Word Sound-Alikes 1

[ESquared]

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.

 

[CrystalStart]

I must be "different" in some way then, I have such a trouble picturing "low rat" but to picture "low rat sun" -I must be retarted :-D
Not negative, I thought it was for real and seems it is just for fun so I've got confused.

 

[ESquared]

It IS for real! I'm using it to remember people's names. My recall is spotty as I work to find pictures for different names, but when I get one going it does the job quite admirably.

Names I'm working on now:

Brian
Justin
Erik

 

[CrystalStart]

I am still suffering about "low rat sun" - how is this easier to remember if there is no "such animal" and it is hard to imagine? How is this suppose to help to remember?
And why can't you think of yourself for Erik?

I am trying my best to understand, see? :-D

 

[ESquared]

You never did answer my question about Arkansas. Do you know the state capital of it? Are you going to have any problem remembering the picture?

To demonstrate low rat/red sun for you I'd have to draw and then host it somewhere and then link it for you. Do I really have to do that?

 

[SilentAiche]

ESquared:

[purple]Justin[/purple]: picture someone easily bending a piece of metal, perhaps the size of a saw blade (since we know how bendy they are already) with the person explaining that the metal is flexible because it's "just tin." [of course, the mental image must run much quicker: see hands bend metal, hear "it's just tin."]

OR

Picture a talking head doing the evening news. He turns and is handed something from off-camera, then turns back to the camera and announces "This just in!"

[purple]Brian[/purple]: picture either everyone's favorite cranial content (Brain) or something to do with very salty water (Brine).

[purple]Erik[/purple]: picture Erik scuntching up his nose in response to a really bad odor (Air? Ick!!)

Tim

(first post on this thread - I, too, doubted this method could work for me, but I'm willing to try).

 

[ESquared]

Good ideas, Tim. I thought about Brain, too. I can see that for some names I'm just going to have to pick something that represents it. But once I've taught myself the correspondence, I only have to remember the easily-remembered picture rather than something more abstract like a name.

I like the tin thing... any metal action where there's a surprise that it's no big deal because it's just tin will seem to work.

For Erik I was wondering about headache... said with the right accent they sound almost the same!

 

[SilentAiche]

E2:

One thing that occurred to me, wouldn't it help if the image contained the subject to be remembered? For example, it seems like the example above would work even better if Justin were pictured as the news anchor. Does that fit with the formal program?

Tim

 

[ESquared]

You're right that there must be something to link them to the person whose name you are trying to remember.

But, think about it a bit, and you'll see that linking the picture to the person is backward. You need to link the person to the picture. When confronted with this person two months from now, something about the person must do the reminding. Just placing him in a picture won't help very much... you'll have thousands of people in thousands of pictures and won't remember which one goes with this person.

That's why it's important to pick a distinguishing facial feature.

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.

This is an example of what I'm talking about. Just looking at the person's puffy cheeks makes the racquets mentally appear, and the name is known. If the picture had just been the woman playing tennis with four racquets, it would be nearly impossible to select that picture out of all the other ones where you "had a person doing something."

 

[mscallisto]

I'm sure someone has already picked this one, but I haven't peeked yet.

[white]Gracie  A Gray letter C[/white]

 

[AngelB]

ESquared (or anyone else!), fancy doing one for me? My name is Geraint, pronounced hard 'G', 'e' as in 'egg' and 'raint' rhymes with 'pint'. Emphasis on the first syllable. I can't come up with one for myself!

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

 

[WZUP]

For Erik I was wondering about headache... ear ache

 

[CrystalStart]

Fornurackis ??? We have about 12 women at work with name Fornurackis (I am not even counting Fornurackis men - a legion!). How many do you know?

 

[CajunCenturion]

AngelB - Picture yourself camping and coming towards your campsite is a growling bear. You say to yourself, "Ain't gonna catch me" as you take off running. Combine the growling bear, 'Grrrr' with your 'Ain't'.

Good Luck
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[AngelB]

Thanks CC that made me chuckle! Can you find one to match the pronunciation though? That's the part that's giving me the most difficulty.

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

 

[MakeItSo]

AngelB:
You could think of a grinder with a capital G in it (to G-rind) ...
Or:
If you know the Germanic spear (="Ger"), then you could imagine a half grinded spear = Ger grind



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