[Apollia]

Originally Posted by Ilya

Good luck, Apollia!

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Kura Ookami

Apollia: Thank you for all the resources and for the support.

You're welcome.

What does that book say for kanji characters like the numbers? (一　二　三　四　五　六　七　八　九　十)

The section about numbers in Kanji Pict-o-Graphix by Michael Rowley is located at pages 154-155.

The book will probably be more helpful to you than the below, since the book has actual illustrations, whereas I am just providing my own verbal descriptions of the illustrations and sometimes quotes of the short mnemonic sentences provided in the book.

一　二　三 - Pictures of a hand showing one, two, and three fingers.

-------

And now, for something completely different - and not from the book.

To remember that one of the pronunciations of 二 is "ni", I guess you could try to picture the two lines as being a very minimalistic rendition of the helmet of a Knight Who Says Ni.



Then again, this mnemonic might work better with a "ni" kanji which actually looks more like a Knight Who Says Ni. Perhaps this one:

荷

Looks a bit like a Knight of Ni with a horned helmet and background of trees.

Borrowed Chinese pronunciation: か Japanese pronunciation: に It means "load, baggage, cargo".

荷 - This Knight of NI demands that you deliver him a precious cargo - a shrubbery!

Haha... I'm going to remember that kanji forever now...

-------

OK, back to mnemonics from Kanji Pict-o-Graphix by Michael Rowley.

四 - "Squares have four corners."

五 七 - For these two, the book shows through drawings where some of the kanji's strokes are written more boldly than others, that in these kanji, you can actually see the numbers these characters represent (5 and 7).

六 - A small hand with 5 fingers next to a large hand displaying 1 finger. "Five plus one is six."

八 - "Eight is easily divided in half." The "half" part of this is also a bit helpful in remembering that the borrowed Chinese pronunciation of this is はち (hachi).

九- A picture of a construction worker carrying something that looks like a broken number nine.

十 - The Roman numeral X (ten) tilted over.

Again, that's from Kanji Pict-o-Graphix by Michael Rowley, which I highly recommend.

I better not post more examples than that, in case any more would violate fair use copyright laws.

Ilya: I think Apollia has given up,

Correct.

although if she wants to try learning Japanese again she should definately go for it.

Perhaps I will. It might lead to a good career for me, and it might not be as hard as I think. I also like the fact that learning Japanese would also teach me a lot of Chinese at the same time.

Best wishes,
Apollia