Is kanji the reason you have a love and hate relationship with learning Japanese? Many people who are learning Japanese tend to find kanji very hard. But, if you know how to learn them, it don’t have to be hard.
One good way is to use mnemonic. You can remember kanji by making stories to go with the meaning or reading of the kanji so they stick with you better.
Let’s look at some examples!
新: New
The meaning of 新 is ‘new’. You can remember this by making a story like this:
新 (new) is someone who stands (立) above a tree (木) with an axe (斤), ready to chop it down so a new one can grow.
There you go! You managed to learn the meaning of 新 as well as other 3 kanji that make up of it! Killing 4 birds with one stone!
湖: Lake
You can break down this kanji to 3 parts, which are 「氵」and 「古」and 「月」. The story could be something like:
The reflection of the moon (月) off the old (古) water (氵) in the lake (湖).
政: politics
You can break down this kanji into 2 parts, which are 「正」and 「女」.
Women (女) are correct (正) when it comes to politics (政).
触: touch
You can break down this kanji into 2 parts, which are 「角」and 「虫」.
Do you want to touch (触) the bug (虫) in the corner (角)?
叶: grant
You can break down this kanji into 2 parts, which are 「口」and 「十」.
If you use your mouth (口) to speak your wish ten (十) times, your wish will be granted (叶).
東: east
You can break down this kanji to 2 parts, which are 「木」and 「日」.
If you look at the sun (日) through the tree (木), you can see the sun rising from east (東).
まとめ Conclusion
Many kanji that look complex can be broken down to smaller parts. You can use these parts to make mnemonics that can help you learn kanji better!
Thanks for reading! If you know funny personal mnemonics, I would LOVE to know!
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