How do you remember Japanese words?
I am not talking about the usual strategies and flashcards, I mean the weird ways that you remember vocabulary or even grammar. Perhaps you remember words because of the way they sound or relate to your native language or to another language that you know. Perhaps it was a happy accident that you stumbled across an ingenious way to remember something?
I struggle with learning anything brain-related (I am good at learning things with my body, I guess I am a physical learner)…my brain, however, does not connect things together properly. So I have come up with quite a few strategies along the way and these strategies help me to figure things out.
Not sure what I mean? Here is an example…
I still struggle with Left and Right. I like to use the thumb and forefinger L shape to help me out with that 🙂
(Did you know that you can make an L with your left hand?)
Anyway….
So when I was learning Japanese and it came to learning Left 右 (みぎ migi) and Right 左 (ひだり hidari) in Japanese I struggled again with knowing which is left and which is right, so this is what I do:
I look at my hands and make an L shape… this is Left. The word Left is a short word (it only has four letters). 右Migi is Right in Japanese and only has four letters. So going by word length, I know that the short words in English and Japanese have opposite meanings. This helps me remember that Migi means Right and so I remember that 左 hidari means Left in Japanese.
That may be a little confusing and long-winded for you, but for me, this works and maybe it helps someone else?!
So let’s share our ideas! I will share some more. Here is a video I made recently. There is a big key near where I live. Key is Kagi 鍵 (かぎ) but nearby there is a tree which in Japanese is Ki 木(き).
Ningyou 人形 (にんぎょう) is a Doll but it sounds to me like Ninjin 人参 (にんじん) which means Carrot. Carrots are orange like a goldfish but sound like a doll: So I remember Kingyo 金魚 (きんぎょ) for Goldfish.
Rusubandenwa 留守番電話 (るすばんでんわ) is answer machine. I imagine that Lucy is banned from using the phone (でんわ denwa) in the evening so you will only get her answer machine.
My Facebook group members have been busy making suggestions:
John came up with a great way to remember both flower 花 (はな) and nose 鼻 (はな) here.
Angelo linked what he learned to his Italian mother tongue here.
Have a look at some of the student suggestions in my Facebook group…they are really quite inspired!
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