Maybe this will be useful to somebody
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Im gonna show this to my japanese co-workers and see what they think
In other words I have another one for Construction 建設(Ken Setsu) the blocks one by one and constructs the building.
and another which makes no sense but 情報 I remember the reading well enough so far but “The spicy clothes cause me to learn more information”
Not sure why it stuck but who am I to question
My weirdest mnemonic devices are the ones that make absolutely no sense but somehow work (sometimes).
For example, I’ve been trying to remember 疼く＝うずくwith no success, but I did remember that 冬＝トウ, so now when I see 疼く, I think “ok 疼→冬→トウ…”, bam, out of nowhere うずく pops to mind.
I wish I knew how or why that works to repurpose it for other words.
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These stuck with me ever since
in German:
Noodles = Nudeln
Snail = Schnecke
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This is soooo cute. Absolutely going to try to remember this one only because it’s so cute haha.
Similarly, I remembered the katakana in pairs by what direction the “face” while taking a breath and saying it in my head together.
Shi-n: breath in, chest rises シン.
Tsu-so/tso: breathe out, chest lowers ツソ.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Shin, tso, shin, tso.
シン、ツソ、シン、ツソ。
OK this one is very dumb, but I had a hard time remembering しずか (quiet) and it worked for me:
Bazookas are usually very loud and noisy, but if you can find a female bazooka they tend to be much more QUIET. That’s why experienced soldiers prefer to use SHE-ZOOKAs. They’re practically SILENT.
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Here are two of my weird ones. The second works as a bilingual dad joke.
電・でん・Meaning: Electricity
This kanji to me looks like the face of a cartoon man biting a power cord and shocking himself.
- 雨 is a man’s unibrow with the lower part being his eyes. His pupils are rapidly going up and down from the electrical surge.
- 田 is the mouth with gritted teeth.
- 乚 is the power cord that’s plugged into the wall.
班 ・はん・Meaning: Group, Team, Squad
I’ve gotten a few laughs from this one in my English classes (I’m an ALT)
What’s my favorite food? (Writes 班 on the board) Cookies of course!
—General Japanese confusion—
What? No, that’s not group, that’s a cookie. Here, let me spell it out.
What’s the first 部首? (ぶしゅ・Meaning: Radical of kanji). 王.
What’s the second? リ. Good.
Now what’s the third? 王 again.
- 王・おう・Ou
- リ・り・Ri
- 王・おう・Ou
See? Oreo! Oreos are my favorite.
I don’t actually like oreos that much, but it works for a good laugh.
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I’m not sure if this qualifies as weird, but
I just learned the word 玄人 (expert).
Some time ago, I learned the word 素人 (amateur).
It’s interesting that these words seem to contain くろ and しろ, black and white. I wonder if there’s a cool etymological reason for this. For now, in my mind, the amateur is a white belt in karate, and the expert is a black belt. Very easy way to remember. 
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The best one that stuck with me was from when I was a university student. My study group would come up with any weird mnemonics we could to remember kanji, and my best contribution was for 知る.
To me, it looks a bit like a guy looking into a box, which led to connecting it to the movie “Se7en” and Brad Pitt going, “What’s in the boooox?” To memorize the meaning, we linked “to know” to “Brad Pitt wants to know what’s in the box.” And for the reading, well, what’s in the box? “Shi” was. So, during study time, we’d all look at each other whenever the kanji came up and do our best Brad Pitt impressions.
Good times.
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ぶら下げる
to hang, to suspend, to dangle, to swing, to carry
This reads like “lowering your bra”.
And the Bunpro description is “To let an item rest in a hanging position either from the shoulders or other part of the body.”
It’s the perfect mnemonic in and of itself.
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木綿 “Mo’ Men prefer cotton”
文句 “Monku’s must not complain”
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Im crying… this is… amazing and awful… I’ll remember it forever thank you
But for me it sounds more like I have a saggy bra which also works LMAO
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