Dr Civy Pulayath, the trainer of Train the Trainer Workshop organized by Swastika National Business School, brought back to my memory plane the importance of Mnemonic Aids. Many of us have helped ourselves with Mnemonic Aids without even being conscious of them. How many of us can answer the question offhand, without going to our knuckles, if asked whether September has 30 or 31 days? I’m sure every science teacher finds it easier to use the line, “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Noodles (or Nachos)” to teach children the order of the planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – in our Solar System. But surprisingly, we as teachers haven’t been trained to make learning easier by using Mnemonic Aids.
I was quite amused when I first got such a memory aid to remember the difference in the meanings of venial and venal. I could remember both the meanings: one meant a small offence or sin, and another meant bribable or corrupt. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t match the words with their meaning until I came across a simple yet intelligent recall tool – in whatever I am involved cannot be that bad. Did a bell ring in your mind? Venial has ‘i’ in it; it cannot be that bad; hence its meaning is a small offence or sin.
This inspired me to work out a few of my own retention aids for the benefit of my students.
Stationery has ‘e’ in it and one could remember that it has something to do with pen and pencil which have the letter ‘e’ in them. The word stationary that has ‘a’ and not ‘e’ means – not moving.
This kind of cognitive support can help us with grammar too. One of the complex areas of English Grammar is that of irregular verbs. They beat logic and there is no magic that can work in getting them right. However, memory helpers can be tried out. We can draw parallels between strive and drive, and use the past and the past participle forms of strive as strove and striven, just as we would say drove and driven. I do admit that there are advocates of strived as the accepted past form of strive. However, strove is considered more formal, and in an educational set-up, it is advisable to be formal.
It can be an exciting proposition to exercise our lateral thinking power to work out new recollection aids for ourselves. Let’s wire the neurons of our brain with new possibilities. I welcome you to work out mnemonic aids for the following four words that are so close in their spelling, but worlds apart in their meaning. Mixing them up would end up in malapropisms!
Ingenious – adjective (of a person) clever, original, and inventive:
“He was ingenious enough to overcome the limited budget”
Ingenuous – adjective (of a person or action) innocent and unsuspecting:
“He eyed her with wide, ingenuous eyes”
Indigenous – adjective, originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native:
“The indigenous peoples of Siberia”
Ingénue – noun – an innocent or unsophisticated young woman, especially in a play or film.
English can confound us!
He is known for his ingenious heart and ingenuous craft.????
He is known for his ingenuous heart and ingenious craft.????
