No, they don’t have to have already known it, but to have the attitude the OP has is wrong. If they didn’t know it, they should be willing to learn it. They don’t have to be huge fans of it or anything, but at least be willing to learn parts of the culture. I had to look up the mnemonic for ぎゅう because I had never heard of that type of beef. Now that I looked it up, I can remember the mnemonic.
3 Likes
I agree with that, but as the hint for わぎゅう says, if you don’t already know it then it might be hard to learn because it’s self referencing.
5 Likes
Well, I just had to go on the internet to get it in my head once I knew what it was. If it is really difficult for people even after that, they could try to come up with their own mnemonic? There’s a couple I had to do that to.
1 Like
I would personally rather just study more kanji/japanese in my studying time than waste it watching a youtube video or read on some unrelated topic just for a mnemonic. Instead I would either make up my own or just skip the mnemonic altogether and try to memorize by shape/comparison to other kanji.
For this one, わぎゅう literally means japanese beef (jisho) and it is a japanese word that you would probably eventually see and use. Why not use a japanese related mnemonic in that case? I think it was a good use there.
3 Likes
Not entirely sure that Jisho is correct in that regard - in Japan, 和牛 refers to the cows. The meat is named by where it comes from - 松坂牛, 神戸ビーフ, 米沢牛 and so forth.
2 Likes
Well theyd better fix that then 
But in general, it is a japanese word so I wouldnt mind learning a new one in a mnemonic (although I had heard of Wagyu before). As for movies, I wont really go out of my way rather than moving on to the next kanji.
I don’t think OP was saying they weren’t willing to learn about certain cultural aspects. They were just saying that the mnemonic was lazy, because it is basically saying ‘either you know this word already, or tough luck’. And they made a good point that even if you know of the film, you might only know the localized title.
It is like if for 山 the mnemonic had been:. Do you know the brand Yamaha? This is the same yama.
Maybe the WK team tried to make a complicated mnemonic based on the sounds of tonari, but everything ended up too clunky, they gave up and just went with the movie. In the end it sounds lazy 
7 Likes
I think the point was you don’t need to go to fancy restaurants to have been exposed to wagyu.
It’s definitely lazy though.
2 Likes
I’ve come across a few “lazy sounding” ones here and there too. More often for kunyomi readings in vocab lessons - one liners compared to the detailed stories in the kanji lessons… Cultural references make them hard to remember, but it’s even worse when it’s not obvious that I’ve misunderstood the reference and I should try googling it…
One example are the one-liner mnemonics for an う reading - they kept referring to a uni without describing it, and in my regional variant of English that is short for university! So the mnemonic didn’t make sense (someone gave me a uni?) but I didn’t realise I had misunderstood what they meant (a sea urchin I think?). I kept forgetting the mnemonic and getting the items wrong
When they refer to some kind of (obvious) cultural reference I’ll usually look it up and try remembering after that…they seem to be either American or Japanese references, which is understandable I guess. But if it doesn’t stick then I’ll just let it go and think of something else…(which I kind of don’t like doing TBH, but it’s necessary)
P.S. It’s probably quite hard to avoid references that are culturally specific or just unknown to some users…but the “hope you know that” assumption does make it a bit frustrating when the answer is a big “nope!” There are definitely cases where I wish they’d describe the thing a little bit more, even just 1 or 2 descriptive sentences would be helpful.
2 Likes
true. But what about all these American references, waste of time to look those up…
Though understandable to believe, America is not the center of the universe. Come to that, neither is Japan.
Don’t know what is either.
Come on, the few mnemonics that aren’t good for you, google, change or forget them.
2 Likes
why is this guy getting his posts blocked? He hardly said anything worth flagging.
1 Like
WaniKani’s writers are mostly American, so they write what they know.
Actually, I’m pretty sure the WaniKani users are mostly American, too.
You’re never gonna get mnemonics which are universally understood, but they did their best.
8 Likes
Because the comments were sarcastic, mocking, rude, and didnt add to the discussion.
10 Likes
Of course this one (took some liberty on the version).
Yeah I didn’t mean it’s understandable because I think America is the center of the universe, but because I assume (some or most of) Tofugu’s writers are American - and people naturally have their own cultural references and biases, including the people making these mnemonics (good or not so good ones)…
I’m not American, but I either try and understand, or straight out ignore, US-specific references. Whatever works for the learner!
1 Like
Cause WaniKani is one of the few places left on the internet where rudeness is not tolerated.
Everyone are allowed to have opinions and present their sides. But keep it civil. Theirs was, as stated by afunian, “sarcastic, mocking, rude, and didnt add to the discussion”.
They could have said their opinion without calling others ignorant, throwing a random (and false) “fact” and a non friendly “Seriously? Are you living under a rock?”, we don’t want that here.
Honestly, the second comment wasn’t as bad, but the first left a bad taste so I understand why it too was flagged.
As for the OP. Was that changed? I don’t remember it being like that when I first learned it…
Maybe I just don’t remember, since it was a word I knew beforehand =P
And Wagyu, I had NEVER heard of it before O_o
No we d not use that word in Norway =P (I have heard it since, on Good Mythical Morning, and went "Oh I’ve heard that on WaniKani! 
)
I went “oh it’s the cow from cows milk, so the other half there” and forgot about the mnemonic. But i do agree it could need a better one =)
WaniKani has a great feature though. Find one you don’t like, know a better option? Send it in! =D
They will change it if they agree! =D
I’ve even seen one where they flat out apologised for it being bad, and asked for recommendation! 
I don’t remember which one it was, but I agreed, that WAS a hard one to make a good mnemonic for!
Somehow stuck though, since I’ve forgotten what it was it isn’t a leach =)
14 Likes
very true!
Agreed, some of them are really bad. I use the notes field to add my own.
1 Like
exactly! use what you need and what works best for you. I personally not only learn kanji on wk and the forum, usually a lot of fun.
If we are declaring mnemonics as lazy, we should suggest something better otherwise that is lazy too. Share an alternative and perhaps we could all benefit with a new custom mnemonic.