Where is Montenegro?

Recently my wife and I were watching the James Bond film Casino Royale. A city appeared in shot with a sub-title of Montenegro. Where exactly is Montenegro? My country memorisation project helped me answer this question.

In an earlier article, I wrote how I used a set of memory pegs to remember the countries and capitals in a geographic sequence. This arrangement helps me recall the neighbouring countries. Here is a section of  my country (and capital city) memory pegs.

121    Croatia  -  Zagreb
122    Bosnia and Herzegovina  -  Sarajevo
123    Montenegro  -  Podgorica
124    Serbia  -  Belgrade
125    Albania  -  Tirana

So how did I recall the location of Montenegro?

First of all, I recall my mental image of a Negro the size of a Mountain (MONTENEGRO) with a red gnome sitting on his shoulder (the image of 123). I remembered the capital because the Gnome was listening to an iPod (PODgorica), shouting "Go, Ricky!". Maybe he was listening to Ricky Martin?

Now that I had the peg number of 123 for Montenegro, I can recall the countries for 122 (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and 123 (Serbia).  My image for 122 (which translates to Red Nun) is a Nun wearing a red cloak sitting in a hearse (Herzegovina) which reminds me of Bosnia Herzegovina. The Nun is eating a salad which reminds me of the capital city, Sarajevo.

My key image of 124 is a red Nero and he is serving (Serbia) a large bell (Belgrade) instead of a tennis ball, over the fence onto sloping ground (a steep grade) which further reinforces the image of Belgrade.

My mental images for the associations may seem confusing but they are personal and established in my memory. Your associations will be different, but most importantly they should be memorable.

Now that I know the neighbouring countries, I can imagine the location of the country of Montenegro.

Memorising the countries and capitals of the world - my reflection

Earlier this year I set myself the goal of being able to recall the names of all the countries of the world and their capitals. There are two parts of this project.  The first is to be able to recite the names of the countries in sequence, and the second is to recall the capital of a given country. In addition, I should be able to recall the country when given a capital city.

My approach to memorising this project and the lessons learnt are described in this article.

1. I created a list of country names and capitals in an Excel spreadsheet. This information was sourced from the World Guide reference book.

2. I made a rough division of the world into continents and regions. This created problems as not every reference book classifies the counties so neatly. What are the borders of Europe?  Which countries are in Asia?  I made some mistakes on my virtual journey around Africa as I missed some islands in both the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic ocean.

3. Using a map, I worked out a journey starting in the United Kingom, and hopping from country to country in turn. I then assigned each country a sequence number for the order of memorisation.

4. I used the number peg system to associate a number to a country. Because there are over 200 countries, and my peg system consists of 100 pegs, I added colour to my pegs to create a new set of number pegs from 100 to 999. The first 100 pegs are red, the second 100 are green, the third hundred are blue.

In hindsight, the colours were sometimes difficult to recall and I should have used more action or involving the senses for example, icy cold, windy, and burning hot.

5. Now I had a list of coloured peg numbers, countries and capitals to learn. The list begins with the United Kingdom:

• 101    United Kingdom - London
• 102    Ireland - Dublin
• 103    Portugal - Lisbon
• 104    Spain - Madrid
• 105    Andorra - Andorra la Vella
• 106    France - Paris
• 107    Luxembourg - Luxembourg
• 108    Monaco - Monaco
• 109    Belgium - Brussels
• 110    Netherlands - Amsterdam
  

6. The memorisation process involves creating a strong mental image between the coloured peg word and the country. In addition I needed to create an association between the country and the capital.

I made small cardboard flashcards with the number on one side and the country and capital on the back. I took around 20 cards and a pencil with me on my daily walk to create vivid images.  Some of my early images were not too good but I got better as my imagination became wilder with practice.

Here are my first ten peg numbers (based on the Major System).

1. tie
2. Noah
3. ma
4. Ra
5. law
6. shoe
7. key
8. ivy
9. bee
10. toes
    

Mental images and associations can be wild, sexy, and maybe offensive to some people. Let your imagination go wild as you are under no obligation to explain your images to other people.  These are my images:

1 red tie -> United Kingdom - London A group of three KINGS have been tied up with a RED TIE but they are puffing up their lungs/chests (LONDON)

2 red Noah -> Ireland - Dublin a red faced Noah is drinking double-sized (DUBLIN) Guinness with a short leprechaun.  (This image is sufficient to prompt my recall of Ireland since I know that Dublin is the capital of Ireland)

3 red ma -> Portugal - Lisbon - a large black woman (Mama) is sitting on the Porch (PORTUGAL) of her house and cuddling her Lesbian (LISBON) lover.

4 red Ra -> Spain - Madrid. A red Pharaoh (my image of Ra) is sailing down the Nile waving a Spanner (SPAIN) and shouting loudly because he is MAD.

5 red law -> Andorra - Andorra la Vella. A red faced lawyer is banging the door (ANDORRA) which bursts open onto a large valley (Andorra La Vella)

6 red shoe -> France - Paris - a red shoe is kicking a soccer ball into the Arc de Triophe in Paris and hitting the red, white and blue French flag.

7 red key -> Luxembourg - Luxembourg. A large red key is pushed into a large cake of LUX soap (an Australian brand of soap) which is between two large hamburger buns (LUX + HAMBURGER). Because I didn't add any more imagery, I know that the capital city is the same name.

8 red ivy -> Monaco - Monaco. A large piece of red ivy is draped around the neck of a MONK.

9 red bee -> Belgium - Brussels. An enormous red bee is stinging a luscious Belgiuan chocolate which is surrounded by Brussel Sprouts (BRUSSELS).

10 red toes -> Netherlands - Amsterdam. A foot with red painted toes is pushing into a wooden clog which in turn is kicking a hamster (Amsterdam) into a large net (Netherlands) draped over water (next to a dyke).

7. Testing and Review

I used the Mnemosyne Spaced Repetion flashcard software (Mnemosyne is free software and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux) to test my recall. The program displays a card with the number, I recall the country and capital, then show the answer.  The program schedules the card for future review based on how I rated my recall.

Once I remembered a country I removed the card from the paper card collection and added more cards.

8. Countries and Territories.

As I memorised the islands of Africa and South America I encounted territories of other countries. Do I memorise these or not?  I decided to remember most of the territories and to identify them I included the image of a terrier dog.  For example, Montserrat is a British Territory with capital of Plymouth. The peg number is 302 which is a Blue Noah. My memory image is a blue-faced Noah chasing a Monster Rat (Montserrat) who is also being chased by a terrier dog with a plum in its mouth (Plymouth).

9. Continents to Country link

Towards the end of my memorisation project I realised I didn't have a means to recall the first country in my sequence for a particular continent.

I created a list of continents with the peg number for the first country in sequence. I converted the number into an image using the Major system then built an association.

Europe - 100 - Daisies
Eastern Europe - 145 - Trolley / Trowel
Middle East - 150 Tiles
Asia - 164 Teacher (in an indian classroom)
SE Asia 177 - hat cock (rooster)
ASia Pacific - 194  - toe bar
Africa - 216 - Ant - Ouch! bitten by ants
North and Central America - 269 -  nacho bee
South America - 279 - knee cap 
Caribbean - 293 - napalm

If I want to recall the countries of Africa, I think of the ants biting (ouch!), convert this to 216 which is green tissue. My key image is the pyramids (Egypt) covered in green tissue paper with cars (Cairo) driving down the sides of the pyramids. I can now continue in sequence, recalling the country associated with 217, 218 and so on.

10. Mistakes

After I memorised the countries of Africa it was pointed out to me I had omitted two islands. I had to add these countries on to the existing peg. For example, I omitted Seychelle (capital Victoria) so I added it to the peg for Comoros (Moroni). Now my mental image was a cormorant with a green mace (key word for 230) in its beak with a moron hanging on to mace. The moron is wearing a necklace of sea-shells with a picture of Queen Victoria.

11. Capitals to Countries.

Since I had the country and capital information in a spreadsheet, I imported the capital to country data into Mnemosyne for additional testing. I found this is a good way to confim my knowledge of the countries.

12. Lessons learnt

I use Mnemosyne daily to review my Country/Capital cards. My recall of some countries is still weak but I do know the information and Mnemosyne is helping me push the information into long term memory. It is important to review daily and Mnemosyne is the most time efficient method.

When preparing to memorise a large amount of information, I learnt how important it is to compile and check all the details. Then the memorising process can proceed.

Some of my 100 peg words didnt have strong images and these got changed during the course of this project. For example, ball is not a strong image for 95, but bull is more memorable. I used to use FAB (the washing powder) for 89 but I also use vibe (vibraphone). I have found it is possible to remember multiple keywords for the number pegs without becoming confusing.

Mnemosyne (when used daily) is a great way to assess how fast it is possible to memorise a lot of information. I only worked on creating associations on my weekends or an occasional lunchbreak, but I used Mnemosyne almost daily for review. Often I would be frustrated at how I had forgotten things, and sometimes I would refine the image to help my recall.

I also learnt how to convert very difficult words into something memorable. For example:

• Equatorial Guinea - A guinea pig running around the Earth's equator
• Burkina Farso - a fat lady wearing a bikini (Bikini Fatso)
• Liberia (capital Monrovia) used the image of a group of choir boys from Libera driving the Moon Rover. 
• Senegal (Dakar) - a man waving his pants ("Daks") at a flock of seagulls.
  

Click on the picture below to show the information I have memorised.

More information:

• My number pegs
• My list of peg numbers with countries and capital list.

My Journey Through Africa

Yesterday I started the memorisation of the countries of Africa. By the end of this exercise I will be able to name every country number on the map above and its capital.

How good is your general knowledge of Africa? Write down the countries using the map above and give yourself a score out of 53! Click the map above for a larger view.

I have never travelled to Africa but I am fascinated by the variety of cultures, wildlife, climate, music, and deserts. I enjoyed Michael Palin's series on Sahara, and I am about to read Paul Theroux's book Dark Star Safari in which he describes a journey overland from Cairo to Cape Town. As I read the book my knowledge of the countries and capitals will be reinforced.

Two more books on my "Africa" list are Ryszard Kapuscinski's The Shadow of the Sun (published by Penguin in their inexpensive Popular Penguin series) and "Out of Africa" by Isak Dinesen.

Memorising the countries of the World

Can you name the capital city of any country? Could you name all the countries of Europe? Is Vanuatu a country or a city? And where is Montenegro anyway?

These are the sort of questions that used to bug me. How could I build up my General Knowledge of the world as quickly and comprehensively as possible? A good starting point is knowing the names of each country and their capital cities.

I decided to memorise the names of all the countries of the world and their capital cities. My strategy was to use peg words with which to associate the information.

1. The first step was to compiling a list of countries and capital cities. I used the World Guide 11th edition (published in 2008) as my reference from which I created a spreadsheet of country names and capitals. The World Guide is available from New Internationalist magazine.

2. The next step was to sequence the countries to make a journey around the planet. Each country in my list should be a neighbour to the previous and next countries on the list. Sometimes this required crossing oceans, for example, going from the United Kingdom to Portugal. The advantage of remembering the countries in sequence is being able to recall a country's neighbour which helps recall the location of a country on the globe.

3. I used the Major System and my key words for the numbers 0 to 99. Each of these numbers has a key image(a peg word), for example 21 is "net". Because there are more than 99 countries, I needed more peg words.

This problem was solved by extending the peg words by modifying them. This system is called the Self Enhancing Master Memory Matrix by Tony Buzan in his book "Master Your Memory". Very simply, it uses the hundred peg words then multiplies the list by 10 using some new images.

I modified my peg words using colours, so the numbers 100 - 199 are Red, 200 - 299 are Green, 300 - 399 Blue, 400 - 499 Brown, 500 - 599 Gold, 600 - 699 Violet, 700 - 799 Black, 800 - 899 Grey, and 900 - 999 are White. I only need the first three colours for the countries.

4. I connected the peg words to the countries and their associated capitals. The first fifteen items on my list are shown below, showing the link from the peg number to the country and then to the capital. Some countries are very small and the names are the same, for example, Monaco, Vatican City and San Marino.

101 -> United Kingdom -> London
102 -> Ireland -> Dublin
103 -> Portugal -> Lisbon
104 -> Spain -> Madrid
105 -> Andorra -> Andorra la Vella
106 -> France ->Paris
107 -> Luxembourg -> Luxembourg
108 -> Monaco -> Monaco
109 -> Belgium -> Brussels
110 -> Netherlands -> Amsterdam
111 -> Germany -> Berlin
112 -> Liechtenstein -> Vaduz
113 -> Switzerland -> Bern
114 -> Austria -> Vienna
115 -> Italy -> Rome

5. The memorisation technique was to take the peg word image for each number, then create an association to the country name. Next I would create an association between country and capital. For example, the peg word for 101 is Tie (as in necktie), and 101 has the modifier of Red. I imagined three kings (UNITED KINGDOM) tied up with a large red necktie and they were puffing up their chests (lungs -> LONDON) trying to escape.

I know some of the capital cities very well, for example, London is the capital of the United Kingdom. Some capitals have tricky spelling so more time was needed to be spent forming association, for exampled Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia. My image was a packet of jubes being eaten by Jana Wendt, an Australian television reporter.

Here are some more of the associations I created:

104 - red Ra (pharaoh) waving a spanner (SPAIN) madly (MADRID) about

105 - red law -> Red faced judge opening a door (ANDORRA) covered with legal documents opening into a valley (LA VELLA)

106 - red shoe -> Red shoe kicking a soccer ball into the arc de triomphe (FRANCE, PARIS)

107 - red key -> Red key jammed into a bar of LUX soap squeezed between two hamburger buns

108 - red ivy -> Red ivy draped around a monk's neck (MONACO)

109 - red bee -> Red bee stinging a BELGIUM chocolate jammed between two BRUSSEL sprouts

6. How do I create the associations?

I found that I need to be in a relaxed state of mind to devise the associations. What I did was to cut up some cardboard into small pieces, and write the number on one side and the capital and country on the other side. I would take these cards on my walks and work on one card at a time, exploring associations and occasionally writing pencil notes on the card.

Names of countries and capitals need to be converted into memorable images. I try to find a word that reminds me of what I am remembering. For example, San Merino became a Merino sheep. Monaco becomes a MONK, Croatia became a CROW, and Bulgaria became a Bulging Sofa.

One of the big challenges was creating strong images for the foreign words. For example, Skopje sounds like Skippy (or skipping rope). Tbilisi (capital of Georgia) became a cup of Tea sitting on a duck's bill floating on the sea. This image was enough to recall Tbilisi. Abu Dhabi reminded me of Fred Flintstone yelling "Yabba Dabba Doo!".

Creating these associations is a powerful workout for creativity and imagination.

My lunch time and weekend walks are a great place and time for reviewing the cards and building up my memory. In addition I refine the associations for the numbers that were hard to recall.

7. How do I test my knowledge?

As well as learning new information, I needed to review the older material. My cardboard flash cards are great for learning the new material as I usually only carry around 20 - 30 cards. The old cards are bundled with a rubber band, and a little bit clumsy to review. I could review the list from the beginning, but this is not efficient as some of the associations are well remembered and others are not.

I started using a Flashcard program (Mnemosyne) to test my knowledge. This is software that shows you a question, you think about your response, press a button to show the answer, then rate yourself on how well I knew the answer. Based on response to "how well do I recall I answer", the program schedules the card to be shown at a particular interval. Cards I know well get schedulded many days into the future, but the cards I don't know will be scheduled for much sooner. My strategy is to use the Flashcard program every day.

Another advantage of the Flashcard program is that it shows the cards at random. Trying to test myself using the physical cards meant I was seeing the cards in the sequence.

8. Accessing a particular continent

What if I wanted to name all the countries for Asia Pacific? Which number do I start with? For this reason, I have memorised the starting numbers for each continent. I know that United Kingdom (the beginning of Europe) is 101 but Asia Pacific starts at 194. The number 194 can be translated with the Major System to Toe-bar (T-B-R). I imagine an Australian Holden car with a giant toe-bar at the back.

Yesterday I started creating associations for Africa which started at 216. This means I have already learnt 115 countries and capitals, so I am about half way through this project.