You’ve done your homework, haven’t you? If not, go back and read the post on lists and then practice memorizing a few lists. This lesson on remembering numbers will be useless unless you learn that skill first. Plus, as I’ve said before, linking items in a list is a basic skill that we’ll be building on. Go do it and then come back.
That should leave the rest of us who have practiced and are ready to move on.
Remembering numbers is quite easy. You first turn the number into a picture — or series of pictures if the number is long — and then link them. Before we can do that, we need to learn how to turn a number into a picture. The problem is that numbers do not translate into pictures as easily as words. What do we do? You’ve got it — we turn the number into words, nouns to be specific, which can be things that can be pictured in our minds. Don’t worry, I’ll take you through it step by step.
This post will be focusing on the process by which we turn a number into a noun. We do that by giving each number a phonetic sound. It’s going to look difficult, but there are a few memory tricks along the way that will help. Below I have listed the numbers 1 – 0 and the phonetic sound that they make. To their right, I’ll give a tip that will help you remember which sound goes with which number.
My apologies to my international readers, as this system is geared toward the English language. I am not aware of systems that work for other languages, but I’m sure there are some.
| Number | Sound | How to Remember |
| 1 | t | Remember that the letter "T" has one down stroke |
| 2 | n | The letter "n" has two down strokes |
| 3 | m | The letter "m" has three down strokes |
| 4 | r | The word "four" ends with an "r" |
| 5 | l or L | Hold up your left hand with the fingers extended. The thumb and index finger form an "L" |
| 6 | sh, j, or ch | The number 6 looks like (sort of) a capital G, which in the soft form, is pronounced like a "J". Each of the phonetic sounds for this letter requires a speaker to hold one's mouth and tongue in similar configurations and differ only in duration, amount of air used, and the addition of the voice. |
| 7 | K | If one were to handwrite two "7s", the first normally and the second upside down with the second "7s" corner touching the middle right side of the long vertical stroke, it looks similar to a hand-written "K". |
| 8 | f or v | A cursive lowercase "f" looks similar to an "8". Again, the "f" and the "v" are similar in how one holds the lips. The difference is the addition of the voice in the "v" and the use of more air when making the "f" sound. |
| 9 | p or b | Flip the "P" or rotate the "b" and you see something similar to a "9". |
| 0 | Z or S | Zero begins with a Z. The Z sound and the S sound, again, are similar and differ mainly with the addition of the voice when saying the Z sound. |
Yes, I know that some of the mnemonic links between number and sounds are stretches! 
Yes, I know that since the mnemonic links are not wild or outrageous (and rather boring, I might add), it may take a few passes before you become proficient in linking the number with their sounds. Therefore, take a day or so to practice before we move on. As you do so, reinforce the connection mnemonic in the third column of the table. That will quicken the learning curve. You’ll also notice that these sounds are all consonants. That is part of the system design.
For those of you who master this quickly, the next step is to turn numbers into words. Go ahead and give it a shot while the rest of us practice the phonetic sounds and linking them to the numbers. The next post will provide plenty of examples and practice in creating visuals out of the numbers.
Bert,
Here are some beliefnet tips to go along with your memory improvement series.
Reg
http://www.beliefnet.com/healthandhealing/getcontent.aspx?cid=14302&WT.mc_id=NL44
Posted by: Reg | June 29, 2006 at 09:47 AM