Memory tip for 17th of April 2011

Yesterday I finished giving my tips on how you can remember numbers. I hope to come back to the topic one day, but today I want to start writing on how to remember names. I think I will share my experience through three posts, in the same way I did it with numbers. It could be pretty embarrassing to meet a person for the second or even the third time and not to remember his/her name, especially if the person knows yours. I used to work as a teacher of English language and teach groups of students that would sometimes be from 10 to 15 participants. It is quite a challenge for a teacher to remember that many names very fast. You can naturally learn them in three or four lectures, but by using mnemonic techniques you can do it over one lecture. 

So, how would I remember names of my students? Let me give you two tips today. The first tip is pretty traditional, but it works. Write down the name. People say that hand has a memory. In fact it is a reflex that helps you to memorize the name as you are writing an alphabetic image of it on a piece of paper. Putting down a name on a piece of paper turns your visual memory on and helps you to remember the name better. 

The second tip is: try to remember a person whom you know and who has the same name as the person whose name you are trying to learn now. Method of association works in any field, not only in remembering names. So, try to associate this new person with the person whom you know (with the same name). See them standing together, shaking hands, saying their names to one another, being surprised that they have the same name and etc. Use humor, exaggerate, imagine them doing funny stuff together, and let them shout their names loudly. Just these two techniques will help you to remember a dozen names very fast. 

Read my previous post:

How to remember numbers part 3

Memory tip for 10th of April 2011

Yesterday I shared with you how important your emotions are in the process of memorizing information. Today I want to give you this tip for improving your memory: use visual exaggerations to remember better. I have already mentioned that you have to form visual images and associate them with things you want to remember. Today I want to tell you that you have to make them as extreme as possible in order to remember them fast. Of course, you should not forget that they have to be of a positive nature, so that your memory would not delete them. 

We remember things that are extraordinary better, because they catch our attention. So, if you want to remember a person’s name or names of a group of people try to imagine those people with funny clothes that do not suit them, big noses, small eyes, walking in a peculiar way, carrying some weird, huge and funny objects. Then put a label on each one of them with that person’s name. You will see how this practice makes it very easy to learn and remember names. And it works not only with remembering names. You can learn and remember anything in this way. 

Read my previous posts:

Use emotions to remember 

Use your five senses to memorize