Hi,
a long time ago, I came up with the New memory system for fast translation of numbers, hoping it will allow me to read any (short) number sequence really fast in such a way that I would be able to keep a large amount of digits in my working memory without having to translate them into images. As it turned out, the various 2 digit sounds in this system were to simular to one another and the length of the sounds felt to long most of the time, making it not very useful.
I believe I have come up with a system that is much better. I will begin with a comparison of the old and new system using a couple of random number sequences. After that I will explain the new system.
comparison between old and new system:
58 34 14 09 30
old: saf mak ik og mo
new: sè mui lui py mo
87 81 84 18 37
old: fat fi fak if mat
new: fé-i-ui lè mé
47 27 11 29 25
old: kat nat loe nag nas
new: ké né loe ny-eu
36 58 19 47 46
old: mab saf ig kat kab
new: ma sè ly ké-a
explanation of new system; first and second digits
the first digit of any 2 digit number is translated as a consonant:
0 = p, 1 = l, 2 = n, 3 = m, 4 = k, 5 = s, 6 = b, 7 = t, 8 = f, 9 = g
The second digit is translated as a vowel-ish sound; Keep in mind that the sounds are based on the Dutch language; I have put examples of an English word after most of the sounds for comparison:
0 = o (o in post), 1 = ie (ea in leaking), 2 = u (u in uber cab), 3 = ou (ow in cow), 4 = ui (this sound doesn’t appear in the English language). 5 = eu (see 4), 6 = a (a in Dzjengis Khan), 7 = é (a in shaking), 8 = è (a in bad), 9 = y (y in why).
twin numbers:
The best part of the old system was the pronounciation of twin numbers (first and second digit are the same), so I kept these:
00 = poe, 11 = loe, 22 = noe, 33 = moe, 44 = koe, 55 = soe, 66 = boe, 77 = toe, 88 = foe, 99 = goe.
The oe-sound (oo in scooter) is exclusive for twin numbers.
shortcut:
If the first and third digit of a 4-digit sequence are the same I can remove the third digit sound; examples:
36 39
without shortcut: ma my
with shortcut: ma-y
47 42
without shortcut: ké ku
with shortcut: ké -u
55 53
without shortcut: soe sou
with shortcut: soe-ou
images:
Just like in the old system, in the new system every 2 digit sound is linked to an image (objects, person or animal). Much to my surprise a very large part of the numbers sound just like real Dutch words or the beginning of a Dutch word, making it very easy to come up with and learn them.
I have also created 10 images for all the shortcut sounds (or second digit sounds); some examples:
36 38 = ma (sigar; it’s a reference to “Ma Flodder” from the very succesful Dutch movie “de Flodders”) mè (goat: mehhhh)
or with shortcut: ma-è (è = a can of red bull; ehhh is the sound you make when you drink an ice cold one on a warm summer afternoon).
59 52 = sy (sy sounds like zij in zijwaarts (= sideways), hence a snowboarder) su (su is short for Susan; I find this a nice name for a female elephant; Su the elephant).
or with shortcut: sy-u (In the Dutch language we make a distinction between adressing young and old people. So the sentence" Do you want a coffee? is translated as "Wil jij een koffie? (for a young person) or “Wilt u een koffie?” (for an old person). Captain Picard is a bit old, so I have him as the image for “u”.
post scriptum:
I have changed the second number sound of 4 en 5 so that all second digit sounds are vowel-ish sounds. When I first posted this article I had “ak” and “as” as sounds. I feel that this change makes the system faster and more elegant.