Page 230 - Use Your Memory

20 Remembering Names
and Faces

Remembering names and faces is one of the most important
aspects of our lives, and one of the most difficult. The reason for
the difficulty lies in the fact that in most instances the names have
no real 'connection' to the faces. In earlier ages it was exactly the
opposite, and the whole system developed for giving people names
was based on memory and association: the man you regularly saw
covered in white flour with dough all over his hands was Mr
Baker; the man you regularly saw in his own and everyone else's
garden was Mr Gardener; the man who laboured all day over a hot
fire pounding metal was Mr Blacksmith, and so on. As the
generations changed and the family name became more and more
removed from its original meaning, the task of the memorisation
of names and faces became increasingly difficult, reaching the
current situation in which the name is a word with no immediate
associations with the face.
There are two major methods of coping with this situation, each
method supporting the other. The first is the Buzan Social
Etiquette Method; the second, the Mnemonic Method.
The Buzan Social Etiquette Method for Remembering
Names and Faces
The Buzan Social Etiquette Method for remembering names and
faces guarantees that you will never again find yourself in a
situation where you are introduced rapidly to five people and
hurriedly repeat, 'Pleased to meet you, pleased to meet you,
pleased to meet you, pleased to meet you, pleased to meet you,'
having been introduced only to the five pairs of shoes at which you
look in embarrassment because you know you are immediately
going to forget all the names anyway (which you do!).
The Social Etiquette Method requires two simple things of
you:
1 an interest in the people you meet
2 politeness
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