You know, I liked Hard Gay as a Wanikani mnemonic, practically a mascot for the sure but I understand why he was retired. Not even for any PC reasons, it was just getting old and obscure. You can’t really find a video of him saying “sei!” anymore.
My issue with the “saber” replacement is that it’s easy to confuse with the knife刂 and sword 刀 radical. Honestly, they should have considered “sailor” or even “Sailor Moon”. It’s a pop culture reference, which they try to avoid, but nobody who studies Japanese is going to not know who Sailor Moon is.
A popular anime. But Sailor Moon is specifically the protagonist, the blonde girl Usagi. When gaijin think of an entry in the “magical girl” genre, they usually think of Sailor Moon.
I find my brain gets interference with virtually every mnemonic and the corresponding words / kanji. E.g. I always think さく for sack is the reading for the actual Kanjis that means sack. Haha. Takes a few goes around to get it down. I definitely had it with sabre too.
I’ve found it best to put minimal effort into the mnemonics because they’re supposed to dissolve after a while anyway. They’re a temporary crutch to “true” memory.
You could try to remember that most words sound different in Japanese and English, so when you’re about to type さく for sack, or きん for king etc it’s likely the wrong answer. There are very few words that happen to sound the same or similar, the first one that comes to mind is 缶 and can.
Yeah 缶 is awesome I never actually type さく as the answer. It just comes to mind first which is an annoying mental detour. I usually just fail on purpose until that stops happening. So no big deal. The WK nmenomics are great for me.
Special shoutout to the 新しい mnemonic. Always loved that one
Two kinds of kings, and then also shouguns, masters, oof… These all sound the same to me, especially since I’m not so good at visualising faces.
There are so many kings, shouguns and masters that I started coming up with my own mnemonics instead. For example, for きん I try to imagine something with gold (e. g. a 斤 is made of 金) or King Kong (e. g. 近 is a scary きんこん getting close on a scooter).
You may have something going with the 金 idea. Combine it with a king, and it’s King Midas, who of course, famously turned everything he touched into 金.
I never actually type さく as the answer. It just comes to mind first which is an annoying mental detour. I usually just fail on purpose until that stops happening. So no big deal. The WK nmenomics are great for me.
