# What are the risks and benefits of subvocalization while reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** Productivity\ **Tags:** speed-reading\ **Created:** [February 17, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/what-are-the-risks-and-benefits-of-subvocalization-while-reading/36308 "2019-02-17T19:25:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 7
**Author:** ![bjoern.gumboldt](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/bjoern.gumboldt/32/16747_2.png) [@bjoern.gumboldt](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/bjoern.gumboldt)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 10:19am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/what-are-the-risks-and-benefits-of-subvocalization-while-reading/36308/7 "2019-02-19T10:19:20Z")
> [@anon96209900](#): > > No, I dont have any problem with my inner voice, but that is another case someone would like to shut it off. I doesn’t work like that… it is also not the same as the “inner voice” they talk about when they dumb it down in their books and articles, because they’re afraid people won’t understand what is meant by “subvocalization”. > [@anon96209900](#): > > As I said, I find my inner voice rather useful for myself to use it while reading and learning. Again, not what is meant… they mean the voice that is “reading along” word for word… not an inner monologue that explains on top of the written text. The idea is that your vocal chords (used during subvocalizing) will put a limit on how fast you can go because they can only produce sounds so fast. > [@anon96209900](#): > > In Spanish I can read 292 words per minute That is way too slow if you want to not subvocalize what you read. Imagine trying to run at 2 mph… your brain would be very confused as to why you’re not just walking instea, because you’d be twice as fast. Try reading at 3-4 times of what you’re at. > [@anon96209900](#): > > reading only the first letters of a word then going on Where did you find that technique? You’d read in word clusters when speed reading, not the first letter of each word. You’d also skip useless words like “de” in Spanish. esp: zumo de naranja, zumo de manzana, zumo de piña → z d n, z d m, z d p eng: orange juice, apple juice, pineapple juice → o j, a j, p j deu: Orangensaft, Apfelsaft, Ananassaft → O, A, A Especially, in Spanish you should be able to see the word cluster and just read it as one piece of information, same for English and German because the construct is familiar to you. Following this first letter technique… English speakers should be able to read twice as fast and German speakers three times as fast as Spanish speakers. It would probably slow down English or German speakers a lot if they found “juice of oranges”/“juice of the orange” or “Saft von Orangen”/“Saft der Orange” instead. Even though grammatically perfectly okay, but your brain is not familiar seeing this construct every time you’re in a supermarket. > [@anon96209900](#): > > Ergo it takes me 100 hours to understand a book of 1000 pages like medical books. see here… not all texts are equal: > [@Speed Reading Is Real](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/speed-reading-is-real/33078/5): > > It isn’t about how interested they are in something. If you have a text that is both written in a confusing way and also contains concepts that are difficult to understand, it becomes impossible to speedread effectively. I highly doubt you can read Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason at 100 WPM if you have never read it before. It is impossible to read something like that and understand it without frequent and lengthy pauses to think about what the philosopher is actually saying. My argument is that… Bottom line, if on top of memorizing you are also learning new concepts during reading then forget about speed reading. > [@anon96209900](#): > > Learning the periodic table or the Pi digits is easy task. But learning texts of Pharmacy, Public health or medicine is not alike. It’s actually exactly the same: replace the abstract with a concrete image and store it in a location in your memory palace. You’re making use of image recognition and spacial navigation. > [@anon96209900](#): > > I’d like to ask something else related to this topic. Can speedreading techniques be applied to reviews? How do you review faster? Instead of trying to review fast(er), try to review more effectively… spaced repetition software like Anki or Memrise can be used for that. Also active recall is more powerful when it comes to retention than just re-reading your notes is. --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/what-are-the-risks-and-benefits-of-subvocalization-while-reading/36308)._