Like Chamcham I can not remember the "state of mind" primitive as well. For me its just too abstract. I do not want to use heart though, because it has another shape.

So I would be glad if anyone has other suggestions for a primitive meaning.

I thought it was really dumb to introduce the kanji for snake and then within 2 pages have a (*) primitive that ALSO meant snake, yet looked nothing like the actual snake kanji. So I replaced the (*)snake in my mind for "serpent" which allows the pictograph to still work, and allows for similar stories. It has a semantic distinction, though, which also allows for various stories that I can link to Biblical mnemonics.

Slave and crotch was prostitute.
My "person" was/were (an) acient civizilation(s) I made up.
Shaku was... well, yeah.

Ah that's a good idea, thank you ^-^

Living in Hawaii where everyone gets bitten by a centipede at least once, a horribly painful bite causing swelling for days, seeing this 非 un-friendly creature as  Un- was easy.  In Buddhism, the state of mind is centered in the heart so that was no problem either.

Last edited by bodhisamaya (2008 September 13, 4:13 pm)

plumage wrote:

I thought it was really dumb to introduce the kanji for snake and then within 2 pages have a (*) primitive that ALSO meant snake, yet looked nothing like the actual snake kanji.

Yeah, I agree. I used kundalini as the primitive meaning of 己 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini) which is usually depicted as a sleeping serpant coiled up at the base of your spine. It worked extremely well, actually. For "scribe" I imagined these monks in a temple writing down the secrets of kundalini; "queen" was the woman who manifested the most kundalini.

Some really helpful primitives have been:

人 - Stryder's idea to use Dwight Schrute from 'The Office." That has really helped in many kanji (though perhaps it's kind of an obscure reference for people who don't watch the show.) When Dwight doesn't fit in, Mr. T seems to work wonders. In a way, I use both Dwight and Mr. T as the primitive. Between these two, I can pretty much find/make up stories for a whole lot of these kanji. One might think "Hey, using two dudes for one primitive can get confusing," but it's not confusing at all, really. (It would be confusing to use one character for two different primitives, though.) If I hear "Dwight" or "Mr. T," I always know what primitive to write. This happens a lot in RTK, I've noticed. Oftentimes I'll think up a new primitive and use it interchangeably with the one from the book.

糸 - Whoever thought of Spider-Man for this one is a genius, and whoever thought of using Venom as an alternate primitive when it occurs below a kanji is also a genius.

講 - For the right side of this one, I have begun using Riccardo's suggestion of Hannibal "Lecture." (See #1816). I don't really understand why the original primitive was chosen, and Hannibal "Lecture" makes 講, at least, easy to learn. As a primitive, it works well with a few others, too. I learned this one a day or two ago, so I'm hoping that it'll end up sticking in my head.

I do get a bit worried about using so many people/fictional characters for primitives (actually, all the ones I've mentioned thus far use humans.) Sometimes it has the potential to get confusing... For example, "[Person] does [action]" is the basis for a whole lot of stories. This could lead to one wondering "Wait a sec... I know somebody has to do [action], but who is it? Was it Spider-Man? Mr. T? Venom? The best thing to do is make sure that the story could ONLY be done by only one character. If the story involves wrapping up villains in Spidey-silk, then, well, you don't have to pause to remember that Spider-Man must be involved somehow. If the story features a fool that needs pitying, then it's unlikely that the pity-er will be Hannibal "Lecture," and you can rest assured knowing that Mr. T must be mixed up in the proceedings.

[Edit: Just touching up some punctuation]

Last edited by Murjab (2008 December 09, 9:13 am)

If you download Alyks' file for his "Movie Method", there's some very nice ideas for primitives. I liked his choices of "Cowboy Hat" for Old West and "Duck" (Donald, Daffy, Regular) for "Fledgling".

I just reached 524, and I'm just starting to realize that some primitives just aren't working for me.

The biggest change I've done so far was using "a person who is orienteering" for 方 (an "orienteer"?). That way it can easily be linked to anything with direction or compass, but I've found many stories work better when the primitive is a person instead of something abstract like "direction" (exception: the yo momma story for 肪 was brilliant).

Currently, the march, parade, float, Thanksgiving and fiesta primitives are giving me a lot of trouble, so I think I'll have to think of something to replace those that works better for me. I'm also constantly confusing each vs every in my stories when they appear as a primitives (and I find both difficult to visualize in a memorable way), so ideas are welcome.