Kanji Mnemonics #4 - Sun
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008Back in November, Dr. Matt Wachsman contacted us about his mnemonic system for learning Kanji using captivating and enjoyable flash movies. Unlike any other system out there, Dr. Wachsman’s uses advanced mnemonics features that involve multiple parts of the brain simultaneously, reinforcing memory linkage while at the same time appealing to people with a variety of learning styles.
Mnemonics is the way of tying information together in a way the the brain likes to receive it. There are a large number of ways to do this. The most basic one is putting information into a story. Dr. Wachsman’s system uses short Flash movies that tell a story using visual associations, humor and rhymes. His system covers all the Kanji taught in the first six years of school in Japan (~1,000 Kanji). Each week we’ll be releasing a new flash movie introducing 6-12 new Kanjis.
This week’s animation is all about the sun!
Posted by JapanesePod101.com in Kanji Mnemonics |
February 20th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
This mnemonics thing is great for helping me remember new kanji, but…
could one of the great staff members at Japanesepod101 add the “on” and “kun” readings of the kanjis? Maybe some commonly used words containing those kanji?
One of the things I hate about learning kanji is that I usually remember the English meaning, but not the Japanese reading. And these videos don’t help that problem.
The readings don’t have to be very big, just listed somewhere in or underneath the video would be great. Thanks!
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I wouldn’t rule it out for a future set of mnemonics. However, they would be totally different than these. Right now, I’m concentrating on getting enough Kanji information to be able to get people to zoom through JLPT Kanji lvl 4 (then JLPT lvl 3!)
A bit about mnemonics. The ability to plain remember data is very limited: to about 7 unrelated numbers for example. As an exercise, pick out someone who is not at all bright and ask them for directions from their home to work or some other location to their home. They will give a lot of related details. Indeed, the dumber they are the more details they include ! The brain’s built to put information into a line of events; especially pictorial information of interest into a story-like sequence.
And, it is also good to have each image of each kanji be visually striking.
This is not at all my idea.
http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Book-Classic-Improving-School/dp/0345337581/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203736863&sr=8-10
Dr. Matt
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Totally unrelated question. How does kanji reading ‘feel’ to non-native speakers ?
When I read anything other than kanji, I make the sound in my mind then go from that to the meaning. In English (my first language), I don’t have to make all the sounds all the time. In Spanish, Hebrew, or Japanese, I form the sound first, internally listen to it, then get the meaning (and with Katakana sometimes I make the sound, but often don’t get the meaning even though someone listening to me sound it out can !)
With Kanji, I go from seeing it to the meaning. It feels like it is faster than reading English. Maybe because I know so little Japanese and about none of the sounds of the kanji ?
Dr. Matt