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Word Sound-Alikes 1

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ESquared

Programmer
Dec 23, 2003
6,129
US
In other threads we've dabbled with word soundalikes. For example, there was the Cheesier thread.

I recently had an opportunity to be taught some things about memory by Jerry Lucas, the former famous-rebounding-forwarder of NBA history, who now goes by the name Doctor Memory. I am really excited about what I learned and am quite intent on putting his methods to practice to really supercharge my memory--especially for people's names.

One of his basic tenets is that it is very easy for people to remember pictures. When we're young our parents go around showing us objects and saying their names. Pretty soon, we can't help but see a zebra in our minds when someone says the word. He believes that everyone has a certain kind of innate genius that makes this linkup happen easily and automatically. None of us has to struggle to imagine the picture.

When the goal is to remember intangibles, his method is to use sound-alike words that can be pictured. For example, check out the picture he uses to remember the capital of the U.S state Arkansas. If you take care to imprint this picture on your memory, you'll never forget it, no matter how many years later you need to know.

Well, I thought I would first of all share the technique with you simply because of how amazingly useful and easy it is. (I am short on cash at the moment but I did buy his book "Learning How To Learn" and am greatly enjoying it. I highly recommend any of his material.)

Second of all, in order to remember people's names, one has to convert the names to a tangible picture. This is hardcore wordplay and I wish to share it with you all.

What are some pictures that you would use to represent the following names?

Lauritzen
Heacock
Joan
Westphal
Kwaitkowski
Fornurackis
Gracie

My hope is that many people will become interested in this and we can all bring the "hard ones" in for discussion and some picture ideas.

- Erik

P.S. Jerry Lucas once memorized all the last names of 400 guests on the Tonight Show and repeated them back for each person an hour later. It's very cool.
 
For the name Heacock, I thought about a peacock with the letter H in a pattern on the feathers. But there are people with the last name Peacock. Other thoughts were

he-clock
heat clock
hike lock
some combination of a donkey and a rooster (donkeys hee-haw -- Lucas uses donkeys for the sound he)

Gracie: gray seal

Your turn!

Oh... I will explain later the whole method for tying the name to a person's face, but for now was just hoping for help with the pictures. [smile]
 
Great links, interesting challenge.
[thumbsup2]
Here some of my first "inspirations", hidden to not take influence on anyone imagination:
Code:
[COLOR=white white]
Gracie: band aid (for a graze)
Westphal: the setting sun (West fall)
Kwietkowski: hushhh finger up. :p
Fornurackis: monster ant (Fornicula)

Lauritzen is a tough one.
perhaps Justicia in front of the Ritz (Ouch, how obvious!)
Or a sheriff on a horse (Law rider)
[/color]
No idea for Joan yet.

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]
Check out this:
 

Lauritzen - winnings from a class action lawsuit?

__________________________________________
Try forum1391 for lively discussions
 
Yeah, right:
Code:
 [COLOR=white white]Laureates!
Joan: A female tuna (Jona)[/color]
[tongue]

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]
Check out this:
 
My 2 cents: This is how people teach/learn other languages too. I've read about it but never heard of Jerry Lucas in connection with technology though. I think it is called Languare Bridge programm or something like this.
 
Fornurackis - this is actually one that Jerry Lucas talked about as a last name that he had to remember from a studio audience one time. The picture he used was four new racquets, two tennis racquets in each hand.

Kwaitkowski - this is another one that Lucas used. His picture is of a quiet cow skiing, a skiing cow with one hoof held to its lips in a "shhh" gesture.

The trick for remembering names is to pick an unusual or memorable feature in the person's face and tie the image to it somehow. The woman named Fornurackis had puffy cheeks, so he imagined using those four new racquets to smack her cheeks, popping the (you guessed it) tennis balls out of her mouth. The combination of motion, silliness, sound, and everything together meant that he couldn't possibly forget the woman's name. All he had to do was look at her and BAM his hands would be full of racquets just itching to smack her on both cheeks.

For Kwaitkowski, the person with this name had a mole on her cheek. He made a "mountain out of the molehill" and imagined a tiny, quiet cow skiing down it. Again, he had a ludicrous and memorable image that would come to mind the moment he saw her... remembering her name was no challenge at all. Just like when someone says zebra and you can see the picture, if you've visualized the right kind of images/sounds/motions then the name will come to you quickly!

CrystalStart, Jerry Lucas has a whole book or CD on learning Spanish with his method.

MakeItSo, I like your answer for Westphal. But I would suggest adding some motion, like it really is falling and not just the static picture that would normally come to mind.

Code:
[white]Lauritzen - low ritz hen? Ritz is a brand of cracker that is easy to picture. Perhaps a tiny little chicken seated on a cracker, and the chicken is ducking or otherwise low to the ground.
Joan - nothing has come to me yet.
Gracie - I said gray seal before, why not gray sea?
[/white]

I wish I could get everyone really involved in this. With a little bit of discipline we can all become incredible name-rememberers.

Start working on coming up with pictures for all the names you come across in your life, and share them with us here! And ask for help with the ones that you have difficulty with!

Sandra Dean: I visualized a few rows of sand coming out of the holes in her triple-pierced ear in slow motion, then running into a little bell hanging in midair with a loud Ding that reflected the stream-rows back toward her ear. Sand row DING! Sandra Dean.
 
Code:
[white]Lauritzen - Pulitzer Prize 
Heacock - I agree with peacock
Joan - Joe's wife Ann
Westphal - West Fall, waterfall
Kwaitkowski - Qiet-kowski
Fornurackis - Furniture-rackis
Gracie - baby Grace[/white]


I am actually disagree that it is a good/easy way to learn. You hear the word - it calls for an image. Or not. And if not you can do practically nothing about it.
I have some words I can not remember to save my life, and those I can't forget, so image or no image - there is something else that responsible for memory.
 
CrystalStart,

Your suggested words don't really sound like the original name, and they largely aren't easily-picturable tangible objects, so I can see why you'd object to the system. Did you visit the Arkansas link? Do you think you'll remember the capital of that state?

For example, I can't picture a "grace." I don't see how to go from a picture of a pulitzer prize (and I don't know what that looks like anyway) to Lauritzen. And "furniture-rackis" doesn't sound like the name and isn't easy to picture.
 
Here's my first attempt:

Joan: a woman showing her new neighbour around her house. There is a speech bubble coming from the neighbour asking, 'D'ya own or d'ya rent?' Not sure how you'd tie that to the person though. Maybe if the person had a large nose: the neighbour is being NOSEy?

Gez



Sorry, did I say something wrong? Pardon me for breathing which I never do anyway so I don't know why I bother to say it Oh God I'm so depressed - Marvin, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
 
Esquared said:
But I would suggest adding some motion, like it really is falling and not just the static picture that would normally come to mind.

So it can also be more like an entire situation rather than a static picture (or both of course).
Now that opens a few more possibilities of course! :eek:)

Code:
[COLOR=white white]Joan: 
- Somebody opening a door and waving you in ("show in").
- A mother "jawing" at her son[/color]

P.S:
Esquared said:
For Kwaitkowski, the person with this name had a mole on her cheek. He made a "mountain out of the molehill" and imagined a tiny, quiet cow skiing down it.

Only if Kwaitkowski wouldn't mind me laughing my a$* off, when I have to think of that skiing cow...
[rofl]

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]
Check out this:
 
E2, so far nothing you've picked for us (I guess as some form of torture) produced any digestible result, which proves my point I guess.
- You wether feel it right away or don't.

I am totally refuse to see every Joan as "a woman showing around her house..." don't you?

We probably should of start with :
Apple
Dog
Cat[3eyes]etc
 
@Crystal:
I am the more "direct" type, too.

But: It is in fact a widely accepted and tested method for remembering voluminous and complex data.
I am not used to it either, but I have books ("Mathematical carnival") describing such methods and the possible success accompanying them.

I have met people multiplying 6-figures faster in their head than it takes any of us to type the numbers in a calculator - by grouping the numbers, remembering groups as pictures a.s.o.

So: Sounds all rather weird, but actually seems to work.

So, the challenge is not to imagine the obvious, but to just create new associative patterns & neural pathways, Detours, re-routes.

Keeps your thinking flexible. Especially if your not used to forming such associations... ;-)

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]
Check out this:
 
MakeItSo,
I Quote you: "I have met people multiplying 6-figures faster in their head than it takes any of us to type the numbers in a calculator"

If you tell me you've met many people like that I will give up. [pipe]
I think we all watching those 1:10000 people amazed with jaw dropped to the knee :-D

Also there is no picture that will remind you and me of "Kwaitkowski" at the same time. But if me and you are both having memory of the same strenght - we are going to be able to remember those 234 numbers, both. [peace]
 
Lauritzen - low red sun, low rat sun

I can think of pictures for those :)
 
Crystal,

Of course there is a picture for "Kwaitkowski". The moment I saw the name, I pictured the beautiful ski slopes on the sand dunes of Kuwait with a black-and-white spotted Jersey outfitted with 4 sleek, new Rossignols. One does not soon forget it when they see a "Kuwait-cow-ski". [wink]

[santa]Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
@ 03:41 (19Feb05) UTC (aka "GMT" and "Zulu"),
@ 20:41 (18Feb05) Mountain Time

Do you use Oracle and live or work in Utah, USA? Then click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips.
 
[aside]
A quiet cow skiing, a Kuwaitian cow skiiing:
You guys are either masters of the "Doctor memory" method, or in dire need of mediaction... :-D
[/aside]

[peace]

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]
 
low rat sun? As easy to remember as
"Lauritzen " because "low rat sun" doesn't make ANY sense and sounds like someone making fun of people
 
I have no trouble whatsoever picturing a "low rat sun" or a "low red sun" or even a "low rat son." Especially if I add motion or sound that can be tied to a facial feature.

One doesn't generally tell people the picture one uses for their names, nor what facial features the pictures are tied to. That's just basic social awareness and politeness--this is an internal memory tool, not (normally) to be discussed.

CrystalStart, you seem to be really negative about this. What gives?

 
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