A mnemonic is a short, deliberately ridiculous scene, built to be hard to forget. Who appears in it and where it takes place are how the pronunciation is stored; the objects in it stand for the parts the character is written with. That is the Marilyn Method, and the comic below is the same scene, drawn.
Mnemonic symbol: a hanging scroll. The wooden rod across the top is the 一, the sheet hanging below it is the 口.
Chinese characters are built out of smaller characters. Each component carries a mnemonic symbol - one concrete object that stands in for it - and a mnemonic story hands those objects to the person and the place that stand for the pronunciation. Learn a component once and every character that reuses it gets easier.
Make it your learning target and MandarinBanana works out the shortest route to it: the two sounds its syllable is built from, then the components of the character itself, one short step at a time. No account needed to start.
Character component without intrinsic meaning. If it doesn't render: it is written 一 on top of 口.
The hanging scroll is a nearly square sheet of cream rice paper with a narrow dark-red silk border, blank, without any writing. It hangs from a round dark-brown wooden rod that sticks out well beyond the sheet on both sides, with a thin hanging cord; a slim wooden strip weights the bottom edge.
We use cookies to ensure the basic functionality of the website (essential cookies). With your consent, we also use Google Analytics to measure traffic, Google Ads to measure which of our ads lead to purchases, and Google AdSense to show ads. All three set non-essential cookies. Please choose whether you want to consent to all cookies or only essential cookies. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy .