Mnemonics appreciation thread

Koichi is obsessed with terrible things happening to fingers and fingernails!!! I don’t handle hand violence well, it’s my weakness. I once passed out trying to run out of the room when I accidentally turned on a documentary about a hand transplant. I just got done learning all the 指 vocab, and spent most of that time twitching one eye and making an uncontrollable nervous clicking sound. At least I won’t ever forget, thanks Koichi. *twitch twitch click *

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So you hate hand transplant and onions, that much we know about you.

:confused: you could destroy me…

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When Charlie しn shoots the しょうgun with a かく and a ぼう

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Yes I DO find some of the mnemonics irritating but realise the reasons, for me, are both age-related and cultural, i.e. they seem both juvenile and too American! But then those who work so hard to develop WaniKani are presumably both so I take most of the mnemonics on faith and, where I find them just TOO unconvincing I make up my own. Works for this old girl!

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Good point about cultural differences. I have added this to point no. 4 above.

I taught this to my high school students and ever since I get this written in stealth at odd spots on the whiteboard. A truly memorable mnemonic.

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If I can’t be offended by mnemonics…

WHAT WILL I EVER BE OFFENDED ABOUT!

######/s

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Doing the lesson for 限る. Reading mnemonic is as follows -

“Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun’yomi reading. You didn’t learn that reading with this kanji, so here’s a mnemonic to help you: You have to limit your use of face cream. I know you have a super kaggy (かぎ) face but if you don’t limit your use bad things will happen.”

Is ‘kaggy’ a word people actually use? I’ve never heard this before… ever. Is it just one of Koichi’s made up words that I’ll just eventually remember? Or can someone describe in better context? I don’t think I’ll ever remember this mnemonic as is and I’m not sure what else I could use for かぎ.

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I immediately read that as “a skag face”. Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation. Maybe I’m just a terrible person. Maybe I’m pissed off about getting another crummy Hyperion pistol instead of literally any Torgue masterpiece. Regardless, I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say “kaggy” before. However, looking this up is probably enough to make me remember the reading in the future, lol. Go WK!

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Yeah, I’m hoping that just posting about it and discussing it will help me remember it for my reviews xD

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This is what I mean with “not all Japanese pronunciation can be mimicked by English phonemes”.

I can’t think of any English word that sounds like かぎ. But “kaggy”, even though it’s not a real word, sounds a bit like “craggy” or “knaggy”. In any case, by onomatopoeic connection not a positive adjective to describe a face. Although you don’t exactly know what “kaggy” means, it still paints a picture in your mind. Like maybe Grampa Simpson’s face or something.

I picture “kaggy” being similar to “saggy” but then I’ll be typing さぎ。Bah. Did ‘kaggy’ work for you? Did you stick with the provided mnemonic? I imagine I can get myself used to it.

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I don’t question the Holy Crabigator’s infinite wisdom. Lest he smites me to death!

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かぎ can also mean key, so I used that to remember.

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I do this a lot too. If the reading equates to a really simple Japanese word, and especially if it’s something tangible and easy to visualize - like a かぎ - then I’ll use that. Also, in however small a way, ought to reinforce the simple word you’re using as the mnemonic device.

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I do this also with some words but I haven’t learnt ‘key’ yet so that won’t help me for now. xD

I’ll figure something out! Thanks for the tip!

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Or maybe it’s “Cagney”

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GAH!

I just got my first review for 限る and I couldn’t remember at all! I couldn’t even remember that it was the one that I wasn’t going to remember! #failure

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Typically that is what I do. But it’s kind of hard to do that with a word that isn’t a real word. :stuck_out_tongue:

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