I'm looking for a better primitive meaning for ‘反’. “ANTI-” just isn't doing it for me, and none of my stories are sticking. Has anyone found an image that works for this primitive?

hard gay - everyone's favorite anti-hero. (watch a few youtube videos and youll never forget)

[Katsuo]

I extended the meaning to include "demonstration", i.e. people marching with placards that are "anti-"something. (For the "march" primitive I used the image of a military march, so I've never confused the two.)

I used unicycle, which made sense because I used stool instead of crotch. I found it a pretty easy and versatile image to work with.

anti = anti-hero = clint eastwood worked well for me. check out the shared stories for some great examples.

I thought of protesters, and for some reason used the image of Homer's mum from The Simpsons. Anti-establishment douche Julian Assange might be a contemporary alternative. As long as you remember instantly, I don't think the image you use for a radical is that important. It's better to pick something that will combine better with other radicals to make memorising more complicated characters easier.

I believe I always just thought of it like a circle with a slash through it, in a kind of sigilistic fashion. Perhaps related to the mechanical aspect of drawing it.

I used "against"
It meant the same thing to me, but "against" just stuck better.

But, I had a leg up, because I knew it from 反対

bonus is that the inside, 又 is "again"

The image that sticked with me immediately was some rioters standing on a *cliff* and mooning their naked *butts* (crotch) to the world. On each of their butts is painted a letter : "A" "N" "T" "I"

I actually used a personally story that wouldn't be so helpful, but along the line of protestors and stuff like that, I would think that the image of a hippie or an anarchist (anti-war or anti-government) might be strong enough to be a useful primitive.

Thanks, everyone. I ended up going with "against." The trouble is I used student anti-war, anti-G8, anti-establishment protesters for my image of 戌. although if I could travel back in time I'd take Katsuo's suggestion of a military march instead to keep them separate. I almost went with Hard Gay (lol) because of the incorporated crotch primitive. But for some reason any story involving specific characters doesn't stick for me. Hard Gay, Clint Eastwood, Julian Assange, and the others are all good suggestions though.

Again, thanks everyone. Seems to be working so far.

mafried Wrote:But for some reason any story involving specific characters doesn't stick for me. Hard Gay, Clint Eastwood, Julian Assange, and the others are all good suggestions though.

Uh-oh, you better get used to it - an insane number of stories from 900 onwards involve either Mr T or Spider-man (you'll see).

Just imagine that person doing or using the keyword, it should be instant recall! oh well, good luck!

lecz0r Wrote:hard gay - everyone's favorite anti-hero. (watch a few youtube videos and youll never forget)

This. I've never failed a Hard Gay story.

aphasiac Wrote:Uh-oh, you better get used to it - an insane number of stories from 900 onwards involve either Mr T or Spider-man (you'll see).

Just imagine that person doing or using the keyword, it should be instant recall! oh well, good luck!

No, they involve 糸 or 亻

For me that is 'thread' and 'human-being'. I actually am familiar most of these kanji from my previous studies. I tried both Spiderman and Mr. T, and it neither one worked. Maybe it's something funny about my memory, but I generally don't pay attention to who is doing something in a story. I did borrow some imagery though--I usually think of spider webs for 糸, and for 亻 it is always an important part of the story that somebody is involved, just not important who.

YMMV.

I went with Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood) aswell, worked out pretty fine!

aphasiac Wrote:

mafried Wrote:But for some reason any story involving specific characters doesn't stick for me. Hard Gay, Clint Eastwood, Julian Assange, and the others are all good suggestions though.

Uh-oh, you better get used to it - an insane number of stories from 900 onwards involve either Mr T or Spider-man (you'll see).

Just imagine that person doing or using the keyword, it should be instant recall! oh well, good luck!

Yeah, I agree that characters/people are a great thing to use. Like provisional made me think of a provisional driver's license, so 仮 is Snoop Dog giving Homer's mum a driving lesson. I have a lot of settings and small objects as well, and sometimes they combine really cohesively with a character or two to make the kanji practically impossible to forget.