What are some non-flashcard-style memorization techniques? I’m learning a menu as part of my job as a waiter and it feels more like trial and error. My main problem is that I can’t remember the stuff at all.
I’ve come up with a “open answers” system that I don’t really know if it can work. Let’s say we have x number of things on the system, like item1, item2, item3...item(x). We also have y number of meals (which vary on the number of ingredients) and so you need to fill in the blanks, like this:
Meal 1: ____ (underscores should be here but the “you’ll never get what you see” comment system hates them)
This has the advantage of being visible which I personally like. It’s also pretty simple and doesn’t really require reading much beyond “fill in the blanks”. It removes the disorder of “x number of things” and instead moves the question to “where should item(x) belong to?”.
My only significant issue with this is that it’s a trial and error thing—which I personally dislike because that’s how I play chess, and most of my games end up in a loss which disappoints me and makes me think trial and error is meh, but hey I’m just one person, let’s not get into typical mind fallacy here.
How’s your visual memory? If it happens to be good, consider reframing from “learn what items are on the menu” to “learn what the (actual physical) menu looks like”, which might help by giving extra structure (this dish is above that dish, these dishes are grouped together because they’re similar, etc.) and by providing an extra exercise you can inflict on yourself (attempt to reproduce a copy of the menu).
Is there any consistent structure you can get a grip on? E.g., maybe there are three things X each of which comes with a “Super X” that includes a large soft drink and a complimentary shoulder massage from the chef, or something.
What does your memory actually need to be able to do for you? I mean, is this about retrieving specific items (“Excuse me, can you tell me what’s in the Maximum Fun-Fun Ultra Super Happy Meal[1]?”) or is it about fluently generating complete lists from a fixed list (“Excuse me, can you tell me all the soft drinks you offer?”) or about doing nontrivial queries over the whole thing (“Excuse me, can you tell me what I can eat from your menu if I’m allergic to nuts, don’t eat meat, and want to spend at least $6 and at most $25?”)? These seem like quite different sorts of task and you might want your training to match what you’re going to have to be able to do.
Have you eaten their food yourself? If there’s some particular item you have difficulty remembering, would it help to buy one yourself and pay particular attention to what it’s like?
Disclaimer: I have never been a waiter, never tried to memorize a menu, and have a very poor visual memory.
[1] You don’t want to know about the other meal they offer.
[EDITED a couple of times to fix typos, once to add another, probably bad, suggestion, and once to provide a better TWC link.]
There no reason not to use flashcards for the purpose of learning a menu. Likely cards that go in both directions.
You could use cloze deletion on the list of ingridients.
Then there’s mnemonics. Get pegs for the numbers from 1 to 100 and then use them to make pictures.
What are some non-flashcard-style memorization techniques? I’m learning a menu as part of my job as a waiter and it feels more like trial and error. My main problem is that I can’t remember the stuff at all.
I’ve come up with a “open answers” system that I don’t really know if it can work. Let’s say we have x number of things on the system, like item1, item2, item3...item(x). We also have y number of meals (which vary on the number of ingredients) and so you need to fill in the blanks, like this:
Meal 1: _ _ _ _ (underscores should be here but the “you’ll never get what you see” comment system hates them)
This has the advantage of being visible which I personally like. It’s also pretty simple and doesn’t really require reading much beyond “fill in the blanks”. It removes the disorder of “x number of things” and instead moves the question to “where should item(x) belong to?”.
My only significant issue with this is that it’s a trial and error thing—which I personally dislike because that’s how I play chess, and most of my games end up in a loss which disappoints me and makes me think trial and error is meh, but hey I’m just one person, let’s not get into typical mind fallacy here.
How’s your visual memory? If it happens to be good, consider reframing from “learn what items are on the menu” to “learn what the (actual physical) menu looks like”, which might help by giving extra structure (this dish is above that dish, these dishes are grouped together because they’re similar, etc.) and by providing an extra exercise you can inflict on yourself (attempt to reproduce a copy of the menu).
Is there any consistent structure you can get a grip on? E.g., maybe there are three things X each of which comes with a “Super X” that includes a large soft drink and a complimentary shoulder massage from the chef, or something.
What does your memory actually need to be able to do for you? I mean, is this about retrieving specific items (“Excuse me, can you tell me what’s in the Maximum Fun-Fun Ultra Super Happy Meal[1]?”) or is it about fluently generating complete lists from a fixed list (“Excuse me, can you tell me all the soft drinks you offer?”) or about doing nontrivial queries over the whole thing (“Excuse me, can you tell me what I can eat from your menu if I’m allergic to nuts, don’t eat meat, and want to spend at least $6 and at most $25?”)? These seem like quite different sorts of task and you might want your training to match what you’re going to have to be able to do.
Have you eaten their food yourself? If there’s some particular item you have difficulty remembering, would it help to buy one yourself and pay particular attention to what it’s like?
Disclaimer: I have never been a waiter, never tried to memorize a menu, and have a very poor visual memory.
[1] You don’t want to know about the other meal they offer.
[EDITED a couple of times to fix typos, once to add another, probably bad, suggestion, and once to provide a better TWC link.]
There no reason not to use flashcards for the purpose of learning a menu. Likely cards that go in both directions. You could use cloze deletion on the list of ingridients.
Then there’s mnemonics. Get pegs for the numbers from 1 to 100 and then use them to make pictures.