for 所(place) the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw axe + door was that scene from The Shining where Jack Nicholson takes an axe to the door. I don’t even like that movie but that’s the only image that sticks in my head.
It’s a stretch to get the reading into that image but I just picture him sticking his head through the hole in the door and saying “SHO 'nuff, it’s Johnny!”
silly i know, but it works…
haha, I was just typing as you responded with the same thing!
you know you’ve been in japan for too long when 仕方ない becomes a red thread through your forum history 
Personally I’m going trough this series
Though I did tackle graded series for japanese learners first I would say basically having a vocab of around 2,500-3,000 words will make the whole reading time something enjoyable, otherwise the constant looking at dictionaries to keep track of the story can kill the momentum 
Omg, that’s the same mnemonic I used for 近 . It’s something along the lines of: Jack’s got an axe and he keeps getting closer and closer. Soon, he’ll be close enough to hurt his family, aka his kin.
This is my new favorite word!
-This mnemonic doesn’t make any sense!
-士方ない…
仕方がない 、by the way.
Though the が it’s perfectly optional … The closer to the other person you are particles start to be dropped like crazy…
Things like 仕方ない and 問題ない aren’t even that casual feeling relative to general particle dropping. Totally fine as they are and you can find those in monolingual dictionaries.
Couple of suggestions here:
As others have said, read. The best way to remember vocabulary is to actually use it. The second best way is to encounter it in the wild.
Also, if you haven’t been doing so already, now’s a good time to actually start using the mnemonics and doing a little visualization practice. Many of them ask you to imagine a sensory detail of whatever strange scene they’ve set up, or to imagine your feelings in the moment, and as crazy as it sounds, actually taking a second to do so can help cement the mnemonics for even more abstract vocabulary. (And then as it becomes more familiar, you can cut the mnemonic out.)
Off-topic but since it came up above: 仕方ない and しょうがない are infamous among translators (both professional and amateur) for leading to super awkward, by-the-book translations a la “It can’t be helped,” when any number of situational phrases (or even just stuff like “Oh well”) would be more natural English equivalents.
Thanks, didn’t know that! Was going entirely off of the WK vocab I’d learnt! Good to know, though.
Off topic, but every time I see your username, ‘Circle of Life’ from Lion King starts playing in my head.
That’s a new one.
Oh really? Well, I’m just going to leave this here and run away.
Was it all of the huskies in the movie that made you think of it?
Yeah, they got tired of animating all the animals in the new live action film and decided it was just easier to train huskies in lion costumes to play the parts. Have you not seen the revised trailer? 
Just kidding, your username is a few letters away from ‘Lebo M’, who was one of the musicians that worked on the soundtrack. He was in charge of sorting out the African choir for the soundtrack, and he’s who you can hear singing in Swahili at the beginning of ‘Circle of Life’.
Today I Learned
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.