When I was taught 時, 待 and 持 I was annoyed that the right half of each was treated as “grave + measurement”, making the mnemonics rather complicated, overly similar, and far-fetched.
I figured 寺 might mean something on its own, and I looked it up on Jisho, and lo and behold: it means “temple”! So I could just remember that, and then invent my own way easier mnemonics for 時待持. It’s nicely compositional and sensible that way.
A few levels later, I learn the wanikani radical 寺 (Temple). I was a little annoyed, because I wanted that taught to me sooner; so badly that I learned it myself!
Similarly 客 gave me trouble — the mnemonic is really bizarre because it has to combine too many things into one: “holding a winter helmet in your mouth, blah blah blah”, what? — and now I know 各 (Kiss), and I can simply remember 客 as “oh, you greet a guest with a kiss on the helmet”.
I just want to know, is this something other people have had trouble/frustration with? It feels like such an obvious imperfection in the whole “building blocks” system. It’s not a huge problem, but I would really prefer to know about these cases ahead of time. Can you folks think of other examples?
