Last night, H and I went to the pub to meet up with a couple old friends who are visiting LA. Two girls joined us.
"Hi, I'm Alice," one said. I immediately thought "Go Ask Alice."
"And I'm Gabby," the other said. As we shook hands, I mentally renamed her Gabby Smith, a girl I went to high school with.
As we conversed, I never had to do that awful, "I'm sorry, I forgot your name. What was it again?" Instead, I thought "Go Ask Alice" and "Gabby Smith" every time I needed to refer to them by name.
Making memory links to retain first names is a little trick I use. What little tricks do you use in social situations?
xoxo,
Suzanne
About Me
- Suzanne Casamento
- Author of Fingerprints, Choosing Tally, and All the Moments in Between. Tweet me @suzannecasamento
I think it is SO SO SO important to remember people's names. I've always made it a priority to remember names, so I do tricks like yours. I "rename" the people.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think everyone looks like someone else I know so I rename them in that way. So like there is a lady at work that looks like Stiffler's Mom and now I associate Stiffler's Mom = Nancy from work. Sounds more difficult than it needs to be I know.
Other tricks I use is to chat until we find something in common (e.g., I love to visit Vermont and I know someone's parents who live there). I think once you get to some commonality then that person is ingrained in your mind forever because they are no longer "E and W," they are "that nice could that lives in Vermont."
Miss you Suzi!! :-)
*that nice COUPLE, not that nice could. DUH sorry for the typo.
ReplyDeleteI'm horrible at remembering names, even when I try really hard. I usually like to ask people questions about themselves, their origins, how they came to be here, etc. I find people usually like to talk when given the chance. I avoid asking questions about social status (married, kids, job, etc).
ReplyDeleteAlso, my closest colleagues and I used to have this thing where we would save each other if we noticed one of us was trapped in conversation by one of the office weirdos or chatterboxes. We would call them from another phone under the guise of them being needed elsewhere.
I have a bit of a freakish memory so I don't have to use many tricks but one that I always use when I meet someone for the first time is that I always say their name... "Hi Suzanne, Nice to meet you."
ReplyDeleteI'm horrible with names, so I try to do something like this.
ReplyDelete