The way we are taught to read is all wrong, says “guru of the grey matter” Tony Buzan, who at 74 still claims a personal reading speed of more than 1,000 words a minute.
“Most kids hate to read – very intelligently – because they are mis-taught,” he says.
Mr Buzan claims that with his methods, you can take a day to double your speed and can reach 1,000 words a minute in two to three weeks, a skill that could be useful for lawyers and business people dealing with lengthy contracts, researchers on fact-finding missions, or academics and students with piles of books to read.
Following his transformation into one of the world’s leading experts on speed reading and brain training, Mr Buzan has coached Olympic rowing teams and chess champions in mental potential, and was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to education. He regularly sets out on worldwide tours, appearing recently at Dubai’s Human Capital Forum.
Growing up in Enfield, London, Mr Buzan left school to work on a farm. But then through his personal study of mental literacy, he began teaching and invented mind maps – diagrams used to visually organise information that are used by companies such as Nasa, Reuters and Walt Disney.
He went on to write and co-write more than 100 books, the first of which, Use Your Head: How to Unleash the Power of Your Mind, became a BBC TV series in the 1970s.
As a teenager, Mr Buzan was set a speed reading test at school and was delighted to reach 213 words a minute, “but Maureen in the next row got 314 and thrashed me. The teacher told me I could never go faster – that your reading speed was set, like the colour of your eyes, or height.”
He set out to change that, studying “the physiology of the eye, the history of perception, the meaning of reading” and doubled his speed in a few months.
“The problem is that people do not understand the difference between comprehension and understanding, and do not know how to use their eyes,” he says.
According to Mr Buzan, there are seven steps to reading: recognition; assimilation; comprehension, our way of connecting bits of information; understanding, in which we integrate information with the outside world; memory retention, storing and filing; recall; and, in the end, communication. Because what is the point of reading, he says, if you’re not going to do anything with the knowledge you gain?
Methods of teaching, at least for the English language, cover only the first three of these seven: recognition – letters taught in either a phonic or the “look and say” style – and a little assimilation and comprehension, Mr Buzan says.
When reading, the eye moves in a series of stops, or fixations, and jumps. Fixations last up to 1.5 seconds.
Mr Buzan’s speed-reading technique involves reducing the length of each fixation to 0.25 seconds, and also expanding the number of words per fixation to take in groups of three to five words at a time.
Faster readers, therefore, have to do less physical eye work, reducing their fixations from 500 to 100 a page.
To hit 1,000 words per minute would mean reaching six words a fixation and four fixations a second.
The Buzan method also involves using the whole eye, including your peripheral vision. This maximises your reading capacity from the 20 per cent harnessed by your usual central focus, he says.
After his early career in manual labour, Mr Buzan went on to earn a degree in arts and science and to join Mensa, becoming a teacher working in inner London schools and specialising in teaching delinquent children – “who had been told they were illiterate” – to read.
He says young children tend to point and follow their finger as they read a book, which is normally treated as a fault by adults. Instead, they should teach children to move their finger faster, to speed up their reading. For adults, he even recommends using a metronome to time the sweeps of the eye.
Eventually, he says, you will “look” at one page per beat.
As the eye is a muscle, Mr Buzan also says you should read in good light, with a good posture to make the body alert, so “the brain knows something important is happening”.
Age should make no difference to your reading speed, says Mr Buzan, but smartphones do, because they stop us from thinking for ourselves. “The mobile is used like a sling, as a memory device and storage,” he says. “It is both wonderful and totally destructive.”
American presidents John F Kennedy and Jimmy Carter were fans of speed reading but critics call it a scanning technique, which does not allow for proper comprehension and takes away the joy of reading.
As Woody Allen joked: “I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in 20 minutes. It involves Russia.”
business@thenational.ae
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Company%20profile
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Reading List
Practitioners of mindful eating recommend the following books to get you started:
Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life by Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr Lilian Cheung
How to Eat by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Mindful Diet by Dr Ruth Wolever
Mindful Eating by Dr Jan Bays
How to Raise a Mindful Eaterby Maryann Jacobsen
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
The specs
BMW M8 Competition Coupe
Engine 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8
Power 625hp at 6,000rpm
Torque 750Nm from 1,800-5,800rpm
Gearbox Eight-speed paddleshift auto
Acceleration 0-100kph in 3.2 sec
Top speed 305kph
Fuel economy, combined 10.6L / 100km
Price from Dh700,000 (estimate)
On sale Jan/Feb 2020
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Sreesanth's India bowling career
Tests 27, Wickets 87, Average 37.59, Best 5-40
ODIs 53, Wickets 75, Average 33.44, Best 6-55
T20Is 10, Wickets 7, Average 41.14, Best 2-12
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
MATCH INFO
Fixture: Thailand v UAE, Tuesday, 4pm (UAE)
TV: Abu Dhabi Sports
The specs: McLaren 600LT
Price, base: Dh914,000
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 600hp @ 7,500rpm
Torque: 620Nm @ 5,500rpm
Fuel economy 12.2.L / 100km
You may remember …
Robbie Keane (Atletico de Kolkata) The Irish striker is, along with his former Spurs teammate Dimitar Berbatov, the headline figure in this season’s ISL, having joined defending champions ATK. His grand entrance after arrival from Major League Soccer in the US will be delayed by three games, though, due to a knee injury.
Dimitar Berbatov (Kerala Blasters) Word has it that Rene Meulensteen, the Kerala manager, plans to deploy his Bulgarian star in central midfield. The idea of Berbatov as an all-action, box-to-box midfielder, might jar with Spurs and Manchester United supporters, who more likely recall an always-languid, often-lazy striker.
Wes Brown (Kerala Blasters) Revived his playing career last season to help out at Blackburn Rovers, where he was also a coach. Since then, the 23-cap England centre back, who is now 38, has been reunited with the former Manchester United assistant coach Meulensteen, after signing for Kerala.
Andre Bikey (Jamshedpur) The Cameroonian defender is onto the 17th club of a career has taken him to Spain, Portugal, Russia, the UK, Greece, and now India. He is still only 32, so there is plenty of time to add to that tally, too. Scored goals against Liverpool and Chelsea during his time with Reading in England.
Emiliano Alfaro (Pune City) The Uruguayan striker has played for Liverpool – the Montevideo one, rather than the better-known side in England – and Lazio in Italy. He was prolific for a season at Al Wasl in the Arabian Gulf League in 2012/13. He returned for one season with Fujairah, whom he left to join Pune.
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THE SPECS
Engine: 3-litre V6
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 424hp
Torque: 580 Nm
Price: From Dh399,000
On sale: Now
Brief scores:
Toss: Rajputs, elected to field first
Sindhis 94-6 (10 ov)
Watson 42; Munaf 3-20
Rajputs 96-0 (4 ov)
Shahzad 74 not out
SWEET%20TOOTH
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECreated%20by%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Jim%20Mickle%2C%20Beth%20Schwartz%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nonso%20Anozie%2C%20Christian%20Convery%2C%20Adeel%20Akhtar%2C%20Stefania%20LaVie%20Owen%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
How to help
Call the hotline on 0502955999 or send "thenational" to the following numbers:
2289 - Dh10
2252 - Dh50
6025 - Dh20
6027 - Dh100
6026 - Dh200
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed dual clutch
Power: 710bhp
Torque: 770Nm
Speed: 0-100km/h 2.9 seconds
Top Speed: 340km/h
Price: Dh1,000,885
On sale: now
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh1.05 million ($286,000)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine