WaniKani is based on using Mnemonic as a learning Japanese method, however, as English isn’t my mother tongue, I experience the difficulties in using the English Mnemonic as a way to remember Kanji.
Imagine this, I have to read English Mnemonic, then translate them into Thai, then imagine a picture or scenario in my head which I have to put the Japanese reading (which was bind with English reading) into my Thai scenario. These processes require additional brain energy, resulting in difficulties in remembering Kanji.
Had anyone experienced this issue ? and How did you guys fix it ?
English is my first language and I still find the mnemonics are not very useful. I make up my own, usually with pictures instead of words. Sometimes, I use Spanish for the mnemonic. The key is to make it personally relatable.
Personally I’m mostly fine with English mnemonics, since the “stories” are oftentimes figuratively in my head anyways.
If there’s a word in a mnemonic (e.g. for a reading) or a item meaning that I don’t know at all I typically see if the English words sticks after a while (it’s a SRS after all…). If not, I might try to find a different mnemonic. I’ve also used user synonyms in the past for meanings, e.g., I didn’t know what a “barb” was all the way back in level 1, so I added the German “Widerhaken” as a user synonym.
Sometimes I also find German mnemonics. For example for 立 I end up thinking along the lines of “Never stand on the cracks (of tiles, pavement, …)!” where “crack” becomes “Ritze” in Germen, aka, りつ.
Since my reset, i’ve added French Synonyms for every single kanji, radical and vocabulary.
As for mnémotechnics, some feel okay and some are too far-fetched for me, whether it’s the reading or the sense. So i also add notes, translating the memo or using my own.
It’s some work but writing these things down helps me remember so its a good investment.
Like Noctis92 said, I would add a synonym in your native language to get around the English. For the context sentences, maybe there’s a Japanese to Thai dictionary you could add as a browser plugin.
I started ignoring the mnemonics awhile ago. Too much information to cram into the brain. Better to just stare at the vocab and repeat the reading out loud until you’re comfortable with it.
