How long do the mnemonics stick with you?

I’m just curious how everyone differs with using mnemonics. For me, I think they’re usually gone by the time I reach Guru 1 or 2, but with some items I really rely on them and they stay a bit longer.

They also tend to turn from full stories into just a small segment of the initial story, like one word to spark my memory instead of a full sentence.

I haven’t quite reached enlightened or burned yet, so it would be interesting to know whether anyone uses them still by those stages or not as well.

That’s the goal, you help yourself with stories first but eventually you don’t care about the stories anymore because you are able to recognize the Kanji without a problem. I can read some vocab without even remembering the meanings of the individual Kanji.

In others words, you start with Kanji then you use them for vocab. By that time, it doesn’t matter if you know everything perfectly or not.

I never used mnemonics, I just rely on repetition. However, in general, it’s a good idea to have a story that clicks with you. So if you don’t like the ones that WK has add your own ones.

3 Likes

I’d say I need them on about 20% of items once they hit enlightened. Those are usually my leeches so I rely on the mnemonics to help me out.

Out of the remaining 80%, I’d guess that a quarter of them are really internalized. Sometimes a vocab word will come up and I’ll know the exact meaning and reading but I have to work to remember what the individual Kanji were.

I’d guess it’s working as intended. :wink:

2 Likes

I rely on them pretty heavily. If the mnemonics provided don’t work for me then I make up my own.

1 Like

About a day or less… Sometimes I just don’t bother read the mnemonics…

4 Likes

The things I know the least are radicals, so for them I’m pretty reliant on the mnemonics. They really do make me remember stuff.

But, for the next level, the kanji, I’m more reliant on previous vocabulary knowledge to remember the on’yomi. Sometimes the mnemonics helps, sometimes they don’t - because I’m not American and my reading/pronunciation of words is just different and closer to Japanese already. Sometimes, the mnemonics just confuse me when it comes to readings, less so for their meaning.

Sometimes I also make my own mnemonics from the kanji as I now understand their radicals, and as I try to interpret the Japanese understanding of the meaning of the kanji/word, i.e. their reasoning for including the radicals in the kanji. I find that helpful as well as a way of remembering the meaning of kanji.

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.