I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve found WK’s stock mnemonics just aren’t cutting it to get new kanji Meanings and Readings committed to memory. Instead, I’ve been relying more and more on my own mnemonics in the Notes sections to get the new kanji to stick. Especially when some of them really seem to be a stretch. (Ahem “Humble stool”, anyone?)
I definitely haven’t abandoned them altogether and I’d say I’m still using WK’s mnemonics about 60-70% of the time. It’s just as the levels progress, and the difficulty ramps, my own creations are keeping the momentum going.
Have you found that to be the case too? How often do you use your own mnemonics in place of WK’s, if at all?
Honestly, the mnemonics are so interesting that that’s what makes them stick. Sometimes I do struggle to remember them and replace them with my own mnemonic, although I think I do that more often with the readings than the meanings.
As you progress, the meanings might still throw you off, but hopefully you’ll be able to recognize the same or similar radicals to help you predict the reading.
Interesting point about the readings, and that’s where I started too. Some of the rhyming just wasn’t quite working out so started using my own.
I’ve just been finding at recent levels some of the mnemonics are suuuch a stretch and so convoluted that they don’t have the same staying power as previous levels.
Bizarrely, I’ve experienced the same problem with another kanji deck on anki…. there must be something like ‘mnemonics fatigue’ ?!
yeah i do this too. wanikani’s own mnemonics are usually useful, but for example river is kawa, for car wash. when i hear kawa, i think of cars and not rivers. idk. it dosen’t stick.