Just thought this might help some beginners, or people who aren't familiar with the Heisig method. I was having trouble memorizing verbs, until I decided to make stories for them.

Sorry about the romaji.

Miseru:
Imagine you're "displaying/showing" an old photo album to a friend, when you come across a page with photos depicting you and your estranged ex-girlfriend/boyfriend. This immediately makes you feel "miserable".

Au:
You "meet/encounter" a chimpanzee. He's standing at the urinal next to you. To break the awkward silence, you say the only thing you know in "chimp speak": "Ah Ah Ah Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh!!" He looks back at you with a blank stare, flushes the toilet and walks out leaving you there feeling like an ass.

Dekiru:
"De key" to being "skillful/good" at things is to be persistent.

Deru:
You're in a movie theater, watching a movie you really can't stand. You say to yourself, "that's enough!" and storm out of the emergency "exit". But as soon as you open the door, instead of an alarm sounding, the song "DAY O" by Harry Belafonte plays at deafening volume through the loudspeaker. Everyone in the theater is confounded and staring in your direction.

Kaeru:
You get in an argument with your wife, a spicy Latina. You leave the house to cool off. There were some things said that you regret and that you know you shouldn't have said. You "return" to the house with your tail between your legs, ready to serve up an apology. But as you walk in the door and begin to speak, she puts her finger over your mouth and whispers, "Ssshh. Callate!" and gives you a big smooch on the lips. (Callate = Kaette)

Noboru:
If you want to "ascend/climb" the highest peak in North America, you'll be traveling "NOBO" (NOrth BOund) to Mt. McKinley in Alaska.

Magaru:
A major aspect of Krav "Maga" is "bending, curving and turning" the limbs of your opponent in unnatural directions.


I'm going to be doing a lot more tonight. If anyone has any they'd like to share, I'd love to hear about them - perhaps we can help each others feeble memories. ;-)

Just my personal opinion, of course, but I would caution against using mnemonics to learn individual words. It just creates extra work when you could be learning to feel the word in context, and adds an obstacle in your recall between the word and its manifestation in your memory.

It doesn't hurt to use for a select few words that are giving you trouble, but not for everything.

I see what you're saying. I don't really have trouble with remembering nouns, adverbs and adjectives but for some reason verbs hold me up.
I used this technique to memorize Hiragana, and I don't think about the things I made up to memorize it anymore. I just look at the letter and know what it is. I'm just using this as a stepping stone, I'm sure I'll see these verbs often enough in core2k6k to make them second nature. This just gives me an initial grasp on the verb and from there I can decipher conjugations, context, etc.

Yeah, you could very well be right. I don't have any evidence or solid experience to back up what I suggested. If you find that the mnemonics dissolve completely after a while, then you're probably ok.

most verbs can be easily remembered using flash cards....(I concentrate on the kanji readings)

mnemonics probably would be useful for the ones with 4 or more syllables. Easier to get them mixed up.

eg: hakadoru, uketamawaru, kokorozasu etc


I always mess up shibireru so I split it up to "shibi" and "reru"

shibi = cb as in cb radio,

as in when you're feeling numb use the cb radio to get help.

simple stuff like that can help keep the reading in your short term memory.

I tried a few different methods of memorization, and I think I found the best one for me. When I get a new verb, I conjugate it in every tense that I know and form sentences, imagining myself saying it in certain situations. I do the same with adjectives/nouns/adverbs as well.