What’s your favorite WaniKani mnemonic?
My current favorite is:
側
Try saying かわ out of the side of your mouth like the leader of the shellfish and you’ll probably say がわ too. Don’t stick a knife in your side though, we won’t pay your medical bills when you complain to us that this mnemonic got you injured.
I have a legal background, and I figuratively almost died 
Mine was the one for 湯気, I’m just gona paraphrase it "You’re on the steam room and someone asks “You gay?”
I died, I wonder who wrote it and what kinda stuff are they into 
I remember that one! It ended with “You answer however you want to answer.”
Not gonna lie I miss the ones with HardGay
I don’t miss them at all, they were too weird for me 
But the Charlie Sheen ones were nice though
Haha. Yeah. Only just started, but even I can agree. There are lots of hilarious and absurd ones. I love it. My current favourite is the kanji for construction on level one. Kou. It just starts by saying they are trying to embarrass Kouichi, one of the creators of the site. Doubt I’ll ever forget that. Thanks, KouichI. 
I don’t have a Japanese keyboard on my phone; I usually use my PC/laptop for this.
Care to elaborate? ^^
I added a lot of my own NSFW mnemonics as well, and they are very memorable 
though i think KanjiDamage exaggerates it, because if every mnemonic is about sex or violence, it’s hard to say which is which, because it’s all the same.
I’ve been thinking about which WK mnemonic i like since the thread was started,
but it’s not so easy to remember off the top of my head.
I mostly like the memorable names of the radicals,
and mnemonics that make a lot of sense,
like 謝る: you say “AY AM(a) sorry” = あやまる = apologize
though they aren’t too creative or funny, just memorable.
Yeah, i also like the Kouichi, Mrs. Chou and Jourm being used as characters, you build an image in your head of how they are. and there aren’t too many characters.
I mean, how could you forget anything involving this guy?
i mean, i thought these mnemonics were from before a mnemonics reset, so i don’t know them because i’m rather new, and would like some examples ^^
of course the problem with such mnemonics, especially ones involving Charlie Sheen or any pop culture references, is that after a few years or decades there are many who don’t know the source material.
Well, depends on what the pop culture is… I refuse to believe people won’t remember something like star wars in decades, charlie sheen… yeah maybe, although he’s still a big name.
Also, totally could happen with words too, maybe not basic words like water, but words come and go too… Not to mention the weird ass words like “toil” “yurt” “cleat”… which funnily enough, I never forgot, since I was so shocked to see such weird words lol
Well, i haven’t seen almost anything by Charlie Sheen, except Hot Shots and a couple episodes of Two and a half men. And people who are below the age of 25 probably hardly know him at all.
Star Wars is almost timeless, but there are always people who’ve never seen it and don’t know what a death star is (lvl 24 radical). Again, younger people today may not care to watch such old movies anymore. I know i hadn’t seen Back to the Future until i was 28 or so. (and i actually didn’t like it)
Regular words in the language don’t die out very fast, much less fast than pop culture knowledge anyways, and they appear in any medium, not just one franchise.
Yeah, i also had rarely heard of “yurt” and “cleat” before, but that made them memorable, and they’re real life things that won’t disappear anytime soon.
17y, can confirm that I’ve never heard the name ‘Charlie Sheen’ outside of this forum.
I also think it’s better to tie mnemonics to words in your native language rather than pop culture references; they’re fun, absolutely, but what if someone comes across a しん word and doesn’t know who Charlie Sheen is? It’s kind of tragic, really, but しょうがないねぇ.
That said, I still don’t know what Wagyuu beef is so maybe I’M the one who needs to get with the times 
Then they get to watch 2 and a half men and get hours of a fun sitcom! lol
No, but even as is, it’s just impossible to get one mnemonic that works for everyone, so I think everyone is always coming up with their own from time to time anyway.
The best kind of beef, full of marbling which makes it tasty and tender
Hopefully I’ll get to eat it one day
My favorite mnemonic is the one with Chad the angel.
"You come across an angel wearing a hat that’s covered in flowers. So, you do the only natural thing. You take this angel, chop him up into tiny pieces, and dry him out. Then, you make tea out of all the dried up angel bits. You wear the hat, though.
In your tea you find a little metal button. I guess you missed it while you turned the angel into tea. You look at the button - on the back it says “To Chad, you’ll make an awesome angel.” Looks like you’re drinking Chad the Angel."
I still feel bad for Chad. And I always show to funniest mnemonics to my friends.
This isn’t really a mnemonic, but I find it hilarious that “To get fired” is “To become neck.”
Very good point. I sometimes link mnemonics to other Japanese words, even though I shouldn’t. For example:
太 people tend to be very 大.
I don’t do this often, but it helps me remember the word until I just know how 太 is pronounced. So I’d say it works for me, but I would advise against it for literally anyone else.
They get a LOT of mileage out of Kouichi. It makes me think he must be a really chill guy to not mind being made fun of so much 
You actually don’t need a Japanese keyboard on either your phone or your computer! When it asks you to write the reading, you can put it in with English input and it will convert it to kana. When I first started, I kept switching keyboards and it was SUCH a pain!
I forgot about Chad the Angel RIP Chad.
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.