I am having the worst problem remembering what is what. So far nothing that I tried is sticking in my brain. Anyone has an idea to remember those Katakanas?
Their was a picture put up on the forum months ago which showed an excellent way of remembering. One look at the picture and I’ve had it down since. I’ll see if I can find it but I have my doubts.
Had a bit of a look and found one of the two pictures, should at least help you a bit.
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The way that Koichi indirectly implies in TextFugu, is that シ, is a softer, horizontal sound (I imagined it as if something were gliding along a straight path as the sun sets,) whereas ツ is a harder, vertical sound (because it’s heading towards the ground, as if something is falling.) That stuck in my head for some reason. It’s explained nicer in the book, but maybe my explanation can be helpful.
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I remember by writing direction for ソ and ン. It is also by the sudden dropping of the sound ソ and smoothness of the sound ン.
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I have a stupid mnemonic.
ツ is a tsunami heading straight at you! (Looking at you.)
シ She is giving you the side-eye…(picture it as a grouchy teenager or something)
シ and ソ are sisters because they both are in the s family and they’re fighting! So they’re looking opposite of each other. (Maybe シ punched her in the eye so that’s why ソ’s missing one. So rude!)
And ン is シ’s cute pet so it goes along with her when シ leaves. Or just process of elimination.
I’ll admit these take me longer to read but that’s what got me through it…
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My sister told me something that helped me!
Look at where the dashes come from/are aligned with…
シ Shi is on the Side (S with S)
ツ Tsu is on the Top (T with T)
ソ So is on the side again (sort of)
ン NN there’s nothing else left. (It’s the laziest looking one.)
It works best for シ and ツ, you have to try to remember the other two.
And don’t forget ノ where there are NO dashes at all.
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(this may be from tofugu’s post, but Im too tired and lazy to check or if I came up with it myself) I always imagine ソ as a needle sewing thread , hence why its going down, and ツ being a person who fell down from being super drunk and holding up 2 fingers saying, in his drunken sounding voice, “t…t-tsu (two) more…”\
And ン I always remember
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ン goes quickly from left to right because it wants you to look at the Next Kanji
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シ lies down.
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Just by coincidence, that exact question was answered in Dogen’s most recent video. (0:30 for those who can’t be bothered waiting.)
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This is the trick my prof taught us! It’s my personal favorite
Thank you everyone, these are great ideas. Now I have to see which one will stick.
I think it works with that stroke diagram someone else posted, too.
It’s totally helped me!
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So for me, I remember シ be it looks to me like a woman giving someone a “sure honey” smile… and it’s “she.” ツ on the other hand is a more sincere smile, and so I don’t connect that with (performative) femininity…
Then I remember ソ bc it’s the opposite directionally of シ except only one line, despite being the same starting syllable, and of course it’s gotta be complicated like that.
…This is probably only useful to me…
lol didn’t check, yup, this is how I do it too
For シ and ツ I read once that " she (シ) looks up at you (ツ) " and never forgot that mnemonic.
Sadly I don’t have a good one for ン and ソ!
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