How to use Mind Maps to understand and remember what you read!

Do you have a hard time remembering what you read? Do you need to read things many times before you understand? Reading books can be discouraging because of the large amount of information on each page. To help you make sense of all that information, I will show you how to create a mind map. A mind map is a graphic that shows categories containing quick reference points from your book. By taking short notes and organizing them in a specific way, you will have all the information you need to quickly and easily remember the important points of a book. Just the process of thinking about and creating this mind map will help your brain to understand and remember the material. Try it! It really works and it is free. Mind maps are especially useful when it's time to write an assignment or study for an exam! Watch the video to learn how to create your own mind map.

Watch my first mind map lesson: https://www.engvid.com/mind-maps-how-to-learn-vocabulary/
Take the quiz: http://www.engvid.com/how-to-use-mind-maps-to-understand-and-remember-what-you-read/

TRANSCRIPT

How to submit. We want to hear from all artists and makers who have a passion for creating. That's cool. Hi. James from engVid. You notice? I was reading. It's not a special skill. Most of us learn it, but the problem is when you go to another language it's difficult sometimes to understand what's on the paper and be able to use that.

So today's lesson is about mind maps. Mind maps? Yeah. Wait a second, mind maps and reading. I did a general lesson earlier on. Somewhere in the link you can look down and you can find it, go back, you can watch it. But in that lesson I didn't give any specific examples on mind maps. I'm doing this particular lesson to address that. So, if you're here going: "Yeah, I want to learn about mind maps and reading", this is your lesson. Hold on two seconds. We're going to discuss what the benefits are, what the benefits of reading are, then I'm going to give you a very detailed mind map explaining what parts you should do for what, and that'll help you with reading. Are you ready? Let's go to the board.

All right, E, what's up? "It's all Greek to me." Omega, it's not the best symbol, you probably can't see it, but Greek. In English we say when something's Greek to me, it means we don't understand it. A lot of times you'll get a big contract when, you know, you have your cellphone and there's a bill and it's: "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah", and you're like: "I don't understand it. It's all Greek." I know you understand all of the words, it's just they're put together in such a way it's difficult, and that doesn't matter if you're reading your own language or another language. But there are a lot of benefits when you're learning another language that reading gives you. And a lot of people want to talk and listen, but reading has some power. And let's address that now. Okay?

So mind maps are reading comprehension. Don't worry if you haven't seen the mind map, it's coming up in a second or two. But the first thing I want to talk to you about is reading helps you understand the way that the language is put together. Most of you will come and... You come to engVid to learn vocabulary and grammar, but that doesn't help you with syntax, that doesn't help you with putting the words together in a logical way. Reading does that because... Well, let's face facts, when you're reading someone is actually speaking to you but they're not in front of you. So the problem is if they're not very clear and they don't use the language well, you won't really understand them. Right? So reading teaches you how to... The language is put together, where the verbs go, and when's a better place to use the verb or a noun, and how you can show expressions. Okay?

Reading also teaches you how to speak by showing you the way that the language is used by the native speakers. Huh? Well, if it's a fiction book they actually say: "-'Johnny, are you coming?' -'Yes.' Dah, dah, dah, dah", and they show you how we use the language. So not only do you understand how to put the language together by looking at it and going: "Ah, comma here, period here", but then they say: "Hey, this is how we speak." So if you follow this you can actually use that kind of method or sys-... Not system. You can follow those words and actually speak like we do. All right?