There’s typically three ways I remember readings, other than just brute force repitition.
The first is that I connect it to another Kanji that typically takes that reading. For example: 共 reminds me of 今日 and 強. So I come up with something like Today, we are strong together. And since I know the readings of both other terms, I pair them with the new reading.
The second is already knowing a word that features the Kanji. Like 意味 had 意. Like, remembering that it’s part of that word or whatever.
The third is knowing that some components tell you how something is read. 仲/中, for example.
Yeah, I rarely (if ever) remember the mnemonic for a kanji/vocab.
I more or less just brute force it via the recent lessons (+ the summary page from the WaniKani reviews plus plugin) thing until I feel confident enough I won’t forget it immediately.
I feel like a subtle but important point is missing. I think that mnemonics (or something similar) is not something to strive for to remember forever. I currently use the mnemonics (given or made myself) to generate a first ‘step up’ and then I make no effort to remember it. This means I use them to learn something quicker and then forget the mnemonic, but that is okay. I want an immediate “oh this is it”.
I get that, but I can only count on my one hand the amount of times I’ve remembered the mnemonic for a kanji/vocab in my entire history of using wanikani. I just suck at remembering stories and things like that.
Honestly, I think I loose mnemonics in about 3 days. I am also quite sure that I have multiple Radicals/Kanji/Vocabs I have had multiple mnemonics for until I finally learned them. So I feel this is normal, when I learned something the mnemonic just disappears
It is very personal as well. My weak point for example is remembering names but I am very visually orientated.
“Read an entire paragraph and retain one key part for an approximate reading, and do that for how many ever lessons you have batched.”
For me it’s 10, but until I start using the reading I rarely can keep straight all that info at once if it’s a completely new Kanji that I’m altogether not super familiar with.
For me I remember them for like a few seconds. Although maybe me doing 100-ish lessons at a time in one hour might make it a little hard to remember the mnemonics.
Sometimes mnemonics are helpful, sometimes not. There are too many kanji with the same reading for it to always click.
For me, there’s often some amount of synesthesia or onomatopoeia involved. You can’t tell me the kanji for bridge doesn’t look like a scarecrow troll defending a bridge: 橋 (obviously this example is for meaning). In the same way, 追 is a bear screaming “Oooo!” at the top of its lungs because it’s a bear and doesn’t understand things like using brakes on scooters and just wants to stop.
For the most part, I try this order: brute force trying to associate the sound with the meaning, then WK mnemonics, and then creating my own unrelated mnemonic. The last one sticks best because I’ll come up with a mental image that animates the shape of the kanji in some way. But it also takes the most time and effort.
Tbh I also sometimes don’t remember the mnemonics but its only for items that I don’t give full attention to. My method is to remember the item with some funny mnemonic as those click for me instantly.
Like, For 正月 - I remember this mnemonic very clearly cause its funny to want to gut a shougen just because he made you work on new year cause…well he/she is the shougen
Its different for everyone but for me the starting phase was the most helpful. Wanikani mnemonics helped me move past the fear of “Now how the hell will I rememeber 2000+ kanjis ?!” Some of the readings I brute force (incorrect reviews → rinse and repeat until I get it correct)
Some of the readings I brute force (incorrect reviews → rinse and repeat until I get it correct) 