I cannot for the life of me remember the 訓読み for 技 and the vocabulary mnemonic isn’t doing anything for me.
Does anyone have any ideas for an alternate mnemonic before I just have to brute force memorize it?
Thanks 
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If it was very important you will remember it naturally when immersing in the language. I forgot it… Forgot the reading わざ not the meaning
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Fair point, but eventually I’d like to take JLPT N1 and this is on the vocab/kanji list.
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Fair
You could go to jisho and look up the kun reading components
Jlpt Always asks the reading through a sentence or a word.
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Not a mnemonic, but if you somehow remembered the vocabulary by sound, then associate the Kanji with the reading later, it may help to remember the Kanji reading.
Say, 必殺技.
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I often make my own mnemonics, so lets see…
技 - わざ
The kanji looks like fingers gently forming a VASE supported by a pottery wheel, doesn’t it? You need a good TECHNIQUE for pottery, otherwise the vase will suck. Imagine it rotating in front of you and you slide your dirty fingersover it, forming a pattern on surface. This is your own special technique.
As for mnemonics, I noticed they used a name of some made up character for this one. I cannot remember names, so that is unusable for me, which is why I started making my own mnemonics.
If a mnemonic doesn’t work for you, always think about what was the first thing that came to your mind when you got it in a review. Can you make a mnemonic about it? It doesn’t have to be related to the radicals or meaning. Maybe a part of it is shaped like hiragana symbol from the reading, or another kanji has the same reading and you can tie them together.
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To add to this, it’s a reading that’s inescapable playing JRPGs, since the Ability menu is generally called this. Even if it’s usually written in kana in Square’s output, it makes you very familiar with the word so the character becomes easy to remember.
It’s a common word in general, so immersion is your safest best for remembering it. Even non-reading immersion, since you’ll get the necessary context to latch it onto.
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Have you already memorized 態と per chance? The kanji obfuscates it but it’s actually the same Japanese root.
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No, not yet. Though, looking at the mnemonic for that one it’s the same one I tried to use for 技 so maybe I should just go with that.
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Not really. I learned it just through frequent exposure. It’s a common word in fiction, like anime, manga, games.
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Try looking for anime clips that use it, e.g. in 必殺技(ひっさつわざ) and watch them until you know the word.
Maybe it’s just that your brain isn’t getting the input through varied enough channels.
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Seems like the solution was to make a post about remembering it because I’ve been thinking about it so much, that it seems like I might have successfully remembered it 
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I’ve definitely been there before!
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Coming up with your own mnemonics tends to help when the default ones don’t stick.
For me, the reading has a strong link to a certain movie scene.
The way I’ve been remembering it is thinking back to a silly scene in the comedy movie, Scary Movie, where the masked guy is on drugs and he’s like: “Wazaaaaaaaaup!” (like, an exaggerated version of, “What’s up?”) Back when I was in high school in the 90s, people used to say that all the time, Wazaaaaaaa! or some variation of that.
So I picture that funny scene and add it to the WaniKani mnemonic of little guillotine fingers. So the masked guy is going around showing off his “skill” of growing tiny guillotines (gi) from his fingers and he is also saying WAZAAAAAAAAAP! (wa za)
So this ridiculous mnemonic helps me to remember both readings.
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Oh sorry, Gijsc1, I didn’t realize you also posted the same movie, haha! But yes, maybe my post can reinforce the movie scene. If anyone hasn’t watched it, it’s worth watching. And picture the masked guy bragging about his cool skills as he says it.
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