Hi there,
I searched and wasn’t able to find an answer, but how does everyone distinguish between new and intimate when presented with a vocabulary check for 新しい？It is always a 50/50, but I have a feeling I will never get that one out of Guru since I can’t guess it correctly. On the plus side, I will probably never forget either. 
Thanks!
Intimate is 親しい - you may want to take another close look at 親 and 新 next to each other 
That kind of problem is common with SRS since you never see things side by side. Nowadays in Anki if I notice I’m making a mistake like that a lot I’ll consciously look them both up and put something in the notes section like NOTE: this isn’t X - that looks like THIS
have you tried any scripts yet? This one shows visual similar kanji next to the one you are looking at, so it helps you notice those small differences.
Haha, no way! Mind blown, lol. Thanks for clearning that up! Now I can finally put those to rest.
I’ve been using flaming durtles, but have recently starting using the browser version more. I will definitely look into the scripts. Thanks for point that out!
I’ve had very similar problem with 陽気 and 湯気 until I learnt to distinguish between them 
Quite. I was looking at that topic going “… these are the same picture?”
when i start confusing things it’s almost always a sign that i need to compare the things i’m confused about outside of the srs.
so after reviews i go through the items i failed, making sure i know why i failed them, looking up the kanji or words with similar meanings or which are visually similar.
it helps a lot ^^
This script might help you as well. When you get something wrong, it shows you what you might have confused it with 
Hey @yeagraham . I’ve edited the topic to avoid confusion for people browsing through the topics.
If you feel the original should stand go ahead and change it back.
Welcome to the community. 
Easy
新しい uses the “new” kanji 新. It’s very common in written Japanese, so I immediately perceive it as “new”, あたらしい.
I don’t see the word 親しい often but it uses a common kanji “parent” 親. I just remember that an adjective with this kanji means intimate and reads したしい.
Both kanji have the same structure. You can split them into 2 halves. The left side is the same but the right one is different. That’s the key:
新 斤
親 見
Going forward you’ll see more and more kanji that share the same radicals. Learn to pay attention to the radicals.
It may help to look for the axe radical; axes are very useful for chopping wood and making something new, but axes are rarely a good way to build intimacy.
Indeed, it may be that the character 新 originally referred to cutting wood, and came to mean “new” either by association or by phonetic loan. Whether or not it actually that’s actually true, I think it’s quite useful for mnemonic purposes.
Even nowadays, 新 is a part from 薪, which means firewood.
Thanks! But I’ve been here a while and can’t rename topics - you may want to take another close look at @rodan and @yeagraham next to each other
That kind of problem is common with forums since you always see people side by side. Nowadays in Discourse if I notice I’m making a mistake like that a lot I’ll consciously look them both up and put something in my notes like NOTE: this isn’t X - they’re named THIS
親しい – there’s intimacy/closeness in parent-child relationships, usually. That aside, you could also tell yourself that you’d best be able to ‘see someone’/‘look someone in the eye’ (見) if you want to be close to them
新しい – the axe radical, which has been mentioned above. When you cut into something, a new surface appears. That aside, there’s 斬新 (which uses the axe radical twice, even if it’s an unfamiliar word for you), which means ‘original, fresh, completely new’. You’ll notice that 斬 is one of the possible kanji for きる, and that it’s also the kanji for ‘beheading’, so the metaphor of ‘cutting creating newness’ can be carried pretty far. Imagine it as something like ‘making a clean break with the old’, if you like.
Lol guilty as charged. 
People without avatar pics confuse me.
I’ll fix that now.
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