Is it possible to memorize the whole dictionary?

Boy   Fri Sep 09, 2005 9:22 am GMT
Just curious to know that if it is practically possible. There is this Indian guy who claims to do that. He memorized the whole oxford dictionary. He took 2 years for memorizing words from the whole dic and his main method was visualisation. He told me that he used to spend 4 to 5 hours on a regular basis and sometimes he spent 20 hours a day. He used to link words with images.


What I don't understand is that the process of forgetting things is always with us. We as human beings tend to forget things over a period of time no matter how many times we recall or repeat them. It is very difficult to have a solid memory. Sometimes it seems to me that such claims nothing but full of bluffs. What are your thoughts on this topic?


Take a look at his website:
http://www.achieverspoint.com/winoverwords.htm
Mole   Fri Sep 09, 2005 11:03 am GMT
In the beginning of the past century in Russia lived a guy who couldn't forget anything. He suffered from it very much. Every word came to him as unique mixture of smell, color, tone, taste and so on. So as you see theoretically it's possible.

Furthermore, now in Russia lives a man whose name is Yuri Gorny. He had intentionally developed capability of his memory. Now he remembers in amount not less than the British Encyclopedia. He can also perform various things but that's another topic...
Achab   Fri Sep 09, 2005 11:27 am GMT
What's the name of the Russian guy who lived in the beginning of the past century? It reminds me of a Jorge Luis Borges character, Ireneo Funes.

www.bridgewater.edu/~atrupe/GEC101/Funes.html


Best,
Achab
Geoff_One   Fri Sep 09, 2005 11:57 am GMT
Before books were available in large numbers, it was relatively common for people to memorize the equivalent of an entire book or more.

In the present era - Check out web sites on the World Memory Championships and you will see that some people have done astonishing things. For example, some people can memorize the card
order of a shuffled deck of playing cards (52 cards) within 30 to 35 seconds. As I understand it, a number of these memory competitors
have an interest in applying their skills to learning languages. For example, a competitor in the first World Memory Championships (early 1990s) has such an interest. This particular competitor was from England, and I recently saw some updated information on him. He has fluent or near fluent knowledge of French, Spanish and German, but he
only needed to spend a small amount of time each day to acquire this knowledge.
Mole   Fri Sep 09, 2005 12:52 pm GMT
To Achab

His name was Shershevski
Hoagie   Fri Sep 09, 2005 2:08 pm GMT
Is it possible to memorize the whole dictionary?


Yes. Try LONGMAN DICTIONARY of AMERICAN ENGLISH :)
It's not very big, but you can find it useful :)
Kyle   Fri Sep 09, 2005 3:54 pm GMT
Of course it's possible, but it can be very difficult if you don't have very good visual memory to learn a list of words in alphabetical order. It is much easier to learn words not in alphabetical order.
Mitch   Fri Sep 09, 2005 5:04 pm GMT
My Spanish teacher told me about a scholar she knew who was a prisoner during the Spanish Civil War. The only book he had access to was a large Spanish dictionary, and with little else to do during his captivity, he studied it. He learned basically the entire Spanish lexicon, and according to my teacher, was able to use it in writing and speaking. She said the his students, themselves well educated, often had troubling understanding everything he said!
Shyam Yadav   Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:26 pm GMT
Hi Friends,

I came to know about message posted here" Is it possible to memorize the whole dictionary?". I do not believe" why people raising questions about someone determination to memorise words.
Personally I memorise whole learner oxford dictionary 'Word by word". If you do not believe Simply meet to me I will reply meaning of each word.


Thanking You
Shyam
CEO
www.achieverspoint.com
24 hour Helpline: +919899004123
KSa   Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:50 pm GMT
Probably it's possible to memorize the whole dictionary but why should we do it if we have dictionaries?! Moreover, in avarage use there are no more than 5-7 000 words. There is no need to memorize 500 000 words, majority of this number are words that we use once, maybe twice during the whole life.
KSa   Wed Sep 14, 2005 3:53 pm GMT
Maybe I'm not puting the right figures but I heard that if someone knows 4 000 words he knows 90% of a language. If he knows 8 000 words he knows 92% of a language. And so on and on...
Brennus   Wed Sep 14, 2005 9:44 pm GMT
Some people do have photographic memories. I've seen men on television who can remember scores of numbers off of box cars as a train passes by and then recite all of them correctly. Nobody knows exactly why some people have this ability and some don't but genetics and DNA are probably factors.
Sanja   Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:38 pm GMT
I think it's possible, but of course if you don't constantly repeat it, you forget it eventually.
Guest   Thu Sep 15, 2005 9:26 pm GMT
What a meaningful existence for one to memorize a whole dictionary.
JJM   Fri Sep 16, 2005 3:06 pm GMT
"What a meaningful existence for one to memorize a whole dictionary."

You said it! My first thought was: why?

I suppose it's a slightly more useful way to pass the time than memorizing the 2004 edition of the Chicago phone book...