The textbook we’re using for the Japanese class provides little mnemonic images to remember each of the hiragana kanas (a bird’s beak saying “ku” for く, chopsticks with a long NOOdle for ぬ, etc). I’m finding them tremendously useful, since I’m a heavily visual learner. But I’m wondering if it’s a bad thing to be too dependent on these image/character relationships.
I’d be interested to hear from people who’ve studied Japanese whether, over the long haul, they found it helpful or detrimental to use these as methods for remembering kana? Is it likely that with repetition, I’ll stop needing them?
Many thanks to Boris, by the way, for his link via my comments to the Nuku Japanese kana tutor software for OS X. It’s been a wonderful way to quiz myself on the kana, and I really like that you can set it up to quiz you only on specific columns of the hiragana chart.
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