大（おお、おお·きい、ダイ、タイ）
Meaning: big
My hack: It looks like a person with arms spread wide, like Hiro Nakamura yelling “yatta!”
Side note: Someone in my mom’s office marked her soda can with a K for her name, but when you looked at it sideways it looked like this kanji. Her Japanese co-worker asked her why her soda said “big” on it.
夕（ゆう、セキ）
Meaning: evening
My hack: The best I can do is imagine that this looks vaguely like a lapel on men’s evening wear.
Review just before sleeping
Your brain learns during sleep, so if you review your kanji just before you go to bed or take a nap, you will also be reviewing them in your sleep.
千（ち、セン）
Meaning: one thousand
Components: 十
My hack: Say the top part is a bat, then brace yourself for a bad pun. Bat ten a thousand (batting 1000).
Go for the ridiculous or shocking
Your brain is better at remembering things that are funny, shocking, or otherwise unusual, so try to come up with hacks that are wild, even if they are ridiculous. You’ll remember those better than ones that are bland.
Some people like to go for gory hacks to make them more memorable, and that’s great if it works for them. I personally prefer the ridiculous since it makes reading the newspaper a lot less stressful.
下（した、しも、もと、さ·げる、くだ·す、カ、ゲ）
Meaning: down, below, under, inferior, to give
My hack: It’s a guy handing you something under the table (T for table).
力（ちから、リョク、リキ）
Meaning: power, strength
My hack: It kind of looks like the right side of a picture of a body builder showing off his strength.
Cover the left side of this photo:
八（や、よ、ハチ）
Meaning: eight
My hack: Um, these simple ones are harder to do. If you hold your hands up with the fingertips close together, you get 4 fingers plus 4 fingers =8. It’s a stretch, I know.
入（い·る、はい·る、ニュウ）
Meaning: to enter, to go in, insert
My hack: I’m imagining a person shouting “I’m going in!” and then striding really fast. That little extra bit at the top is the hair streaming behind.
人（ひと、ジン、ニン）
Meaning: person
My hack: It’s a person walking, like those sand drawings they used to have on Sesame Street.
You should also know that when this is a radical it looks like this: 亻 Just rotate the original a bit, or you can imagine it’s a side view of a person bowing slightly.
九（ここの、キュウ、ク）
Meaning: nine
Components: fish hook and katakana ノ.
My hack: No(ノ) way is a Hawaiian fish hook necklace considered dressing to the nines.
七（なな、シチ）
Meaning: seven
Components: one, and 乚, a variation of 乙(and which looks like し).
My hack: It looks like an upside-down version of the way they write 7 in Europe.
上（うえ、かみ、あ·げる、のぼ·る、ジョウ、ショウ）
Meaning: up, above
My hack: Imagine the vertical line is a waiter holding a tray above the ground.
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Recent Comments
StewDaDa on 宀 (うかんむり) 年（とし、ネン） | Kanji Hac… on 三（み、サン） 田（た、デン） | Kanji Hack… on 十（とう、と、ジュウ、ジッ） 正（ただしい、ただす、まさ、セイ、ショウ… on 一（ひと·つ、イチ） 本（もと、ホン） | Kanji Hac… on 一（ひと·つ、イチ）
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