Kanji and Vocabulary Mnemonics?
I was playing around with the notes and found Mnemonics extremely useful.
When I encountered "Salary" I used what makes up the Kanji and related the story to make a funny skit about a "Salary" man using a thin thread like that of rice sake which makes a frustrated Japanese "Salary" man happy.
Yes, I actually wrote it down on the notes system.
The clue is that we all know that frustrated people enjoy alcohol, which I do not drink, so the cultural references sort of help to understand the idea.
My idea is that if we all contribute, and if Beeant creates a Mnemonics system, we could all pitch in and create Mnemonics for most Kanji and Vocabulary we encounter.
Anyone else like this?
When I encountered "Salary" I used what makes up the Kanji and related the story to make a funny skit about a "Salary" man using a thin thread like that of rice sake which makes a frustrated Japanese "Salary" man happy.
Yes, I actually wrote it down on the notes system.
The clue is that we all know that frustrated people enjoy alcohol, which I do not drink, so the cultural references sort of help to understand the idea.
My idea is that if we all contribute, and if Beeant creates a Mnemonics system, we could all pitch in and create Mnemonics for most Kanji and Vocabulary we encounter.
Anyone else like this?
posted by JanetMerai
Comments 8
Well sometime Mnemonics can betray you and what works for some people might not work for otjher people.- It's a good Idea though. I'd rather enable the option to create " digital" flashcards so that everyone could do their own mnemonics or vocabulary lists and also enable the sharing option so that people might share it ... if they want of course
I find it annoying the best ideas are ignored, to be honest.
Its all about the features or prominent "quick-witted" features on the front-page which deceives us all.
I think a Mnemonics system would allow people to remember easily.
This has worked for me on my iPhone app for a Japanese dictionary and JLPT study levels.
Yes Janet I agree Mnemonics are good, but again this idea is dependent on the individual and is something for each individual to do themselves as Scripteladora has already said. What works for one person doesn't work for everyone. I got a book with Mnemonics to help with verbs and it really was hit and miss on some of the entries as it was American and they didn't work for me. I just ended up creating my own which worked a whole lot better.
I'm sorry, I'm not ignoring ideas.
I have to think the feasibility of the feature itself.
I think it is a good idea, but I need to understand about Mnemonics too.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, so the Mnemonics system that you want is to show picture / descriptive sentences after you answer a question? is it true?
If it has to show a picture, I have that in mind, but there are some problems, where can we get all those pictures? I had implemented a feature where you can upload a photo and tag them, and you can have a test based on the tagged photos. You can take a look at here:
http://japaneseclass.jp/practice/photo
But that feature is not being used by many users as practice/chapter test feature. So I disabled that feature. Also, not that many pictures are uploaded and tagged.
If it has to show descriptive sentences, JCJP already has that, but there are still some corrections needed to show more sentences.
Mnemonics is creating a story/sentence to somehow incorporate the stuff you want to memorize so you remember them easier. The whackier the story you make the better you remember.
An example, though not a very good one on my part.
I was learning the kanji 方 last term. I took two readings and used them to replace words they sound similar to in english and made
Hou I kata mecha.
(Hou is supposed to be like a surprise sound, kata sounds like "caught a", mecha was used because it was just so out there.)
so its kind of like "Oh, I caught a mecha!"
I remember it because its just so strange.
For me they always worked better for the straight up kana.
like for ゆ, I thought it looked kind of like a broken pair of glasses.
"yu broke the glasses."
"You broke the glasses!"
A better use of mnemonics would be incorporating meaning in to the sentence as well, but thats a bit beyond me cause I suck at making them.
So yeah, keep in mind my examples are crap.- @Syrinori - I wouldn't say that your examples are bad, they are suited/tailored for you which is the main purpose. You have thought up your own which relates to you and makes it easy to remember for yourself.
方 - Mine is a picture of a person skipping to their location (direction/way) on a snowy day with 'kata' the noise their feet makes as they move, and 'hou' being their breathing cos its cold (and people pointing and going eeh (he/e) at them).
From Wiki:
"A mnemonic or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids memory. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something, particularly lists, but a mnemonic may instead be visual, kinesthetic or auditory. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be related back to the data that is to be remembered. This is based on the principle that the human mind much more easily remembers spatial, personal, surprising, sexual or humorous or otherwise meaningful information, as compared to retrieving arbitrary sequences."
I believe Mnemonics are things best left to each individual as like Syrinori said "The whackier the story you make the better you remember" and that is part of the process - you coming up with the story or device to make you remember rather than leave the work to someone else.
If it was implemented, then perhaps make it private so you can add your own without others seeing them? 
You guys really should do what I do, read Heisig.
3 books teaching you 3000+ kanji. Mnemonics style.
F.ex "I" spelled out 5 + Mouth
When you say I, you point to your head. On the head there are 5 "mouths". Nostrils, ears and the mouth itself.
This method got me to learn 500+ kanjis in a few weeks, by looking at them ONCE. Then I started up my SRS program on the PC and entered all the learned kanjis, and checked if I remembered them all. Wich I did.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still using this site for vocabulary, and for the hopefully future grammar help. But for me atleast, Heisig is the only thing that helped me with Kanji. Seeing a Kanji with 4 unknown components makes it really difficult to remember. Especially down to every last brushstroke.
