Have you ever come across a story for a kanji or primitive that completely reawakens the joy of learning with Heisig? Not just a good story, but one that fits so well that you know there's no way you'll ever forget it?

Late last night, somewhat worn down by the rather difficult lesson 20 and just wanting to go home, I suddenly came upon liosama's suggestion that frame 525, 己 actually be a sperm and not a snake when used as a primitive. I was instantly reinvigorated and clapping my hands in delight.

Liosamaさん, you just made frames 526 (起 "rouse"), 527 (妃 "queen"), 528 (改 "reformation"), 529 (記, "scribe"), 530 (包 "wrap") and 531 (胞 "placenta") the most fun and easy to remember kanji since frame one and I want to buy you several drinks. (I guess partial credit has to go to a somewhat dirty mind on my part, though judging by some of the other top-rated kanji stories I'm hardly alone!).

Granted, I'm only 26% of the way through, but I'd love to hear from other people about particular kanjis or primitives that, at least for them, blew the competition away.

Have a good day!

well best primitives that I have found awesome was
1)人　primitive = Mr.T made this primative so much fun I wish I had to go through it again

2)隊 the primitive on the left = "the pinnacle" which was to be imagined as a brilliant city on top of a mountain. Best thing about this primitive is it allows for a very vivid picture for about 20 kanji.

3) 糸 (thread) = spiderman, just because I like comic heroes and spiderman fits the bill.

Your looking towards a fun time as you move ahead in RTK ^^.

If you need more, try this thread:
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=2753
or this one:
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=2349

貝


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Hahahaha posses > exorcist. XD

nothing will ever beat this dingomick story for simplicity and instant memorability:

http://kanji.koohii.com/study/kanji/haiku

Stop | spooning | turkeys. Spoon females.

http://kanji.koohii.com/study/kanji/563

Need I say more. Then again, I'm only up to 1400, so I'm sure there are some gems left.

I came across so many when I was studying RTK1. I think the first one that really stuck with me was Elphalpo's story for 'desk': http://kanji.koohii.com/study/kanji/desk

Just because I had just found this site and also it was my first introduction to the more... NSFW stories on this site. It made me laugh so much and I've never failed that kanji.

The story for art with the stupid pun "boulev-art" (boulevard).

My absolute favorite stories are ones I've made up though...

I have too many to list. nilfisq's story for side, esaulgd's for miscellaneous, erikkusan's for apologize, dihutenosa for Esq., PepeSeco's for retreat... I could go on. Practically every day I see one that cracks me up, or is in some other way unforgettable. Today's, for example, was CharleyGarrett's story for imperial seal, which I thought was hilarious.

Which reminds me: one feature I really miss is the ability to search for all the stories by a single author. I find that the stories by a handful of authors (e.g. CharleyGarrett, Katsuo, fuaburisu, dingomick) tend to mesh well with my brain, and it would be great to scan all their stories at once.

One more thing: I've noticed that there's a "founder effect" with vote scores: the ones that became popular early on keep garnering votes in part because they are the most visible ones. (I.e., it's the classic "preferential attachment" pattern.) As a result often the best story is not the one with most votes, or even close. This "founder effect" problem is a tough one to solve, though. The only solution I can think of is a model whereby a story's vote score decays with time.

My stories are my favourites as well. I will compile them all and sell them as microfiction/flash fiction. It's um, absurdist, like Daniil Kharms. Yes.

My own story for employ is my favorite. It's not a difficult kanji (door + turkey), but it's funny nonetheless. Basically, I have this image of a turkey being employed to paint a door. I imagine the turkey being grabbed by the legs, dunked into a bucket of paint, and then slammed against a door to start painting. I dunno but this simple image just works so well.