1: GET SMART WITH VOCAB
Learning the top 1,000 most frequently used words will let you understand around 70 per cent of what you encounter. Get a list weighted for your purposes (rather than simply a “general” list), but do add in well-chosen, low-frequency words. “For us,” says Bernhardt, “the word for ‘embassy’ has got to be in the first week.”
2: IMMERSE YOURSELF FULLY
“Learning by doing engages all the right brain processes and memory processes,” says Doughty. Aside from the obvious – watching the news in that language, travelling to the country – try changing the language on your computer. Also, watch online videos of native speakers doing activities you plan to do.
3: DON’T SWEAT THE GRAMMAR
It’s ineffective to start off by rote-learning reams of grammatical rules. Much better to receive a short explanation of a point of grammar as and when you need it. So get using the language and wait for corrective feedback. This will either happen naturally or you can say to a friend: “If I keep making an error, please tell me.”
4: STICK ‘EM UP
It’s a common memory tactic to label household objects with their foreign names using Post-it notes. However, people often make the mistake of writing the words on the front of the Post-its; actually, it’s better to write them on the back, forcing you to mentally retrieve the word. If you can’t remember it, then it’s easy to check.
5: KNOW YOUR TRUE FRIENDS
“True friends” are words in a foreign language that are nearly identical to their equivalents in yours. “That’s a good shortcut,” says Doughty. “But there are also false friends. Find a list of these so you know when you hear that word it’s not going to mean what you think it means.”
NAVIGATE USING NATURE’S COMPASS
Look inside the official survival guide issued to British military aircrew and you’ll find a neat rule. If you’re at sea and, in a five-minute window you see ten birds or more, you’re within 40 miles (64km) of land; if you see two birds or fewer, you’re more than 40 miles (64km) from land. This simple formula was discovered by Tristan Gooley, a leading expert and bestselling author on “natural navigation”, the art of getting from A to B using clues in the environment.
Gooley, the only living person to have crossed the Atlantic solo by both air and sea, started out as an explorer using standard navigation methods. But the more ambitious his expeditions became, the more he found himself relying on technology. “I can remember sitting in an aircraft surrounded by computer screens and dials, and thinking, ‘This isn’t the thing that really lights my fire,’” he recalls. By chance, he had already heard about the idea of finding one’s way using nature and thought he would try it out. “It was like a cerebral bomb going off. I’d come back from a thousand-mile expedition, having felt that it was interesting and challenging, then I’d go and do one mile across some woods using natural navigation and think it was absolutely mind-blowing.”
He was converted, and subsequently amassed a vast body of knowledge drawing on everything from ancient Viking texts to modern science journals, filtered through his own experiments. Gooley’s techniques, which he has catalogued in books such as How To Read Water (2016), are not only useful in an emergency, he says, but also bring an inherent satisfaction that can enhance any trip outdoors. Here are five…
1: LOOK TO THE TREES
If one side of a tree is heavier and denser, with more horizontal branches, that’s the side that’s getting more sun. If you are in the northern hemisphere, therefore, that’s the southern side. (If you’re south of the equator, you’ll need to switch south for north in this and all subsequent instructions.) The leaves on the shadier, north side of the tree tend to be bigger and darker. “The tree sends a chemical to those leaves saying, ‘Pull your socks up,’” explains Gooley. “So they effectively spread themselves out to create a bigger solar panel.”
2: CONSIDER THE NETTLE
Stinging nettles are a sign that civilization is nearby. “We think they grow everywhere, but that’s because they grow where we are,” says Gooley. “Stinging nettles need phosphate-rich soil, and human beings make the soil rich in phosphate through the ways we farm, live, work and die.” Wildlife can indicate the proximity of nettles. In Britain, say, the common peacock butterfly – characterized by red wings, black markings and bright eyespots – depends on nettles to survive while in caterpillar form.
3: BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON
Imagine a line connecting the tips of the Moon’s crescent and follow it down to the horizon. This point is approximately south. “Every phase of the Moon is effectively it saying to us, ‘This is my current relationship with the Sun,’” explains Gooley. The side of the Moon that is illuminated indicates whether the Sun is to its east or west. A tangent along the “tips” of the Moon will therefore be at 90 degrees to this east-west line and is thus a north-south line.
4: IT’S WRIT IN WATER
If you see puddles forming generally on one side of a track, that’s likely to be the southern side. A bank on the edge of the path, or any adjacent foliage, will cast a northward shadow when the Sun comes out after a shower, meaning that rainwater takes longer to dry out. “The mud stays soft, so when people move through there’s more erosion and the cycle repeats,” says Gooley. “Day in day out, over months, that creates puddles.”
5: AND IF YOU’RE IN TOWN…
Look for satellite television dishes. These have to point to a geostationary satellite, and for a satellite to stay at the same point over the Earth, it must be over the equator. That means that dishes point broadly south. A little local knowledge can refine this further. “In the UK, for instance, most people rely on Sky for their satellite TV,” says Gooley. “That uses a particular satellite group, the Astra 2, which happens to be south-southeast of the country.”
TAKE A “WOW” HOLIDAY PHOTO
In 2013, Lauren Bath took a gamble. The young Australian chef was working in a restaurant on Queensland’s Gold Coast and had just endured a particularly difficult New Year’s Eve service. Deciding enough was enough, she quit. On the side, she had been developing her talents as a travel photographer and hit the road determined to turn her art into her full-time job. The plan worked. Now, Bath has a social-media following of around half a million, has been featured in National Geographic , and counts Olympus and Moët & Chandon among her clients. So, in an age when camera phones have made photographers of us all, how do you take a holiday shot that stands out?
1: GO IN BLIND
On holiday you’ll naturally want to shoot the famous sights, but you need to find your own take on them. “The best way to shoot a cliché subject is to minimize how many shots you look at before you go to shoot it. If you pore over hundreds of pictures beforehand, you’ll find it very challenging to think of something new,” says Bath. “Another good tip is not to settle for the first shot you take. I always call that the safety shot, and it’s never my favourite. I try all different things: different focal length on my lenses, different vantage points, reflections…”
2: DITCH THE SELFIE STICK
Selfies, in the usual sense, leave a lot to be desired. If you want to take a self-portrait, it’s much better to find a scene that’s interesting in its own right but which would be enhanced by a human element in the shot. “To pull off these kinds of selfies, you’ll need a tripod and a self-timer. You get your camera and settings all ready to go and manually focus your lens on the place you intend to sit. Set your timer for enough time to allow you to get into frame, push the shutter button and get among it.”
3: PORTRAITS ARE PRIMARILY ABOUT THE EYES
“I always focus on the eyes of my model. If their face isn’t level, then it would be the eye closest to me. I want the eyes to be the sharpest point of the whole image.” Bath emphasizes that focal point by blurring out the background. A camera phone can do this digitally; a traditional camera requires the lens being set to a low “f-stop” (for a wide aperture). Her second tip for port
raits is to shoot with backlight. “That is when your subject is between your camera and your light source – usually the sun. You can get incredible flare and effects with practice.”
4: LEARN THESE TWO CLASSIC COMPOSITIONAL TECHNIQUES
The “rule of thirds” is an easy way to enhance almost any shot. “Imagine your frame is split into three sections horizontally and vertically. If you have a point of interest, such as a subject, leading line or horizon, try positioning it on one of these lines.” Another helpful technique is ‘framing’. “This is blocking part of the scene you’re shooting with a natural frame in the foreground. You can use doorways or windows, or think outside the box: trees, or portholes on a ship.”
5: SHOOT EARLY OR LATE
The optimum times to take photos are the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset – these are known as golden hours. “When the sun is close to the horizon, this results in soft, warm light. It should make your images look amazing with little extra effort.” You should also take a break at midday. “The trickiest time of day to shoot is midday on a sunny or cloudless day, as it is bright and there’s a lot of contrast. You’ll notice hard shadows everywhere, and shooting people is next to impossible unless you get them in the shade.”
SHOWING OFF
This chapter is all about flourishes and displays. Some of them are party tricks – and a man should always have a few of these in his locker. Performing a jaw-dropping card illusion or diving elegantly into a pool might not have a larger purpose beyond spectacle, but it will certainly draw plaudits. A number of them, however, will enhance your life in a more permanent way. Tracey Emin’s advice on displaying artwork will make your home a better place to be, and our guide to developing an amazing memory will augment much of your day-to-day…
PERFORM MIND-BLOWING MAGIC LIKE DYNAMO
There was a time when magic was seen as a novelty act. Then the likes of Dynamo (a.k.a. Steven Frayne) came along. His award-winning illusions, which have awed everyone from Pharrell Williams to Brad Pitt, are unlike traditional magic in that they aren’t about “fooling” people. “It’s more about sharing a moment,” says the magician, who recently published Dynamo: The Book of Secrets (2017), “and creating a memory”. We asked him for a trick that’s guaranteed to impress…
The trick:
A participant selects a card.
They replace it, then shuffle the pack face up and face down.
The deck is spread. The face-up cards are a phone number. They dial it, and are told to ask whoever answers to name their card. Your phone rings, and you give them the answer…
1: SET THE DECK
Before the trick starts, riffle through the deck and create a packet of cards corresponding to your phone number. Use aces for ones and queens for zeros (Q looks like 0). The card at the back of the packet ought to represent the first digit; in our illustration we are using the example number 07225 386491. Place these cards face down on the top of the deck. Dynamo says that you can get away with doing this prep in front of the participant. “If I’m just casually messing with the cards as I talk to you, you’re not going to be that concerned with what’s going on.”
2: TIME TO PERFORM
First, force the participant to choose a predesignated card. Here’s the simplest method. Put the deck on the table, noting the bottom card. Ask the participant to cut the deck. Say: “Let’s mark where you cut,” and place the bottom half on the top half to make a cross. Talk for a while, distracting them from which half was which. Tell them to pick up the (new) top half, turn it over and, “Remember the card you cut to but don’t show me”. In reality, they’re looking at the card that you noted at the start.
3: MAKE THE PACKETS
Say: “Now, you’re going to mix these cards up completely, so that some are facing one way and some are facing the other.” Spread the cards in your hands and remove only the cards containing your phone number. Place these face down on the table (packet 1 in the picture). Take another packet of 10–15 cards and place them face up to their right(2). Place a third set face down to the right of those (3). The remainder should go face up on the far right (4).
4: SHUFFLE UP
Push packets (1) and (2) across for them to riffle shuffle (interleave) together. Take back the combined packet (1+2). Say: “Now you’re going to do it again,” turning over (1+2) as you talk. Push (1+2) and (3) across for shuffling and take back (1+2+3). Turn (1+2+3) over as you tidy it up. Push this and (4) across for a final shuffle. When you take the cards back, turn them over one last time. The ones you placed on the top of the deck at the start will be face up, but the participant won’t have realized that.
5: THE BIG REVEAL
Say: “I’m going to turn all the cards back around except yours.” Spread the cards on the table. A variety of them – your ones – will be face up, as per step 4. Pretend the trick hasn’t worked. Say: “OK, let’s try another way.” Ask them to type the numbers of the face-up cards into their phone, helping them translate cards into digits as they go. Say: “Dial it and ask whoever picks up to name your card.” Your phone will ring; reveal their card. Good vibes? Save their phone number.
DIVE INTO A POOL GRACEFULLY
Once a pool party starts, so the diving competition inevitably follows, and whoever can actually pull off something half decent is, for that one, beautiful moment, a legend – because an elegant dive is an especially crowd-pleasing sight, as the young Tom Daley quickly learned. “I used to find it quite funny that people were so mesmerized by something I found so easy,” he says. Admittedly, Daley had rather a knack for it. At 15, he became Britain’s first individual world diving champion and went on to win two Olympic medals. His first piece of advice is hard-won. “Check the depth of the pool,” he says. “I once chipped my teeth on the bottom.” The ideal depth for a low springboard is at least 3m (10ft). And to develop an ideal dive…
1: LEARN THE DIVER’S CLASP
Contrary to popular belief, divers enter the water with their hands clasped as shown. The idea is to land with your palms facing the water to create as big a surface area as possible, with your arms squeezing tightly against your ears. Get used to this by standing on the edge of the pool, as if about to dive. “Bend over as far as you can with your legs straight and your hands clasped. Lift up on to your toes and just fall in,” he says. “Your legs will follow and go up – it will happen without you knowing it.”
2: GET THE STANCE
Time to dive properly. When you’re standing on the edge of the board, look forward, with your arms by your sides, and adopt a perfectly straight body posture. “That means having your legs completely tight – engaged quads, glutes – and making sure that your pelvic floor is tilted so all your lower abs are engaged,” says Daley. That’s vital for entering the water stylishly. “The position you start in is often the position that you finish in.” Your big toes should be just over the edge.
3: HIT THE PIKE
To dive in the correct trajectory, imagine that you’re jumping up and over a waist-height fence. As you jump, bring your arms up into a “T”. At the apex, do a “pike” where you bend forward at the hips. “Then all you have to do is engage your glutes and squeeze, and that will lift your legs up pretty quickly.” Once your body has straightened out, clasp your hands as per step 1. A common mistake is to forget to focus on keeping your legs together. To fix that, practise diving while holding a towel between your ankles. “The aim is to keep it between your legs until you hit the water.”
4: THE RIP ENTRY
Ever wondered how divers such as Daley enter the water with hardly a splash? That clasped-hands position is key. As soon as the water is up to your ears, flick your wrists apart and open your arms up into a “T”. “It creates a vacuum which sucks the water underneath with you.” To further eliminate splash, wait until your shins are about to go under and hinge at the hips for a forward roll. “Rolling contains all of the water and air that gets brought under with you, so it helps with the perfec
t entry.”
5: TAKE IT FURTHER
Once you’ve nailed a basic dive, learn to do a simple forward somersault. Stand on the edge of the pool, with your arms up but not joined, and jump up and out. “The key, now, is to pretend you’re throwing a boulder. You bend your arms slightly behind your head and when you ‘throw’, your hips will come up and over your head,” says Daley. At that point, go into a “tuck” – this is like a cannonball but with one hand on each of your shins – before landing on your feet. “You’ll turn over easier than you thought.”
PSYCH OUT YOUR POKER OPPONENT
When the poker film Rounders came out in 1998, it ushered a new wave of players to the card table. It also introduced those players to the notion of “chip tricks” – the nimble-fingered manipulation of gambling chips to exude confidence and intimidate weaker players. In a memorable scene, Matt Damon’s character plays against the real-life multiple World Series of Poker champion Johnny Chan, who flourishes his chips with a move that remains popular today, known simply as “the Johnny Chan”. Next game, why not try it?
GQ How to Win at Life Page 9