Someone recently told me that it’s easier to memorize a sequence, such as a text, from the end: when you recite it you’re moving toward familiar ground. Friday I gave this trick a modest test, when I had to copy a 15-digit number from one place to another. It works.
Saturday I was having a snack in a public place and heard a mother and daughter at the next table speaking French. When the little one looked my way I made chit-chat in French, well enough that the mother asked whether I speak French routinely! In fact this was about my third French conversation in a year (and by far the longest).
The child asked, “Do you also speak English?” I replied, “Yes, also Esperanto and a bit of Italian.” The mother asked, what’s Esperanto? which I answered at length. That’s when she asked the flattering question.