Mnemonic comic for 半
Mnemonic
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.
One day, the mean crocodile (丷) and Beelzebub (b-) came to King Solomon (mnemonic symbol for 半 in 判 伴 叛 etc.) in the anthill’s bathroom (-an4), and Beelzebub said:
Your Majesty, this crocodile (丷) and I share the same basement hobby room. Not long ago I soldered this huge capacitor (二) to my circuit, and three days later she soldered a huge capacitor to hers. We do not share the basement hobby room with anyone else.
One night while we were all asleep, she hooked up the capacitor reversed, and it popped. Then while I was still asleep, she got up and unsoldered my capacitor. She soldered it to her circuit, then she soldered her popped capacitor into my circuit. In the next evening when I wanted to continue to work on my circuit, I saw that the capacitor (二) was dead. But when I looked at the serial number in the light, I knew it wasn’t mine.
“No!” the mean crocodile (丷) shouted. “It was your capacitor all along. My capacitor is alive!” “The dead capacitor is yours,” Beelzebub (b-) yelled. “Mine is alive!”
They argued back and forth in front of Solomon (mnemonic symbol for 半, because he likes to cut things in haves), until finally he said, “Both of you say this live capacitor is yours. Someone bring me a sword.” A sword was brought, and Solomon ordered, “cut the capacitor in half! That way each of you can have part of it.”
“Yes, that is a very good idea! My circuit will be much faster this way anyway”, Beelzebub (b-) exclaimed. “I agree, let’s do it that way, it’s a good compromise”, the crocodile said joyfully. “Cut the capacitor (二)! Cut it! Cut it!” Beelzebub screamed. “Do it! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR YOU MORON KING!” shouted the crocodile.
Beelzebub and the crocodile (丷) placed down the big dinosaur bone (丨) they used to transport the huge live capacitor. Promptly King Solomon descended from the anthill’s toilet (-an4) and cut the capacitor as well as the dinosaur bone (丨) in halves (半) using a huge broadsword.
Beelzebub and the crocodile carried their capacitor halves (半) home, and they all lived happily ever after.
Comments
Haha I love how this one came out, especially the ant in the background.
Matthias, 3 months ago
How to pronounce 半
MandarinBanana teaches pronunciation with the Marilyn Method: every Pinyin syllable is one initial plus one final, the initial becomes a person, an animal or a deity, and the final becomes a place in your memory palace — with the tone deciding which part of that place the scene happens in. Remember the little story below for each half and the whole syllable comes back with them.
半 character breakdown
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.
Component Translations
Characters with 半 as component
Words with 半
Want to remember 半 for good?
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.
half / semi- / incomplete / (after a number) and a half
Prompt snippets
King Solomon is a middle-aged man with a thick, dark, curled beard and intense eyes, wearing a heavy, floor-length robe of deep crimson velvet embroidered with intricate gold-thread geometric patterns. He wears a massive, polished gold crown set with large, uncut lapis lazuli and ruby cabochons.
AI Images
