📘 Part 3: Remembering things

This episode's vocabulary

Have sth on your plate (idiom) - to have something, usually a large amount of important work, to deal with.

Lose track (of sth) - to stop keeping a record of something, or stop being certain that you know or remember what has happened.

Diary planner (noun) - a book with a separate space or page for each day, in which you write down your future arrangements, meetings, etc.

Memorial (noun) - an object, often large and made of stone, that has been built to honour a famous person or event.

Significance (noun) - importance.

To recall (verb) - to bring the memory of a past event into your mind, and often to give a description of what you remember.

False memory (noun) - an experience that a person remembers having, but that did not in fact happen.

Adept (adj.) - having a natural ability to do something that needs skill.an experience that a person remembers having, but that did not in fact happen.

To affect (verb) - to have an influence on someone or something, or to cause a change in someone or something.

To escape (verb) - to get free from something, or to avoid something.

Dull (adj.) - not interesting or exciting in any way.

Significant (adj.) - important or noticeable.

Prolonged (adj.) - continuing for a long time.

Fall by the wayside - if someone falls by the wayside, they fail to finish an activity, and if something falls by the wayside, people stop doing it, making it, or using it.

Underlying (adj.) - real but not immediately obvious.

Lesser (adj.) - used to describe something that is not as great in size, amount, or importance as something else.

Imagery (noun) - the use of words or pictures in books, films, paintings, etc. to describe ideas or situations.

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Questions and Answers

M: What do you think of people who use calendars to remind them of things?

R: Well, I'd be interested to know what else they had in common with me, to be honest. I haven't met many people who do that sort of thing outside of my family. Of course, few people are as organized as we are, so it would be cool to find other people who are like that.

M: What kinds of people are more forgetful?

R: Well, probably people with a lot on their plates. If you have a lot of things to remember, then you're more likely to lose track of them in your mind. That's why having a diary planner is important. So probably people who don't have them are also going to forget things more often, aren't they?

M: Do people like things of memorial significance?

R: Well, I imagine that will depend on the kind of person you are, really. Won't it? And also what the memorial is. So some people see such things as just clutter and ways to make a mess out of the place while others see them as keystones in their memories. So it comes down to the individual, frankly. We're talking about things of personal significance. If we talk about public memorials, then it's also connected to the culture and not just the individual.

M: Which is better for keeping childhood memories, photos, or videos?

R: Probably photos unless you're recording a particular process or event or need to remember the words people said. Usually, a photo can remind you of that, though, assuming you were there. If you aren't, or if you weren't there, then a video might be more suitable. For example, with weddings, they take all day and they have speeches and ceremonies, so a video could capture them quite well, I think.

M: Do you think that's keeping a diary can lead to creating false memories?

R: I suppose it depends on the purpose of the diary and the personality involved in writing it, and when they write about the events in question. So if you're quite a dishonest person, or have trouble objectively recalling things, then it might do. The same is true for writing about things days or weeks after they happen. Like your memory becomes increasingly unreliable, the further away from the events, well, taking place. A diary is meant to be an honest reflection of the person keeping it though. So if you can't be honest with yourself, then you probably have bigger issues than false memories, haven't you?

M: But do you think that people these days are not keen on keeping a diary?

R: No, I think they're more adept at blogs. They put their thoughts and memories out in the public sphere, and that's not always the best idea.

M: Why do people remember very little about things which happened to them in early childhood?

R: Well, there are all kinds of reasons aren't there, you might have had a brain injury that affected your memory, or that affects your memory. Or maybe it was so long ago that the fine details escape you. Alternatively, maybe it was very dull and not worth remembering in the first place.

M: Do you think that there are people who do remember things well? The things which happened to them in early childhood?

R: Oh, yeah, invariably there will be some people with better memories than others. But most people couldn't recall the significant events.

M: What childhood memories do people usually have?

R: Well, it's sort of like I said there. I think major events or things that happened for a prolonged period of time so, well, like friendships or going to school or birthday parties and celebrations. I think specific events only get remembered if they have particular emotional weight behind them, like something very funny or something very sad happened. More minor things like brushing your teeth tend to fall by the wayside, don't they?

M: Do you think these memories are the same with all the people?

R: Well, you're more likely to remember something significant than a minor detail. I think that's true in all cases, the extent to which you remember them might vary from person to person, because memory is a biological process, but the underlying concept behind them will be the same.

M: Can technology help people remember past events?

R: Well, it already does, doesn't it? I mean, we're recording now. So that helps us remember what people said. And we can use cameras to take pictures and make videos of different events. Like I said, voice recorders are also useful to a lesser extent if we're focusing on the imagery. I think, more advanced systems like using phone records and text messages and emails, they're also useful for that purpose.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your lovely answers! This is the end of the speaking test! Bye!

R: Hooray! Except not goodbye, because now we're going to talk about vocabulary and grammar!

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