Comments on: Weird-But-Valuable SRS Hacks: Using the SRS to Remember Names

By: Nagoya Blue

Nagoya Blue — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 03:51:05 +0000

Or just use a seating plan with the names written on it…that’s what I did when I had classes 0f 30 kids in English Secondary school.

By: Benny

Benny — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:26:30 +0000

Nice idea!
I’ve been using Anki to remember Birthdays of all my friends so I don’t have to rely on facebook.

By: SRSAddict

SRSAddict — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:23:40 +0000

I’ve been using Supermemo to remember names for quite some time now; indeed it is very useful. When I take people’s pictures, I’ll say to them “In two weeks, I will remember your name forever.”

But not only people’s names, but other people’s personality and preferences can also be put into your SRS program of choice. Take certain things that your significant other is enthusiastic about (Literary quotes, poems, favorite flowers, foods, etc.), and make flashcards out of those things. The whole purpose of an SRS program is to learn things that are significant and important to you.
Actually, the creator of Supermemo seems to have already walked this path, as he puts a great deal of information about his family and friends into Supermeo. I wish he would write a more detailed article on it. I was able to find this excerpt (In regards to using Supermemo to recall memories):

Instead of keeping your family picture archive in mothballs, you can now come back to selected memories in a systematic manner. You will be surprised how much you can learn from old pictures and how addictive the whole process can be.

By: Tommy Newbhall

Tommy Newbhall — Sat, 29 May 2010 23:52:16 +0000

This link is either very appropriate or very inappropriate

stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/11/09/115-promising-to-learn-a-new-language/

I, for one, lolled

By: Herman

Herman — Fri, 28 May 2010 10:49:17 +0000

@フランク

Japanese people are often totally unable to read lots of kanji stuff, in particular people’s and place names, and it really doesn’t seem to bother them as much as it bothers those of us learning the language. I guess once you’re really comfortable with the language, not being able to read some, mostly useless, stuff becomes a non-issue. Kind of like the names of all the chemicals on the ingredients list on food packaging. While I *can* read that in English it’s mostly total gibberish to me and if I had to say it out loud I’m sure I’d get it completely wrong.

By: あんど

あんど — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:01:00 +0000

Ohhhhh
See, I’ve already been using the SRS to remember names, but I’ve felt so limited because I felt like I needed a picture to so do. Didn’t think about using a description, haha. I’m totally gonna have to utilize this mess. Many thanks, Sir Moto!

By: Ayana

Ayana — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:22:03 +0000

I like the picture idea too. snap it in your fone and write notes. I know I can do that with my iPhone. Put it in as a contact (even with no number) and write notes and put the Kanji in to

By: yuzuru

yuzuru — Thu, 27 May 2010 08:41:39 +0000

Pretty good idea. I imagine in today’s world where cameras are built into phone, you can just take a snap shot of them and save it as their full name, and enter it into your SRS later for memorization.

By: khatzumoto

khatzumoto — Thu, 27 May 2010 08:37:27 +0000

@Dani
> “So hey, how is your name written?”, and hand over my notebook. Back in England I’d look pretty odd if I wrote everyone’s name down after I met them…

Haha. Funny you should mention that. I actually started to have people write down their names for me as a tool to aid my memory. But I was still forgetting the names, so I decided to bust out the big guns (SRS).

So, yeah, definitely, just like you said, the whole “being allowed to act like a curious alien/child” thing is a great privilege we enjoy here; the notebook acts as a highly convenient and reliable intermediate, and then the SRS takes you all the way home to SayingNamesCorrectlyFromMemory駅 😛

By: Dougal

Dougal — Thu, 27 May 2010 08:36:07 +0000

Glad you normalized this.

I’d been doing it for a while now but had thought maybe I was a little Talented Mr Ripley-ish.

And, yeah, the advice on keeping these decks private is totally warranted 😉 They could be massive hotbeds for misunderstanding, that’s for sure.

By: フランク様

フランク様 — Thu, 27 May 2010 07:46:36 +0000

haha dani interesting tip! i’ll be sure to try that one out. what I’m curious about is how japanese can effectively read ending credits when names have such varying readings. like when they’re reading them can they say with a 100% confidence that their saying it correctly?

By: Savara

Savara — Thu, 27 May 2010 07:36:10 +0000

… I have handicap, I’m not very good (or even decent) at remembering names.
I’m going to be a teacher.

Thanks so much for this simple idea – it’s so logical. I’ve been using Anki for Japanese, school work, quotes/motivation etc. for over 2 1/2 years, but I never once considered using it to remember names.

I think I’ll just use the schoolpictures of my groups and enter those in a name deck… Problem solved!

By: Dani

Dani — Thu, 27 May 2010 05:00:36 +0000

Funnily enough, I find living in Japan gives me an excellent advantage in terms of remembering people’s names: I have an excellent excuse to ask them to write it down for me. Whenever I meet someone (Japanese) here, it quickly becomes apparent that I find kanji and that interesting, so it’s pretty easy to say, “So hey, how is your name written?”, and hand over my notebook. Back in England I’d look pretty odd if I wrote everyone’s name down after I met them…

So yes, not only can SRS be used to store them in your head, but the very fact that they’re written all funny like can be used as an excuse to store them in a book long enough to get them into your SRS!

Also, strangely, quite often when I ask someone to write down their name for me, they put a phone number alongside it. Pro-tip! 😛