Number Drills

One of the biggest mistakes people make when learning lists of words is to learn them in order like 1-10. The problem here is that by memorizing a list of things one way, you quickly find yourself starting at the first item in the list and counting silently through the list until you get to the item you are looking for. This is too slow. We can speed this up by creating our own patterns within the list and drilling them every which way. I suggest practicing them in groups of 3 and learning each group backwards and forwards so you never have to move more than one step to reach the item you want. The exercises below are designed to help you drill 1-10 in your head quickly, but take it slow until you can actually pronounce them correctly. Even if you know the numbers, this is a good way to get better at saying them the right way consistently.

A few things to be aware of for 1-10:

• 5 and 9 are the only Falling tones.
• 2 and 3 are the only RISING tones.
• 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 are all LOW tone.

You’ll need to know the numbers before this exercise will be useful.  The purpose here is to help you master them in any order rather than have to count to find which one you want to say.  A few 5 minute sessions, 2-3 times/day for 2-3 days should be enough to pound it into your head.