Bad Mnemonics

Set up separate decks and just go through them in an SRS. I’m a little doubtful the dependency structure is actually needed.

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I’m not expecting them to always work well. I’m just expecting them to avoid obvious, easily avoidable mistakes.

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:smiley: good point. In the end I know I’m not entirely satisfied with it because of the inconsistencies on WK. I know mnemonics help me and, if I’m going to make the mnemonics myself, the push notifications really aren’t that big of a deal, and other SRS options are available, I’ll just have to try it and see.

Sure, if someone wants to set up decks for thousands of items, it will probably be effective, since they’ll be taking an active role in the process of gathering stuff… but again, it’s a tradeoff in effort that works out for some people. The people who say they only have 30 minutes a day total are gonna want to just jump in and do lessons and reviews, not spend a chuck of that putting the decks together.

But yeah, do whatever works for you. I guess the fact that I’m not going to be using WK or Anki from here on out makes my opinion moot anyway.

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Well i dont think you necessarily need to rely too much on the menmonics. The point is to remember eventually the kanji’s reading and the kanji itself,so it will be much easier to read a word or to know its meaning.

Menmonics are great for that. Sometimes i find myself remembering even only one part of the menmonics,then it helps me very well to pass the review.

I do agree however,that sometimes the menmonics feel like WK didn’t have any energy to think about a menmonic and just threw whatever they had in mind. But again,i dont blame them,there is like 2200+ kanjis out there,go and make a seperate story to each sound and kanji. In this case i just use my imagination with a little bit of inspiration from what they have started.

The bottom line: Dont rely too much on this menmonics,sometime i just make my own story which stick much better,and its very easy,since kanji its like a drawing,its always remind somthing weird or realistic,then just make a story out of it. It does require some time and creativity. Nothing too much though.

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I feel like the most egregious one is where the mnemonic involves tomatoes but the hiragana you’re meant to remember are “たも” - tamo.

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Good point. No telling what my free time will look like when this pandemic gets under control. I’m just finding myself with more time than things to fill it with these days.

You said you’re not using WK or Anki from here on. Why’s that?

Because I’ve already gotten to level 60 on WK before. And I just don’t use Anki for anything anyway.

Oh gotcha. I thought maybe you found something else.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that one. There are a few which straight up don’t match what they’re supposed to represent.

Yeah, like how “cock” has been used for both “かく” and “かこ”.

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I’ve had a little difficulty with ち, うち and つち. They’re all about cheese. Ended up using Xochimilco for つち.

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I remember this one if only because it seems to defer to the way a Japanese native would pronounce the English word “meat” (ミート). Of course if you haven’t listened to enough Japanese that’s not going to click, so it’s not particularly useful for people who are coming to WaniKani with absolutely zero Japanese knowledge.

When it comes down to it, I’d say that 90% of the mnemonics work for me and are memorable, and the other 10% I have to come up with something better. That’s still better than anything else available where I’m doing 100% of the mnemonic creation.

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IIRC, uchi and tsuchi usually use mnemonics like “ooh, cheese” or “two cheeses” respectively.

The とく mnemonics have always been the worse for me. I have no idea who that guy is lol

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And do you know what’s the worst about that mnemonic?

In my head “cock” sounds like this (as I’m a British English-socialized non-native speaker) :woman_facepalming:

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If it helps, for 鋼 you can remember the reading because it has 金 (かね) in it. I didn’t research but there might even be historical roots to that.

It comes from 刃金 or “blade-metal” (steel).

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Oh God this is the one that recently tries to kill me I swear

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Is that - “You say tamoto, I say tomato” (or something like that!). I often find the vowels don’t match up for me, sometimes it must be the transantlantic pronunciation difference, though maybe not this time? But when they don’t work it’s ok, it gives me an extra kick up the arse (there’s another one, ass, arse) to find a different mnemonic that works better for me. Sometimes I think of something glaringly more obvious (to me) than the ones that are given - and it makes sense to pick something one’s brain can remember with even less effort, doesn’t it, and we all have different backgrounds.

(I’d probably have a tam o’shanter for ‘tamo’. I’m guessing the creators of WK haven’t read Peter Rabbit).

I love your use of ‘egregious’ btw. That is a great word :slight_smile:

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Yup, if I come across one of those, like とくがわ then I just need to go look it up and read about the person, or I’m never going to remember it.

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