After just one week, I feel totally normal to think “so there’s a narwhal who’s doing construction, with his left hand… he does it with a saw ! the reading is sa”
左
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what’s even scarier is when the mnemonic falls away with time (as it should) and you can’t even remember how you learned the kanji in the first place and it just looks like “left,” no narwhals to be found anywhere.
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Well I guess you could say…
There are no narwhals left…
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Yes, I love that mnemonic. I imagine the narwhal sawing out a big chunk out to have space to live in.
Those darn Youths must have taken them all to the dark right side…
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I totally agree! I’m new to this as well, and while I was at first a bit put off, I now actively try to remember how a big man named Jourm lost his big toe : D
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Don’t worry, if you stick around long enough you’ll see something like Crabigator and immediately associate it with kanji, without even thinking about how you ended up associating alligator-crabs with a Japanese script.
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A mnemonic involving ms. chou leads to yelling “that bitch!”
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It is wild! Sometimes I do not even remember the mnemonic one or two reviews in. It is still fun to come up with new stories though!
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On days when my reviews aren’t going great I sometimes think “man, I suck at reading kanji, well, except the obvious ones like warn and cold and nose, but everyone knows those” and then I realize I’m looking at some random strokes and the words just pop into my head.
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be careful, it’s highly contagious: all my family members know many mnemonics and occasionally shout out meanings before i can type them in!
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That has begun happening with me when it comes to hiragana and katakana.
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All of this sounds so cool I’m eager to learn more !
Until now (I don’t know how long it will last) I find myself laughing out loud when discovering these stories and I really enjoy getting to new lessons (even if I find it painful to learn new things, here the stories make it enjoyable and easier).
Plus, reviews feel very rewarding for being able to recall all of these words after these (relatively) low efforts, thank you mnemonics !
And I didn’t expect such a warm welcome on the forums, the community here seems to be awesome !
It seems like a perfect hit for Wanikani, I’m so happy to have found it and have given it a try I feel like I’m at the beginning of a great journey !
I can’t wait for more 
Thank you
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I have found the more vivid my imagination is when I read the mnemonics, the better I remember the Kanji. I also read everything aloud which makes my roommate a bit uncomfortable at times, but if it works, it works!!
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So I make a flash card for everything. EVERYTHING.
o_o You know you have a flash card problem when 1000 cards is a monthly sub.
Anyway… so for the particularly creepy mnemonics, or when I draw a crazy picture, I message my friends. They all think I’ve lost my mind and given my money to a Japanese enthusiast group.
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