Cultural mnemonics

There’s a nintendo reference for 認

2 Likes

I was thinking later that Ryu, Master Roshi and as you mention Nintendo could all technically be classified as Japanese cultural references. Same with nendoroids (which I had also never heard of).

So that makes the list of cultural references still used in mnemonics even smaller.

3 Likes

Yeah I struggled with nendroids. I tried for ages to come up with my own mnemonic for that, but in the end I just had to brute force it.

Actually, in Fozzie Bear’s American accent, wocka and wakka are pronounced pretty much the same.

Most of the mnemonics are appalling though, simply because they don’t teach the actual pronunciation of the word.

Yeah, I wasn’t sure what was meant by that… it’s not like anyone thinks about the spelling used by the creators.

1 Like

I have this issue as well (British). My usual workaround is to imagine an extremely strong American accent saying whatever it is (first one I saw I think was たま - “Tom”), which I usually find entertaining enough that it sticks.

1 Like

I’ve had this issue a few times so far, and other times WK’s mnemonics actually made me remember things incorrectly, because English isn’t my first language and I often mispronounce English words in my head. But it doesn’t affect my studying much overall, to be honest. I use WK’s mnemonics as just a starting point to create my own mnemonics. And I get to use both English and my native language (Russian) for those, so it’s a “win some, lose some” kind of a deal in my opinion!

I agree with @Jirachi on frustration sometimes being very helpful, by the way. I remembered the reading for 一本気 instantly because of how mad I was at “every kanji in this word being pronounced in some weird twisted way!!! щ(゜ロ゜щ)”, haha…

1 Like

I did that to remember 谷
“Yeehaw! That is one たに VALLEY. I sure hope it’s big enough fer the two of us…”
(Apologies to any Americans…I know you don’t all sound like this!)

4 Likes

Or maybe we all actually do sound like that and all the movies showing 'Muricans as cowboys from the old west are accurate…

1 Like

I think I found the most American mnemonic on WK:
image

5 Likes

As a 47yo Brit, there are quite a few references I don’t get, but I don’t view it as a big deal - I just make my own mnemonics up when needed.

This also means you can inject your own cultural references too.
た: Ta is how you say thanks in northern England and I use this for most た readings.
月: Why did the Yorkshireman go to the moon? T’ski
Helpful to me but probably useless to 99% of the people here.

c22fcffd10ea9440351a229b835b6506

4 Likes

I understood that reference. Though technically he went there for the cheese. :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes

I do have Wallace’s voice in my head for 内 and 土.

2 Likes

Oh I did not know that. I was like, okay so there is this guy named Corey, He like ice, so he put ice everywhere, and put his face in ice. STAPH IT COREY, NOT CCOOOREEEYY NNOOO STOOOPP IITT AAHHH COOORREEYYYY !!!. > Ice everywhere… God damn it Corey…

I thought the mnemonic related to ice cores?

Anyway, FWIW I’m American and I’ve never watched The Muppets.

1 Like

Perfect dad joke right there. :joy:

3 Likes

I feel stupid for having googled that.
"Wait, Norwegian Blue?! What bird is that?! Sure we have “blue tit” but I can’t recall one called Norwegian Blue :thinking: "

Googled it

:man_facepalming:

I do love that skit, so the facepalm is “I KNOW that one, darn it!” :rofl:

2 Likes

I was never frustrated by that particular one, since the colors was something I already knew.
But there have been a few that bothered me.
Latest was a game, iko, and I LOVE games, still was completely unknown to me!
Asked around, and found it was a rather obscure game… Shouldn’t use obscure references XD

Most of the time I find the mnemonics quite useful though. Luckily the “unknowns” are the the exception, and they do take suggestions =)
I have been here 4 years, and quite a few have changed in my time. Charlie Sheen people complained about, so he became Sheep instead. Hard Gay going around shouting sei sei sei became saber and so on.

My lovely cute animals became cucumbers, that change I don’t like :sob:
I still use cute, make my own (if I don’t still remember the original one)

1 Like

For me 氷 is quite logical, because I now that ice is very cold. And and if we try to read “Cold” in a very Japanese accent, it would sound something like “cooru”. From then, “cooru” → “coori”, it’s quite simple. In fact, i use this technique of “how would a Japanese person pronounce this in broken English” many times, and it works for many cases.

Anyways, I agree that most cultural references that aren’t directly tied to Japan should be replaced. Most of American pop culture is unknown to me and/or doesn’t stick very well.

One thing I believe that WK could do more, is try to offer help by relating the specific onyomi sound with a very known japanese word. I find it much more organic, that if I already know that “namae” is name, and 名 is also name, then I can know it’s pronunciation by knowing that it comes from 名前. WK does give you “words that use this kanji”, but sometimes all of them are exceptions, and don’t provide other words that do use the onyomi reading and could be useful to directly remember the kanji.

1 Like

Yeah, like 覇, introduced in level 52, and given a bunch of fairly esoteric vocab items (though that’s a problem with more than a few of the level 50-60 kanji). It’s the は in 那覇, the capital city of Okinawa. As an added bonus, 那 is also taught at level 55 (though at least that one’s got a more common vocabulary word with it, 旦那).

1 Like