Find less obvious connections.

Let us take for example the Japanese word, 「かさねる」　“kasaneru,” which means to “stack; pile; repeat.” At first this looks like a challenge but as a native English speaker, we all know the Spanish word “casa” meaning house/home. This is found in the common expression “Mi casa es su casa,” or “My home is your home.”

All of a sudden, your mind has an anchor point on which to learn the meaning of the Japanese verb. For instance, you can think of “casas” or houses stacked on top of each other which is quite an odd image. Also if you know that “neru” means “to sleep” in Japanese, you can add that easily to your mental imagery to create houses sleeping upon one another. Quite quickly the word “kasaneru” becomes associated with “stacking” in your mind.

One more example of a word I learned just last week. 「たずねる」 “tazuneru,” which means “to ask, inquire, investigate.” This one was kind of tough but I eventually came up with using a mental image of the Tasmanian Devil spinning through a stack of papers investigating something.

These mnemonic devices are only to help you get the word initially into your head. Eventually the mnemonic device will fade into the ether and you’ll just know the word like any other word you know fluently. Also, the larger vocabulary in your native language or another language you have, the easier it will be for to come up with creative ways to remember the vocabulary of your new target language.

Please leave a comment with any mnemonic devices you’ve come up with to remember certain words.

育てたスイカを収穫しました
そだてた　スイカ　を　しゅうかく　しました = “The raised/reared watermelon was harvested.” I think I found this one in a Japanese gardening blog or something.

帰宅した。疲れた
きたく　した。　つかれた = “I returned home. I’ve become tired.”

鯨がくしゃみをした
くじら　が　くしゃみ　を　した = “The whale sneezed.” I found this one is a picture book. I think it’s strange that I’ve never seen the Japanese word for “sneeze” until now.

雪が舞っている朝
ゆき　が　まって　いる　あさ　＝　”The morning where the snow is fluttering about.” This one is kind of neat as it’s another use of 舞う [まう」　which mean’s “dance.” You can picture the snow dancing down to earth from the clouds.

科学の進歩は素晴らしい
かがく　の　しんぽ　は　すばらしい　＝　”The progress of science is magnificent.”

立派な医者になった
りっぱな　いしゃ　に　なった　＝　”(someone) became a splendid doctor”

浴びるように酒を飲む
あびる　ように　さけ　を　のむ　＝ “to drink like a fish” if you were to translate by idiom. A direct translation would be something like “to drink like your bathing in it.”

あなたの名字は何ですか
あなた　の　みょうじ　は　なん　です　か　＝　”What is you surname?” For some reason I’ve been learning Japanese for about a year now and this was the first time I’ve seen the word “myouji.” I guessed from the kanji that it would be like, “What are the characters that compose your name?”….wrong! 笑

蝶のように舞、蜂のように刺す！
ちょう　の　よう　に　まい、　はち　の　よう　に　さす！　＝　”Dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee!” This was a fun one for me to learn, and as such, it stuck into my memory almost instantly. Leave a comment if you know of any fun phrases/sayings like this.

日本語で表示する
にほんご　で　ひょうじ　する　＝　”Display in Japanese. ” This one is pretty useful for the internet. You’ll often see this on pages where they have Japanese language as an option. When you see it, just click and you’ll be viewing the site in Japanese language.

喧騒から逃れる旅
けんそう　から　のがれる　たび　＝　 “A trip to escape from the hustle and bustle-ish noise”

瞬間の判断を誤った
しゅんかん　の　はんだん　を　あやまった　”With my split-second decision, I made a mistake.”

迂闊だった！
うかつ　だった！　”I was careless!”

今日の呟き
きょう　の　つぶやき　＝　”Today’s mutterings.” Sort of like a twitter post. I see people use this title for some of their youtube ramblings in japanese. They mostly just spell it out in hiragana, but I like to at first learn it in kanji just in case so I can understand it both ways.

ケータイを洗濯してしまった
けーたい　を　せんたく　して　しまった　＝　I messed up and washed my cellphone in the laundry.

いい響きだ
いい　ひびき　だ　＝　”it’s a good sound”or ” It has a good sound.” etc, you get the idea.

鳥を飼う
とり　を　かう　＝　to keep a bird as a pet

辞書で検索する
じしょ　で　けんさく　する　＝　”to look up a word via dictionary.” You’ll see 検索　on most search buttons.

押し寿司を作った
おしずし　を　つくった　＝　I made sushi-rice

鯛とヒラメの姿造り
タイ　と　ヒラメ　の　すがたづくり　＝　sea bream and flounder whole-fish sashimi

魚肉ソーセージを買った
ぎょにく　ソーセージ　を　かった　＝　I bought some fish meat sausage.

ごちそうさまでした = Phrase said after meals. Basically means “thanks for a great meal.”

毎週土曜日の野菜市
まいしゅう　どようび　の　やさいいち　= The vegetable market which occurs every week on Saturday.

肉と野菜を煮込んだ。
にく　と　やさい　を　にこんだ。　＝ (I) cooked/boiled the meat and vegetables together.

色が美しくないが味は美味しかった。
いろ　が　うつくしく　ない　が、　あじ　は　おいしかった。　＝　the color wasn’t beautiful but the taste was delicious

でも本物のコウモリ、怖いなぁ。

でも　ほんもの　の　こうもり、　こわい　なぁ。。。　＝　”But a real bat….that’s scary huh….”

電池を使い切った

でんち　を　つかいきった　＝　”(I) used up the battery”

後悔するでしょう

こうかい　する　でしょう？　＝　(you’ll) probably regret it huh…”