I’m not sure what you tried to say here. I understand it backwards, if I didn’t go out of my way to learn it, then doesn’t that mean that it’s a popular enough thing worth mnemonicking?
If the mnemonic is Pokemon for a Kanji reading that has ぽけ then in my head that’s like… earned it’s right to be a mnemonic. If I do go out of my way to learn something then that would probably be something more obscure, or am I understanding you wrong?
Either way, my take is that Tonari and Wagyu were pretty common. Wagyu I’ve seen in many many restaurants were meat dishes were served as an “extra charge” kind of thing.
I really hope this is not the hill we are gonna choose to die on though This thread did not feel like the kind of thread that would get closed by admins lol, it feels tense in here.
ha. I would say some of them are certainly a stretch !
I don’t know if other people do this, but generally I think I only used the mnemonics earlier on in my Wanikani journey. Nowadays I’ve usually made my own super lazy mnemonic up before I even find out how lazy the wanikani one is.
Also I have very consistent themes for certain readings - and I create a mnemonic to fit that theme.
For instance pretty much anything with the reading 'じょう’, i am imaging a guy called Joe I used to play basketball with. (he has no idea how often I am consequently thinking about him )
譲 - The nurse that i’m deffering to is Joe in a dress.
上 - Its Joe’s toe above the ground
蒸 - Joe is cooking a stew with coral and flowers, and steam is coming out
Always Gandhi for がん、kyoto for きょう、little kyoto for きょ, potato for てい …ect ect ect.
I find the meaning mnemonics a bit more annoying sometimes, but to be fair if the radicals aren’t really related it is tricky. Sometimes I get told about the actually origin of the kanji and the radicals which make it up, and think ‘oh that makes perfect sense, why did wanikani make the mnemonic so obscure’ - but can’t think of any of these examples off the top of my head.
I agree, but I’m not being overly pushy with like “Who wouldn’t know that?” That’s not how I feel.
I do think some things are common though, maybe these aren’t. I’m ok polling and taking a confirmation or a rejection of what I’m saying.
Isn’t this just always true though? Again, not trying to be hostile. I also gave the Pokemon example cause I thought it was a pretty universal phenom. If someone told me “yeah Pokemon just isn’t that popular here in X where I live” I would still use Pokemon for a mnemonic cause… people would get it (or so I would hope).
If I said that “cars” are not really common where I live and so the mnemonic for the change kanji is lazy I’m pretty sure I would catch some heat for it
PS: Just in case, not comparing the commonality of cars vs tonari… because car clearly wins right?.. cause I’ve seen thousands upon thousands of them… personally. Idk, I wasn’t really trying to get into a debate but I should close with “Tonari” and “Wagyu” are common to me and maybe I should have made that remark. It’s true that others won’t know and that’s perfectly ok!
Honestly, a significant portion of my Japanese vocabulary comes from knowing the Japanese titles of anime I may or may not have ever watched so it works for me.
I don’t think you can really call Totoro popular culture. It’s a subculture within the subculture of people who watch anime. I do not know anybody who knows Totoro and my only knowledge of it comes from a rare GIF or image I randomly come across every once in a while. I never knew its English title, so forget about the Japanese one.
Pokemon on the other hand, I could ask anybody at work or in my extended family if they’ve heard of it and they will answer yes even if they don’t play games at all.
I didn’t know what わぎゅう was, and looked it up. After finding out it was a Japanese delicacy I decided to watch a few images and read something about it (wiki maybe?). I never forgot it afterwards… Then again I do love 肉 so it was easy. Bonus point, I learned about a famous Japanese food (and found it in two different animes: GTO and Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru if anyone cares) so looking it up was a good choice.
Wagyu seems like a loan into the american language/life. But as an European, I’ve only heard it once (after learning it from WK).
As for tonari, I didn’t remember the japanese title of Miyazaki’s movie. (I had watched it)
But となり is a pretty common vocabulary, so that’s not a problem.
As long as they are references to Japanese culture, I think it’s perfectly fine. Culture and language are always related. Using actual titles (movies/anime etc) may not be a very good practice though.
Yep, I do that often too. ひがしのエデン, はいきゅう (even though it’s oldish), ひょうか (even though it’s not the common version) and the list goes on…
I don’t think they should assume we all watch anime or the same movies. But I think we can cut them some slack, making up 2000 mnemonics for both meaning and reading is quite difficult.
I think this is the solution to the whole thread. Creating a wiki-thread with community mnemonics is I believe the best way.
I made a few I was quite proud of and I’m sure many others did as well. Why not join the efforts?
[I believe there was a userscript, but it seems it’s not maintained anymore. That’s why a thread would be better. Threads are permanent.]
This thread did not feel like the kind of thread that would get closed by admins lol, it feels tense in here. 
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