When studying grade 2 kanji, I made mnemonics which relates their shape to their meaning. Tony Buzan in his book “Make the Most of Your Mind” advocates using mnemonics to increase memorizability. Here are some examples:
For the kanji 半 which means “half”, the mnemonic is “a border (｜) is seen dividing the island into HALF; we can see a river (二) and signs (\ /) on each area”. The illustration is below.
For the kanji 弱 which means “weak”, the mnemonic is “the twin snakes (弓) are WEAK, therefore they avoid the sharp thorns”. It is illustrated below.
For the kanji 当 which means “hit”, the mnemonic is “a fierce HIT (ヨ) that destroys the wall (\｜/)”. Illustration is below:
Inventing mnemonic is a creative right-brain activity, which dispels the dullness traditionally associated with memorizing. It also exploits the property of the human brain which remembers things better if there are outstanding (e.g. funny, weird) associations to other things.
All the mnemonics (around 160) were written on a book and I had just finished transcribing them to computer. A tedious task, and one which I cannot automate.
2006 October 10 at 11:01 am |
[...] and assign the mnemonic “he walks (儿) with a hat (亠) to protect himself from the LIGHT of the sun ray ( /)”. This is a creative process which is limited only by imagination (see other examples here). The weirder, funnier, and more personal the mnemonic is, the easier it will be to remember. [...]