I have been recently trying out this method for learning japanese words with the same pronounciation. Let's take the pronunciation: しゅうかん as an example.

I would first query a dictionary to find all the 熟語 with the same sound and then I create a sentence like this one:

"Every 週間 in this 週刊 magazine they say that there is the 習慣 of 収監 the rebels of this city."

As you can see I use the context of the whole sentence to link the meaning to the 熟語.
I input every sentence in anki and with time I should be able to learn it by heart.
I think this method helps your active vocabulary, because also if I don't remember the sentence correctly I would probably remember that "imprison" (収監) falls in the same sentence of 週間 (that I know because it is too common) and I can recall the verb.

What do you think about this method?

Try to only do this for those that are labeled common words. You don't have to go through the trouble with completely memorizing others. Many such 熟語 may only show up in writing, and you will become more able to understand them as you learn more (about) Kanji in general.

You're sentence is clever.

Try to think of separate contexts, though, that these words would be used in so you know what to interpret in spoken speech. If you can, try to also find out whether such homophonous expressions have different pitch. Some do.

I think it's a bad idea, primarily because embedding the words in an English sentence is very misleading. If your sentence were translated into Japanese, 週間 would not be used, and 習慣 doesn't look right there either. I'm not familiar with 収監 so I can't say if that's being used correctly.

With all the due respect yudan, you are dismissing mnemonic mechanism for the sake of doing proper japanese. I disagree. Before you do proper japanese you need to know the vocab and any way to get you to that point is ok - any wrinkles can be ironed later.

Inny Jan Wrote:Before you do proper japanese you need to know the vocab

You should not be learning vocab in a way that's not "proper Japanese". There's no point.

I'm not dismissing mnemonics, but this method has two huge flaws that make it not only useless but actively harmful to your Japanese acquisition:
1. It makes no distinction between rare words like 収監 and common words like 習慣.
2. The words are being learned in the context of English sentences and direct English translations that aren't going to match how the words are used in Japanese.

I would rather not introduce problems in the first place rather than iron them out later.

While I do agree that people should first and foremost continue to learn more vocabulary and a more accelerated rate than grammar skills--after all, you can't use grammar effectively if you don't know enough words to practice it--but I disagree that you should learn anything but proper Japanese. When you learn vocabulary, you should find out how the actual word is used and what it actually means. There are many words in Japanese with the same English gloss, but we all know that often times these seemingly synonymous phrases have their different shades of meanings, and I don't think it's smart to just iron them out later because by then it's not until you make an error and are informed of it that you'll iron out the problem in the first place.

I agree with yudantaiteki. Learning incorrect usage that way will carry over into your spoken and written Japanese too easily, in my opinion.

Quote:You should not be learning vocab in a way that's not "proper Japanese". There's no point.

The point is to become accustomed with something that is completely new to you and to make associations that help keeping these new facts in your memory.

And imagine how popular Heisig would be if all who became familiar with his method rejected that method on the basis that the provided meanings are not "proper".

I know you didn't do Heisig, but most of people here did/do and it would be interesting to see you arguing that studying kanji with Heisig hampers their japanese.

bertoni Wrote:Learning incorrect usage

Nobody is talking about learning a usage here, well not me at least.

Inny Jan Wrote:

Quote:You should not be learning vocab in a way that's not "proper Japanese". There's no point.

The point is to become accustomed with something that is completely new to you and to make associations that help keeping these new facts in your memory.

Associations with what? Why is associating Japanese words with incorrect English translations a good thing? Heisig mentions in RTK 2 that it's a bad idea to try to create false associations between kanji on-yomi (like trying to link together which kanji have the on-yomi キン), and I think the same applies to this sort of false vocabulary association.

Quote:And imagine how popular Heisig would be if all who became familiar with his method rejected that method on the basis that the provided meanings are not "proper".

I know you didn't do Heisig, but most of people here did/do and it would be interesting to see you arguing that studying kanji with Heisig hampers their japanese.

Heisig is a different situation because no kanji meaning is perfect and I'm not aware of any meanings in Heisig that are just blatantly, flat-out wrong in the way that "Every 週間" is (incidentally, I still sometimes make mistakes with time vs. time + 間.)

yudantaiteki Wrote:Associations with what?

Max.89 Wrote:I would probably remember tha "imprison" (収監) falls in the same sentence of 週間 (that I know because it is too common) and I can recall the verb.

It just happens that only recently I related 習慣 to 週間 (which I knew for sometime already) based purely by their reading. Even though I have no story/sentence to link them together, knowing that しゅうかん can be either of them is helpful. Similarly 以上　and 異常.

yudantaiteki Wrote:"Every 週間"

I can see your point. "Every" should be eliminated and the mnemonic should be constructed in such a way that the vocabulary is placed in an appropriate context. These are just technicalities though.

Thanks to everyone.

I forgot to set some important premises:

1)I am not a beginner (I already read a lot of real japanese on forums, books, ecc...)

2)I know that how I used the kanji in the example sentence is wrong.


The purpose is just to create a sentence that through context will prompt the correct meaning of the kanji in your mind. It's just a way to relate 同音異義語 together.
It's not even important that all the words are common, because by learning the sentence you have the chance to learn new words for free (so why not insert a lot of words ?).
By the way, 収監 is not very common.

I was also considering to do the same trick with similar sounding words like:
費用 and 異様 for instance.

I am using this method while reading articles on the web.
Let's say I find a 熟語 that I do not know.
I query a dictionary with his on-yomi reading and look for every 熟語 with the same sound. Then I create the sentence and I input on anki.

I've parsed this from EDICT for you. It's 3022 homonyms marked as common. Only 2-kanji jukugo, though. Sorted from most to least homonyms:

http://pastebin.com/pPdScZDa

Edit:
3-kanji jukugo homonyms (just these six):
きかんし 機関紙 /(n) bulletin/(party) organ/(P)/
きかんし 気管支 /(n) bronchial tube/(P)/

しょうかき 消化器 /(n) digestive organs/(P)/
しょうかき 消火器 /(n) fire extinguisher/(P)/

てんのうせい 天王星 /(n) Uranus (planet)/(P)/
てんのうせい 天皇制 /(n) the Emperor System/(P)/

Wow thank you very much!
This seems really useful.
It's probably better to split long sentences into two sentences.

In my opinion, if you study that way, the habits you form will creep into your spoken Japanese, even if you're not a beginner.