# Memorising names and faces - struggling with "generic" faces **URL:** \ **Category:** General Memory Chat\ **Created:** [January 14, 2013, 9:59am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memorising-names-and-faces-struggling-with-generic-faces/28060 "2013-01-14T09:59:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NeilG](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/neilg/32/216_2.png) [@NeilG](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/NeilG)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 9:59am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memorising-names-and-faces-struggling-with-generic-faces/28060/1 "2013-01-14T09:59:35Z")
I struggle with memorising lists or groups of names and faces. IF I can pick out a distinctive feature of the face, then the technique of mentally exaggerating that feature and associating it somehow with the name works fine for me. For example, I met someone called Wendy who had quite a square face shape - so I remembered her name by the image of Peter Pan flying off with a large square held in his hand. Perfect. My problem arises because I can’t always (or even often) find something that stands out as a distinctive feature of a face. Do other people struggle with this? For example, using this page for examples: > **[tollbit-host.com](https://tollbit-host.com/)** how would you approach people with fairly unremarkable faces (e.g. Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Owen Paterson)? ---
**Author:** ![zyzzyva57](https://forum.artofmemory.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/c67d28/32.png) [@zyzzyva57](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/zyzzyva57)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 11:43am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memorising-names-and-faces-struggling-with-generic-faces/28060/2 "2013-01-14T11:43:56Z")
Great foto to do homework on ---
**Author:** ![NeilG](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/neilg/32/216_2.png) [@NeilG](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/NeilG)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2013, 11:57am UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memorising-names-and-faces-struggling-with-generic-faces/28060/3 "2013-01-14T11:57:15Z")
I found some useful advice here: > **[Issues with names and faces... what if the names are foreign?](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/issues-with-names-and-faces-what-if-the-names-are-foreign/27042)** > > I’m planning on living in Korea, but the names are so different. BTW, I’m a Korean-American, so I’m perfectly fluent in Korean. Just not sure how I’d change the names, and my weakest area even in English is names and faces, just have a hard time... but would still love to here people’s feedback, examples, experiences etc. ---
**Author:** ![JohannRandall](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/johannrandall/32/2849_2.png) [@JohannRandall](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/JohannRandall)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memorising-names-and-faces-struggling-with-generic-faces/28060/4 "2013-01-20T18:26:33Z")
Memorizing Names and Faces is still quite a challenge for me too. This is one of my weakest event in competition. I think I just don’t practice much of it. Even in normal daily life, I don’t apply it that much, which I should really do. I guess we should just get into practicing hard in it. What I normally do, in competition at least, is look for other features other than their faces. Their clothes, background, or any jewelries. That was a good example by Boris in that thread. I wonder how they practice for that event, the Germans are the best at that… ---
**Author:** ![Snillsparv](https://forum.artofmemory.com/user_avatar/forum.artofmemory.com/snillsparv/32/5913_2.png) [@Snillsparv](https://forum.artofmemory.com/u/Snillsparv)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2013, 9:50pm UTC](https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/memorising-names-and-faces-struggling-with-generic-faces/28060/5 "2013-01-20T21:50:48Z")
I have experienced that it’s not always necessary to find a particularly distinctive feature of a person’s face to remember his/her name. For me the feature I choose _becomes_ distinctive when I place the image there. Have you tried just to choose any feature - wheater it’s very distinctive or not - and create the picture anyway?