The mnemonic for 宝 is chute, which correctly corresponds to the sound しゅ, but the spelling from English more reminds me of ちゅ, especially when WaniKani highlights the CHU, which has messed me up a few times. I know its not WaniKani’s fault that English’s spelling is like this, but I’d like to see a different mnemonic for this one cause I’m sure there are a lot of other WaniKani users who will/have had trouble with this.
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I think you mean 主, the reading for 宝 is ほう and uses a different mnemonic.
You can always email your suggestions for improvements to hello@wanikani.com, or you can post in the “Feedback” section of the forums.
But you can make up your own mnemonic if you think that you can find a better one that’s easier to remember. There’s a “Notes” section on every item that you can write in (check out for https://www.wanikani.com/kanji/主).
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I don’t know of an English word which matches the romanized spelling of 主. If they chose “shoot” or “shoe” some people may confuse it with しょ instead.
I try to think of a wife shooing her husband out of the kitchen. (Yes a bit sexist but it won’t be the last thing that’s a bit sexist in kanji I think).
True, but since WaniKani tries to prioritize sounds, for better or worse, “shoe” sounds like a pretty good match 
. A Chinese speaker might get offended because the sh sounds are different in both words, but for Japanese-English I would say it’s good enough.
“Shoe” is the mnemonic for しゅう, and WaniKani tries not to double up. It used to be “shooter”, but that was a bit… yeah.
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Or you could try use kanjidamage mnemonic by installing this script
Here’s the mnemonic for 主, sometimes it’s borderline over the top it makes remembering the kanji much easier.
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Why not the other way around? Husband shooing the wife out of the kitchen, since it’s HIS turn to ccok / do the dishes or w/e. Sexism trap avoided!
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good thinking!!
Yeah, chute being しゅ can be confusing, I’ve just memorized it.
There might be better mnemonics, though as WK often says, the mnemonics are just meant as an aid or first step to recall something, they’re not always meant as an exact representation of the reading.
That potentially leads to a different trap with 主人 (しゅじん）which commonly means husband.
For example, 主人在宅ストレス症候群 is retired husband stress syndrome. It’s when a wife is stressed because her husband is home all the time after he retires. It’s apparently quite a common cause for divorce in Japan.
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