving their masters’ lives regardless of danger

When I heard that the little girl

was walking towards the river

I couldn’t help imagining that

A Fu may try to save her

and it turned out to be true

So there is actually a flow of images in my mind

during the whole process of listening

Nice job

You’re full of imagination

Did you visualize just now?

As to this audio

we can visualize it according to the following pictures

You see

visual images are better at conveying meaning than words

right?

Here’s is a practice for you

Listen to this audio and visualize at the same time

Afterwards

retell the source language with the help of your images

If you can retell 90% of the source language information

with the assistance of images

it means you have an excellent imaginative ability

Up to now

we’ve talked three memory strengthening skills

including source language recitation

shadowing and visualization

Be sure to practice constantly

In next lecture

Jeff is going to give us demos on source language recitation

Let’s look forward to that