Inconsistent mnemonics

There are some discussions on this in the archives, but none since the 2018 update.
But I am still confused sometimes by inconsistencies:
For example:
We use “OAK” for おく in “to send”: 送る (おくる)
BUT
OKLAHOMA for おく in 屋 (on’yomi = おく) in Rooftop
OKLAHOMA for おく in 億
Why not use OAK or OKLAHOMA for all?

There may be others, since I am only at level 11.
Is there some way to report / note these somewhere for possible update?

Also, still haven’t figured out how to access the community generated mnemonics :frowning:

But I still love WK!

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:thinking: Is this a thing?

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If you email them they’ll probably make it consistent.

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Yeah, well, I guess it’s hard to come up with consistent mnemonics for ALL of the items that have the same reading.

Not invalidating your complaint, though. I struggled with the exact same thing. My suggestion would be to choose a cue, make your own mnemonic and add it to the notes.

And I’ll just say it used to be a lot worse xD

If I’m not mistaken, there’s a script for that

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Makes sense, gracias!

It apparently “was” a thing through various user generated scripts, but as far as I can see on the chats, the scripts don’t work any more … I am not really sure.

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200% agreed!

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For some reason the only menomonic i dont forget atr those with characters, like し Charlie Sheen, けん Ken the samurai, げん Genji. and let us not forget こう
It just work so well with me, i was upset when they changed Charlie Sheen with Sheep, even though i don’t know who is the real Charlie Sheen

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Ah, right. They killed Charlie Sheen mnemonics, I liked those :frowning:

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I’ve struggled a lot on this level. A lot of different vocab got introduced with the suit kanji. To me, there’s not a real strong connection of how it goes with the vocabulary so that in itself is hard, and then when I read the mnemonics, look at these two to add even more confusion.

知り合い Acquaintance
“You’ve probably seen the words 知る and 合う by now. This is someone you “know” because you had the chance to “meet” them…”

間に合う To Be In Time For
“here is an interval (of time) that you need “to meet” (合う)…”

That kanji is not meet. 会 is meet! They look a lot alike and hell they’re even spelled the same way so it kind of works, but it’s inaccurate (unless there’s something I don’t know?) and definitely threw me for a loop.

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http://www.romajidesu.com/dictionary/meaning-of-合う.html
So, 合う can mean “to meet”, or “to suit” or “to fit” etc.
On WK, “meet” is listed as one of the meanings of 合, even though “suit” is the WK listed primary meaning.
So, yeah, it is confusing if WaniKani is your only source of Japanese knowledge :-).

I would recommend to stop using the mnemonics as soon as possible, basically, after the first several levels.

Mnemonics are a full extra step or two in the memorization process.

Memorizing [Meaning] ←→ おくる ←→ 送る is actually easier, at least for me, than memorizing [Meaning] ←→ [Story] ←→ OAK ←→ おくる ←→ 送る

Additionally, vowels in English and English itself is somewhat inconsistent, so the mnemonics are bound to be somewhat inconsistent, even if as you point out there may be a way to increase their consistency.

Isn’t it still a different kind of meet?

Fair enough.

会 means meet in terms of meeting, associating etc.

合 is used in the sense of meeting expectations, being a good fit for something etc.

But that’s based on my limited Japanese augmented by the internet :slight_smile:

That’s a very personal conclusion, though. The idea behind mnemonics is not to make you memorize the story, but to connect the bits you know (radicals, kanji, etc) in a somehow cohesive manner to the meaning/reading you’re trying to learn. I understand this doesn’t work for everyone, but it is a very powerful approach when it works. That’s why I wouldn’t discourage anyone from using it, the same way I don’t think mnemonics are a requisite to use WK

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That’s a very personal conclusion, though. The idea behind mnemonics is not to make you memorize the story, but to connect the bits you know (radicals, kanji, etc) in a somehow cohesive manner to the meaning/reading you’re trying to learn.

The SRS system works by depositing information in the subconscious mind.

The mnemonics are in the conscious mind. They give the conscious mind something to latch onto for a few attempts while the material descends into the subconscious.

Because so much of language learning is subconscious, I suspect it isn’t as personal a conclusion as you suppose, though some people may personally like memorizing mnemonics, and even I like the creativity and humor in them, even if I don’t tend to often utilize them anymore. I suspect many people simply haven’t attempted it without the mnemonics though as well, and if they did so would find it helps.

Right… That’s pretty much the point. That makes them useful (to some people, when they work).

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Seems like you’re calling everyone who likes mnemonics too stupid/subconscious/whatever to have tried not using them? I would assume that most people try to learn without them because no one teaches them in school. Then they try it and notice it works better.

You learn by connecting new things to something you already know. If you’re learning a new language, there’s nothing to connect words or kanji to. Mnemonics work as a bridge to connect the new stuff to something already known.

I learn much faster with them. I even take the time to make up my own when the one provided doesn’t work for me. The time it takes to make up the mnemonic is much shorter than the endless repetition I need without it.

After a while, though, I don’t need the mnemonic anymore because I remember it directly, but the mnemonics reduce the time until then drastically.

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Seems like you’re calling everyone who likes mnemonics too stupid/subconscious/whatever to have tried not using them?

Seems like you just made that up.

“Subconscious” is not an insult. Subconscious - Wikipedia

I learn much faster with them. I even take the time to make up my own when the one provided doesn’t work for me. The time it takes to make up the mnemonic is much shorter than the endless repetition I need without it.

At level 08 that makes sense. At a certain point though you’ll have learned that 札, さつ means “bill” or “label” or “tag.” Then when you learn 察, さつ meaning “guess” you can remember it as a homophone of 札 rather than as a homophone of whatever the mnemonic for that is.