What are your weird mnemonic devices?

Japanese
#1

Here are my examples. #2 is a little inappropriate so skip if you don’t like that.

  1. I could never remember the word for “kitchen” (だいどころ). I was getting this word wrong back to back in my reviews. Now, I remember by thinking, “Where’s the big heart?” Because だい is big, どこ is where, and こころ is heart. So it kind of makes sense to me. The big heart is in the kitchen. Please feel free to correct any of my Japanese if I’m blatantly wrong.

  2. The kanji for fat (太) looks like big (大) but with a stroke between the legs. Obviously, it’s a big fat c**k.

Do you have any weird or super specific mnemonic devices you use?

5 Likes
#2

Back when learning Hiragana: in Chinese, yu is fish, coincidentally ゆ also looks like a fish.

I think I had some other mnemonics I was proud of but forgot them, which is a good sign.

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#3

So know the Greek yogurt brand oikos?

Well, they overcame the competition. and well, 追い越す(おいこす) means to overtake/pass something or someone.

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#4

That is a good sign, isn’t it? Slowly transitioning from needing to put effort into remembering the mnemonic to just knowing the word itself.

#5

This is the type of shit I’m here for

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#6

Let’s just say 口 - kuchi, was not very difficult for me to remember…

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#7

The last genki I chapter absurdly has OB/GYN (gynechology doctor) in it, さんふじんか

To me it sounds like a gungan from star wars’ name, so I imagine jar-jar and sanfujinka (some imaginary gungan doctor character). So I just read it outloud a lot in an over the top gungan accent.

Its so stupid but it worked lol

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#8

“Meesa begin the the smear test now”

Star Wars | Darth Jar Jar Binks (Sith Lord) Theory Explained — Poggers

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#9

That is one great thing about Japanese I figured.
Fewer sounds →
Higher likelihood of bumping into similar sounds to something you’ve heard before →
Makes some wild connections!

#10

深 ー I fall into a deep puddle, bang my shin (しん）and scream FFFFFU…(ふか）. This one i like beause it includes the meaning and two readings. My manchild brain, though, still remembers the alternate one which is she screams “deeper” when you … her (ふか）
隠 ー can’t take credit for this one since I saw it on WK, but quick hide your cock (かく）
泉 ー Another WK classic. いずみ Mario!

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#11

Not mine but a friend of mine said
to dig 掘る (horu)
basically you dig (horu) a hole (ho-ru)

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#12

I’ve one for grammar.

TOES - Transitive O E S - it oesn’t work for all of them but it is for a lot.
IGAR - is for intransitive. That just doesn’t sound as good.

1 Like
#13

sometimes when writing I still use the hiragana mnemonics I learned in highschool

る is holding a RUby but ろ was RObbed
I don’t write often enough to not still mix things up occasionally so they do come in handy

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#14

I still remember this one from first starting out:
Since「シ」and 「ツ」look like faces, to differentiate them ive been associating 「シ」with this gif
image

Notice how his head is tilted? Yeah i dont know why but it works for me.

A recent one is for my assistant joe shoe「助手」

5 Likes
#15

Could never remember History as れきし (歴史) until I started playing LOL, then i just associate れきし with the champ Rek’sai who just looks like a creature from history…

#16

About hiragana / katakana, I just used the Heiseig’s “Kana to remember”. In spanish (my native language) it was pretty good!

#17

@cafelatte thank-you so much for posting this!

I’ve had Ru-by and RO-bbed stuck in my head ever since I read it, and it is so much more effective than my previous mnemonic (roundabout route (RU) and a direct ROad).

If anyone has any others, please share them here, I’m learning a lot :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#18

For the katakana シ and ツ, I decided that シ was a girl looking up at the sky. “She” is looking at something.

And what is she looking at? つき! The moon! Which is looking back down at her!

3 Likes
#19

A lot, esp for remembering how to write kanji… For example 校: “My father goes to school in the woods to keep a roof over my head”. 参 is 3 under the big ム. And so on. A lot of them don’t really make sense but they kinda work XD

1 Like
#20

Could you explain that? I have a lot of trouble with keeping track of transitive/intransitive versions of the verbs…