HOW YOU CAN RETAIN UP TO 90% OF WHAT YOU READ / LEARN.

By Matthew Ujah-Peter
The next time you pick up a book to read, just remember the followings:

1. Your brain usually gets stuck at the first obstacle it encounters. To understand this concept, pick any book and read it twice or more and you will find out that  you have missed out at least two or three concepts in just the first few minutes at the first reading. It is hard to believe this  at first, but as you keep rereading the same chapter over and over, you will find you are finding more and more that you have missed.
This is because the brain gets stuck at the first new concept which becomes an obstacle. It stops and tries to apply the concept but struggles to do so. But you continue to read the book. The brain got stuck at the first point, but more points keep coming. And of course, without complete information, what you have is incomplete information. This problem is not peculiar to reading alone. It also applies to listening to lectures in class or on the video or audio device.This can easily be fixed by making the mistake first hand. People learn slowly or quickly forget what they learn because they fear or refuse to make mistakes. So they don’t learn.

 
2. Your brain needs to make the mistake first hand. No matter how good the explanation, you will not get it right the first time. You must make the mistake. And this is because your interpretation varies from the writer or author. You think you have understood  what you read or heard. But the reality is different. You have only interpreted what they wrote or said, and more often than not, the interpretation is not quite correct. You can only found out how much off the mark you are by trying to implement or teach the concept.


3. The best way to remember a concept better is to experience it. It is not real learning if it stop just at reading or hearing alone. Real learning comes from making mistakes and mistakes come from implementation. It has been generally agreed among experts that:
You remember 10% of what you read
You remember 20% of what you hear
You remember 30% of what you see
You remember 90% of what you do


The Learning Pyramid Concept.
The Learning Pyramid was developed in the early sixties at NTL Institute, Bethel, Maine campus, after a research was carried out about how humans learn and retain what they learn. The research, as represented by the learning pyramid, shows that people remember:



90% of what they learn when they teach someone else or use it immediately.
75% of what they learn when they practice what they learned.
50% of what they learn when engaged in a group discussion.
30% of what they learn when they see a demonstration.
20% of what they learn from audio-visual.
10% of what they learn when they have learned from them from reading.
5% of what they learn when they’ve learned them from lecture.

 
The simple solution is to:
Write an article about WHAT you read or heard, teach people WHAT you read about, discuss IT with others or put IT to practice as the case may be. Do not  just read or just learn  SOMETHING. It needs to be discussed, talked, written, felt, etc

LONG WALK TO FREEDOM: The Book and The Movie.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
is set for a limited U.S. release on November 9th and will open in the UK on January 3rd, 2014.The epic motion picture spans Mandela’s extraordinary life, from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected President of South Africa. The story of South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, spanning over seventy years, including his 27 years in jail as a result of his struggle against apartheid, and his rise to prominence as a political leader and the first  democratically elected President of South Africa. Born on 18 July 1918 in the small village of Mvezo, on the Mbashe River, district of Umtata in Transkei, South Africa Mandela's  Father named him Rolihlahla, which means "pulling the branch of the tree", or more colloquially "troublemaker." The name Nelson was not given until his first day at school, according to about.com, (African History).


Nelson Mandela's father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, was the chief "by blood and custom" of Mvezo, a position confirmed by the paramount chief of the Thembu, Jongintaba Dalindyebo. Although the family is descended from Thembu royalty (one of Mandela's ancestors was paramount chief in the 18th century) the line had passed down to Mandela through lesser 'Houses', rather than through a line of potential succession. The clan name of Madiba, which is often used as a form of address for Mandela, comes from the ancestral chief. Until the advent of European domination in the region, chieftaincy of the Thembu (and other tribes of the Xhosa nation) was by patrimonial decent, with the first son of the major wife (known as the Great House) becoming automatic heir, and the first son of the second wife (the highest of the lessor wives, also known as the Right Hand House) being relegated to creating a minor chiefdom. The sons of the third wife (known as the Left Hand House) were destined to become advisors to the chief.


He was one of thirteen children, being a son of the third wife and had three elder brothers all of whom were of higher 'rank'. Mandela's mother Noqaphi Nosekeni, was a Methodist, and Nelson followed in her footsteps, attending a Methodist missionary school. According to About.com, Nelson Mandela's father died in 1930, and the paramount chief, Jongintaba Dalindyebo, became his guardian. In 1934, a year during which he attended three month initiation school (during which he was circumcised), Mandela matriculated from Clarkebury Missionary school. Four years later he graduated from Healdtown, a strict Methodist college, and left to pursue higher education at the University of Fort Hare (South Africa's first university college for Black Africans). It was here he first met his lifelong friend and associate Oliver Tambo.

Both Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo were expelled from Fort Hare in 1940 for political activism. Briefly returning to Transkei, Mandela discovered that his guardian had arranged a marriage for him. He fled towards Johannesburg, where he obtained work as a night-watchman on a gold mine.


Nelson Mandela moved into a house in Alexandra, a Black suburb of Johannesburg, with his mother. Here he met Walter Sisulu and Walter's fiancée Albertina. Mandela started working as a clerk in a law firm, studying in the evening through a correspondence course with the University of South Africa (now UNISA) to complete his first degree. He was awarded his Bachelor's degree in 1941, and in 1942 he was articled to another firm of attorneys and started upon a law degree at the University of Witwatersrand. Here he worked with a study partner, Seretse Khama, who would later become the first president of an independent Botswana.



In 1944 Nelson Mandela married Evelyn Mase, a cousin of Walter Sisulu. He also began his political career in earnest, joining the African National Congress, ANC. Finding the existing leadership of the ANC to be "a dying order of pseudo-liberalism and conservatism, of appeasement and compromise.", Mandela, along with Tambo, Sisulu, and a few others formed the African National Congress Youth League, ANCYL. In 1947 Mandela was elected as secretary of the ANCYL, and became a member of the Transvaal ANC executive. By 1948 Nelson Mandela had failed to pass the exams required for his LLB law degree, and he decided instead to settle for the 'qualifying' exam which would allow him to practice as an attorney. When DF Malan's Herenigde Nationale Party (HNP, Re-united National Party) won the 1948 election, Mandela, Tambo, and Sisulu acted.

 The existing ANC president was pushed out of office and someone more amenable to the ideals of the ANCYL was brought in as a replacement. Walter Sisulu proposed a 'programme of action', which was subsequently adopted by the ANC. Mandela was made president of the ANC Youth Leaguein 1951and opened the first black law partnership in South Africa with friend Oliver Tambo in 1952 led the newly launched [ANC] Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws, a program of nonviolent mass resistance in the same year, Mandela was charged with violating the Suppression of Communism Act. In December 5, 1956 was among 156 resistance leaders arrested and charged with high treason. In June 1961 - Mandela began organise the armed struggle against apartheid Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nations). He travels in Africa and Europe studying guerrilla warfare.

He was arrested on charges of inciting workers to strike and leaving the country without valid travel documents. Mandela represents himself at the trial in 1962. He was sentenced to prison with five years hard labor on November 7, same year and on June 12, 1964, he was sentenced to life in prison for four counts of sabotage. Convicted and sentenced with Mandela are Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Denis Goldberg and others. On February 11, 1990 - Mandela was released from prison after more than 27 years.

Mandela was elected president of the ANC. July 1991. Mandela and de Klerk share the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. April 29, 1994 saw Nelson Mandela elected the first black president of the Republic of South Africa in the first open election in the country's history was inaugurated in May 10, 1994. From June 1999 when he leaved office as the first black president of South Africa to January 19, 2000  when  he addresses the United Nations Security Council, appealing for help in ending the brutal civil war between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi, Mandela's popularity, respect and influence in world's politics and international policies grew in leaps and bounds.


Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom will be one of the movies that will be hoping to be in the Oscar race in   2014. Elba plays Nelson Mandela, with Naomie Harris as Winnie Mandela. The epic motion picture spans Mandela’s extraordinary life, from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected President of South Africa.

AUTHOR / WRITER OF THE MONTH:

AUTHOR / WRITER OF THE MONTH:

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1964  to a family of five children, Sefi Atta attended  Queen's College, Lagos, Millfield School, England and graduated from Birmingham University in 1985. She also trained as a chartered accountant.  Her father Abdul-Aziz Atta was the Secretary to Federal Government and Head of the Civil Service until his death in 1972, and she was raised by her mother Iyabo Atta.


In 1994 she moved from England to the United State with her husband, Gboyega Ransome-Kuti, a medical doctor, and son of Olikoye Ransome-Kuti. Sefi who currently lives in Meridian, Mississppi, founded the Lagos-based production company Atta Girl supports Care to Read. A program she initiated to earn funds for legitimate charities through staged readings.  While working as a CPA in  New York, Atta began to write. She graduated from the creative writing program at Antioch University, Los Angeles in 2001. Her short stories have appeared in literary journals such as World,  Missisipi Review and Los Angeles Review.  Her books have been translated to several languages.


Nigerian-born Sefi Atta’s short stories have appeared in journals like Literature Today, Los Angeles Review and Mississipi Review and have won prizes from Zoetrope and Red Hen Press. Her radio plays have been broadcast by the BBC. She is the winner of PEN International's 2004/2005 David TK Wong Prize and in 2006, her debut novel Everything Good Will Come was awarded the inaugural Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa

 

 Novels

•  Everything Good Will Come, (Interlink Books, 2005 ).
•  Swallow, (Interlink Book, 2010). 
• A Bit of Difference, (Interlink Books, 2012).

Short-story collections
News from Home, (Interlink Books, 2010).


Radio plays 
Some of her radio plays are:

• The Wake, Smooth FM, Lagos
• Makinwa's Miracle, BBC Radio
• The Engagement, BBC Radio
• A Free Day, BBC Radio

Stage plays
Her stage plays includes:

•  The Cost of Living, Lagos Heritage Festival, Terra Kulture, Lagos
• An Ordinary Legacy, The MUSON Festival, MUSON Centre, Lagos
• Hagel auf Zamfara, Theatre Krefeld, Germany
• The Engagement, MUSON Centre, Lagos.
• Among others.  

 Awards and Recognition

• Macmillan Writers Prize For Africa, shortlist, 2002.
• BBC African Performance, 2nd Prize, 2002.
• Zoetrope Short Fiction Contest, 3rd Prize, 2002.
• Red Hen Press Short Story Award, 1st prize, 2003.
• Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction Award, finalist, 2003.
• BBC African Performance, 2nd Prize, 2004.
• PEN International David TK Wong Prize, 1st Prize, 2005.
• Caine Prize for African Literature, shortlist, 2006.
• Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, 2006.
• Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, 2009.  

AUTHOR / WRITER OF THE MONTH.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani was born to Chief Sir Chukwuma Hope Nwaubani and Dame Patricia Uberife Nwaubani in Enugu, Nigeria in 1976, and was raised by both parents in Umuahia, Abia State, Eastern Nigeria.  Her debut novel, I Do Not Come to you by Chance, which was described by The Washington Post as “a lively, good-humored and provocative examination of the truth behind a global inbox of deceit”, won the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Afriaca), a Betty Trask First Book award, and was named by the Washington Post as one of the Best Books of 2009.The Times magazine described  the book as ''...a fast, fresh, often hilarious first novel, by one of the remarkably talented young African writers who are rapidly making everyone else look stale.” Publishers Weekly described Nwaubani’s novel as “highly entertaining”.  Nwaubani is the first contemporary African writer on the global stage to get an international book deal while still living in her home country.


ABOUT THE BOOK
I Do Not Come to You by Chance is set in the intriguing world of Nigerian e-mail scam, the book tells the story of a young man, Kingsley, who turns to his Uncle Boniface for help in bailing his family out of poverty. Boniface—aka Cash Daddy—is an exuberant character who suffers from elephantiasis of the pocket. He also runs a successful empire of email scams. But he can help. It is up to Kingsley to reconcile his passion for knowledge with his hunger for money, and to fully assume his role of first son.

CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION
At age 10, Adaobi Tricia Nwauban left home to attend boarding school at the Federal Government Girls College, Owerri. Nwaubani secretly dreamed as a teenager of becoming a CIA or KGB agent. She earned her first income from winning a writing competition at the age of 13. She was fortunate to have the first female African writer to publish a book, Flora Nwapa as her mother's cousin. This may have helped in jump starting her writing prowess as she did not study Journalism at the university. Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani studied Psychology at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s premier university.

CAREER
As one of the pioneer editorial staffs of Nigeria’s now defunct NEXT newspapers, established by Pulitzer-winning journalist, Dele Olojede,  Nwaubani was the editor of élan, the fashion and style magazine of NEXT. She was later appointed to the position of opinion editor. According to Wikipedia, Nwaubani is the first writer in the history of world literature to capture the 419 scams phenomenon in a novel. She is also the first African writer to get an international publishing deal while still living in her home country. She does not have any formal writing training.

In 2012, Nwaubani was selected as one of 15 emerging leaders in government, business and civil society from across West Africa, to attend a ‘Leadership for Change’ training program sponsored by the Private Investors for Africa (PIA). Managed by the African Leadership Institute (AfLI), the program aims to create a network of “world class, pan-African, high potential, emerging leaders across all sectors, working in partnership as catalysts for change in Africa”. She lives in Abuja, Nigeria, where she works as a consultant.


AWARDS
Awards received by Adaobi Tricia Nwabuani includes:

• 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book (Africa)
• 2010 Betty Trask First Book award
• 2010 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa finalist
• (Quadrennial) 2012 Nigeria Prize for Literature shortlist
• Washington Post Best Books of 2009

OTHER WORKS

• Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani has done extensive writings that were published in many dailies both home and abroad. These include :
• Where Bad News is No News, New York Times (May 2010).
• Nigerian Tribalism: A  Personal Love Story, Guardian (September, 2010).
• My Degree is Better Than Yours, Premium Times (October, 2012)'
• In Nigeria, You're Either Somebody or Nobody, New Tork Times, (February 2013).
• Igbo Burials: How Nigerians Will Bid Farewell to Achebe, BBC (May 2013).
• And many others.

MY SONGBIRD CAN DANCE

By Novelist Vigil Chime

STORY SYNOPSIS

MY SONGBIRD CAN DANCE is a story written in three parts. Book 1 tells the story of a Nigerian family living in New York City in the present day. Nathaniel and Anne Ofordilli came to America to pursue the American Dream. However, after the couple was blessed with two daughters – Ada and Rachel – the dream turned into a virtual nightmare. The stresses of being immigrants in a foreign country soon overwhelmed them and the marriage collapsed.
Nathaniel immediately remarried, to a white woman who bore him four sons. His joy of sons eclipsed his two daughters and in time, he learned to forget about the girls. Anne, on the other hand, did not remarry, and because her daughters’ father abandoned them, she went out of her way to spoil her children, in particular Rachel who was only 6 years old when her father left the family.

The psychological trauma of her father’s abandonment has crippled Rachel’s emotional development, to the point she only dates older men who are in essence her sugar daddies. To make matters worse, she dropped out of Columbia University, one of the most prestigious schools in America. She prefers to hang out in nightclubs then returns late at night to sleep all day. At 25 years old, she has held no job in her life because her mother and her sugar daddies support her.

The story, then, almost exclusively focuses on Rachel. An irresponsible life can only go so far, so hers begins its downward spiral when she walks in on her man with another woman. Rachel nearly kills the woman if not that her boyfriend intervenes. Despondent, she returns home to find that her mother has changed the locks on the door. Anne has finally had it with her useless and lazy daughter and implores Rachel to go out into the world and make something of herself.

Hurt to be cast out on the same day she caught her man cheating, Rachel ends up at her best friend’s home. Because the best friend is worried about Rachel messing with her own boyfriend, she eventually asks Rachel to leave. Hurt again, Rachel has nowhere else to go but her father’s house. She asks him if she can stay with him and his family, but Nathaniel categorically refuses to let her in.

Feeling unwanted and unloved, Rachel determines to commit suicide by jumping off a cliff. Standing on that cliff and thinking about the mess she’s made of her life, Marcus Peyton, a 42-year old black American, comes upon her and is immediately smitten with the gorgeous dark chocolate beauty. Marcus does not know if he should comfort her or leave her be. In the end, he decides to intervene and ask her what’s wrong. This will prove the worst mistake of his life.

He assumes she is African because she looks like one. Rachel allows him to believe this – going so far as to make up a story of being from a poor village in Nigeria. Now in America, she is poor and wretched and an illegal alien. In fact, she was fired from her job and now has no place to go. Marcus invites her to be the nanny of his two small children. Rachel accepts the job offer on the spot since she has nowhere else to go. But Marcus’ motive for bringing her under his roof is to take advantage of her sexually. His wife, Yvette, is too distracted by her addiction to drugs to be mindful of her husband’s lust over the young nanny.

Rachel soon discovers Yvette’s drug problem and tries to help the woman kick the habit for the sake of her marriage and her children. In the meantime, Marcus is still making advances towards Rachel and Rachel is doing her best to ignore him. She is trying to be responsible and do the right thing, just like her mother wanted.

Since Marcus will still not leave her alone, however, Rachel decides to leave the household. She informs the family she is quitting, effective immediately. She is trying to locate her suitcase in the basement of the house the night before she is to leave when Marcus enters to help. He discovers drug items beside the suitcase and well assumes the filthy material belong to Rachel.

Rachel has no choice but to admit to him the drugs are not hers but his wife’s property. Angered she would be lying about his wife, Marcus snaps and attacks Rachel. Hearing all the noise, Yvette enters to see Marcus beating the girl to near death. She does not intervene to rescue Rachel, believing her husband would beat her too if she confesses to the drugs. Yvette walks out, leaving Marcus to continue assaulting Rachel. He does not stop with just the beating. He stands over her and urinates on her. Rachel feels the slime of his urine pouring all over her head and face before she blacks out into unconsciousness. This is the end of Book 1.

After she recovers from her injuries, now in Book 2, Rachel determines to destroy Marcus and Yvette, too. But it’s how she does it that proves without a doubt certain individuals on this earth should never be crossed. You the reader cannot anticipate how she does it. You will not see it coming. But at the end of Book 3, you will be left stunned and horrified.

Here’s how she does it. Marcus is remorseful for how he treated her and begs her forgiveness. She agrees to forgive him on one condition – he has to believe her that Yvette is a drug addict.  They set a trap where Yvette is caught by Marcus about to inject herself with heroin. Angered that his wife would lie about her drug use, which led to him beating up Rachel in the first place, Marcus sends Yvette to a drug program to clean up. This is Rachel’s first plan of vengeance against Yvette – remove her from the house. Next, she takes over the woman’s husband by beginning an affair with her. Marcus, foolishly, believes Rachel has truly forgiven him. She has not.

The biggest challenge for Rachel is Marcus’ destruction, both professionally and emotionally. He is a theater director, and has written the greatest play of his career. He originally cast Yvette his wife in the lead role. In fact, the theater in which the play will be produced is the couple’s. They liquidated their savings to purchase the theater. But Since Yvette is now a drug-user, Marcus has to find someone else to take her place. Because she is already sleeping with him, Rachel convinces Marcus to cast her in the role. Against all sensible advise by everyone near him, Marcus does this.

When Yvette returns from drug treatment, now Book 3, she discovers that Marcus has given her role to their nanny and that the nanny is now sleeping with her man! Yvette cannot take these realities and goes mad. She runs away from her family and relapses into hardcore drug use. She will not be heard from again.

On opening night of the play, Rachel sets into motion the greatest role of her life. Instead of performing like a true and brilliant actress, she performs like an inexperienced one – this in full view of New York City’s finest people and politicians. The critics cannot believe how bad she is and destroy Marcus’ career in scathing reviews that will be published the next day.

Rachel does not stop there. She burns down the theater by literary setting it on fire. She corners Marcus in a room and confesses everything she has done to him ever since he nearly killed her by beating her. Worst, she says to him, it was his literary pissing on her that really drove her to madness. Incensed beyond reason to have been so duped, Marcus resorts to kill her on the spot.

He chases her down a very busy street. Rachel dashes across the street. Marcus is not mindful of the speeding cars as he attempts to equally cross. He is hit by a car, and is rendered a cripple. He will spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, without his wife and kids, wondering why in the world he ever stopped that day to find out why that stupid girl was crying on that cliff in the first place. He should have minded his business and left her there.