Prepare for Meeting People with Magic Memory Aids - alliteration of place and people names, repeated letter

Prepare for meeting people by creating an alliteration for their names. This will help you remember their name. Dazzling Dan. You can create a memory aid for the whole name, easier if it is a short name.

PEOPLE NAMES AND ALLITERATION

BEN
Brilliant
Efficient
Nice

My friend Lynda, spelled with a Y.
Yes - Lynda is spelled with a Y.

Carole, spelled with an E.
Carole, yEs, CarolE, spEllEd with an E.

Carol, nO e.

Jon without an H - simple, straightforward, time-saving Jon.

John with an H. He is my Happy JoHn.

These alliterations help you remember both the name and its spelling. Say it three times, look at it, type it out three times.

Send them a message on Facebook, Twitter, email, messenger, each time noting the name and its spelling.  re-read three messages from them, noting the spelling. Tell your family, friends and co-workers how the name is spelled. By this time you should have imprinted it on your memory. Next time they write to you, notice the spelling and reinforce the memory.

When visiting places connected with famous people you also need correct spellings. For example Freddie Mercury. Freddie - I know his first (fIrst, Ist, name ends with IE; but mercurY ends with Y - I wonder why.

CITY NAMES AND MAGIC LETTER MEMORY AIDS
I have just named this system Magic Letter Memory Aids. If you use this title please quote Angela Lansbury's Magic Letter Memory Aids. If I find that it is popular I shall add more city memory aids.
You can do the same trick with people names and place names letters to help remember place names of cities you are visiting or plan to visit.

Hanoi - Magic Memory aid
For example
HaNoi in the North of VietNam.

HA ha - HA-Noi in the North. NOrth.
Where? Oi - HanOI is in the nOrth. Last letter Is I.

Saigon / Ho Chi Minh city - Memory Aid
Saigon in the South (of Vietnam) was renamed Ho Chi Minh city. (The c in city resembles the sound of the s in Saigon and the South.   How do you remember Ho Chi Minh - ho ho ho, I'll check in a MINute, Ho ho ho. HO, ho, ho, not CHInese but VietnaMese in the south of Vietnam. Ho Chi Min - MINd you treat Him with respect - remember the H; He is the national Hero.

See Ho Chi Minh sites in the north, in Hanoi, and in the South, in Ho Chi Minh city.
Ho Chi Minh was the northern revolutionary leader. The family name is Ho, a common name in the country. Chi means will, Chi - remember chI - in English is will wI - ll. Minh is translated into English as light, which also has a silent h. A minute of light or in a minute we will have light.

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Vietnam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh_City

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/02/where-are-zoroastrians.htmlosts on Vietnam. See my  Please share links to your favourite posts.

American English - British English - Australia and New Zealand

A few words you might like to remember.
USA rest room / bathroom / john  - UK toilet / loo / little boy's room / lavatory Australia - dunny

Foods
USA Jello  (brand name) - jelly (UK generic or general term)
USA jelly - UK jam or marmalade

UK - flip flops (beach shoes with toe post) - Australia - thongs
In the UK thongs are underwear or bikini bottoms with a string or t-bar at the back
So a sign at Bondi beach telling you 'no thongs' is referring to beach shoes, not bikinis

Names
In the USA it is common for a boy to be called Randy, as a 'given name'. In the UK anybody who is randy is hoping chatting up girls and looking for sex. In the USA they would be horny.

In England we refer to your maiden name (girl's family name before marriage). Surname is what other countries call family name. First name means what other countries call given name.

In Australia a sheila means a female.

In Singapore an older man might be called uncle and an older woman might be called Auntie, even though unrelated and not even a friend, just a stranger on the train or the taxi driver. In the UK this is only used by toddlers and small children.

I wrote a post a while ago about translating the words in Australia's favourite song Waltzing Mathilda.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Author of Quick Quotations; Who Said What When?

Angela Lansbury - how many people with my name and yours?

Duplicate Names
To all my friends called John Smith and other popular names. I know how you feel. I am Angela Lansbury.
Travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker.

I am not the actress. I would like to be an actress. But I am not a professional actress. Yet.

I am not the only person who shares a name with somebody else. That's why the first thing they ask in court is to give your name and address. Hospitals occasionally give the wrong medication or operation to people with similar names. Mortuaries give the wrong bodies for burial or cremation. Sometimes parents are given the wrong baby.

British royalty give members of the same family the same name. The bane of every schoolchild is remembering Henry V, VI, VII, VIII. The americans like to call parents and children senior and junior.

First Names
In France it is usual to call a girl Marie, then add another girl's name. In Spanish countries you find Maria is the variation used.Variations on biblical names appear around the world in the spelling of the local area.

Family Names
There are six million people called Singh, several million called Modhammed, Patel, quite a few thousand called Lim, Singh, Wong.

Combinations
John  is a common English boys' name. Smith, the man who did ironwork, was a common family name.  The combination John Smith used to be said to be the commonest English name. I find a dozen of most people I look up on LinkedIn and Facebook.

So I am lucky there are only four people called Angela Lansbury. One actress. Two writers. One other.

The other author, so far as I know, writes novels and lives in France. I live in English speaking countries such as England and the USA and Singapore where I taught English. I write how to books and articles, speeches, comic poetry and songs.

English words
You may wonder why I spell out out and explain so many English words. That's because my blog readers include those in America, Russia and around the world. I hate having to go off and look up words when I am reading other people's blogs. I can remember learning new words from the age of 11 onwards at grammar school.

Never mind the three syllable and foreign words. I have had to explain one syllable words such as the word prop to a Korean and plot to a girl from China.

Among my many hats and talents, I teach schools, workshops and private pupils as a home tutor or on Skype. I have taught in England and Singapore. I have taught English language and literature, English as a Foreign Language, speech training for public speaking and presentations, and occasionally French.