Learning kanji - No similar Kanji shown - Why?

[bblum]

The keisei script will show you similar kanji during lessons, at least by phonetic mark. I find it very helpful.

@liquidcow

However, in one of the more recent Tofugu podcasts, Kristen was warning against the idea of sorting this out via learning the ‘differences’ between similar Kanji. She recommended instead focussing on each individual Kanji and what makes that one unique - it’s a subtle difference I think but it makes sense to me, because if you’re thinking too much about comparing them then you’re probably going to get into a muddle, whereas if you focus on the individual’s characteristics, then you’re strengthening your mnemonic for that character and it works much better.

I half agree and half disagree. This feels like a bit of an advertisement for mnemonics to me, like saying “you better not stray from the one true crabigator-endorsed path!” But who here doesn’t forget the mnemonics sometimes? When kanji get into master/enlightened range for me I start to recognize them visually rather than by recalling the mnemonic, which is very prone to 陽・湯・揚・場 / 奇・綺・寄・埼 type mixups.

If for example I’m reviewing 陽 and I can remember that “sunlight/hot water/hoist/location” is the danger zone, even if I can’t remember the mnemonic about the butcher, I might rememeber the ones about tsunami, nailbat, or grave, and figure it out by elimination. This reinforces the strength of the mnemonic method rather than undermining it, IMO.