Remember mirror writing?
Jan. 26th, 2012 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerThis morning's news had a visit with an 80-year-old Japanese woman basically to talk about her hobby. It started with her explaining that when she was 50, she was having trouble remembering things. She said that she would look up a phone number in her address book, then start to punch it into the phone, and realize partway through that she had forgotten it. But she says that she doesn't have any problem now with her memory.
The reason? Well, she thinks it's because of the hobby that she took up and practices all the time now. What hobby? She showed us an example. She sat down at her keyboard and played something while she sang along, in perfect gibberish. She turned and smiled at the camera. The interviewer looked very puzzled and said, "What was that?" She said it was a popular song, backwards.
So they ran the video backwards. And sure enough, she was singing a popular song.
Next the announcer tried turning around good morning in Japanese -- Ohio gozaimasu. Of course, she reversed the phonemes, which is what Japanese is often written in. So she said, "Sumaizago ohio." That doesn't work. In fact, they ran the tape backwards and it's just gibberish that way, too.
So the 80-year-old woman explained that you need to write it in Romaji -- Roman alphabet -- and reverse that, then pronounce the result. So it is "usamiazog oiho." And sure enough, if you say that and then reverse the tape, it comes out recognizably good morning.
She can do quite a few of these now in her head, without writing it down, of course. But she recommends doing something hard like this to wake up your brain and help your brain stretch. Then the little things like remembering numbers get easier.
And being able to talk and sing backwards is fun, too.
Incidentally, if I understood correctly she has just written her first book. It's about stretching your brain. After all, everyone seems happy to recommend exercises to keep your body healthy, why not do the same thing for your brain?
The reason? Well, she thinks it's because of the hobby that she took up and practices all the time now. What hobby? She showed us an example. She sat down at her keyboard and played something while she sang along, in perfect gibberish. She turned and smiled at the camera. The interviewer looked very puzzled and said, "What was that?" She said it was a popular song, backwards.
So they ran the video backwards. And sure enough, she was singing a popular song.
Next the announcer tried turning around good morning in Japanese -- Ohio gozaimasu. Of course, she reversed the phonemes, which is what Japanese is often written in. So she said, "Sumaizago ohio." That doesn't work. In fact, they ran the tape backwards and it's just gibberish that way, too.
So the 80-year-old woman explained that you need to write it in Romaji -- Roman alphabet -- and reverse that, then pronounce the result. So it is "usamiazog oiho." And sure enough, if you say that and then reverse the tape, it comes out recognizably good morning.
She can do quite a few of these now in her head, without writing it down, of course. But she recommends doing something hard like this to wake up your brain and help your brain stretch. Then the little things like remembering numbers get easier.
And being able to talk and sing backwards is fun, too.
Incidentally, if I understood correctly she has just written her first book. It's about stretching your brain. After all, everyone seems happy to recommend exercises to keep your body healthy, why not do the same thing for your brain?
